2013 San Jose Earthquakes preseason thread [R]

Meanwhile, Marcus Tracy, Alan Gordon, and Steven Lenhart underwent a full fitness and rehabilitation regimen in the gym.

Marcus Tracy is still in rehab? Is he ever going to be able to just train / play? He's like the Andrew Bogut of soccer. You know he's good, if he could just ever someday get healthy enough to actually play.

 

interesting they mention gargan and harden being present but not bryan jordan. anyone know what is going on with that?

 

How do you know Frank wants him to attack?

Anyone is dreaming if they want this from Simon, who should be a withdrawn striker

 

My theory is that he has permanent brain damage from too many years of Galaxative cool-aid.

 

He's at Quakes "detox" camp right now. Takes a while to get a good acid bath, not to mention the exorcisms.

 

Ideally, you want all of your players to be able to attack and defend. Just because you primarily expect attacks from a player does not give them a pass on defense, especially since the Quakes system relies so heavily on forcing turnovers in the offensive end.

To be fair, I think Dawkins did improve in his defense last year and can still stand to improve. Hopefully the team above player mentality stays with him if he returns along with all of the players.

 

Jonas said on twitter that Jordan is not in camp right now... mysterious.

 

I think maybe Jordan doesn't want to play for us (kinda like how Leitch retired rather than play for LA ). Either that or he's just taking this opportunity to explore his options elsewhere.​

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The only thing I've seen that could possibly suggest anything whatsoever is that on his twitter he said he was in Bielefeld (http://instagram.com/p/UR78kdOGYR/). Arminia Bielefeld in the 3 Bundesliga seems about his level...​

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Just speculation. Need something to do until the games start .​

 

but this was his response.....

 

I strongly suspect that Frank does not want Baca to attack, and therefore he doesn't. But I want him to attack!! And this is BS, so we aren't talking about what Frank wants, or what Doyle wants, we're talking about what we want.

Show of hands, how many of you think you could draft better than Doyle & Frank? Come on now! There are a bunch of you out there who think you know better!

My problem with Frank and the coaching staff is that I want a different, more attacking style and formation. (It's probably a good thing that they don't listen to me.) So in all seriousness, some of our complaints are based not on the team's current form, but rather the way that we want them to play. I would have made wildly different use of some of the players that have come through our club since '08.)

So some of us think that Baca doesn't attack enough, but I bet that Frank is really happy with the way that Baca plays. Simon should play withdrawn striker, but we already have one of those. How could we work that out?

- - - - - - - - Lenny
- - - Simon - - - - Wondo
Shea - - - - - - - - - - Chavez
- - - - - - - Croninja
JM - - - Jason - - Vic - - Beta
- - - - - - - TheBusch

I don't think this is our best formation, but it's what you'd need to do to make Simon a withdrawn striker, because there's no way that Wondo should play anywhere else.

So, with our current personnel, playing Simon at the nominally outside left mid spot, is probably the best we can do. So we keep thinking of how to improve our midfield, and replacing Simon is never on anyone's list. So we suggest replacing Baca and Sam, who are the engine that makes the team go. It's an odd situation to be in. So we dream, we fantasize, we hallucinate about how we'd like the team to be and to play. Oh, and were it up to me, we'd still have Ampai on the roster.

GO QUAKES!!

- Mark

 

Interesting that Beta wasn't included in their injury report.

 

He wasn't injured, my understanding is he just wasn't able to go as hard as kinsman was driving the nat camp.

I think baca is still learning when he can attack. He needs to be disciplined about it in franks system, and knowing when he can do so safely takes time.

It's a subtle position he is trying to learn, give it time.

 

Is that Beta in the background? If so, he must not be too injuried which is good news.

My guess is that Jordan is working though contractual stuff...

 

That is what Jordan implied on twitter....

 

Correct. If you remember when Ekelund and Mulrooney played the positions, they would pick their points to get into attack. With Ekelund, you had a far more experiences player. Baca is learning and just needs sometime. When he attacked last year, they were a very good times and cause problems with the oppenents defense.

