With the A-League season fast approaching, Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert has the headache all coaches crave - who to leave out of his starting side for the opening match against Gold Coast United on August 13.

For me, six players are guaranteed a starting spot - Mark Paston, Andrew Durante, Jade North, Leo Bertos, Chris Greenacre and Paul Ifill.  The make-up of the other five will depend largely on the formation Herbert adopts.

He's on record as saying he'd like to play with three central defenders this season.  That plan was stymied with the departure of Jon McKain, but has been reignited by the arrival of North.  He, Durante and Ben Sigmund could certainly play in this formation, and do so effectively.

One of the main challenges with playing three at the back is that you need your wide midfielders to put in a solid defensive shift.  Clearly if Paul Ifill plays wide on the left as he did against Boca Juniors, you wouldn't ask (or expect) him to track an opposing fullback all night long. 

However, if Tony Lochhead were to take up the left midfield role (as he did at the World Cup) you'd certainly have a player well used to repelling the forays of opposing flank players.  In fact, on the numerous occasions at the World Cup that Lochhead dropped deeper into his more customary defensive role, and Winston Reid pushed out towards the right fullback channel, New Zealand looked like they were playing with a back four anyway.    

Bertos showed in the qualifiers against Bahrain and also in South Africa that he too can defend, although I'd hate to see his attacking threat diminished by having to do so too often, as it was at times for the All Whites.

So if Lochhead plays wide on the left, where does Ifill play?  He's at his most effective starting from wide positions where he's free to work his magic, taking defenders on either inside or outside and carrying the ball into dangerous attacking areas.

It must be tempting for Herbert to give Ifill no real instructions at all and instead hand him the quintessential "free role" where he can just go anywhere he likes and wreak havoc accordingly.  For this to happen, there needs to be a pair of holding midfielders, and in Tim Brown, Manny Muscat and Vince Lia the Phoenix have ample resources.

It's particularly hard to leave Manny Muscat out given his stand-out performances last season, but the quality of the squad is now such that good players are going to have to bide their time on the bench.  Vince Lia is too effective in his fulcrum role to be omitted and provided he's over his shoulder injury, Tim Brown will also play; quite aside from his no-nonsense work in the middle third, his trademark runs into the box became the surprise weapon in Phoenix's arsenal last season.

I'm yet to be convinced by Oscar Roberto Cornejo - or "Toto" as he's known.  After watching him take part in the last two pre-season games, it seems to me he runs around a lot without necessarily getting on the ball very often.  Certainly the defence-splitting passes and mazy dribbles that characterize top attacking midfielders haven't been seen yet. Others who might feel aggrieved are Troy Hearfield and Daniel, both of who played significant roles in the run to the playoffs last season.

I've really liked the look of Dylan Macallister during the pre-season.  He's excellent at the point of the arrow, holds the ball up well for his team-mates and is scoring goals.  He also releases Chris Greenacre to play the role he likes the most - foraging around alongside a bigger man.  He hated playing furthest forward last season, but was forced to by a lack of any other options until Eugene Dadi arrived, and even then, the respite was fleeting. 

With Macallister pushing up on the last defender, Greenacre can drop deeper to pick up the ball and make later runs, either to pick up flicks from Macallister or to set things up.  Macallister's goal against Boca was the perfect example with the final pass supplied by none other than Chris Greenacre.

So my starting XI, in what's probably best described as a 3-4-1-2 formation, is...

Paston

Sigmund-North-Durante

Bertos-Brown-Lia-Lochhead

Ifill

Greenacre-Macallister

Of course, this presupposes that Herbert does indeed go with a back three.  He may well stick with the formation which served him so well in the second half of last season, in which case things will change markedly.

But that's another blog.