Wellington Phoenix captain Oli Sail has described his side’s 4-0 thrashing by Western Sydney as “one of the worst performances” - admitting the club are at a loss as to how to stop their recent slide down the A-League table.
Friday night’s defeat at the CommBank Stadium in Parramatta is the Phoenix’s fourth in their last five games, which have seen the Kiwi outfit concede 17 goals to now face missing out on finals football this season.
Brandon Borello, Calem Nieuwenhof’, Aidan Simmons, and Kusini Yengi all scored for former Phoenix coach Marko Rudan’s Wanderers, who now move into second on the A-League table, with the Phoenix in sixth.
Sail did not pull any punches in his post-match interview with Sky Sport.
“It was up there as one of the worst performances we have probably put out for a long, long time, including the first 30 minutes last week [in the 2-2 draw against Brisbane],” the goalkeeper said.
“Defensively, it was so far from what we are trying to do. It wasn’t even close to the game plan. They are a decent side, they move the ball nicely but we couldn’t even foul them if we wanted to. They are a good side, they are a very good side and we made them look a lot better than they are.”
Sail acknowledged it has been “a pretty tough” five weeks for the side, who have seen head coach Ufuk Talay confirm his departure at the end of the season.
Assistant Giancarlo Italiano will replace Talay.
“How do we bounce back from it? I don’t know. It’s been a pretty tough five weeks. We are going to do it right on the back side of the ball. We can’t just be a team that moves the ball nicely and looks comfortable in possession, you have to do the other side of the game,” Sail said.
Talay was equally scathing in his assessment.
“Today it was men against boys,” Talay told Paramount +.
“We were second-best to most of the second balls in the game. We didn’t deal with the balls over our heads at times and I think we were very sloppy in defending, in conceding a few transition goals and we were chasing the game, we were a little bit more open and they scored more in that sense.”
The Phoenix face 11th-placed Macarthur next Saturday in a clash they must win to keep their playoff hopes alive.
