36' Shalrie can not make the little spurt of a run to show for the ball in the crowded midfield and Revs players opt to pass it all the way back to Reiss. Sure Shalrie will link up when he is free near midfield, or if he happens to be in the perfect place, but the opportunity cost is high. For a possession offense that Heaps wants to play, Shalrie has to be able to show for the ball and do a lot more in offensive third.
At the beginning of the season I opined that the first third of this season would be ugly---and I guess I made a good call. This roster is still in chaos with little cohesiveness or identity. I'm willing to be patient since I think a new coach, a almost totally revamped roster and a new system will take time to come together My call was for us to round up in the middle third of the season as a team with an identity that could play good soccer against any team in the league and in the last third of the season we might well have morphed into a team no one fighting for a playoff spot wanted to play. I hope my prediction of how this season will play out is correct. As of now I don't think this team can get things together soon enough to be a playoff team this year but I do think it's headed in the right direction.
Shalrie certainly isn't awful, and the things he manages to do are generally possitive. The issue is all the thing he doesn't (can't?) do. Shalrie cannot play offence AND defense. We're going to have to choose. I'd say these are our two options at this point: 1.) We look to replace Tierney, add another CB, and a CAM this summer -------------- Moreno/Sene ------------ Cardenas ------ Joseph --------- Nguyen --------- Feilhaber --------------------- ------------------ Simms -------------- Tierney ---- Lozano -- Soares ---- Alston 2.) We look to replace Tierney and add a CAM and CM this summer ----------------- Moreno --------------- Cardenas --------- Nguyen -------- Rowe ----------- Feilhaber ---- Simms --------- Tierney ---- Joseph -- Soares ---- Alston
What does Shalrie do that another player can't, example Benny? I have touched on what he does not do. This is still a Nicol approach with him playing anywhere but D, a safety blanket for Heaps to have on the field.
I definitely agree. I feel really bad for the guy. He worked so hard throughout his career, but right now we just have better players at his preferred position. Ultimately, our best move would be to put Shalrie back on defense. If he and Lozano can hold their own back there, great. Otherwise, we need to look for CBs and LBs this summer.
Seriously, the impact not in a good way having him on the field not in D is costly. Benny should be bedding in and our guys should be learning how to work with each other. It looks like you have a rookie coach following his old manager. Hard to justify watching Shalrie in midfield again. Just better use of my time and not interesting. Live games are always fun of course.
I liked mccarthy in back, in spite of the goal. Henry is henry. Lozano hasnt had the chance to make his case yet so I cant judge him. Rowe over benny surprised me although credit to heaps for starting the kid. Benny did have a few nice passes lik when he sprung sene into the box and was taken down. Should've been a pk, I was yelling at the ref from the first row about it. Nguyen and benny did have some nice combination play in the 2nd half, warming me up to the idea of them in the same midfield. Moreno and runstrom did nothing. Sene got outmuscled dozens of times. This will be another tough year.
I can judge Lozano, and he's a fail. Just too slow. If he had superior positioning, he might get away with being that slow, but he doesn't. I'm not enamored of McCarthy back there right now, but he's the best we've got. I'd start Barnes there before I started Lozano. Anyway, you can't blame the defense for this loss. How can you get shutout by that lineup?
This is the post that sums it up for me. I would also throw in that: 1) McCarthy is being scapegoated, but to me he did rally well despite being hung out to dry on numerous occasions by his so-called teammates. That goal is as much on Reis as it is on McCarthy. Reis was in no man's land and got chipped with ease. 2) Benny's strategy seems to be: "I'll teach them not to start me - I'll stink so badly that they won't dare not start me next time." He gave nothing that Rowe didn't. 3) We need the two CM's to hold possession and dictate the tempo much more in the middle third. Simms plays to protect a lead even when we're behind. When Sene comes back into the middle third, it reinforces his worst skill set - passing and receiving - at the expense of his best - dribbling in tight space. 4) I have, in general, supported Tierney on this board, but this game reinforced all the criticism of the boo-birds. He was a step slower than Cooper, and was nowhere near Richards. His passing was poor. Even his free kicks looked weak, at least until you compared them with Feilhaber's. 5) It still looks like half the team is adjusting to MLS-level physicality In short, the Revs' version of the power ranking should be how many players this team appears to be short in order to compete at the top of MLS. Today we're at a -4. Left back, 2 center mids, forward. Perhaps the center mids looked weak because the overall intensity was poor. We're not going to win many games, though, if we give up possession that cheaply all the time.
