This is a "distribution" map for the players on the field for the game: Things that stand out: KB was completely central as a lone d-mid. Virtually nothing came up the left side, Phillips was completely useless, and Schuler essentially didn't see the ball at all. Luke was good this game, but why are we playing him like this? His location and distribution tells me he's taking away from Rusnak as a central mid, is he supposed to be a box-to-box guy? WHAT IS HIS PURPOSE!?! Plata played essentially as a second forward up top feeding off the back-side of Yura, if we're going to play this way then just switch to a ********ing 4-4-2 so we can get Luke out of Rusnak's space. Shit, switch to a 4-4-2 and get Saucedo on the field so we can actually use the left side of the field. Putting out this bastardized 4-5-1 and having players overlap the central part of the attacking midfield while simultaneously COMPLETELY ignoring the left side of the field seems like a huge waste of space to me. Ironically I felt like Plata got the best chances on the night, but was involved the least in terms of developing plays. This is my dream scenario for this team: Get Acosta on the left side of the field in place of Phillips, put Saucedo on the left ahead of Acosta, put Allen at RB and keep Lennon, get Luke off the field. Get rid of Wingert, Horst, Schuler, and Maund and go out and sign a ********ing DP level CB that can play 90% of the games every year. Formation would look like: --------------------Rimando Allen-------New CB---Glad/Backup----Acosta Lennon---Beckerman/Backup---Rusnak---Saucedo (doesn't have to be a diamond) ------------Yura-------------Plata
3-5-2 Do it You get the width while also not sacrificing the center of the pitch to get stretched out. With what I saw from Acosta, he'd probably actually work in that wing position even better than outside back. He wants to be involved. When healthy lineup: Yura - Plata Acosta/Allen - KB - Rusnak - Luke - Lennon Glad - Schuler - Tony/Maund Nicky Lennon showed he can play either wing pretty well, so if Allen is on the pitch you just switch Allen to the RM and Lennon to LM. The thing that is concerning about this, though, is how suddenly we have zero competent FW depth. If you go to a two forward system with our roster, you're having to plug in Silva at FW and he's a ********ing waste of space.
That, to me, looks like a 4-1-4-1. Which makes a lot of sense given what Petke said about how he wanted the midfield to defend.
This was one of my big takeaways from the game. Rusnak needs to be involved more. During the first half, a lot of the balls were played around Rusnak, not through him. He would show for the ball but wouldn't receive it. That seemed to change the second half, but the first half he wasn't as involved.
If you go to a two forward system I think the play is putting Lennon up there. He'd been playing there for Liverpool for a bit before we brought him back. Has the skills for it and *could* compliment Yura there. That puts Allen on the right and Joao on the left in the midfield if they go that 3-5-2 direction, which I still don't think we're build for even with another CB coming in the summer. one other forward to consider, and I know everyone will write this off, but Hoffman on the Monarchs has looked really good so far. He's not there yet but in a pinch he'd be better than having to play Silva (imo) which is worse than playing Jean-o the mean-o up there like we had to years ago.
These maps are great, but the story can get confusing without more data to supplement it. For example, the positions are average aggregate positions. Lennon and Plata were playing pretty wide the whole game, but due to switching sides a couple of times, it pulls thier aggregate position more central. I don't think the attacking left was as empty as this map shows. Though we had a big tendancy to go to the Right. My guess is that comes from 1) Rimando avoiding the left. 2) our left defense being poor in possession. I think that was a case of Rusnak and Mulholland being so close. Rusnack as a creative player will regularly move around trying to avoid central midfielders looking to mark him. Mullholland likely needs to cover the side Rusnak vacates. This leads to them in the end both looking central and on top of eachother. But in practice, I never felt like they were tripping over eachother. That being said, Mullholland was much more involved in the possession overall. My guess is that is due to his expiriense on this team. He knows where he needs to be in the system to get the ball. 2 things that stick out to me though. Rimando doesn't trust going to Schuler out of the back. Schuler has always looked a little awkward on the ball to me. But Rimando regularly went to Wingert. The other thing. Lennon and Movsysian didn't link up... like at all. That's interesting that our "best player on the field" and our main striker have nearly no connection possessions.
Eh, not sure how you can say we don't have the people to play a 3-5-2 but then also want to tuck Lennon inside. The kid is a winger. Sure, he's played forward with Liverpool, but everything about his game benefits from having space to run into. Not to mention he can cross a hell of a ball. Put him wide. I'm a fan of Hoffman. I don't think he'd be completely out of his depth at the MLS level. Silva is a bust, IMO. Barrett is gone essentially the whole season. Something has to change there.
I took a pic of my tv screen to send to a friend. It looked like a hockey rink with one team playing on the ice.
Re Hoffman, he tears up D-II but has no goals in 20 MLS games (2 starts, 300 MLS minutes). I would like to hear why LA - where he scored a hopping 13 goals in 16 games for LAII - let hm go.
While most don't blow the whistle right at 90, it seems like a lot of them do end the game faster when one team is up by a few. Usually they just give 1-2 minutes, instead of 4-5 like some games would've called for. As far as Lennon staying with us, I think the plan is to just let his contract expire. Doesn't it end next summer? All this is assuming he wants to stay with us. I could see us trying to secure a loan for the remainder of his contract then signing him once it's over. Worst case they don't let us take him again on loan, which isn't that big of a deal in the long run. I really hope he stays, but I won't be surprised if he doesn't.
Because it was freezing, and there was no camera on this, many missed the interaction between Plata and Petke when he was subbed out. Plata started to whine about it and got a very stern look from Petke. He shut up, but instead of going to sit with the team for the rest of the game, he went right to the showers. Petke seems like he wants to lay down the law, regardless of DP status. I'm interested to see if there is any fallout from this tantrum.
If you were at this game you have my admiration that game would have been abandoned just after half time in the UK. Very little can be drawn from a game under such conditions excepting that Lennon showed enough in the first half to warrant a tactical rethink to make more of his crossing and running ability. A free role to wander on either wing might be one approach The other item of interest was the lack of fouls in the second half, the players obviously playing with restraint and could we tell the difference?????... ....even Berkerman didn't extract revenge on Lana
uh... Beckerman decked Montero And a lot of the tackles players went into in the second half were slides to cut off angles. You could tell they didn't want to go into a slide with a player for fear of taking them out and getting a card or sent off.
Good. I want a coach with the balls to stand up to a player. Cassar always seemed far too nice, like he was trying to be a friend rather than a leader. It'll be nice to have a coach who won't take crap from the players. And to me, Plata is in the wrong in this anyway. He's coming back from injury, and the conditions out there were terrible. Leaving him out there just runs the risk of injury. He likely would've been subbed early had the weather been good as well.
If Petke can manage to stand up to and bench ********ing Thierry Henry I think he can handle a little Platita temper tantrum....
I knew this argument would come up. This wasn't like a "Drogba prima-donna" situation. In this case, I side with Henry.
While that part is true, as a coach you're paid to win. If benching a popular player helps you win, people will eventually get over it. It's like with us. If benching someone popular like Rimando, KB, or Yura put us in a better position to win, people would naturally be upset at seeing a guy they like benched, but would get over it if we were winning.
All I can say is that the NYRB organization apparently didn't agree with this. I'm not saying you are right or you are wrong, but what the coach is paid to do probably differs from organization to organization.
This takes on new context considering the missed flight this past week. Plata may not be adjusting well.