Not that I think that Piojo is good but he did make changes in the 2nd half that paid off and it's not like our old coach wasn't worse at that.
Piojo is in love with his system and while i'm not a fan of a backline of 5 the reality is that he is not as incompetent as Chepo. Piojo's has some stupid decision making like announcing his lineup 24 hours before the game day (allows teams to ambush us by game planning) and his lineups can be hit or miss but he doesn't seem afraid to make quick subs when things aren't working out. The team at least shows life when they go down unlike how they would all just lose hope before. Piojo is too wedded to his formation and players that "work" in his system instead of changing the formation to suit the most talented players that we have. Chepo should have been fired much earlier and it basically screwed the team by giving Piojo no more than a handful of friendlies to try and experiment. Its a duct tape team and we are going to sink or swim with very little time to prepare or find adequate talent to get the most out of Mexico's team. As a team we are highly dependent on Layun, Gullit, and Oribe never having bad games because those three have been the only highly talented players that we have that work well in Piojo's system. Herrera, Gio, Reyes, Moreno, Ochoa and Guardado are basically the only reinforcements that we can add to this base of players. Guardado i'm not a huge fan of but he played well as a LB and Layun looked good at RB for a few games until his crossing turned to shit. This basically seems to be the most "talented" team that fits Piojo's system and that still gives us something to offer on the bench. ---------------------Ochoa---------------------- ---------Reyes------Rafa-------Moreno-------- --Layun------------------------------Guardado--- ----------------------Herrera------------------------ --------Gullit---------------------Gio-------------- --------------Peralta-----Jimenez----------------- Raul is pretty much an absolute necessity because he is the only forward that offers something radically different from the Oribe, Chicharito, Pulido mold. Raul is tall, physical, mobile, and has a huge work rate; his major flaw is that his finishing on break aways is poor. Raul has basically repeatedly shown his ability to free up Oribe, Chicharito, and Pulido to focus on poaching while offering a large physical target presence up front. Fabian, Brizuela, Pulido, Chicharito, Aguilar, Negro, Ponce, Montes, etc can all offer some quality from the bench or act as cover if any of the top 11 get hurt.
IMO, Gio HAS to start. Do you think piojo will place him as an ST and pair him with Peralta, RJ, Chich, etc etc?
I'm not sure he will do this in the WC. Has anyone heard him say if he will or won't? I assume someone in the media has asked him that. I like that the players know, but not that they are released come WC time.