Can't even begin to describe how much better Alhassan - Jewsbury - Marcelin - Nagbe looks than Hall - Jewsbury - Lowry - Pore. Hopefully Spencer has learned not to stick with a poor lineup just to instill confidence. Umony also looked much more lively than Perlaza, who is invisible for such long stretches at a time that you'd think he's actually trying to avoid the play.
god, ryan pore, that guy was so damn overhyped. i also forgot perlaza was even on the field 99% of the time, that guy needs some work. we just need to get our damn defense together, mark their damn men. so tired of attacking players just wandering through the acres of defense to tap in goals.
I agree that the lineup is way better in mid than it was. Why Lowry would even be the second option with Marcelin and Moffat available I don't know. I still think Perlaza is better than Umony. Sure Umony is fast and gets to the ball but his quality is not close to what Perlaza posesses. I still think there is a place for Zizzo in the midfield though so maybe they should try this. GK Perkins(when he's healthy) LB Wallace CB Brunner, Horst RB Hall(I haven't been impressed with Purdy and Hall played some D for New York but his touch is too erratic for midfield LM Alhassan CM Jewsbury, Marcelin(Replace Marcelin with the supposed attacking mid that we're bringing in and move Jewsbury to the more defensive role) RM Zizzo F Cooper, Nagbe(Although I think he'll be great on the wing his versatality would allow us to put Zizzo on the field in the place of either Perlaza or Umony which I think is a good tradeoff)
I like that we're improving every game. I liked the lineup we ended up much better than anything we've trotted out so far. Alhassan has a future in this league, and Marcelin surprised me. Didn't get to see enough of Nagbe to truly gauge, but he had a few very sublime moments. I still think we were too stretched for long parts of the game, and that's part of why Perlaza and to a lesser extent Cooper didn't factor as much they should. I think Cooper has a better idea of how to get himself involved when the service is lacking than does Perlaza. Umony seemed a bit more active than Perlaza, but I'm not sure he's the answer up there, either.
He's not quite a mid and he's not quite a forward and that worked just fine in USL. Hopefully he can get better.
Ha .. yeah, Cooper is having to come back to the halfway line to get the ball! it's funny, but also very sad. sad that he is used to playing on teams without a skilled table setter. i'm sure this is a new thing for perlaza, playing on a team with know creative force in the central midfield. The PTFC FO need to get on signing their international CM already. they traded Dax McCarty MONTHS ago and still haven't signed anyone to play that position. CM is fairly important in soccer (at least that's what I heard).
I'm trying to be patient and to keep the faith, but each day with no news gets harder. I'm not going to lie. Seeing Vancouver's ability to find the back of the net is making me more impatient. Bring on the DP CM!
Perlaza's ball skills mean nothing if he doesn't open up to receive the ball, the burden shouldn't be entirely on the midfield to put it at his feet, he needs to hustle and earn it. Especially when he has one of the league's better target strikers to play off of, his involvement in the run of play is simply waaay too inconsistent, at least Umony was involved in a few good looking passing plays. I think Hall just needs to be dropped from the starting lineup all together, he's an acceptable backup for either Purdy or Wallace. Purdy hasn't been bad, for a big guy he gets up and down the field very well, which is more than you can say about most MLS fullbacks. Honestly I think someone just needs to teach him how to put a decent cross in, he put in a sold half dozen crosses against NE but none even came close to finding Cooper.
Cooper is not a target striker. That's part of the issue the Timbers have; to date, they've had little creativity in the midfield, so they're playing long ball without long-ball forwards. Purdy probably has been one of the Timbers' two best players to date, especially if one includes the USOC play-in match in the sample.
it will be interesting to see how this lineup evolves with the addition of chara. everything improved in the last game, but the center of midfield is still our major issue, and it has more to do with team shape than ball skills. we get sucked way out of position on a regular basis. we actually look relatively capable attacking on the wings and around the box, but totally vulnerable to counter attacks. i think jewsbury is actually a main culprit. he's a consistently average player with experience in the league, but a serious lack of creative ideas in distribution that slows/breaks down our attack. never been a huge fan. i'm a believer that we should put our best players on the field at the same time. i'd really like to see umony and zisso have the opportunity to start together, and am interested in seeing nagbe. if chara can calm things, provide some vision in midfield, and combine well with perlaza and cooper, we could become very dangerous. we just need to keep eliminating the weak links.
As long as Jewsbury continues to pitch in goals and break up plays in defense (which I thought he's done quite a bit of the past 2 games), he's going to play. His distribution on free kicks has actually been pretty good this year too. I don't remember him being a notable free kick taker in his days at Kansas City.
i can't disagree-- jewsbury looked better last game, and a goal is always a welcome contribution. we looked MUCH more organized in defense until the last 15 minutes. i think spencer has done a pretty good job of managing the games overall, but i think making 3 offensive subs with a 3 goal lead wasn't necessary. this team has shown that it has tons of attacking talent and a great transition game, but we are prone to getting counterattacked. zisso and nagbe are both impressing me, but they also contributed turnovers that ultimately led to goals. if we're going to try to ice games with a relentless attack, we have to be MUCH more consistent in *possessing* the ball, slowing the pace a bit to run out some time, instead of just going at goal over and over. i also second the comment about alhassan-- he pulled some ridiculous moves on the dribble, reminded me a lot of young ronaldinho at times. i look forward to the match tonight!
Can someone explain why Nagbe isn't starting over Hall? Is he still recovering from his preseason injury?
Because this current unit has been playing well for the last 4 games (CHV, NER, CHI, FCD) and Spencer is big on making people earn their starting spots, not just insert one guy over the other because he's a top draft pick or he's getting paid more. It's a philosophy that has helped Spencer in the locker room and on the field, but I think at this point it's clear that Nagbe needs to be starting. And Chara will soon be starting. So we have changes afoot in the first XI. We'll see if Zizzo can earn himself more playing time too.
