My observations from being at the game last night: The Wheeler experiment is OVER. He simply cannot read the game from the back at the professional level. He instinctively back up and gives space to the opposition player every single time. He doesn't get on his man in the box, and look what Henry did. If you recall, he did it early in the game with a shot placed at MacMath in the first half. Hackworth- this is on you. Put true defenders back there. The lack of forward movement in the final third is ridiculous at this level. Get them moving, chief, to open up space for Nog, Madiana or Edu. Nothing rattles a defense more than diagonal runs and movement. For large stretches of the game, we would pass on the perimeter of the field and Casey/Le Toux/Wenger/Hoppenot would stand there looking for the ball to their feet. Again, this is a coaching issue. Possession is nice, but teams like Barca off the ball movement is what sets them up. This is the biggest thing that we give up in the JMac trade was his movement off the ball. The subs were mind-boggling. Why take off Wenger for a straight swap with Casey. We needed another big body up their to battle it out. Le Touch was invisible and should have come off. Then the insertion of Lahoud? I get trying to push Edu up the field, but come on. Lahoud killed our attack 5 times with awful balls. He is great at closing players down, but his distribution is a-fcking-trocious. Here's the thing: Hackworth makes subs when we are losing that he should make when we are winning and vice-versa. Another reason he needs to go. (And by the way, I gave him these first games to give him hope after the team made the necessary changes in Midfield and jettisoned that stiff in Keon Daniel). End of the game, why the hell is Lahoud and Gaddis advancing the ball up the field? Pretty simple formula, John. You have a genius dynamo in Vincent. EVERYTHING should go through him. EVERYTHING. Nice showing from the SOB's. Especially the psycho's that we yelling down the 12 year old Dead Bulls fans. It was pretty funny. It was great to see so many people make the trip up. Great work. The drive back kind of sucks, but hopefully we break our duck up there this season so we can head back with a victory. Maybe if we change the coach by the next Red Bulls game.
I think Henry's goal is on Letoux or Edu. Lots of people caught ball watching there and no one in midfield was tracking Henry and making the dangerous space.
His upward arch in the CB position has seemingly flattened out, and it is frustrating. I apologize for using hyperbole.
Serves us right. That's where Carroll would have been positioned. I was calling for his benching too, but I think we saw what happens without him. He was subbed out for Maidana <10 minutes before that goal happened. Q.E.D.
I think you're giving Hack too much credit.....he probably did it because he gets three subs... No offense, I like a different perspective, but are you really going to ignore those substitutions? What does subbing out Wenger and bringing on Casey do when your 2 goals down? Why is Hoppenot coming on still? Wht leave Wheeler back there when you could've brought him up and went 3 at the back? And then subbing an attacking player with a DM? we were a man up and a goal down with 10 minutes to go and there's no urgency from the manager to go get the draw? Please tell me you are at least a little frustrated!!! We're 7 games in and worse than last seasons shit show after a much improved midfield.....are you really saying everything is ok right now? We're under performing and the manager is a big part of it!
Although I don't agree with having to do a straight-ish swap for players, Casey has shown to be a bit of a Red Bull killer. Shame he couldn't come on earlier and have more time to try to keep that reputation intact.
I have no problem bringing Casey on, but not in a situation of being two goals down and he swaps strikers....it's obtuse!!!
You are aware that two of the subs were made PRIOR to being up a man right? Also, they moved Wheeler up into the attack for the final 10 minutes......at least according to Hack anyways. And who else would you have brought in off of the bench? There's a match on Saturday. If you're down 2 goals with 15 minutes to play, and have been dreadful in the final third what would you have done differently? Keep Leo and Maidana on the field, further tiring them out with an equally important game to play in 3 days? Also, we've scored one fewer goal through 7 matches this season (9 this year, 10 last season). I didn't say everything is ok did I? NO, I did not. Fairly certain I criticised some players in my post. I will not, however, criticize the coach for mental breakdowns by players though. The coach is not out there playing. We can criticize substitutions, player selections, etc. When it comes to the play on the field, that is on the players. These are PROFESSIONALS. If they can't hack it, then further roster changes need to be made. Seriously, the MF tracked back and marked players for roughly 2/3 of the match, and then......... they didn't for about 12 minutes for some reason. Is that on Hackworth? Or is that on the players? It's clear that this team needs a veteran defender to organize the backline during games. Hackworth can't do that for them during matches, he needs to go out and get a player who can stat!
It didn't help that Wheels was sitting in Zac's lap, giving Henry a 10-yard cushion in the box. With no one else to defend, there's 0 reasons for him to be that deep. It could be on Hack if he had called in instructions for the MF to position themselves differently. Just saying.
Yes I realize they were made prior to being a man up but we were two goals down! We needed to attack..... AND if Hack was so worried about tiring players out for the weekend why put yourself in a situation where you handcuff yourself with subs...this is called being a manager and having a plan before the game. OR.... Put the kids out if you're so worried!!! I never blamed Hack for player breakdowns just his lack of intelligence managing a game!
That's one thing I don't get about soccer.....can you imagine someone on the Flyers exchanging jerseys with Crosby after a game and then walking into the locker room with it lol.....he'd get his ass kicked
Nope...... I'm saying partner them up and sub LeToux....what do you change by swapping strikers 2 goals down? If you were head coach on the Eagles and were down a touchdown in the final minutes would you swap Cooper with Avant or would you add a receiver and take off a running back or tight end?
What are you talking about Casey came in when we were down by 1. I think if Hack had waited until after the second goal he might have done the slide you are asking for but he didn't a magic crystal ball. And by the way football analogies don't work well in soccer.
There was a RB player between Wheeler and Fabiano who would have had an even easier tap in than Henry if Wheeler stepped up early to cover Henry. Edu watched the whole thing unfold right in front of him without doing anything. He really needed to be the one on Henry. In fairness to him, I think he got tired towards the end of the match which isn't surprising as he was the lone DM and had just gone a tough 90 on Saturday.
Actually.............no he didn't. Casey came on about 10 minutes prior to the Hop and Lahoud sub. It was Casey's shot that led to Mo Edu slamming the rebound off of the redbull players hand, resulting in the DGSO, RC, & PK.