I've been thinking about this a bunch. The 4-1-4-1 was put into place a season and a half ago specifically for Acosta because it took some of his defensive responsibilities away and gave him room to roam. I think of it almost more as a 4-1-3-1 and an X who can go wherever he wants (Acosta is the X). The problem is that Acosta is all too often almost hiding from the ball. He drifts off to the wings to find space and stays too high. And he has a tendency to pout when he's not seeing the ball enough. I would like to see him come deeper and touch the ball A LOT. Even if it's just a pass to him that he gives right back to you. He seems to be a player that strives with touches. And I think he can really help our possession game - I think he's got a pretty good sense of when to go and when to slow up and hold the ball for a moment. If you do this 4-1-3-1 and with the X and tell Acosta he needs to go out there and get the ball and be the "straw who stirs the drink" - the biggest question is who is in the middle in the 3. Ideally, that's a great two-way player who knows when to go forward and when to help back on defense. Maybe it's Asad and Stieber is out on the wing. Or maybe it's Stieber and Asad is on the wing. Or maybe it's Harkes or one of the new guys. Hell, maybe it's even Mullins... I don't know. Just thinking out loud somewhat. But I really want to see Acosta touching the ball much, much more than he does. A lot of that is on the coaching staff. Some of it is on the player.
From what I saw from Canouse last year, I think he can handle it by himself. Problem is hes out for another month at least
Having Acosta and Stieber in the middle together doesn't prevent Canouse from being the DM backup when he returns. This is what I would like to see.
Well my solution in preseason was a 343 with Acosta and Stieber tucking in behind a striker. But then you'd probably just replace Steiber with Asad. Fisher and/or Arriola along with Mora as wingbacks. But as we said. Not enough CB's for a long season.
I like this comment because I whole-heartedly agree that this sort of thing needs to happen. Acosta has shown himself to be a little careless with the ball when he comes back to assist with holding the ball when we win deep in our own territory. I also haven't seen him execute deep passes from this position consistently. He needs to improve. Etcheverry in his prime and Christian Gomez were outstanding in this regard back in the day. They both contributed greatly to DCU's ability to slowly build from the back or drop the direct pass over the top.
Same, maybe I wasn't clear. I meant I think Canouse could handle taking the entirety of defensive mid by himself, allowing the mid-center-mid to be a guy like Steiber.
Neither Stieber nor Asad have lived up to billing so far this season. Stieber had a decent preseason, so we know at least some of his skills are intact, but he's been forced inside because of Acosta's injury and Asad's acquisition. He was good on the wing last year. IMO, they should be trying to figure out if Asad can play the 8/10 alongside Acosta, who has gotten better at dropping into the midfield when he's needed. I also think the return of Canouse would help this cause immensely.
That would be key. Remember that one of Acosta's problems in the past has been a lack of protection. Ever since Kitchen left, we haven't had someone that can take responsibility for the physical part of midfield ... creating turnovers, breaking up counter attacks, winning 50/50 balls and winning balls in the air. Even Kitchen at times struggled when he was asked to do that by himself. If the opposition midfield isn't challenged physically, they're more free to abuse Acosta. While I'm beginning to lean towards playing Acosta, Asad, Stieber and Arriola together at the expense of Segura, it is a risk to leave Moreno on his own. Here's a guy who's still learning the league and hasn't proven yet that he can dominate an MLS midfield. It's safer to hold off on this more attacking lineup for at least a couple of more games. First of all it's too early to make a final judgement on Segura. Second of all, knowing how risk averse Olsen is, it's more likely that he gives Ian Harkes a chance before he the changes formation.
200%, minimum, UnitedBorn. It takes more! The rest of the game is what I'm expecting from him. Nobody's played well. That includes these jokers. Asad's been just as bottled up on the wing as anyone since Nyarko's good days. I singled them out only because they're the crux of a problem Ben's going to have to solve. They will show better, they just haven't yet.
Feelings are weird. It's funny that the mood in some circles is better after a last-minute home draw than a last-minute away draw.
That's because the away draw was against 10 men, and the "home" draw was from two goals down and showcased a great debut (Mora) and a promising stint by a homegrown youngster (Durkin).
you always feel better when you come from 2 behind to tie versus giving up a goal and a win, especially while up a man Had we come back to tie the away game, theoretically that would be better felling than tieing a home game.
I like the idea of Acosta touching the ball a lot, but agree -- he needs liberty but not unstructured liberty. His propensity to pout is way too high at this level. I'm still wanting to see who's going to help dominate the middle physically, as this creates space for Acosta to do his thing. The fact that we have a zillion midfield pieces but don't seem to know yet what the plan is for them seems a real miss. Coaching? Dunno. But "get good players" isn't enough of a plan (albeit better than the recent "get breathing players who are cheap", though). What could Asad do better? Helping with 100% of MORE goals?
