Blunt Merrick far from happy
IT’S all in the response Wellington Phoenix.
In the wake of Saturday’s 2-1 loss to the Western Sydney Wanderers, coach Ernie Merrick has questioned the brains and stomach of the players.
Not only did the Phoenix do dim things – Merrick attributes both Wanderers goals to poor decision making – they were also spooked by the 14,000 fans at Pirtek Stadium in Sydney. Chances are there won’t be too many people cheering for the Phoenix at Allianz Stadium on Thursday night, when they meet Sydney FC, so the team have to toughen up pretty quickly.
‘‘There’s no doubt our experienced and inexperienced players were intimidated by a terrific crowd in a good stadium, with a team that was really in our face,’’ Merrick said. ‘‘We were intimidated by that and we were rushing passes, there was no real structure to our positional play, it was all panic moves.’’
Some men, who are more caricatures than coaches, enjoy sounding off in public and ‘sending a message to the dressing room’. It makes them feel tough and cons outsiders into believing there’ll be no nonsense on this hard man’s watch.
Merrick doesn’t go in for that sort of rubbish ‘‘but sometimes you just have to be blatantly honest.’’
‘‘We can do a lot of coaching off the field but, when it comes to the 90 minutes of pressure in a game, they’ve got to put into practice what they did at training and not suddenly do a range of strange things like fullbacks becoming wingers and all the midfielders, apart from Albert [Riera], being attacking midfielders.
‘‘Roly [Bonevacia] is a marked player now, so they double up on
for
the him and if he keeps trying to beat two or three players, he must lose the ball. He’s got to realise he’s a different player now, he’s tightly marked and he’s got to play it and move and create space for someone else.’’
Merrick doesn’t say these things to hurt people’s feelings or humiliate them. He does it so the players can improve and get satisfaction from what they do.
Take his attitude to crowds such as the one at Pirtek Stadium. ‘‘It’s about being able to enjoy that energy. As I said to them: ‘wait till you’re over the hill and you’re playing amateur football again and three men and a dog and two seagulls are watching your game. You tell me that’s fun’.’’
With central defender Ben Sigmund recovering from concussion back in Wellington, you assume Manny Muscat will slot in alongside Andrew Durante against Sydney FC. The real interest will be around what Merrick does with Vince Lia.
With the midfield being overrun against the Wanderers and Jeffrey Sarpong making no impact, Merrick replaced the Dutchman with defensive midfield player Alex Rufer and pushed Bonevacia further forward. Had Lia been fully over his hamstring injury and on the bench, Merrick said it would’ve been him that went on for Sarpong.
Now Lia’s replaced Sigmund in the touring party, it makes sense that he play. That could be at the expense of Sarpong or Alex Rodriguez, who’s been starting in Lia’s absence.
Merrick has been happy to tinker once a game’s under way. But he’s yet to go into a match without at least three out-and-out attacking players and leaving Sarpong out would mean a real change in philosophy.
Whoever’s out there, Merrick wants to see a marked improvement in attitude and performance.