Sorry, I should mention that the position that counts is where you are when the ball is played by a teammate, not what the position is when you play the ball yourself.
"Oh the humanity of that slave driver Sigi, I mean who should expect someone to come in for 2 hours a day for WORK and give their all. This about the time for one of those rollyeyes thingys." This is not to say they should not come to work, but you can train smart the day before the match, especially since you are playing two matches a week. if you think it is smart to train hard the day before the match you obviously do not know or have not played competitive soccer or for that matter any competitive sport. So go ahead with the sarcasm but take a look what happend the second half.
Except it started (right in front of me) with Thomas giving the ball away with a horrible panicked pass right into the middle of a clutch of players.
I think Hendrickson may have abandoned his position at times, but what Schmid says about Retiz is completely false. Guevara wasn't any more effective in the second half than in the first, and when Guevara did have the ball, Retiz was not caught upfield someplace he shouldn't have been. Schmid complains about the lack of a take charge attitude but them blames Retiz for too aggressively going forward. Hendrickson did seem completely unaware/uncaring about Henderson's approach. However, Thomas was playing right wing, not right forward, and had Henderson clearly in his line of sight. He shouldn't have let Henderson make that run unimpeded. Hendrickson, meanwhile, seemed much more concerned about Peguero, apparently attempting to play him offside, but Kotschau did not cooperate, and it did not matter since Buddle played the ball to Henderson. I will say, it was a bit odd to see Hendrickson ignore Henderson. He must be a big fan of Frankie Hejduk, then. I haven't gone back to the DCs game yet, but Kotschau and Gonzalez do not generally get into the attack any more than Marshall does. At any rate, in Marshall's mind, "getting into the attack" means sending a long ball forward. What's the point?
"Except it started (right in front of me) with Thomas giving the ball away with a horrible panicked pass right into the middle of a clutch of players." Agreed, a bad give away in the wrong part of the field.
Having a take charge attitude does not nec. mean you become aggresive going forward. There's still this team concept, remember. The attitude Sigi is referring to, or so it seems to me, is one that kind of rallies the troops when they are down and makes plays, while still playing within the system. BC, let's face it, we really don't have anyone on the team that can just take over a game singlehandedly and be so good at it that it forces the other team to adjust.
I really like what Eric brings to the team. Most of the dangerous plays last night came through Eric or Burch. I think a few of the passes were cutoff but he had some good ones including two that were questionable offside (Ezra early in the first half, Thomas starting the second half). He has the vision and plays quick and usually smart. The team needs to start LOOKING for him and we need to have Rozental right next to him. Vasquez, Rozental, Burch, Coiner (from what I saw last night) seem to be players that can feed off each other and as soon as we can get them out there for 90 without tired legs, we'll be a much better team.
I also find it inexplicable that Sigi is unhappy with his center back for NOT going forward, but is upset with his defensive middie because he DID. I concur about Rozy and Burch/Vasquez, but I also think that Gaven was a LOT more effective with Rozy out there. I recall commenting more than once that they were the only ones on the same page at times and when a couple other guys caught up with the speed of though and playing the angles that those two were getting that we'd really hurt people. Instead he benches the CC and Gaven has looked lost ever since. I'm not one of the guys who's down on Gaven. I just think he's out there by himself half the time.
I'm tempted to agree. Problem is, he's blown several great chances in the last two or three matches. And when you're on a team that doesn't score, you have to bury those.
Every practice I was ever apart of you went hard for what ever time the coach told you to go. These guys go to practice for 2 hours and have 22 more inwhich to recover. That's not asking too much, just being a professional. However, I say this as if you have one clue what Sigi's practices are like or not like. The only thing your interested in is grasping at some imaginary straw in which you can defend Jacob Thomas. I enjoy his play too and just hope yesterday was a bad day for him, but only coming here to post on only one player is getting ********ing annoying.
I don't think Sigi is asking Chad to push up the field, slice through two defenders while doing a Kotschaudinho. I think just not square passsing to another defender or backpassing to the keeper, or booting the ball up to absolutly no one will do. I don't know, maybe picking out a midfielder and making a foward pass every once and a while. And the communication thing has been out there for awhile. 3 years in, it's about time he opens up and starts communicating. And maybe sitting him down is the way to finally get this done because playing him and hoping he learns it hasn't worked.
The only thing your interested in is grasping at some imaginary straw in which you can defend Jacob Thomas. I enjoy his play too and just hope yesterday was a bad day for him, but only coming here to post on only one player is getting ********ing annoying. ** I never singled out any one player, as I said in my earlier post I was talking about the team. What is f#@#ing annoying is what you read into me stating an opinion
Thomas has a great physical presence and fits in well if we continue to play the same style of English Premiership football we've recently featured. He lacks technical skill, though. His passes and crosses are below par. I get the feeling that Sigi wants to grow the team into a sort of Italian style, which would mean that Thomas is just a stopgap player. It'll take awhile to find technically gifted players --- but when we do, Thomas will ride the bench or be traded.
