I think at the end of the first half the possession stat was 43% us to 57% them. By the second half it was 47% to 53%. That fits what I saw, in the first half we played a lot more long passes than usual and in the second half we saw more uptempo short passes and the requisite runs to get into position. Defensively the conditions maybe warranted a rope-a-dope strategy. From Klinsmann's quotes I'm not sure that was the intention so instead we saw a bunch of players playing at a lower tempo than usual, because of the climate, but still be as open and disorganized as a pressing/swashbuckling side. If I was a coach and saw the conditions affecting my team like that I would have pulled in the reigns of the CM and had them play a more organized, tight system to save some energy for counters or later in the game.
midfield had little movement. but the one thing that I think really ********ed the rest of the midfielders was Danny williams positioning. Danny williams was so squashed on top of our CBs that i dont think he crossed the midfield line more than twice. when your CDM does this it forces the other mids to cover, either by moving in ward or by dropping excessively. see for example how many times EJ was moving centrally and backwards in the first half to try to receive ball. in an ideal world the CDM destroys a play, possesses ball and determines pace of game by releasing short passes out wide to the wingers. unfortunately williams hardly completed a pass, making the rest of the midfield do twice the work. ill post this on coaching thread, but Jones/Bradley/Williams was as confusing for us fans as it was for players. it felt as if they were instructed to basically be three roaming box to box midfielders. there needs to be role definition there.
This has been a common thing under Klinsmann, especially the more Edu/Beckerman/Jones/Williams type players he has out there at once. Instead of Bradley and two of those guys I think we would be better with Bradley, one of those guys and another guy who is better at that sort of thing, Kljestan, Torres or Zusi in an actual CM role instead of the ill-fitting attacking role he usually uses them. Fabian Johnson or Donovan could also be played as outside midfielders who help inside as needed, similar to how Johnson was used against Slovenia and we could just skip the third CM entirely.
In general I agree Check my posts. I rag on Jones all the time and I will again Despite his nice pass yesterday his negatives far outweigh the positives If jones is not then 6 don't play him. I will go out in the limb right now and say if we see jones starting again as anything other than dedicated 6 we don't qualify He's better than Williams edu, whoever. But he is a disaster as a partner with Bradley This is the key all the problems. This is all on the coach Ps Torres btw is not an attacking mid. He is a deep lying distributor. Period. He is useful but only at certain times
And appropriately enough, yesterday seemed like one of those times. A player with Gatt's skillset should be a mandatory in the next 23. He'd be a fantastic 10-15 min sub when we have trouble creating something.
Next roster should preferably not contain 8 central midfielders... it's so redundant. I don't care if Beasley and Gatt are worse at their respective positions than Edu/Williams but at least they bring a different dynamic to the team.
The way JK deployed the MF was also way off. When I say the lineup, I thought we'd be looking at a fairly standard 4-5-1/4-3-3 with Dempsey and EJ the wide attacking players, Williams the DM, and Jones and Bradley dual 8s in front. But played out with EJ wide left, Dempsey up top with Jozy. Wiliams as a 6, Bradley as an 8. And Jones either a RM, or RCM beside Bradley and NO ONE at all wide right. As a result, the FBs have to supply all the width, thus playing into the weather factor even more. JK was far too cute with the tactics.
You know what this MF could've used? DeMarcus Beasley on the right. Defensive teeth, speed threat, in-season, no jet lag, willingness to be flattened, wants to play for the US. There, I said it. It feels good.
Hell yes. I felt so much better when Edu came on. I don't remember seeing a single Honduran attacker being double-teamed until Edu came on.
Yesssss. Someone mentioned the Scotland game. The difference? We swarmed Scotland like a bunch of red-striped bees. That is world-class, 10-man defending. Swarm like hell and regain the ball. We barely managed even international-quality defending. If you're going to bunker, there should be two men marking on attacking wing players, but poor Chandler was often marking two guys at once.
I think sacrificing one of Bradley-Williams-Jones is a must. Based off of what we tried to do yesterday, I would have rather seen Torres as the sub for Jones (and shift Johnson to the right) rather than Kljestan for Johnson.
I thought Mike sucked a little more than JJ yesterday. Jones at least had an assist and sprung the counter early that Altidore should have scored. Also, Jermaine Jones didn't hit any of those woeful free kicks that Bradley hit. Some of those set pieces came late when we needed clutch play.
Not really. Jone creates our goal. Bradley has 2 very good chances. Hondo scores the winner after Jones is subbed off. Jones is a very good midfielder. He and Bradley have enough guile between the two of them. There were a few important little things we did badly, on the offensive side. Bradley sidefooting a ball he should have blasted. Zusi playing point guard with a very nice build up and cross. The problems were in the back 4, the subs and Bradley's finishing (and his play in general - he had a couple of really nice balls going forward, but was very obviously out of sorts in the defensive third. Slow of body and of brain.) We do not have another central middie of Jone's caliber at the moment. Sasha was pointless - and playing to high up. Holden, if he were to have a miracle recovery, can perhaps fill the same role better. But Jones had a very decent game. Agree, this was odd. It seemed to me very often that Mikey was playing the middle of the 3 man "V" but then there was Danny. If it was supposed to be Danny central Jones up left and Mikey up right, it did not feel that way. If it was supposed to be a 4-2-3-1 with Mikey and Danny next to each other - Mikey keep moving to an anchor position leaving Danny nowhere to go (or, Danny didn't know where he was supposed to go.) Once Edu came in, Bradley seemed a bit unchained, but we lost our midfield shape in other ways. Sasha and Zusi pressing too much and not supporting enough.
We need to smarter about this, then. The US has pretty much every geographic biome. We can train at sea level, extreme altitudes, dry heat, humid heat and frigid cold. We should take advantage of that.
Not possible for that game. Midweek oneoff date with no camp and MLS out of season. Hopefully the problem can be addressed in the 2 date games coming up. But I was thinking about starting a thread about this soon.