How many times must we be screwed over by video replays? And while injuries are obviously a factor, does our defending have to be that horrendous?
So many self inflicted errors: - Giovinco cannot put his hands on another guy's face like that. Deserved red. - Hernandez isn't good enough for this level - Telfer's not ready for this level - One step forward and two steps back for Aketxe. Garbge today. - Doesn't matter how many injuries or dumb suspensions we have to our strikers, Ricketts should not be a starter - end of. - The CPL can't come soon enough for Hamilton. He's got some raw talent but can't seem to put it together. - Why the hell were we trying to play open, attacking football with a makeshift backline? Blame should absolutely go to Vanney for not playing a low block like Seattle did to try and get a result. There's no shame in playing defensively on the road.
Feel like this season is going to be a fight to qualify for the playoffs isn't it? Seems every week it is something new and we can't find our mojo. Aketxe been a disappointment thus far, for the amount of money paid he doesn't provide much to the team and Ricketts should only be aloud to come on from 60 minutes on. Great to see Mavinga back in action we really need Bradley back in the middle to have more influence on the game
That was clearly not a great performance, but on the positive side, we saw towards the end of the game what the team can do when we have starters back in the line up. As for the back line, understand that we're missing both of our starting CBs (arguably Mavinga and Moor) AND both of our backups (Haggelund & Zaveleta). And because of that you're missing Bradley in the midfield and Van der Weil on the right. Also both Morrow and Morgan weren't starting on the left. One thing that is becoming evident from these past few games is that our second team isn't as strong as we thought they were. Ricketts has been a no show so far this season. A number of the players (Telfer, Chapman, Hernandez, Hamilton) are just not ready to play consistently at this level. Aketxe is hit and miss. The only one who seems to have stepped up his game is Morgan.
I'm also going to throw in the familiarity aspect. I think people really underestimate the impact of players playing together regularly. Last season this team was lauded for its depth. That depth hasn't changed. What did change is that last year we were generally inserting one or two depth players into the line up to cover injuries or rests. We were basically replacing one or two cogs in what otherwise remained a well oiled machine. This year we've been sending out lineups with nine bench players in starting roles! Then we're complaining that player X doesn't really belong at this level. Now maybe player X isn't ready for a starting role in MLS yet (he is, after all, normally still on the bench). I guarantee, though, that'd he'd look and perform a lot better if he wasn't in a game where literally every other player on his team was unfamiliar with each other in game situations. I've seen a lot of plays lately where the problem was not skill as such but expectation. Aketxe doesn't know what Hamilton is likely to do so his pass goes left but Hamilton breaks right and the play dies. On the other hand, Giovinco knows that Osorio is likely to do such and such and so his pass is right on the money. It wasn't a difficult pass that only someone of Giovinco's level could pull off, it was just being able to anticipate correctly what his teammate was going to do.