This has been brought up before, but why not a move to a 4-3-3? [LINEUP-4-3-3]Sene, Moreno, Nguyen, Simms, Feilhaber, Joseph, Tierney, Soares, Lozano, Alston, Reis[/LINEUP-4-3-3] Based on: 1. Sene is extremely weak. He's tall but lanky and is easily pushed off the ball. He likes to run at players and can whip in a nice ball (see Moreno goal) so why not move him wider of goal. 2. Nguyen has shown the most of perhaps any attacker, but despite his work rate isn't necessarily a defensive dynamo. Here he has fewer defensive responsibilities and plays wide in his preferred position. 3. Rather than continuing to waste Rowe and Feilhaber out wide where they're uncomfortable and uninvolved, they move to the middle where they've been successful playing a narrow style (LA). Rowe moves to the bench as depth because he's been nonexistent in the majority of the Revs games (probably because he's out of position) 4. Simms and Shalrie have an extra CM to clog up passing lanes and have more help nearby in their defensive posture. 5. You could go a 4-4-2 with Shalrie at CB and Feilhaber replacing him, but my inkling is that as long as Sene is a true line-leader for this team, they will never get past the first round of the playoffs. He has too many deficiencies in too many areas (strength, passing, etc.) 6. Of course, even with this 4-3-3, a new CB and new LB would be needed... Also, yes, Benny had a poor outing today, but even with that he still created our 2 best chances in the last 15 minutes. It looked like he was trying to do too much, perhaps indicative of the talent around him.
I actually thought we looked promising today. I like Sene, Nyugen in particular. Benny tries too hard, needs to pass. The opening 15 minutes were the worst Revs football..but then suddenly they seized control of the game. I thought not getting a goal was a fluke, and the end result a little unjust. But that's soccer. I will say that Tierney, a guy I've defended, had the "turnover machine" game that some here have labeled him with. That WAS painful. I love watching Soares. Moreno will come around. Rowe is promising. Simms was a little off his game today but I like him too. So far this team doesn't annoy me the way last year's team did, here's hoping some goals will start happening soon. Wish they'd give Fagundez some time, Jay seems a little enamored of size, but all that kid does is score. What does Jay want?
As usual the Revs were too late....too late making Shalrie DP....too late getting Rongen After he won coach of the year, too late getting Diallo After he won the scoring title, too late not trying to upgrade the Dempsey, Ralston, and Twellman losses. For many years Shalrie was an automatic man of the match....and look at some of the comments now which I don't disagree with. Although I find it surprising that Shalrie and Benny's play has dropped so much... I like McCarthy - but is he our starting CB because that is Jay's vision and he really thought that would be the upgrade we neded, is it because they blew it on Lozano, both? To me, the fact they did not get a huge upgrade at CB is a big reason for their struggles. Someone to mentor Soares, and Barnes, and Alston....and yes McCarthy if Heaps really wanted to convert him. And I know we also needed upgrades at forward too, big time. Jury is still way out and whether this regime got anything or not. I am also surprised Fagundez has not gotten into any games at all...has Jay put the brakes on too much or is he hurt or what? We do not have an identity, a leader, and that is killing us.
I don't think I could tell which team he played for, neither could he apparently. Strangely, the REV's stats are even or, in some cases better than NYRB except for that important one. Nearly 60/40 in posession and 82% pass completion over NYRB's 71%. I'm trying to be inspired by the fact that they seem to be playing better. But, at 2-5, I can't help wondering why our coach thinks so highly of the talent. (Heaps admiration of his talent was shared by the NBC announcers during the game.) Let's begin the upgrades with Tierney who is being "Franchino-ed" by other teams. They will lay off him to let the ball go through him because they know he's likely to spill it.
We float like a butterfly and sting like a cotton ball. I felt the team looked great in possession, but was unable to convert good midfield play into scoring chances. Neither Senne nor Moreno seemed well suited to the way our midfield was playing. I'd like to see some smaller quicker players used in attack, particularly when Joseph is out there playing a forward midfield holding/distribution role.
Definitely this! It is time to give Fagundez some serious run. Other have had their chance and are not scoring. Id like to see what he can do in like a good 4 game run.
The 4-4-2 diamond was a terrible decision. We had absolutely no width and decided to play a congested game when we had a huge possession advantage. I have no idea what Heaps was thinking there. Extremely frustrating to watch when we were given all the time in the world against a very poor NY side.
Where are people getting this idea of a possession advantage? Is it just numbers? From what I recall, our great possession was us pinballing it around our back four in our own half for long stretches of time, hardly getting it past the fifty without turning around and pinballing again cuz our midfield wasn't making space or opening up lanes. I can't tell you the number of times we got it to Alston and Tierney on the flanks and they made the hand signal "Help, get open!" because the movement off the ball was non-existant. My faith is pretty much shot in the foot. I'm recording games now; I'll check the results at the end to see if they're even worth watching. This is a random question; why is the game at 3:30 on the East Coast when we have games at on the West Coast that we have to stay up til 11 to watch? Why can't we play LA at 3:30?
We had a huge possession advantage - 59 to 41%. Mostly it was after they scored a goal and sat back though. As for the diamond formation, everyone should look at the heat maps for our starting 4 midfielders. Nguyen was clearly hugging the touchline. Sims was playing as a d-mid, with SJ slightly in front of him and to the side. Rowe started hugging the touchline on the right, but once as the game progressed he (and then Benny) played as attacking mids giving Alston tons of room (which he used) down the right side. We had plenty of width and it was never a diamond.
