The tragedy is that you could follow other strings of player deals that the Fire made that ended in similar results. I guess they've never figured out that you need to keep adding "keeper" players to build a good team from a bad one. That really makes you think they're about making $ more than building a winning team.
No one was able to answer the trivia question. The Fire traded Qunicy Amarikwa for Ty Harden. Yes, THE Ty Harden. His illustrious career with the Fire included playing in 3 games (all starts, logging 270 minutes), before being released.
The worst part of that trade progression is that they don't even realize when the made a great deal and should stick with the player. Oduro for Carr is a great trade. Stop there. Let him terrorize teams for the Fire for another 5-6 years. Let him develop more skill and tactical awareness here (which he has done). But then they tempt fate and totally luck into getting a guy who becomes the MVP. Stop right there. Get him decent medical care (like the Galaxy have) and you have a great player and team leader for another 4-5 years. Same with Joevin Jones. When the blind squirrel dies find the nut, he shouldn't spit it back out. Keep him and have your LB spot nailed down for another 5 years. Forget about evaluating talent to bring in, they can't evaluate talent that is on their roster.
Send a kid from Armenia to Oklahoma? Man, that's cold. David the moderately tall me be thinking, "I left the Lithuanian league for this. I am heading back to Trakai."
Polster's back soon (I think). What's Pauno going to do? RB, CB or sub? I think he's a CDM, so sub it is. Either way, our 18 will be improved.
Where did he play on the back line previously? RB or CB? I think if we stay with 4 in the back, Polster plays in the back (RB for Harrington or CB with Kap moving outside). If we switch to 3 in the back, he'll be the first onto the field for Schweinsteiger, Dax or Juninho.
While Polster's not a plodder, he doesn't have the pace you want at fullback. I don't think he's a better CB than Meira or Campbell. As you say, first sub for any of our aging mids is most likely. A salute to the fool that let J. Jones go, for an effing song!!!
I'm in favor of this lineup for two reasons: 1. you play to your squads strengths, and 2. we don't have any above average LBs or RBs. Since we don't have any strength with wing play out of the back why even bother?
Tactically the best league in the Europe.* *After Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga, Eredivisie, Primeira Liga, Allsvenska, Ligue 1, and of course the Veikkausliga.
I think a 3-4-3 ends up with a Minnesota United-like goals against. Someone needs to cover when the opponent plays out wide. Option 1 - 2 of your 4 MFs are two-way wingbacks. I watch a lot of Liga MX, and its pretty common for clubs there to play this style. But we don't have a single wingback, let alone two. Option 2 - You play with 3 in the back and your quick outside CBs go out and cover the wide play. You have 1 or 2 CDMs playing pretty deep and they cover the crosses back into the box. Your CDM kinda becomes a CB/sweeper type, and that is where we would probably stick Polster. But at that point, why even play with 3 in the back if Polster is just helping the back line, just add him to the backline and keep a constant shape. Option 3 - You don't care about giving up goals (because you are usually down a goal already) and you just crowd the MF with all 4 guys. But even in this system you want a variety of the types of Midfielders you play. You want some guys who are quick enough to recover and can play out wide to spread things out. Basti, Dax, Juninho, Polster are all similar types of players (no one is a winger or a #10) We have essentially 4 CENTRAL midfielders, all of them not so fast, not great playmakers, non of them can beat players off the dribble, non can play out wide naturally (maybe Basti 5 years ago). You'd end up just clogging the MF and putting them into some kind of box in the middle of the field. But then what happens out wide? MDL is not fast enough to really play out there, Accam is plenty fast but I'm not sure I've ever seen him make a tackle in his life. Kap can cover out to the right, but on the left side you have a HUGE whole. Accam isn't getting back, Campbell or Meira isn't fast enough to really cover. If I was managing against the Fire I'd take my 2 fastest wingers and tell them to stay wide and force the Fire to either draw their slower CMs out to cover OR draw their slow CBs out to cover. Either way I'll break that shape they want to play in. The only thing that makes sense is to just keep our formation, and just swap Dax or Juninho for Basti. I know it sucks because we spent all our Garber bucks on CMs, but the best 11 you can put out there isn't always the 11 most talented players.
Its our best shape. It plays to the majority of our strengths. In a 3-4-3 you have multiple guys out of position or at least not playing to their strength (MDL playing wide, Accam having to track back and cover, Campbell having to cover wide play). You weaken lots of players just to fit Basti in. The point is that you are better off keeping the shape, playing to your strengths and just benching Juninho. The fact that Harrington is our best and only RB is the fault of the front office. We loaded up on 3 new CM (who play basically the same way) and didn't even bring in a single MLS-ready outside back, attacking mid, or winger. Our hope was to convert Polster our 4th CM into another position (before he was hurt). But I still think having a crap outside back is better than having no outside backs and then having multiple players play out of position. Right now we need to probably trade Polster (or Garber bucks) for a true RB (Saad Abdul Salaam for instance who doesn't play at KC) and then just bench Juninho for Basti. There is a pretty good chance Basti gets hurt and then Juninho can come in for him. But putting 3 in the back (with 2 slow CBs) and 4 similar CMs (all of them being on the slower side) and outside forwards who won't track back is going to be a huge mistake. We will give up a ton of goals.
I can't help but notice that Dax's Twitter bio is blank. When he played for NYRB it said Midfielder for NYRB. I have a tendency to look more into things than I probably should so it might just be me being paranoid but I wonder if Dax is going to be traded to Orlando for Spector. This would make sense if Bastian works out and can stay for a few years. If not it would be very short sighted. Am I nuts to suspect this or does it sound like a possibility?
Been saying this for awhile. I think Dax was a league gift for not getting BS in Jan. Now he can go to OC. Fire need GAM and TAM
there's an easy solution to this: -----------Niko- Alvarez -MDL-Accam ------Basti-Jun/Dax/Polster Vincent-Meira-Campbell-Kap make Alvarez and Accam focus on providing crosses instead of cutting inside to shoot. Get Harrington the eff off the field, and play all your defenders in their strongest position. Let Basti captain the team from deep, like Bradley did against Honduras. in my fantasy MLS steps in to help Dax get to Orlando and we package Harrington, Dax, and Juninho off to OC for Rafael Ramos, Kevin Alston, and either Carlos Rivas or Giles Barnes, and trot this out: ------------Niko- Accam---MDL-Barnes/Rivas --------Basti-Polster Vincent-Campbell-Kap-Alston/Ramos get rid of the logjam, improve D depth, get some pace and service in the lineup.