It's okay, I thought the same thing as soon as I read it. And my parents have one of those cheesy animated figures that has a snow man on it, whose hips gyrate to the song, but the words are "Snooow Maannn"
Adam may be slow, but he's a quality finisher. He hasn't had a lot of chances, but he's put at least three on frame, got two goals and a PK. I think Frank should put him in with 15 or 20 minutes to go. Have him replace Lenny. That way he'll have a real chance to contribute. go quakes! - Mark
I actually like him as a complement to Lenhart as he was against Portland. If you look at that play, Lenhart is playing deeper than Jahn, but pretty much in a straight line behind him. Lenhart wins that ball as he's supposed to, then Jahn gets a flick on header into the box, as he's supposed to. After that, Jahn drops back a little to find the open space in the box and Lenhart is still underneath him in case the ball pops out of the penalty area. Jahn coming in allows Lenhart and the Quakes to have a better option in the midfield for ball winning. Without two target forwards, Lenhart has to play deep to win balls, but the only person to give it to going forward really is Wondo. The other option is to try to get it wide. Jahn adds the forward option, which it nice for playing balls through the air. Lenhart might actually be more useful in the midfield than he is on the forward line. The other way to do it is let Lenhart and Jahn kind of move up and back based on the situation, so Lenhart could wear the forwards out a bit, and then as he gets tired of getting into tussles with defenders, drops back to distribute out of the midfield without worrying about having to immediately get forward. I'm starting to think the Quakes are better overall with two target forwards on the field. What would be great is if Frank would allow for three defenders or figure out how to get Beitashour to stay in midfield a little more as support when the Quakes are in possession so they could have a more robust midfield in general.
That was some desperation throw everyone forward play. We had a bunch of guys in their box, and they lost a couple of us. Having lots of attacking players is sexy, and it scores goals, which is the whole point, but we need a formation and lineup that work whether we are on offense or defense. If we need a better midfield, maybe we should think about replacing one or two of our current midfielders? Know what I'm sayin'? We need to play Shea and Chavez out wide (and put Corrales out to pasture!) to get the width and speed that made us successful last season. If we still aren't getting enough control and or production out of midfield, then we can replace Baca with either Ring or Tommy. Ring gives us more bite and more confidence in the center, but less attacking options. (Croninja plays up when Ring is on, and Sam is more offensive minded than Brad, so it works.) Tommy is an out and out attacking midfielder, so he's what many on these boards want, but he's still really raw. The only way that playing two target forwards is going to work for us is in a 4-3-3, and then our midfield would really suck. Lenny is much better than I had anticipate when we signed him, but he's not a midfielder. Nah. Frank is always going to play with four in the back, a 3-5-2 would be killer, but we're not going to see it while Frank is head coach. For now, I want to see Adam come on for Lenny with about 20 minutes to go, and I want to see speedy outside mids, and no more Ramiro. go quakes! - Mark
I think two target forwards also works because the opponents can't just put their best header of the ball on our target. They need both of their CBs to be great in the air and able to beat their matchup, and in many teams one CB is clearly weaker in that area.
Mark totally shot me down, but I still like the idea. I think it occupies defenders more, plus it is good in confusing assignments if two target forwards kind of drift in and out of being around the box. The added benefit is if you do crash the box, Wondo might likely get free more often since balls played through the air would require more defenders to challenge for them. The real vulnerabilities will lie on the defensive side if you stick to having four midfielders. I think Lenhart and Gordon are both more than capable of being really deep playing forwards, which should allow for a three man midfield, with Beitashour or Morrow moving in to occupy the wide spaces for longer stretches of time. Mark is most likely right in that we'd probably never see it out of Frank, but based on the assets available to the team currently, I think it would be the most efficient use of the various players.
IMO the key is to be flexible. We've got the dump and run thing down, now we have to establish the potential of a possession game. Who can come off the bench to lock down a game?
"San Jose Earthquakes' Adam Jahn gets an opportunity" (San Jose Mercury News - Friday, 5/3/13) GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Another reason to like Adam: He was at the Stanford women's rugby match today supporting the Cardinal in their Division I Final Four match.
Since you asked, from my post elsewhere.... A big shout out to the women's rugby team of tiny Norwich University of Northfield, Vermont, who today defeated perennial power Stanford to reach the national Division I final (in their first season in Division I). It was a thrilling match that Norwich won in stoppage time with a 3-point kick from distance on the final play of the game. Another shout to the large contingent of Norwich parents who made the trip west for the match.
I like Jahn. Yes he still has a lot to learn but I like how he focuses on playing the game. His concentration and calmness allows him to score those goals. Despite his height, he is more like Wondo than Lenhart and Gordon. He likes to kind of join the attack late to find the space and passes. I hope he keeps developing his other aspects of the game and the coach uses him to his strength. I mean, if he is not really a target forward like the Bash brothers, then don't just drop him for that reason.
I think the coaching staff have used him about as well as anyone could. I talked about it a bit before but Jahn's skills lie somewhere between the target forward and the poaching forward, which is interesting because he can play balls on and then do a disappearing act and lose his marker, only to pop up around the goal mouth. Way back in this thread I think we were talking about how his college scoring suggested he wouldn't be that great, but how he had a very large increase in goals (11, I think), which also coincided with him getting a new coach. It appears that his collegiate career high is a lot closer to his true self than the whole of his college years might suggest. That is excellent news for San Jose if they can keep him around. One of the other benefits of his style is that he doesn't have to play a purely physical game to be successful. That might translate into fewer injuries than Lenhart and Gordon are prone to. There haven't been too many young players that I've gotten really excited about but it's hard not to get excited when somebody gets a chance and capitalizes on those chances with a very positive attitude toward the whole situation.
Jahn came in for an injured Baca versus Colorado and I think he flourished at CM. He was all over the field and did the job in attack and in defending. He's becoming one of my favorite players on the team.
He really seems to be coming into his own with each passing week. Defensively he looked good. I happy for the local Davis/ Stanford kid!