This video is really worth watching... on protecting zone 14 with a dedicated #6 instead of a double pivot.
Yeah Doyle has been on his "zone 14" kick with the Quakes for weeks. He is probably right. We've had rotating pairs of double pivots with roles seemingly varying game to game. Still I'm not sure dedicated #6 is the answer by itself. I mean it's one guy, and he's going to lock the zone down by himself? I think lack of help from the outside mids may also be a factor.
The problem with the double pivot, is that it's a double pivot, instead of two d-mids. We want those players to be both defensive and offensive, and they miss assignments. We need an ACM in front of them, such that they stay home and protect the backline. And why were the highlights of Diego Chara him going forward?! WTF? They should have shown him shutting down opposing attacks. IF we switched to a single d-mid, would it be Flo? And if so, how we get him to stay back and not wander into attacking mode? AND, we still don't have a left back. We looked better with three central defenders in there, and the outside mids covering defensively. I'm OK with that, but we need to put someone in the ACM role. If we cannot control the center of the pitch, we're going to get ripped. And that's a big part of the problem now. We cannot control the ball in the middle, therefore we lose it, and the enemy can attack us up the middle or up our left side with ease. And that's as much a coaching issue as a "our players aren't good enough" issue. Go Quakes!! Fire Dim Stahre!! Eld Stahre!! - Mark
I certainly think we need to simplify and having one role is one way to do that. I think it's a good idea. Perhaps why we did better last year with Ceren (mostly) holding down the role.
The #6 should be tailor made for Flo right? Now that we have enough confidence in Ockford for starts and Cummings is playing well there's no reason we can't settle into Flo as the 6 and Godoy or Yueill as the #8. I still think having two relatively weak defenders at outside mids is also a factor. Magnus in particular makes very few defensive plays. So I'd go back to my earlier proposal. Magnus, Vako, Wondo, Quincy, and Hoesen compete for 2 or 3 forward spots. May the best men win. Play some combination of Hyka, TT, and Wehan at outside mid. We'll have better defense and better possession in midfield.
Good idea Jazzy, but we really need a #10, or at the very least, a #8 who is aggressive. Godoy isn't consistent enough to play the #8 in front of Flo and actually give some possession in central midfield. We need to TT there. Something like this. - - - - - Hoesen - - - - - - Magnus Hyka - - - - - - - - TT - - - - - - - Wehan - - - - - - Flo - - - - - - - - - Jackson - - - - - Ockford - - HC - - - Lima - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tarbs Then when Quintana gets healthy, he replaces Lima, Lima replaces Wehan, and we'll even have some bench depth. Maybe we play Vako where I have Magnus, but Magnus is better as a target, and Magnus tries to play with his teammates more. And I'd bring Wondo on with 15 or 20 to go as often as possible, because I want him to break Narcissus' record, and I want to rest my forwards. So I'd play this with a lot of rotation. Go Quakes!! Fire Stahre!! - Mark
Flo would be a great 6...Alashe is a natural 6 either would be good, but the combination of Alashe as the 6 with Flo slightly ahead as a 6/8 hybrid. in a 3-5-2...with an ACM...choose your poison there...Tommy, Hyka, Mag...Jackson possibly. We would finally have the right players and mentality defending area 14...our Achilles heel from day one of the season...due to the ripple effect of Godoy's poor performance Ockford coming through will give us greater flexibility with Flo. Also addition by subtraction...for any of this to really work we need to get Godoy and Vako out of the starting 11.
I say we double down on our dual d-mid setup by having them stand in Zone 14 all game. Maybe at home we could even have the grounds crew put in little Zone 14 markers so the guys know not to wander out.
I already mentioned we should put everyone in the goal, stacked up head to foot, on top of one another with Tarbell at the top.
Some hotels leave out a 13th floor. So the simplest solution at home games would be for Avaya to just redesignate the division of the pitch, eliminating Zone 14 and having a Zone 19. Other teams would leave Zone 19 totally unguarded (making it easy for us to score) and would spend their time running around in circles looking for Zone 14, making it easy for us to defend. Problem solved. I haven't figured out how to fix our away games yet, but I do wonder if we can somehow convert their Zone 14s into Area 51s or Bermuda Triangles.
Abandon all hope, ye who root for the Quakes! If we could at least see some progress, if it at least looked like the guys were getting better week to week, this would be more tolerable. But we can't see even that. We're crap, and we don't seem to improve from one game to the next. Sometimes we're a little better, and sometimes, more times, we're a little worse. We can post ideas for improvement here all week long, none of this will make any difference. I've no idea what Jesse's breaking point with Stahre is, but it's going to be far too late for my taste. Go Quakes!! Fire Stahre!! - Mark
One consequence of LA's inability to play out of the back is that David Bingham hits a ton of long balls. He plays them at the 4th highest rate in the league among GKs, and only completes 48% of them pic.twitter.com/0l9J8Z5dil— Kevin Minkus (@kevinminkus) June 2, 2018 Two of the guys ahead of him play for teams that like to counter, and one plays for a team facing similar issues— Kevin Minkus (@kevinminkus) June 2, 2018 Team with similar issues, that's us!
