Liked what I saw from Martinez and think he should start in place of Manneh. Crognale was solid but hats off to Steffen. He's so intimidating Philly was afraid to shoot on goal. That's talent.
I like both Naess and Josh Williams as players, but Crognale and Abubukar have claimed the starting spots in the back. Yes, Philadelphia was under-powered last night, but shutting out Minnesota in their own stadium is not easy. We have been leaking goals for 3 straight years except for a brief interlude when Sauro tightened things up. Only 2 games, but I say we ride this horse and see how far it can take us. Agree with the comments above about Manneh. Smooth and stylish at times, yet very frustrating at other times. We all know that Manneh has lightening speed. So how does Bedoya beat him to a ball in a straight up race in the first half? Even worse, Meram later played a ball that pretty much came to a rest on the Philly penalty spot. How does Manneh not come in at full speed for a certain goal? He ran in to get it, but was easily beaten to the spot.
I don't know about anyone else but I'm getting a little bit tired of Ola's shocked "Oh my god, I shot straight at the keeper or skied it over the crossbar" face. The guy has got to be better for us. The wastefulness is shocking. If we are facing a NY/CHI/Toronto or even Atlanta in a one and done playoff game, those teams will score. We need our striker to be clinical. The aforementioned ball that Meram played that Manneh was beaten to was absolutely shocking. I screamed bad words at the tv. Fast forward to the second half Manneh makes the entire right side of the Philly defense look slow and silly and plays a perfect cross right to Jimenez's foot and he somehow taps a lob right to the keeper. Had anyone else been on the end of that it's a goal. That was absolutely ridiculous. And no, Christian Martinez shouldn't be starting ahead of Manneh. Sorry. That's absurd. But this is what we deal with post international friendly.
Nonsense. 14-15k were there, easy. 75% full or more. As for the match, I thought we played very well, considering the 541 formation. Philly was missing some of their better players, but Bedoya was present & they did not come close to scoring. 23 to 6 in crosses & we dominated possession late protecting a 1 goal lead. When is the last time that happened? Look, 3G has figured out we can't keep leaking goals & win. That's two clean sheets in a row. Comfortable ones. We have two young defenders playing well (Crognale & Abubakar). Mensah had a really good game including covering over from to right to save a dangerous attack down the left. And we've found a workable formation with Pipa out. Not to mention 6 points from two games. That is progress. Granted, it was against a depleted Minny & Philly. But we've lost many a game to weakened sides. But it shows we are a step up from those sides, even without Pipa. Now, I might have liked for 3G to show some more adventure in the wingback spots. Especially at home vs a depleted side. Francis/Finlay for Raitala and Jimenez for Afful might give some more punch. Greg did go to Hector at half & with Pipa & Hansen out & a game Wed, saving Finlay for a late game sub seems logical. Still, the D looks a lot better. We closed out a game properly. Manneh is playing useful minutes. We have two rookies starting & playing well on D. And one observation, of the 11 starters yestetday, 4 were with the team last year (Trapp, Meram, Afful, Ola). OK, Steffen was with the team but did not play. If we make a move with the allocation spot, I think we can make the post-season.
Lalas and Alex have earned the right to more minutes going forward. I hope Naess gets the opportunity to steal back a spot though. The good thing about Naess is hes not super expensive and we know hes a capable option at D-mid as well.
Watching on tv it looked like the East Stands were honestly about 50 to 60% full. Sparse all over but the upper deck had a lot of people too. Because of the tv camera I have no idea how many people were on the West side. My guess was maybe 13 or 14k, actual.
I was there. It was half price night. A lot of people were in concession lines so they didn't get seated until late. But it filled in nicely.
Aren't the frustrations with Manneh similar to those of Meram 2-3 years ago? Let's not give up on the dude. He's only 22
My thoughts on our back line is Mensah looks like a different player with a 3 man back line and I've been on the Crognale should start train since the beginning but after this strong performance by Abubakar he also should start. Naess is a better passer out of the back than any of the CBs but recovery speed and physical ability is a step off. He is a smart player so in my opinion we have 5 capable Centerbacks. Williams is last on the list but he is s better value then Mensah who still is absolutely grossly overpriced. I would sell him or do anything to get rid of that DP contract. Is it possible to lower his base salary to the minimum?
