Big job to fill Taylor’s shoes at Phoenix
The Wellington Phoenix made great strides defensively during the last two A-League seasons, benefiting from the presence of English Premier League veteran Steven Taylor.
But he’s now playing in the Indian Super League, after agreeing a mutual termination of his contract, which still had two years to run, and the Phoenix are facing a reshuffle.
In his absence, 31-year-old Luke DeVere is very much the senior man at the back, joined by fellow centre backs Te Atawhai HudsonWihongi (25), Joshua
Laws (22) and Liam McGing (21); right backs
Tim Payne (26) and Louis Fenton (27), and left back James McGarry (22).
Of his team-mates, only Fenton – a Phoenix player since 2012 – and Payne have any pedigree as regular starters in professional football, and for Payne, that only became the case last season, when he was a revelation down the right flank, having been signed as a central midfielder.
The Phoenix went from conceding 55 goals in 27 regular season matches in the 2017-18 season, where their defensive cast changed on a near-weekly basis under Darije Kalezic, to conceding 44 goals in 27 matches in 2018-19, after Taylor arrived, under Mark Rudan; to conceding 33 goals in 26 matches last season, with Ufuk Talay in charge and Taylor wearing the captain’s armband and playing almost every minute possible.
Alongside Taylor in the centre of the back four for almost all of those minutes was DeVere, who is confident he and the team’s other centre backs can step up now Taylor is gone, as defenders and leaders.
‘‘With Stevie gone, it’s a loss, no doubt, but Liam McGing and Te Atawhai were there last season and would have learned things off him that they’ve then got to try to put into their game as they move on and step into that role,’’ DeVere said.
‘‘Likewise with Josh Laws coming in, it’s an opportunity for him to not only show that he can play, but that he can have that leadership quality from the back, which you need as a centre back.’’
Laws has started as the left centre back in all three of the Phoenix’s pre-season matches so far, and Talay has been quick to note his leftfootedness, which helps when it comes to playing out from the back.
Hudson-Wihongi joined him in the first match, shortly after DeVere’s re-signing, but has been absent for the last two, with the senior man slotting back in, while McGarry and Payne have been given the nod in the fullback roles on all three occasions.
DeVere hadn’t played a full season of football in three years before arriving at the Phoenix, due to a combination of injuries and being out of favour, but started 24 of their 26 regular season matches before suffering a minor injury at the worst possible time – on the eve of the Phoenix’s elimination final loss to the Perth Glory, where his replacement, Hudson-Wihongi, was caught out for the decisive goal.
‘‘It was a fairly low level sort of tweak of my groin, but unfortunately it was maybe two or three days before that semifinal,’’ he said.
‘‘To go the whole season and be available for every match and then have a small tweak two days out from the most important game of the season to that point was frustrating and definitely leaves a bit of a bitter taste.
‘‘I’m definitely looking forward, this season, to hopefully going a couple of games further and seeing them all through.’’
DeVere was the last Phoenix player from last season to either resign or confirm they were moving on, putting pen to paper at the start of last month, but he said he was looking forward to building on the 2019-20 campaign, when the Phoenix finished third at the end of the regular season – their best effort in their 13-year history.
‘‘I enjoyed my time with the club last season and I enjoyed that the performances that the team was putting out on the field and what we were working towards.
‘‘I feel like there’s definitely a bit of unfinished business, with the way that we finished the season off and what we set out wanting to achieve. We didn’t quite end up getting there, but it was a fantastic season for the club last season and I’m looking forward to coming back and trying to build on that, albeit with a few new players and potentially a slightly younger squad this time around.’’
The Phoenix are coming to the end of their fifth week of pre-season in Wollongong, where they will be based for the coming A-League season while Covid-19 restrictions remain in place at the New Zealand border.
They had a 1-0 loss to league newcomers the Macarthur Bulls on Wednesday – the first of four hitouts against A-League sides they have scheduled ahead of their season opener against the Brisbane Roar on December 29.