Well, well, well - we thought we had this huge advantage and were going to run through their back line - then they lost their best player and we still couldn't score or win. Sorry, folks, count me in the group that says, though we are playing better than last year, it is early (i.e. the team hasn't given up yet) and we are still losing. In regards to Feilhaber - what a ridiculous 'shot/header' it was almost like a back pass to the goalie. He needs to get sharper and much more consistent if he's going to meaningfully help this team. A lot of flash, not much substance. We do need to do a subset of the 'possession' amounts - in your defensive half or offensive half. We spent a lot of time swinging the ball back and forth in our defensive half of the field. Possession is a very misleading statistic, don't take it blindly. And those asking for Fagundez - please, he's not the answer. While it might not hurt to run him out there, he's not going to change this team's season. I'll hit my same old line - we need better players. Where is our Front Office? Or is Jay going to take the heat while our Front Office gets promoted again? P.S. When we have a good run through 3 or 4 games, I know I'll get lambasted for being too quick on the draw...but the question is this: how many times have we been right we are and how many times has that turned out well?
I don't think the players we're throwing out there are bad, they're just not playing well. The central spine of our team (with the exception of Soares) isn't working properly and I think it comes down to tactics. The formation Heaps wants to use isn't working. Sene and Moreno are redundant up top, and Joseph and Simms are redundant in the midfield. -Soares is fine -McCarthy is still learning, but he's repeatedly left out to dry by the midfield -Simms as a pure "number 6," he would be satisfactory -Joseph just can't cover the necessary ground, nor react with the required lateral quickness. I'm 90% sure I could dribble right around him in an open field -Sene isn't quite good enough as a second striker, he either needs more time to adjust to the league, or he needs to play as the target -Moreno would play much better with a small, quick, skillful second forward (Cardenas, Nguyen) We need to play a 4-3-3 or variation there of, and Heeps needs to yank Shalrie out of the midfield. If you want to play dynamic attacking soccer, you can't build your team around two big lumbering center mids. All the good attacking teams in the world play with at least 1 quick, short, skillful CM (or two such players in a 4-3-3). Oh and Tierney needs to play CDM on our reserve team, and never play LB at any level ever again.
Please.... How long do they have to 'not play well' before we realize that while they aren't bad they aren't good enough? So, our major dis-agreement is that we should blame Heaps for tactics, player selection and player positioning and let the FO off the hook - because the talent is there. We are VERY, VERY far apart on that one. You and I have had this dance before, so this is the last step on this thread for me so as not to bore everyone.
I was surprised the map showed Nguyen playing with as much width as it did. I pointed out numerous times during the match how he was nowhere to be found out wide. Rowe played almost entirely in the middle third, as did Benny in the 2nd half. Tierney and Alston would have space to move up, but eventually would be closed down and have no one to play to. Our outside backs are not dynamic enough to beat their man 1 v 1 to the end line. Tierney doesn't have the speed and Alston doesn't have the ball control. Offensively, they're much better served finding Rowe or Nguyen wide and making an overlapping run. Instead, Sene or Moreno had to make runs to the outside, which left us with 1 attacking threat in the box with 4 or 5 defenders. Moreno should never be outside the box when we have possession. And if Nguyen and Rowe aren't going to get into a scoring position and attack the goal when they stay inside, they need to stay out wide and give service/attack the endline. It may not have been the definition of a diamond, but it was clear watching from above that there was no width from our midfield. In the 2nd half what position was Benny supposed to be playing? We basically had 3 CM and Nguyen roaming between the middle and the outside.
I'm not letting the FO off the hook. We have a long way to go. But Soares, Feilhaber, Reis, Alston and Joseph were our only starting quality players coming into the off-season, and Joseph has proven otherwise since. We had four players to build a 30 man roster around, and there's NO WAY even the best FO in MLS could have put together a title contender in ONE transfer window. I hate Burns as much as the next guy, but we had one of the top 5 off-seasons in MLS IMO. Cardenas, Moreno, Nguyen, Simms, Rowe, Sene, and Polak could all be pieces to winning future puzzle. Unfortunately, we still need more pieces and a cohesive way to put those pieces together. Building a team in one transfer window is nearly impossible. For all intents and purposes, we were an expansion team going into this season. Is it unusual to have expansion team results? Our FO most definitely put us in this precarious position in the first place, but we're stuck with them for now and they've showed well since January.
I agree, but I'm not sure what tactical adjustment would fix this problem. I am concerned that Sene and Moreno are a bad fit, unless we have a true attacking, penetrating CAM, and both can play as targets. My bias is that Simms should be a 60' defensive sub, and that SJ should be freed of a lot of his current responsibility if he's going to play in the middle. He needs to play alongside Stuart Holden. I like the idea of Tierney reinventing himself by playing in the reserves as a CDM. In the last game, I found myself calling for Tyler Polak. Having a true attacking left back who never wasted the ball would transform this team.