I remember being at a game, sitting with DadOf6 (for those who remember him) on the front row, and abusing the living crap out of Waibel. Now I have to support him? Probably easier than the Beckerman transition back in the day. LOL!
That trib piece has loads of good stuff in it. I'm really excited for this new organization. DLH, Cassar, Waibel. It's all new. We're getting stuff that the old guys didn't have in money, experience, and proven success. It's what many of us always complained about with the Checketts, Kreis, Garth setup. I'm excited for the next couple of years. This organization isn't standing pat. They're trying their hardest to make the product successful.
It makes me glad I renewed my tickets. I'm not sure if I can make every game or not, but I'm excited to see the transition to RSL 3.0.
Yeah, everyone should read it. The interviews tell a lot too. The new guys seem...hungry? That's not a bad state to be in. I'm encouraged by the PR despite feeling the losses of personnel and management.
Teaser quote "There was also a hint at perhaps changing formation to take advantage of the club’s deep forward corps. But that’s a different conversation for a different day."
I'd love to see us move to a 4-3-3 Plata-Sabo-Jaime ----Gil/Morales--Mulholland ----------KB It would also mean a little less reliance on the outside backs to provide width, since we'd have 3 up top. They'd be pushing into the midfield for width, but there'd be less need for them to go all the way forward, we wouldn't be held back by the lack of service that we got from them in the diamond.
Teaser quote: Kamrani: "Craig is the guy calling the shots now, correct?" Manning: "Yes. What I’ll say is, and this is such a credit to Garth, Garth has been involved in every transaction that we’ve had still today. Literally, we’re going to make a move today and probably announce it Thursday. But Garth is involved in it. There’s another transaction we’re working on where Garth is still involved with us. He’s such a good guy. He’s too good of a guy." Has anyone heard anything on these two transactions? Kamrani mentioned a left back and center back in his summary notes, but I haven't heard or seen anything else. I'm assuming one will be associated with Salcedo, at least that's my assumption due to Manning's quote, "What I would say is that we’re working with Carlos to have a win-win for both sides.".
Garth is going to help us help him by trading Salcedo to Seattle for tifo allocation money, you know that thing Seattle created. It will be a win-win-win-win-tifo situation.
We should've tried trading Findley to Chivas for all their international spots. Makes as much sense as the current situation
I will be very disappointed if these are related to the re-entry draft tomorrow. I'm not saying there aren't players that could help us but I'm hoping for a big splash.
Has Jaime played on the wing before, or was he more of a pure striker? For this to work, would you need to put a lot of defensive responsibility on the midfielder in Mulholland's position, and turn it into a 4-2-1-3? Or demand a lot of defense out of your two attacking midfielders in a 4-1-2-3 that you've drawn up?
I believe Jaime did some time on the wing with his last club, and iirc didn't he also play more wide a couple of the times we played him? The problem with a 4-2-1-3 is that we've done that in the past with KB, and it didn't work out as well. Ideally you'd have one or two of the forward 3 drop back a little and help on defense, they just wouldn't be dropping all the way back. I'd put Gil/Morales as the midfield combo, but I feel like that would be more of an all out offense, with little defense outside of KB, which is why I think one of the two + Mulholland would be the better option. Mulholland also has pretty solid offense on him, so I don't think it would be a large drop off by not having both Gil and Morales out there at the same time. Offensively I think it would look more like a 3-4-3 or 2-5-3 as the fullbacks push more into the midfield, but I don't think they'd need to venture clear into the offensive third, since we'd have the forward 3 + the offensive midfielders around the box. It would make Beltran look better since he wouldn't be key to providing width up top, and with him back a little bit, it's better recovery time when the other team gets the ball back.
From when I've seen Jaime play, he naturally drifts wider. He reminds me of Espindola in his desire to find space just above the midfield and outside the center backs of the other team. I think a 4-3-3 would be a great idea for RSL next season. Especially if we could get true wing backs. If not, it'll naturally transition to a 4-5-1 as we'll demand our outside strikers to fall back.