My thoughts exactly but he can't start at Meram's expense. I also like Martinez as a back up too Higuain but ppl are getting carried away . He should have been a option ahead of Duka but our sporting director didn't want to buy a extra intl spot until his hand was forced.
I just want martinez getting mins, preferably over finlay. If thats as a sub, fine by me. Martinez offers a similar workrate to finlay, but can actually dribble and pass, and has a bit of vision. At this point, finlay just runs hard. This aint 2015 anymore.
The thing that continues to frustrate me about manneh is his positioning. When he is wide, he can isolate his man 1v1 and win those battles literally 90% of the time. When he plays central though, he doesn't have the ability to dribble in tight space like meram, and he's more of a head down player. I dont know if this is GB's tactic or manneh going rogue. Considering he does it every game I'd assme its GB's instruction, which is mindboggling. Really shocking.
Manneh also needs to know when to dribble and when to release. Not something a good coach can't teach. He'll get there. Overall I think it's obvious that the 3-4-2-1 is good defensively because our full backs know how to play the D side which would be s nice set up for an away game. Unfortunately, and this where having Pipa in the side can paper over the cracks, we can't seem to get the attacking going consistently. I thought when Jimenez came on he looked more the wing back part. He has the attacking mentality that you need when playing in front of the home crowd. It doesn't need to be a gung ho mentality but just a let's take more risks in making the run forwards from the wing back position especially at home. Or in GGGs words, be a little more brave.
Would anyone be willing to try finlay at wingback? I dont think its the worst idea ever. Then play raitala on the other side to compensate.
I'm sure he could handle it just as well as Jimenez and Maloney, if not better, if he were given some time to adapt to the defensive work. Do you think it's really worth it though with Afful, Jimenez, and Maloney? If they were to try him in that spot in training and/or in a friendly or something and he showed well, I would be fine with it because it would be great if Finlay could keep himself integral to this team. Afful won't be around too much longer I suspect so you know they're going to be looking for his successor sooner than later.
Why do you say this? Manneh has the tools but not the desire. Martinez has shown to be more than competent in his time on the field. Why not give Martinez a chance while Pipa is out?
It's Philly's goalie. The Phillies have catchers and pitchers. Though the way they are giving up HRs, they probably could use a goalie. But seriously, part of the issue with the schedule is what they have to schedule around. Events at the fairgrounds, like the Fair and Quarter Horse congress take up good dates. It's probably not wise to schedule opposite an Ohio State football game--the Crew parking is used for tOSU parking. That messes up September and October pretty thoroughly. You get FIFA breaks sometime in May/June/July. And your schedule has to mesh with the rest of the league. Not easy--there was a long time that the NBA schedule was done by a little old Jewish guy from Philly (up to 1978), because computers simply could not handle it.
I like Afful, I bought an Afful jersey this season. However, he ain't the same old Afful this year, and he's turning 31 on Monday. He's on nearly $300,000 a season. I'd love for him to turn things around and stay a couple more years, just like Finlay, but both have been crap for extended periods of time. I don't mind Maloney as a backup. Really, I don't want Finlay to stay if he's a wingback from now on, just thought it would be worth trying for home games when we should theoretically be attacking more than defending.
Yes I think Finlay needs to go to RB like Robbie Rogers because he would be better suited for that position. However he would have a lot to learn about defending but he does not fit GB current system as a RM. If he had a St he could just cross it into that demanded the opponents full attention it would be a different story.
That's been me today (as my FIL passed this morning). Of course Mrs. KG sometimes notes that this is true on other occasions.....
Maybe it's just the beer talking. But it seems to me that the last time the Crew looked this impressive in back-to-back wins there was hardware to be had. The fact that there were mouse ears on that hardware is neither here nor there.
Which seems to be a recent demand. I wonder what brought it on. Have they not heard of the concept of change?