We are kind of in a Catch 22 situation with Baca. I would prefer to have a more experiences backup who could come in the case of injuries and give Baca some rest (CONCACAF games, Cup games), but I don't want Baca to take a step back.

 

[quote="markmcf8, post: 27109219, member: 5915"
So some of us think that Baca doesn't attack enough, but I bet that Frank is really happy with the way that Baca plays. Simon should play withdrawn striker, but we already have one of those. How could we work that out?

- - - - - - - - Lenny
- - - Simon - - - - Wondo
Shea - - - - - - - - - - Chavez
- - - - - - - Croninja
JM - - - Jason - - Vic - - Beta
- - - - - - - TheBusch

I don't think this is our best formation, but it's what you'd need to do to make Simon a withdrawn striker, because there's no way that Wondo should play anywhere else.

So, with our current personnel, playing Simon at the nominally outside left mid spot, is probably the best we can do. So we keep thinking of how to improve our midfield, and replacing Simon is never on anyone's list. So we suggest replacing Baca and Sam, who are the engine that makes the team go. It's an odd situation to be in. So we dream, we fantasize, we hallucinate about how we'd like the team to be and to play. Oh, and were it up to me, we'd still have Ampai on the roster.[/quote]
In order to take advantage of Dawkins in a more advanced role, I think it's even more important that Baca stay in the midfield along with Cronin. What you'd have to do is remove Hernandez. Since you'd have an extra forward attacker, you wouldn't have to rely on the outside backs going forward as often as you could theoretically control the midfield more easily. That should allow for the removal of the second central defender. I'd love to see this just to see how well it works, but certainly don't expect it to happen. Dawkins would also have to drop pretty deep in order to start attacks as well and I'm not sure how well he does that. It would be a great experiment, and would probably confuse the heck out of their opponents.

 

MLS confirmed today that there will be an online stream for all of the Desert Friendlies.

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So, you're suggesting a 3-4-3? I can see that.

- - - - - - - - Lenny
- - - Simon - - - - Wondo
Shea - - - - - - - - - - Chavez
- - - Baca - - - - Croninja
JM - - - - - - Vic - - - - Beta
- - - - - - - TheBusch

Or, we could go with a 3-5-2

- - - - - - - Lenny
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Wondo
Shea - - - Simon - - - Chavez
- - - - - Baca - - - - Cronin
Justin - - - BigVic - - - Beta
- - - - - - TheBusch

This might work really well. Shea and Chavez both get back on defense enough that Simon could stay well up field most of the time. It would reduce Baca and Sam's offensive responsibilities, but increase their defensive responsibilities. It might work.

Whatever we do, I want our guys to practice more than one formation regularly, so that if they need a change up in a game situation, they can do it.

GO QUAKES!!!

- Mark

 

Considering it's a photo from last year, I wouldn't use it to infer anything.

 

I definitely agree. I think the 3-4-3 is a more stable way to go than the 3-5-2, but the argument obviously can be made that if Dawkins plays deeps it essentially becomes a 3-5-2 at times. That part isn't important so much as the three defender component. If Frank has enough confidence in Morrow and Beitashour to cover the amount of space needed, then that's definitely the way I would go.

Heck, instead of Dawkins lying low, maybe Wondolowski would actually be a better option so he can really shake his markers and confuse defenses. Let Dawkins occupy the central defenders and let Wondo run free. That seems like the most dynamic tactical shift the team is capable of. I have no idea if we'll see much of this, but it would be a great experiment.

 

My point is the conclusion some here reach "Baca can't attack" when the issue is probably not that he can't attack, but he's been told he doesn't get desert if he attacks...

 

I agree. I think this is also the reason that TheBusch almost always boots the ball down field. It's not that he thinks that's the right thing to do, it's the coaches think that's the right thing to do.

GO QUAKES!!

- Mark