We are still in the upper 3rd in long balls per game, but our possession and pass success % have gone to mid-pack. I think that's actually resulted in improvement in our play, despite the spate of losses. The losses have at least been close losses. But lots of long balls, coupled with not too bad possession suggests that we may be getting our somewhat better possession from the safe passes in our defensive end. IOW we ding it around for a while, and then launch the long ball. Another interesting thing - we are tied for the top spot in the league in play up the middle. We are also high on play down the right but low on play down the left. Not too surprising given our left back issues and our stellar right back. But in general I think the high play up the middle stat suggests that in general we have weak wide play compared to the rest of the league. That's why in the offseason I was harping on the need for the Quakes to bring in a couple of good wide players - I mean real wingers with some speed, who could play wing back or outside back. All we got was Qwiberg, and he doesn't play.
Just one more measure of how badly we suck, as if our abysmal record weren't enough. Go Quakes!! Fire Stahre!! - Mark
There are some interesting opinions and 30 minute post-game video on Joel Soria's (of Quakes Epicenter) Twitter feed posted during and after last night's game. Includes his assessment of the team, players & Stahre, and information about the incoming Georgian player: https://twitter.com/soriajoelfutbol
Henok Goitom. Just sayin'. I can't believe that the GM identified CB as a position of need for the summer transfer window at the beginning of the season. By signing Guram Kashia (should it happen), Fioranelli is admitting failure in: 1) Not exercising Muma Bernardez' option and wish to play one last year in 2018. Super Muma had more to give--in games, in training and in the locker room, especially in a World Cup year. 2) Thinking that Yeferson Quintana could replace Bernardez and make it in MLS. He can't and he won't. Fisher should fire Fioranelli now rather than let him overpay for 30 year old players from Europe (at one point, Fioranelli said he would only sign players under 30) to try to fix his own f--kups. Stop throwing good money after bad. Make Leitch GM or find a competent one elsewhere. Qwiberg didn't make the 18 last night. Stahre Out. Fioranelli Out.
Regarding stats, the Baseball Reference folks now have a soccer site... About FBref.com FBref.com launched (June 13th) with coverage for England (5 leagues), France (2 leagues), Germany (3 leagues), Italy (2 leagues), Spain (3 leagues), and the United States (3 leagues). We have many more leagues, but are vetting them and will release them as they are prepared. Here is the page for the Earthquakes: https://fbref.com/en/squads/ca460650/San-Jose-Earthquakes 2017 stats: https://fbref.com/en/squads/ca460650/2017/San-Jose-Earthquakes
What's been good and what needs work for each MLS team at midseason San Jose Earthquakes GOOD: [Warshaw] Wide players finding the ball in the half-spaces. When the Quakes are at their best, Vako and Magnus Eriksson tuck inside and find the ball to either combine or turn and run at opposing defenses. BAD: [Doyle] Lots of different directions to go here, but the big one: The front four does not defend hardly at all, and because of that, the largely out-manned back six is left to constantly scramble and try to put out fires. It’s been … insufficient.
Wondo and Hoesen do OK though Wondo is too slow to provide much serious pressure (but at least he tries all game). The biggest problems are Vako and Magnus, especially Magnus. That's why I've been proposing, for a while, take them out of midfield, move them to forward, and may the best men win minutes.
I'm hardly the first one to point this out, but the Portland Timbers are incredibly good at creating & scoring on shorthanded counters (2v4, 3v5 et al) this year. Saturday's 2-1 win over San Jose gave us textbook examples. Bear with me if you will...— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) July 9, 2018 Here's their opening goal: Note the Quakes' #s in their own end when the ball turns over (image). Yet it's Valeri to Armenteros to back of net in 8ish seconds.https://t.co/CcWsPO1ldA pic.twitter.com/x23EYh1ZoR— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) July 9, 2018 Their second, the game-winner, was fueled in large part by the delightful thru ball from Valeri, but it's still a remarkably efficient transition. Again, Quakes cut to ribbons despite having what should be sufficient numbers back for most of the sequence.https://t.co/xEfo72pVay pic.twitter.com/EVONnyGLA1— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) July 9, 2018 And yes of course, the Quakes' overall woes are no small factor to consider. But PTFC have done this over and over and over, against a range of opponents. They haven't lost a match since April 8.— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) July 9, 2018 I wrote about this and several more interesting nuggets from across MLS Week 19 (like Big Phil Senderos!) in today's What You Missed: https://t.co/nJBSxEivHU— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) July 9, 2018