Break comes at the right time for Phoenix
The Wellington Phoenix say they are just a few minor adjustments away from being competitive in the A-league.
Mark Rudan’s side has struggled in its last two matches, losing 3-0 at home to the Western Sydney Wanderers and 2-0 away to Melbourne City, but still sits seventh after a win and a draw inits first two games.
The defence has been solid enough, outside of the Wanderers game, but they have struggled in front of goal.
They have the fewest goals in the league (two), lowest chance conversion rate (6 per cent), haven’t scored a genuine open play goal and their last two matches saw just four shots on target.
After training yesterday, forward David Williams said it was a matter of individual concentration more than anything in the final third.
‘‘There are probably a lot of reasons. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. We just take every game as it comes.
‘‘Finishing of course, and getting into the right positions. As a striker that’s what we have to keep doing every day. Sometimes it’s more of a concentration thing than a team issue.’’
Defensively, leaking five goals in two games was far from optimal after conceding just one in their first two matches.
City did score two very good goals from outside the box, but defender Tom Doyle said they could have done more to prevent those.
The A-league now breaks for the international window, which in previous years would have been a great development for the All Whites-laden Phoenix squad.
But in an ironic twist, the All Whites don’t have a game this window, so their All Whites will not be missing, meaning it’s two full weeks with a full squad to iron out the kinks.
‘‘We’ve got two weeks to work on what we need to do and hopefully we can come back stronger after the break,’’ Doyle said.
Rudan was not at training yesterday morning, taking a prescheduled weekend away to be with family in Sydney.
In his place, his assistant coaches and training staff put the squad through a hard session on a warm Wellington morning.