Stats reveal second-half issues for Phoenix Men
A certain set of numbers makes for scary reading as the Wellington Phoenix men head to New South Wales to face Macarthur FC this afternoon.
In the 430 second-half minutes where they have been winning this season, they have taken 23 shots and conceded 54 while putting 12 on target to their opponents’ 28, according to the Wyscout analysis platform.
Take out the matches where either of the teams have been undermanned due to red cards, and the contrast is just as stark – in 186 minutes the Phoenix have taken 14 shots to their opponents’ 35 and put eight on target to 18.
That disparity is one reason why they have dropped a total of 17 points from winning positions across seven matches this A-League Men season, a trend that can’t continue if they’re going to get the most out of the most expensive squad they’ve ever assembled.
It’s a general rule in football that losing teams take more shots as they try to get back into games, but the Phoenix’s issues seem to go beyond that and coach Ufuk Talay insists it’s not a matter of tactics – that they’re not looking to shut up shop once they’re ahead.
Instead, he puts it down to their mentality and the pressure of expectation – a topic he first raised after Melbourne Victory came from behind to beat his team 3-1 at Aami Park in round 15, extending their winless run at that venue against all opponents to 17 matches.
‘‘We always set up the team to win,’’ Talay said. ‘‘Even when we go up, we continue to want to play a certain way and we try to continue to play the way we started.
‘‘I think one of the things that we struggle with is handling expectation. We play a certain brand and we play to win and when we do go up, I think the expectation becomes even higher to be able to maintain that through the whole game.
‘‘It’s one of those things where these players have to live through the pressure and I always believe pressure is what you put on yourself and the expectation that you put on yourself to be able to deliver a performance.
‘‘That’s something that we’re working on.’’
In two of the matches where the Phoenix went in front but didn’t win, the opposition equalised before halftime and kicked on from there – the 3-1 loss to Melbourne City at home in round 10 and the loss to Victory last week.
In the other five, they had leads well into the second half, but ended up with four draws and a loss to show for their efforts, with the equalising goals coming in the final 15 minutes on four occasions.
The most crushing slip-up came in round six in midNovember, when the Phoenix were up 2-0 over Western United at home with just over half an hour to play, and up 2-1 with six minutes to play, but ended up losing 3-2.
Even in three of the five matches the Phoenix have won this season, they’ve ended up under the pump in second halves. When they went down to 10 men,
then to nine, before beating Sydney FC 1-0 last month, that was understandable, but the same thing happened when they beat Brisbane Roar 1-0 and Central Coast Mariners 2-1 in the weeks that followed
One of the two wins where the Phoenix did pull away was a 3-1 win over an Adelaide United team that was down to 10 men. The other was their first win of the season, 4-1 over Macarthur, who are their opponents today and have lost four of their last six matches.
The Phoenix will have Tim Payne back from suspension but don’t yet have Scott Wootton back from injury, and have lost forward Kosta Barbarouses to a hamstring strain.