Porter is blaming the wind and the grass, guys. It’s not getting better anytime soon, and possibly never, unless we get rid of this clown.. It’s a funny stadium, guys. It’s ********in hilarious.
If anyone really cares: https://www.twincities.com/2019/04/...ota-united-story-behind-singalong-after-wins/
This is a great point and should be very concerning to Porter. This is usually an indication that players are uncertain how to attack a team and, that target and supporting players are not moving into positions to receive a ball. That's a problem we shouldn't be having at this point in a season ... even with the new faces on the field. It will take a bit of time to adjust to Guzman & Accam's game play, but this is different. It speaks to not knowing what to do with a ball once received AND not trusting that your teammates are getting to specific spaces to advance an attack.
Colorado got a win at the Zlatan-less LAG. Maybe this will be tougher than it seems. Hard to count on Howard for the own goal. Maybe one of their CBs...
Bill, friend to friend and brother to brother.....are you okay? You've gone a bit soft here. Just a few weeks ago you were talking about Porter pissing in your ear and telling you it's rain. This week he is blaming the wind, the grass, and funny stadiums. It's no good man. It's worse than no good. Look we can point to the players that have been shipped out, and the players that have been brought in and point to a greater plan. We all want to do that. Have you seen Guzman play? We gave Gyasi an extension and a DP deal and he has not had a touch in the opposing penalty area since. We are still watching Pipa go through the motions. Change is good. But as I've been attacked for many times here change for changes sake doesn't do much. The change has to bring improvement. The aforementioned Guzman has been brutal. We've been without our outside backs for most of the season now, a good coach makes adjustments. A good manager finds ways to get the most out of his players. A good manager finds a veteran on the team to lead the team through a rough patch by example and sometimes by speaking to the media and the fans. A good manager does not blame the wind and the lawn for his teams performance. This is the opposite of accountability. Mock me all you want, that's a losers mentality. That's how you build a losing culture. I get it, I've said some dumb things at the bottom of a bottle of Beefeater as well. Hell, it's only 10 minutes to 7, I may say some more tonight. The play on the field is awful. The excuses are worse. We deserve more. Bill, you deserve more.
I wouldn't argue with a word you said here. Particularly the Beefeater part as that's exactly where I went after the Pinot Noir I had with dinner just didn't cut it. I have absolutely done a 180 in terms of Porters chatter. I won't deny it. But it's not that I've necessarily changed my mind about the coach but rather because I've become.convinced that he doesnt mean a word of it. Hes just treading water. You are undeniably correct in pointing out that this team as currently constituted is utterly terrible. Position by position it might be the worst Crew side we've ever seen. And while you're right in pointing that his comments on the field and the grass and the pregame buffet are ludicrous its clear that there are problems. Just please dont try to tell me that he doesnt know it. Where we differ is that I'm coming to believe that the problems are being worked on vigorously but the man up.front and until.he can give Porter a competitive roster nothing Caleb can do or say will.make a goddam bit of difference.
First, I'm a Beefeater fan and it's an underrated gin. I know there are newer, sexier gins out there but my bar always has a bottle of Beefeater. Second, I have no idea what we were trying to do on Saturday. There seemed to be no game plan other than move upfield quicker than we have previously. Zardes barely touched the ball, Guzman, Robinho, Pipa, and Accam held the ball way too long, our backs were sometimes attacking but not consistently enough to make me think it was planned and Trapp was passive. Maybe we are moving from Berhalter ball to something else but we seemed so unprepared tactically on Saturday.
It was a disaster. And it hasn't been just Saturday. We started the season exactly the same way. It was just masked by other teams rounding into form and us getting pretty lucky. Set piece defense takes a few weeks of film study, our goals there dried up after Sauro bagged his second. I find myself somewhere in between Hang and Bill on how I think about Porter. We're stuck with him, so my hopeful side wants Bill to be right. I mean, Bill has to be right about Porter knowing in his heart that the players aren't good enough. But, Hang is right that the excuses and like for like changes and concession substitutions and whining about injuries while trotting out the same formations and tactics makes me think that he has no idea how to adjust to make the most of what he's got. Four more years? I'm glad the folks here are beginning to see how bad these players are though. We're stuck with Zardes now long term. Anyone else on the roster aside from a hopefully returning to full strength Valenzuela that you want to build this team around for the next 2 to 3 years? We're 40% into the season, in 18th spot on ppg. It may be a fight to keep from being the worst Crew team ever. A totally wasted year to this point where we have no ability to succeed now and have thwarted ourselves on a rebuild that won't start until next year.
Beefeater is fine, Tanqueray is better. In fact, the churlish part of me would say that Beefeater is to Federico Higuain as Tanqueray is to Sebastián Rozental.
Tangueray is to syrupy to be a versatile gin. But maybe it's that syrup that filled out Seb's Adonis like frame....
In regards to Zardes, over at the MLS site they have Bobby Warshaw's (I know, I know) 24 things for 24 teams. In the midst of saying the Crew have a favorable schedule around the corner Warshaw also says: From a neutral perspective, I think the Crew have serious problems. Specifically, Gyasi Zardes isn’t the right striker for how Caleb Porter wants to play. Now, I'm not sure of what to make of that for a few reasons. First, I haven't seen much of anything resembling a coherent offensive approach or game plan from Porter or the team this season. But also, because I think that's an odd thing to say about a guy who just signed a DP extension with the team. Did anyone else catch this? Thoughts?
I'm just happy someone else popped their winless cherry so we didn't have to do it. I'm now MORE optimistic to face them then I was when they were winless.
I read this and my first thought was, "Well then Bobby, please go on to tell us how exactly Caleb's 'right striker' would play with what Porter wants to do." Perhaps Bobby and Caleb have had a chat about how Porter wants to play. The thing about the DP deal and Zardes, I see it as window dressing. Gyasi got a raise. Good for him, He banged in what, 20? last year? The DP tag is nothing more than an attempt from the club to get some respect from PRO for our forward.
Yeah, I caught that and had the same thoughts as you did. No idea what style we want to play. Based on Porter's championship winning season he wants an elite creative and goal scoring hybrid wing/forward to win games while a tough as nails CM drives the team and keeps the other team from scoring. Based on his comments throughout this season he wants to continue to build from the back, move the ball more quickly than his predecessor did and get more attacking play through the middle. I will say, Zardes is a finisher, a fairly decent one when he's feeling confident. That's why we signed him. Figuring out how to get him one touch shots is CB9K's job. It's not going to be deep low crosses from wing backs or outside the foot one touch lofted through balls from Pipa. Maybe some cut backs from Accam if we can ever get him the ball quick enough that he can drive deep into the box. While Guzman wasn't very good v MN, he did get forward more than Artur has in his entire tenure with us. He's no Diego Chara. Neither is Trapp, or Artur. Pipa is no Valeri. So not sure how we're going to create more up the middle or have anyone there to run the show from the defensive side of things. When we lose the Colorado and come home to a nice home run in June without our best player, new DP, Captain, best current left back and starting CM, I'm not exactly full of confidence that we're about to have a chance to smile.