Football Season Guide

After missing on the play-offs for the second year in a row and being put under even more pressure about their place in the A-League altogether Phoenix decided to be bold and brave in the summer months. Yellow Fever opted to release many of the key players that didn’t deliver them play-off football in two consecutive seasons and also they went to Europe to find a new manager. The appointment of Darije Kalezic is seen as the right move for Phoenix and the Bosnian-born gaffer quickly used his connections to bring some Balkan flavour to Wellington. Kaludjerovic was signed to form a partnership with Krishna up front and with 5 goals in 10 games for Roar a few years back he already proved himself as a force in the A-League. Paracki is the other foreign arrival and the holding midfielder is tipped to replace Lia as main protector of the back four. Without a doubt the main summer signing was that of playmaker Dario Vidosic and his determination to earn a place in Australia’s squad for the 2018 World Cup should see him being very eager to impress. Italiano will be the new number one goalkeeper, while Durante, Rossi and the newcomer Mullen are the main reasons why Phoenix are expected to be an extremely tough team to score against. Kalezic is definitely changing the philosophy since his arrival and he spent long time working on everyone’s job and attitude when Phoenix don’t have the ball. With that in mind and obviously having a very solid defence Phoenix are expected to be much wiser this term and as a pundit put it very well ‘the Kiwis’ European-style is much more likely to see them winning 1:0 than losing 3:4’. This is a not so well known philosophy in the A-League where the naivety still rules the managerial instructions and it will either work wonders for Phoenix, or see them struggling again. In any case nobody can deny the Board from trying everything possible to keep the team in the A-League and this extra motivation is likely to see Phoenix working very hard right from round one.