I mean, bottom line is our roster is a work in progress (I hope). We need players up top we need players in back. We were missing our only striker (and best player). I’m not going to get too depressed losing on the road to decent teams early in the season. I’m hopeful we win next week then have two weeks off before the next game at the end of March with hopefully a healthy roster with maybe an addition or two. Slow start not surprising at all. I actually really like our first half.
A centerback without any offensive abilities going forward indiscriminately is not a way to win a game. If he was camped up top as a target man, that's something, but you push your fullbacks forward, your centerbacks need to remain back to retain shape and recycle possession. Someone going up field just because we need to score isn't inherently a more offensive shape.
Last season watching Ibras magic made a lot of the awful parts of the season fun. This year it’ll be Alvarez. Talented kid!
We really need to replace Feltscher. He is such a defensive liability and isn’t going to improve. (I’m going to assume Polenta doesn’t continue to give up a goal per game. For sanity sake. )
Very one-sided second half. We didn't put up much fight. It's early in the season. Skjelvik sucks! I would rather see Romney. He wanders around and can't seem to pay attention to the play. Always behind everything. Not a fan.
Antuna has been a disappointment so far (at least he's not starting material), and it's depressing how Ema has almost not changed since he came to LA three years ago. Our depth up top behind two fragile players (Zlatan and Romain) is ridiculous.
I didn’t watch the particular play you were talking about. Just reacting to this “narrative” that is being created (announcers just said he did it “all game”) that he just runs forward for no reason. And if Steres and Skjkllvk were decent and could cover competently when he goes forward it wouldn’t be a negative, it would be a positive. Last game 90% of his forays forward were in the natural flow of the game and occurred after we went down but suddenly “he’s just like JVD”. He was criticized for being up on a corner kick for example despite Steres providing deep coverage. Steres made a mess of a cleared ball and Polenta was blamed.
I mean really? I suspect you are more knowledgeable o the game then me but I feel like Polenta by and large has been good. Clearly he’s had some high profile ******** ups but I guess I’m just hoping that’s a reflection of being out of the game for 6 months. I feel like over two weeks our defense has limited grade A chances against compared to the last two awful seasons.
I still think we need a 10. Corona and Lleget are basically twins. They can possess the ball but won’t create enough chances to sustain a healthy attack. We need our own Valeri or Piatti.
Just anecdotally it seems like he attempts to impress himself on the game going forward. If he's up on a corner, he tries to force himself into a position where he contributes offensively instead of resetting and deferring to someone who's job it actually is to provide offense. He'll linger longer than he should, not put full effort in getting back into a correct defensive position. And just tactically, I have zero desire to see my centerbacks moving into the offensive scheme sans being up on set pieces. If it's "in the flow", you need to change your flow so that you're not pulling your centerbacks out of position.
Agree with lingering too long and going forward a bit too often after we fall behind. Disagree that centerbacks who are good with the ball at their feet shouldn’t ever go forward in flow of game or join attack late if needed. But may be true on our team, given the weakness of our other back 3.