Another thing I like about having a 4-3-3, is that I think it'll help Sabo shine even more. If we're moving the ball up the middle, he'll be the guy we're giving the ball to, with Plata or Jaime making runs into space behind him. If the ball is out wide, he's a great guy to cross to, while also having the far forward being able to make a far post run. With the diamond if Plata drifted wide and made a cross, typically the only option was Sabo, which made it easier for teams to defend. With a 4-3-3, you'd have Sabo + Jaime behind him, giving two solid options to hit with the cross, or a bad cross won't always just go out of bounds for a GK. I also feel like we'd have better options overall on the attack, because with the diamond having the FB's up top as width always felt like we had limited options if there wasn't an attacking option available. I'd rather see Plata pass back to the LB in the midfield, than seeing Wingert in the past not have an option and have to boot it all the way back to Schuler, which only allowed the defense to setup even more. As much as I liked the diamond in the past, I really think we'd be better off moving away from it. If we're going to keep it, we need at least a LB that's really good on the attack.
My soccer tactical acumen is less the stellar, but the thing I hate about the 4-3-3 is when the two wide forwards have too much defensive responsibility they seem to worry too much about that and not enough about getting forward. To me it has always made us look very defensive. Obviously this can be changed by tactics and personnel, and if we do go that route hopefully that is the case. I, however, would rather see a 3-4-3 with Olave, Schuler, and Beltran in the back. The usual diamond with KB, Luke, Gil, and Javi, and then the 3 forwards. I think that would put the three defenders and KB completely dedicated to defense (fits their skill set anyway) and the two wide mids would be more or less box to box. And Javi and the forwards would have much less defensive responsibility. More or less it would be a 3-4-3 while attacking and a 5-2-3 defending.
That's sounds like it would be a mess on defense, and greatly expose us on the wings. A 4-1-2-3 is already closer to a 5-2-3, only you already have some width on defense, instead of relying on the midfield to drop back and cover the wings. With the 4-3-3 the outside back are only really needed to give some width on offense in the midfield area, and allows for a quicker recovery time when the ball is lost.
Waibel was made to be TD Waibel takes championship approach to new TD role Waibel on RSL culture and CCL: Waibel discusses the TD role:
I first watched Waibel play with the Spokane Shadow of the old USISL (which is also where I first saw Brian Ching play), and because he was "local" I followed his career. Good fellow to have on a team, and one who you tended to think would coach after his playing days were over. After a game at the RioT I shouted something to him and he came over and visited for about ten minutes (my goofy daughter, then 14 or so, had taken about 300 pictures with the digital camera that day but didn't take a single one of me visiting with Waibel). He's a good sort. He is also the subject of an epic thread from the Dynamo forum - Craig Waibel facts - that is some good reading. Does any of this mean he'll be a good GM? Nope. But color me intrigued.
This is a blog post from the Vancouver Sun about the Whitecaps, but some of it could be about RSL: "Contract negotiations- Johnny Leveron, Andy O’Brien and the Whitecaps are currently involved in a kind of footballing recreation of the “Prisoner’s Dilemma” and it’s a situation that most likely favours the players. After all, to lose one central defender can be regarded as a misfortune but to lose two looks like carelessness, so it’s likely that the club will be keen to tie down at least one of their two proven MLS players in that positon before long. If they don’t then that could have a knock on effect on the following. Transfers- no matter what happens with Leveron and O’Brien it’s possible that Carl Robinson would want to bring in cover for that role anyway but without one, or both, he most certainly will." It wasn't Waibel who sent Kwame packing, then Nat, and then (presumably) Carlos (well, kind of Carlos), but we're in need here. Get us someone good Mr. Technical Director.
I'm kicking this open because I may be getting a very healthy serving of crow. i know it is early to really get a feel for the 2018 team, but Waibel's signings the last year and 1/2 suggest he has really started to figure things out. (And that DeLoy has $ he is willing to spend.) Yura was a horrible miss and the lack of depth at the beginning of 2017 was embarrassing, but since then? Wow. Do I at least get to use hot-sauce?
I don't think eating crow is necessary. At the time the criticism was justified. The team situation was horrible. There were lots of bungled situations and it put the team in a bad spot. Kind of makes you wonder the reasons behind it. Whatever they were, it seems that they have been worked out. On paper, the recent acquisitions look good. However, we all know how bad things can go in a hurry. Call me cautiously optimistic at this point.
I'm more or less in this camp. I'm really curious to see what was negotiated in terms of salaries for players that returned this year. How much cap/tam/whatever did we lock into a guy like KB? How much are we paying Ortuno? What is the hit with Savarino? etc. The Yura thing is done. It's a massive miss but it's not completely debilitating (luckily) because of the infusion of other cash. Waibel lucked out that way and is (at least on paper) making the most of it. have to give him credit for that. We have a strong roster that, with the additions being talked about, could be a legitimate contender again.
Credit probably also needs to go to the scouts as well. I doubt all the misses were due to Weibel alone.