What's the likely plan when Edu is back? Is he going to play the 8 with Medunjanin at the 6 and Bedoya at the 10? Are Edu and Medunjanin going to switch off as dual DMs like Carroll and Creavalle did last season at times? Bedoya to the wing? Thoughts?
I imagine Edu should be set to play the 6, but I am still not convinced he has the discipline to play there.
If Edu is going to play the 6 and will be ready to play soon, why have Medunjanin playing the 6 now if he's going to be moved to the 8? Why not have Medunjanin play the 8 and put in Creavalle or Carroll at the 6 from the beginning?
A few. Mo plays his number, he isn't sitting back for anybody. My wish is a healthy Yaro at the 6, because he will sit back and cover when Edu isn't home. Haris to the 10-where his size, shot & playmaking helps and his pace hurts less. *Ale to RAM for a by then exhausted Jr. and Trusty settled in at CB. * when Bedoya away or suspended they'll shoehorn Herbers or Fafa depending on who's hotter.
Regardless of what anyone thinks, it looks like it's going to be: Simpson Pontius Bedoya Ilsinho Medunjanin Jones Fabinho Marquez Onyewu Rosenberry Blake
Well Jones has pretty clearly entered the best eleven. Any timetable on Ilsinho to fight for the right wing slot?
I like the idea of having Ilsinho and Fafa coming into the game late for Herbers and Pontius. That's the exact opposite of like for like.
So Bedoya clearly isn't a 10, and our striker is isolated in our current formation. I'm wondering if something like this might work better with Jones and Bedoya working box to box, Pontius and Sapong being target wingers that can hold up and interchange with Simpson. Fabinho and Rosenberry would have to contribute going forward, and Fafa, Herbers, and Ilsinho could be used as subs for the wingers. The midfield triangle could shift to accommodate Alberg off the bench.
I think he misjudged Alberg's athleticism relative to the league. But I do like how he is pushing to be 2 deep at every position and I think he's closer to that this year. I think he needs the resources to pay a sizable transfer fee for an upper echelon playmaker. Someone who can dish 10+ assists that look intentional. I like the idea of putting Ale on the right wing, that's his primary role with NT from what I have seen. But with Herbers playing well, and also having Ilsinho vying for time in that position, it probably makes sense to keep Ale central for now. I think we need to have a look at Ale switching spots with Medunjanin, so Ale at the 8, Jones at the 6 and Med at the 10. You lose some of your high pressure if you do that, but you get more bite defensively to protect our back line. Ale can also go box to box and Medunjanin could sometimes drop back if needed to help relieve pressure. So I guess I am advocating a fluidity between the playmaker role, with the default being Ale providing cover. If we are not willing to have our outside backs overlapping and pushing forward, I think we lose some of the value that Med. provides. I'm not done with this season yet. We played one really bad game away and almost came away with a tie. We really should have beat TFC. One positive is that our strikers have been scoring. Medunjanin is a player and Jones looks to be MLS quality. But the Orlando game was so disheartening, it ruined my weekend.
It's been rough sledding. I too am encouraged by the depth of the roster, though. We lost our starting striker and actually had someone to replace him with for once. And Edu has gone from being the best player on the team to being basically surplus whenever he returns.
Yeah, probably the most polarizing guy on the roster in recent memory. I thought he was excellent as a CB and would have liked to see an extended performance at DM. If I recall he got a look for the 2014 WQ and was in line for a January call up last year if he hadn't been hurt.
I think there is a generally held resentment towards Edu that interferes with our capacity to judge his ability objectively.
Right, that's kind of my original point about Earnie. I think our roster is more talented than it's ever been, especially depth-wise. Hopefully they're just underachieving right now.
What does depth matter when our starters aren't good enough? Earnie has done a terrible job acquiring players to start for this team. What type of team are we built to be? We are too slow to play on the counter, too impatient and uncreative to rely on possession, too soft to depend on physicality, too scared and technically poor to do or die with swashbuckling attacking play, and too undisciplined to defensively grind out games. Earnie has just picked up a mishmash of players who don't fit together.
I think you are correct to a point. But we have fast players (Fafa, Gaddis), we have creative players (Alberg, Ilsinho), we have physical players (Sapong, Gooch), etc. But what we don't have is the means nor the desire to spend. Atlanta came in, spent money and has what looks like a top 5 team right out of the gates. But they dropped $7M on one player (Almiron). Snagged Josef Martinez ($2-5M?), Vilalba ($2+M). Toronto can drop $3.5M on Altidore and Bradley ($10M), Chicago can go out and get Schweinsteiger ($4+M) on a whim, and Portland can buy an Adi ($XM?) and a Valeri ($3M). Not to mention Seattle with Dempsey and Lodeiro at $6M transfer fee. And I'm only talking fees, not salaries for these players. We go around bitching about Curtin and Ernie Stewart. They are not given the resources - and not that they are not exempt from criticism by any stretch - but it is the Ownershiop plain and simple. They weren't rich enough when we came into the league and the level has risen substantially. They know the franchise value has gone up exponentially. I just can't wait until they decide to cash in because until then, we can do the carousel of blaming coaching or GM or scouting, but we have very little chance of winning anything until Sugarman sells.
Yes and yes. But, consider, we spend $1.1M to buy a midfielder without portfolio. We pay him $1.2 to run aimlessly about. We spend $750k on a player who hasn't played since 2015. We have resources, how they have been allocated is a problem. Add that up with the TAM/GAM that rolled in and we too, could have talented players who, you know, score goals and run fast and play soccerball well.
If you think of being two-deep as a necessary precondition to being successful, it's easier to see this as building a foundation to hopefully spend money later in a more strategic way.