Despite all the talk, Phoenix still lack a goalscoring threat
Listen to Mark Rudan for long enough and you’ll want to follow him into battle. The Wellington Phoenix coach is a charismatic figure, one who exudes belief, confidence and passion every time he opens his mouth.
He has talked up a storm over the past four months, and appears eager to hold court whenever a microphone is placed in front of him.
His words have given the club’s long-suffering fans plenty of hope ahead of tomorrow’s season opener at Westpac Stadium, where they host the Newcastle Jets.
One of Rudan’s greatest rhetorical flourishes came earlier this week in an interview with
1 News.
Bringing up the results of two trans-Tasman clashes that took place last weekend, where New Zealand scored rare wins over Australia in netball and rugby league, Rudan said: ‘‘I’m a Kiwi’’.
‘‘I said it right from the start, when you get me, you get me 100 per cent. I’m as Kiwi as they come now and this is home for me. Home is not Sydney or Australia right now.
‘‘They’ve got a coach who has bought into this football club and this country as well and I really hope that the supporters are proud of what they see.’’
Fighting words if you’ve ever heard them, a natural extension of the ‘Phoenix against Australia’ attitude he outlined when he was appointed in May.
He definitely makes you want to believe, though he has acknowledged he and the club are at the start of a long journey.
Looking at the squad he’s assembled, you feel it could take a while for them to get going. On paper, it’s one of the weakest in the club’s history.
Still, it’s hard to know exactly where the Phoenix are at, because they haven’t played a national league team in public in New Zealand, let alone an A-League team. When they’ve played A-League opposition in Australia, they’ve won one and lost three.
Dispatches from across the Tasman suggest a focus on defence, with a a line of five at the back, three in midfield, and two of Roy Krishna, Nathan Burns and David Williams looking to run in behind in attack, though Rudan has promised flexibility.
That defensive shape should get the best out of club captain Andrew Durante, in his last year of professional football, and it makes sense to try to stop conceding so many goals first and foremost.
It’s down the other end where the major worries lie. Krishna, Burns and Williams are all similar players, and there appears to be no Plan B. A traditional striker never arrived, though Rudan has hinted he is still eyeing a big name player on a guest contract.
As things stand, it’s down to that trio, all aged 30 or older, to do the bulk of the goal scoring, which is a cause for concern.
For three seasons from 2014 to 2017, Krishna averaged a goal every two games. Last season, he scored a goal every five games, and finished the campaign with a 608-minute scoreless run. Rudan needs the first Krishna, not the second one.
Williams has had two seasons where he was a significant goalscorer, netting 11 times in 25 matches for Szombathelyi Haldas in Hungary in 2016-17 and 12 times in 26 matches for Melbourne City in 2013-14. A contribution of five or six goals seems more likely.
Then there’s Burns, who appears to have fallen behind Williams, and for good reason. He hasn’t scored a competitive goal since April 2016. His 2014-15 season, where he scored 13 times for the Phoenix is one of two where he scored more than twice. You’d get long odds on him repeating it – though, in fairness, you’d have got long odds on it happening in the first place.
Maybe Krishna bounces back. Maybe one of the other two catches fire. Maybe others in the squad step up. Maybe their defence is so good they don’t need to score too many. But as kickoff tomorrow looms, it’s clearly a major weakness.
‘‘I really hope that the supporters are proud of what they see.’’ Phoenix coach Mark Rudan
David Williams wasn’t there to experience the lows of last season. But he’s heard the horror stories from the Wellington Phoenix team-mates who were.
‘‘A lot of cliques, a lot of people doing their own things. You know, quiet. People not really enjoying each other’s company. Players not really going for lunch or coffees together,’’ said Williams, who revealed an unhappy culture manifested as the Phoenix only narrowly avoided the wooden spoon.
It’s a different situation now under Mark Rudan though, to the point where the 30-year-old, who has returned to the A-League following two seasons with Hungarian club Haladas, believes the tight-knit bond formed by the playing group during the pre-season will set the Phoenix apart from the rest in 2018-19.
‘‘In between trainings, in between meetings and what not, we’re a friendly bunch of guys. We fight on the pitch and leave it there. When we come off we can sit down with each other and have a laugh. The buzz in the changing room in the morning, even around the fine system, we have some funny things that keep us on our toes.
‘‘Apparently this is one of the better dressing rooms that has been around for the last couple of years and I’m honoured
to be a part of that and hopefully my influence is rubbing off on some of the younger players and even some of the current players who have been here for the last couple of years.’’
In order to help galvanise the team, Rudan called in the army and put the players through a series of tests over 24-hour period without food or sleep last week.
The Phoenix launch their new campaign tomorrow against the Newcastle Jets, who reached last season’s final.
‘‘We don’t want to say all these things and get everyone hyped up and then get so high that it’s a quick fall,’’ Williams said. ‘‘Even if we do lose games, but I don’t want to speak negatively about that, it’s going to be exciting games because we’re still going to throw everything at them.
‘‘We’re going to be playing attacking football and with the quality that we have, we’re going to see goals so I don’t think there’s going to be droughts at all. Who the goals are going to come from, there’s a range of players who can definitely do that.’’