Asad's last game was pretty complete, aside from one really, really bad decision. He wasn't running in to blind alleys and trying to force plays - this all sounds very familiar... That's what I thought he could do better. More performances like Houston! I'm hoping Canouse comes back strong in May and challenges for the 6 and the 8. I didn't realize he played the 8 before he got here. If Durkin continues his course, he'll overtake Moreno, and free up Canouse to challenge Harkes and Segura. That could be a very strong midfield both defensively and offensively, with Durkin playmaking and Canouse driving up the gut.
Id love Asad and Acosta in the middle, Steiber and Arriola on the wings. Durkin and Canouse can fight for DM, and spot starts in the middle. I don’t know if that’s provide enough CM protection, but it’ll work if the defensivemod is up for it.
We are at an interesting and unfortunately bad statistical moment. The first 5 and particularly first 7 games of the season are very good statistical indicators of whether a team will make the playoffs or has a chance at the Cup. Right now a loss in game 5 would mean the worst start since 2010 when we received 0 points in 5 games. Previous seasons point totals were in reverse order from 2017: 7, 3, 10, 7, 4, 5, 7 (and then 0). Teams earning 2 or less points in their first 5 or 4 or less in their first 7 virtually always miss the playoffs and have never won an MLS cup (or made a cup appearance to my knowledge). I think MLS is structured in such a way that teams aren’t really competitive against each other and this has been true for a number of years. Instead there is a marker, typically 47 points, that must be reached for a reasonably high chance to make the playoffs. This marker typically falls right on the red line between in and out of the playoffs. Teams race for this marker and emphasize more winnable games versus all games to achieve that goal. If we have 2 points in our first 5 matches that means we need a points per game of 1.55 to hit this marker. This sounds doable but consider that only 5-8 teams, 6.5 average, achieve that over their last 29 games each year and that those usually lean toward the weaker conference (which in this case is the West) and it means we would have to be one of the 2-3 teams in the East (averaged) accomplishing this PPG in the last 29 games.
The only year in the Olsen era where we've performed above average in the first seven games was 2015. I know you're talking about basement numbers here, but against the league generally, our first seven games are almost always a suckfest, and the headwinds are stronger this year. I will not be surprised if we come close to these numbers or if we bounce back to get into the playoffs having done so.
They are always bad because the team has some narcissistic hubris at the end of every season that they have the team they want and look to build on it in pre-season. During preseason it looks as though no one on the team ever played together before and it takes 6-10 matches in the season to achieve any cohesion. Then we make a ton of desperate moves in the Summer and play well toward the end of the season. Rinse. Repeat. james
We start slow every year because we have no plan. I've said this before. Ben's philosophy is to just gather "good pieces". No real plan. I think his philosophy is just to shift pieces around until one of them gets hot, and then you stick with that one. This is a pattern that I've read between the lines from all the preseason interviews I've seen over the years. Another pattern is Ben's stubbornness. He is completely unable to adapt, and he keeps insisting that he's smarter than everyone. There are countless times when 90% of the people on this board are seeing something clearly, and yet Olsen does the opposite. Are we the idiots? The same concerns we have get repeated in the MLS media all the time, so we're not the only ones seeing the obvious. Some examples : 1) forcing Dax McCarty to attacking midfielder. Never gave him a shot at another position. How did that work out? 2) Pajoy vs. Salihi madness 3) benching Boskovic 4) De Leon. Every year he tries to fix it by moving him to new position. Every year De Leon gets progressively worse 5) The idea that Jose Guillermo Ortiz is a striker. Every year he recruits a dud thinking that he can outsmart the world. Every year he fails. It's gotten to the point where the only logical explanation is that Ben doesn't understand the concept of what a striker is supposed to do. 6) Ben's obsession with players with behavioral issues because "they have a chip on their shoulders". Espindola, Johnson, Ruiz, Davies ... How many more times does this brilliant idea have to backfire? I feel like I'm just scraping the tip of the iceberg. Ben just gets into these repetitive cycles of failure and he doesn't evolve. He doesn't learn from his mistakes. The guy is just not cut out to be a soccer coach.
The Titanic just scraped the tip of the iceberg too and the result was pretty unpleasant. So great detail isn't necessary to advance your case If his plan was to appear inept and lull his opponents into a false sense of security he has done it and no one who matters remains unconvinced he is nowhere near being smarter than the average bear. I'm far from the most devoted fan but I do have a long track record, having gone from 100% in for 5 seasons to nothing better to do for 5 hours a week. And to be honest I'm taking his bumbling as a personal insult rather than an amusing distraction. So lets just say I concur with all you've said
Well at least Colorado is keeping DCU from being last in the MLS Power Rankings. However, Colorado did hire a coach who actually has a track record with getting results from bargain basement (New Zealand) rosters.
And who, right from the start, was publicly very clear idea about the system he wanted to use and went out and signed players to fit that approach, rather than just assembling a collection of "good pieces". Colorado's not going to be world-beaters any time soon, but I'd guess by mid-summer, they're playing some decent soccer once the players get comfortable with their roles and used to playing with each other.
I could argue the same would be true for this team mid-summer. Most of you probably won't agree, but it's not impossible.