If there is anything last night proved is that Revs play a very dynamic set-up which is to be applauded. Simms was covering for Tiermey when he went forward, and was the guy that covered for a lot of people. Sure Shalrie is there to distribute, but if one thing canbe said about Heaps' team is everyone is working to regain possession and contributing. For large pieces of play yesterday, even when we had possession, our transition was bypassing Shalrie as he was not being mobile enough to give people a good option. You are asking for Shalrie to have a ball set up for him on a silver platter, and no one is there for that reason. Some like NESN and the guys calling the game were being respectful by saying Shalrie had a quiet game, and he did deliver some nice balls and passes, but over time it is more a liability.
And to add Shalrie at CB would simply boss this game AND distribute. People would cover for him when he went forward, but the full 90 minutes fit him better back there now IMO. I don't believe Timbers game was aberration. We'll see.
I agree. He's not mobile enough to play defense AND provide an outlet on offence. Ultimately, I think we're going to have to decide between Shalrie as a defender or Shalrie as a #10. He doesn't have the legs to play 90 minutes anywhere else.
Shalrie got on the ball more than anyone else on the team last night. His forward distribution was easily the best on the team. He got bypassed when the ball went up the wings, but ... duh, it went up the wings. Shalrie set up two of the team's three goals and he was guy finding Rowe in open space. Liability my ass. I'm not asking anything for Shalrie. I'm simply pointing out where he was positioned on the field, specifically not as a DM. His defensive assignment in that formation is to contain Juninho (who was the guy having a quiet night, not Shalrie) and pick up secondary runners into the box. Honestly, I couldn't tell you if he picked up late runs or not. Wasn't looking for it, but I can't remember one amounting to anything. Anyway, point is you're complaining about Shalrie for not doing Simms' job.
As a blue-collar, hard working team, and why I like NE a lot, I don't think we have room for a pure #10 that only passes. Makes sense.
We have Clyde Simms, a counter attack mop up/simple pass playing type of player, so if he's going to be starting a #10 is more or less the exact type of player he should be partnered with in the middle of a 4-4-2...
I think you're confusing a #10 with a #8. Shalrie played as a #8 against LA. Guy was our #10 in that match
Late to the the party, but I just want to say congratulations on the win. Good luck the rest of the year. See yous.
Way to punk LA, Revs!!! I guess David Beckham got all upset that the Revs weren't laying down for him. He got benched in halftime for a fight with a teammate. Details are murky from the media. That is two wins against the vaunted West conference. Maybe you got something to build on with Jay Heaps.
Um, any way The Don would be willing to move us to the Western Conference. I like it better over there.
He did look good. The whole defense did a very good job. Possibly the best defensive display in the past two years. Even on the play that McCarthy let Keane in, he was still alert and nearly blocked the goal. This is my only fear. That this game is the equivalent to last year's 3-2 victory at home vs. KC when everything looked like it was coming together and the season might actually work & Benny & Marko were going to work well together Rajko was going to dominate. Obviously things didn't work out. Still, a great performance early. Great passes akin to the 05-07 Revs teams. The Heaps philosophy was clearly working well & fully embraced.
Hey Shalrie, you're in the Daily Mail! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2123882/David-Beckham-fury-LA-Galaxy-half-time-substitution.html
Ok, I do agree he had a solid game, but he was totally caught out there. That is the second time this season he was caught out after a turnover. He needs to react much quicker if he is going to play CB. There is no margin for error, especially when the ball is turned over so cheaply. Soares got caught cheating, and he was likely more at fault because he was the backside defender with the whole play in front of him. But let's no overstate McCarthy's recovery on the goal. It was Marvel Wynn-esque lol
Another thing I wanted to call attention to was the brotherhood the team seems to have. It looks like Heaps has instilled an ultra-American highschool/college team-esq teamwork/brotherhood ideal in this team. I only say this due to the extra long team huddles before the game & the way that players like Sene seem to be generally enjoying themselves and chatting with teammates during games. Also the celebrations seem really genuine. Does anyone agree? It looks like this team really likes to play together.
I totally agree with this. Unfortunately, when you have a coach for as long as Nicol was here, it's hard to bring that aspect of the game. Heaps has done a great job of that early on, and they have already weathered a bit of early season adversity together. It will be interesting to see how they handle it when things don't go their way later on.
Yeah, I mentioned something similar an another thread. The chemistry definitely appears to be much better than last year, which is impressive given the number of new faces (14?) that this team has brought in. Heaps deserves a lot of credit for this IMO. I just hope that Moreno, Runstrom, and Lechner can all assimilate into the team as well as Sene, Nguyen, and Rowe have.
Yeah, definitely. I think that West Coast pre-season tourny trip was a good idea to build chemistry on the road. I think the good thing with the core they seem to have, is that if players don't fit in, they can just cut bait and move on.
I don't really know if Nicol ever really tried to do this. It seems like a much more American idea then in Europe. That 'never say die, who wants it more' attitude seems much more prevalent in the MLS. Maybe it's the parity of the league, but work ethic & teamwork seem to be a lot more harped on and praised in America.
Also, Everyone watching watched on the NBC sports network, correct? What did you guys think of it? I didn't think the announcers had a great understanding of either team, but I liked the sound of their voices.... I just don't like the sound of Feldman's. It goes right through me. ....Sorry Brad.
I thought the camera work was pretty good. The sound was a little odd. The crowd noise seemed loud. As for the announcers, they seemed to not be aware that soccer has been televised in the U.S. for quite a while now. It seemed, to me, they kept having to explain things that the audience already knew.
That's actually probably good. It means that there was a memo from GEC to NBC Sports letting them know that they've promoted the piss out of the new MLS Contract and they expect some first-time soccer viewers.