Bill, come on, these are two totally different situations. You usually grasp the sublties in something like this. I could be wrong, but I'm assuming Sigi wants Chad to get into the attack more as part of the team plan to defend as a team and attack as a team. Not to keep using DC as example but how many times will you see one of hteir defenders play a ball to a mid and then make a run with that mid. Chad won't do that. Never has. Like myshap says he plays it back or square nearly always. If he does play it forward, he just boots it up the field. From Sigi's comments -- and from looking at the formation and where Retiz was playing -- it seems to me that he was expected to play a strictly dmid role and shadow Amado everywhere. That's essentially what enabled Vasquez to play in the midfield as an attacking player. Whereas in previous games Retiz may have had the liberty to go forward a little more bc he had someone like Moss or Bisaku in there with him. You can't expect your dmid to just charge forward with no coverage. Of course, that only brings up another issue that Sigi's not addressing and that is no one on the team covered for Retiz when he went forward.
He's a Keeper - what does 90minutes have to do ex. concentration. Are you saying he'll be gassed? They wanted to leave, too. Did you think they were surprised? It was in the 90th minute - point?
It could be LB, lord knows we've seen our share of outside mids come and go. However, for whatever optomistic reasons, I don't think we've seen the best of Thomas as an outside mid yet. Like Szetela, everytime he gets a few run of games, he's gone down with something or another. He's been back for three games and this would be his first at RM since coming back. I also think his technical skill is there and it's been shown several times. He was sending in some very good cross in this game and he can beat a defender 1v1 or even 1v2, although sometimes his dribbling can be a little erratic at best. I think where he's failing, and this goes for the whole team, is the tatical side. No one seems to know each other's timing, no one seems to be anticipating what the next move is on and off the ball, and the play is slow to develop at best. I saw a little bit of what the Crew need out there from Vasquez and Burch. Also in the first half Eddie Gaven was combing well with Vasquez, Burch, and Retiz. Although others seemed to not see this from Eric and maybe I'm wrong there. If Bill and OU critize a player I try to take an extra look, if I disagree. If anyone has some examples I'd really like to see it because I've gone back to watch the game again and I really don't see where Eric is getting such a poor rating here. If we can get a consistant lineup, maybe it will come. Maybe if we can get Eddie to play a 90' match and Thomas/Burch/Vasquez can get a little timing down the Crew can look like they play a game called soccer. I think we saw a little bit of what was needed in the first half, and then NY scored and Eddie Gaven gave up. Maybe it won't come till next year, maybe it'll never come who knows, but I sure would like to see it someday.
In a fan meet and greet at the beginning of the season Sigi said that he was trying to develop a wide open style in the dutch style. Players making runs from any given position with coverage being given and all that. Not so much the Italian defense and counter-attack style. I'm thinking that his trouble with Chad is that Chad is pretty well rooted on the back line. The guy is a defender, period. From the comments made it would seem that Chad either has to get his head around being a bit more offensive minded or learn to enjoy his seat on the bench. It would seem that Sigi likes speed and variety in his attack. He doesn't have the components for that right now. Thomas is a perfect fit with his speed and willingness to move around in the field. I would think the same would go for Vasquez, Burch, Frankie and Danny (when they are healthy). As for Seb one would think that his kind of creativity would be the absolute perfect skill for running the middle of that kind of offense. As has been pointed out here by bringing up the Poodle, you don't need a rocket on your back if you know the game, your teammates, and can anticipate their runs. Of course this also assumes players with speed making intelligent runs and knowing what to do with the ball after receiving it. Maybe something really crazy like going to goal and finishing once you get there. But that seems to be way to much to ask of this group at the moment. And God almighty we could use a keeper.
Well put. I'll go you one more: I'm having a hard time thinking of a prototype player for what Sigi apparently has in mind. Center mid is not a position I normally associate with real burning speed. Who exactly does he have in mind? The best CM the US has ever produced, Reyna, has only average mobility even when he's been 100% injury free. Whenever that was. I'd also contend that if you did find a guy with world class speed and Rozy's touch he'd be worth way more than MLS could pay anyway. If, as Sigi says, the problem is that his teammates couldn't "find him with the ball", well, I've been around some teams where the skilled guy in the middle wasn't getting enough touches and the solution was to get the players to get the ball to him more, not to bench him and put a less skilled guy out there. That just makes no sense. And lately, when he's been getting his nine minutes of PT at the end of the game, he's seemed to me to get the ball pretty frequently. Finally, while I don't sit there with a stopwatch, the guy just does not look like a plowhorse out there. He hustles, he gets to the right spot at the right time and he very often delivers an early, one-touch ball and his targets are virtually never offside because he isn't holding it so long. Everybody loves speed, but it seems to me we have plenty. What we're lacking is accuracy and creativity, and he has that in spades. I just don't get it, and Sigi's answer didn't help.