That midfield is too weak, and I'm not certain the FB's are strong enough either. Which is a shame, cause the front 3 is awesome.
How many times in the three seasons Olsen is coaching we saw him planning the team from the attack down instead from the defense up? He will probably start with 4 in the back and a line of 2 or 3 in front of it. Only then, he will think on how to organize the 3 or 4 attacking pieces...
I would like to see the Christmas Tree 4-3-2-1 ----------------EJ------------- ------ Espindola - Pontius ----- -- Arnaud - Kitchen - DeLeon -- Korb - Parke - Boswell - Franklin This gets our (presumably) best players on the field and puts everyone in a position to succeed while giving us what should be a strong ability to build out of the back instead of having to hoof it up the field so much. Also, if we line up this way, we have people fighting for positions time in a lot of spots. No one really pushing EJ but maybe Seaton/Doyle/Townsend Espindola / Pontius are pushed by Silva / Munoz (maybe) / DeLeon / Doyle Arnaud pushed by Neal / Porter / Kemp / Korb (maybe) / Munoz (maybe) Kitchen pushed by Jeffrey / Martin / Arnaud / Neal DeLeon pushed by Porter / Martin / Doyle / Korb (maybe) Korb pushed by Kemp / ??? (need another option here) / will be shocked if Woolard is resigned. Parke and Boswell pushed by Birnbaum / Attakora / Shanosky Franklin pushed by Korb / ??? (need another option here) The best run this team had in the last couple of years was at the beginning of 2012 when there was fierce competition for spots. Danny Cruz and DeLeon did so well at the beginning of the year that Pontius was sent to the bench and had to fight for his spot. That's the kind of atmosphere we need again - multiple options at each position so no one can think they are penciled in automatically. Given the make-up of our current line-up, I think the Christmas Tree 4-3-2-1 makes sense, could make the best use of our personnel, and would give us multiple options right now at every position but outside fullbacks.
That wouldn't surprise me. I like it. The 4-3-3 would allow for the most interchanging and flexibility. Porter an Silva can help cover the wide forwards. Silva can also cover for Arnaud or De Leon. Jeffrey can cover anyone on that midfield line. If you want a more defensive posture on the road you can bring in Jeffrey for De Leon which frees up De Leon for the wide forward. If Doyle gets hot you could play him central and EJ wide or vice versa.
If you think that midfield is too weak it would be too weak in any other formation. I'd like to see who our left back is before I'd commit to the xmas tree. The xmas tree can get pretty narrow so you need the fullbacks to push forward because the d-mids can help cover the space they leave behind. I'm convinced Franklin can do it ... Korb can physically commit to the running part but he wouldn't really contribute much in the passing/crossing. Now with Rochat and Franklin at fullback we could do the xmas tree all day.
Can Olsen coach any formation? I'm not being snarky ... I'm being serious. A formation is just a framework. The real way a team plays depends on the players you put out and the roles you assign them and the tempo you chose to play at. The 4-3-3 can be applied in many ways ... I don't think anyone thinks that SKC has anything in common with Ajax's style, yet they still won the title with a more negative version of the 4-3-3
Any formation can be either Defensive or Attacking - What matters is which players (or kind of players) play where, what are their strengths and tendencies, are your outside players WIDE or close to the center, and how much do your players overlap from the back And Barcelona's 4-3-3 has had its shifts - Take the 2009 vs Man United in Champions League Final: Regular Flat-back Four on Defense - One Defensive Midfielder in the Center (Busquets?), with TWO Midfielders in front of him sharing the offense right and left and also their respective wings and sidelines (Xavi & Iniesta) - Two big power Forwards (Eto'o and Henry) split very wide to open up space in the middle for an otherwise diminutive Center Forward (Messi) - As soon as I saw that lineup on TV against Ferguson's more normal 4-3-3, I knew that Barcelona would win
It depends on where you put that Center Midfielder - Is he back close to the two holding Midfielders, is he up close to the Forward or is he more or less even with the two outside Midfielders France in their last World Cup Championship had the latter with Henry up top alone, and Zidane in the Center Midfield with Ribery as one of the outside Midfielders
I would like to see the F.O. sign an international for that spot. Maybe even from the Swiss league if DCU's name hasn't been completely tarneshed over the years. EJ will be motivated to make the World Cup roster and, hopefully, a better contract. If EJ and Espindola work wonderfully together, I have no problem signing them to 4 or 5 year deals.
In honor of the impending arrival of our former Napoli assistant, and frankly, to keep a good thread moving... a whimsical version of the 352: --------------EJ ----------Espindola ----------------------Silva--------------------- -Korb ------Arnaud------------------Franklin ----------------------------Kitchen ----- Attakora-----Boswell---------Parke -------------------- Hamid Bench: Pontius, DeLeon, Willis, Jeffrey, Doyle, Birnbaum
Korb is a problem in that lineup and so are basically all 3 of those guys on the back line. Parke won't handle that role and neither will Attakora. The rest actually looks a lot like Mazzari's Napoli. EJ plays the Cavani role. Espindola is Lavezzi. Silva is Hamsik. Franklin is Maggio. Kitchen/Arnaud is Inler/Dzemaili.
For sure, that left flank will always be a problem for this roster. If you're worried about the speed of the marking backs, and if you don't expect too much flank play on the left, perhaps (still whimsical, ya): ------------Pontius ----------EJ ----------------------Silva--------------------- -Arnaud ------------------DeLeon------Espindola ---------------Kitchen ----- Korb----------Boswell---------Franklin -------------------- Hamid Bench: Attakora,Parke, Willis, Jeffrey, Doyle,Korb
Ok, I'll play with the classic 3-5-2: ------------Espindola----------EJ ----------------------Silva--------------------- -Pontius------------------Arnauld------DeLeon ---------------Kitchen ----- Korb----------Boswell---------Franklin -------------------- Hamid Bench: Willis, Attakora,Parke, Jeffrey, Doyle, Porter I would put Espindola on the same side as Pontius so when Party boy runs at the defense, he'll have Espindola cutting wide to one side and EJ getting ready to cherry pick on the other with Silva floating around somewhere. The backline is kind of slow, but useful on set pieces.
I like the first version of the 3-5-2 except I'd play Pontius instead of Korb. I think Parke and Attakora would be just fine playing in a back 3. EJ Espindola Pontius Silva Arnaud Kitchen Franklin Attakora Boswell Parke I think DC United in general is now a solid that can play multiple formations and tactics by shifting around a few starters and has a couple starting caliber possibilities off the bench to change things up too. Not a great team, but very solid middle of the road, tough to beat, but not really going to surprise anyone type of team. To me one more real decent attack minded, but tenacious midfielder, either a wide player or centrally and DC has the possibility to click and be really good. However given a reasonable luck and decent coaching through the inevitable rough spots, this team should be a very solid MLS team this season. I'm happy with that for now and still holding out hope that they have a real gem to add to midfield either now or in the summer. If it's a Swiss league cast off like Varela or a Guppy or a Sanchez or a Porter or a....you get the idea. In that case, at least that won't tank the team, they'll just probably not be able to make any real noise in the league this season. Tough for me to say this, but this off-season DC has pretty much done everything they needed to do. They filled basically all their needs in a competent manner. They haven't put the cherry on top, but they have done a very good job. After recent history, I'm good with that.
Anything's possible especially with good coaching, but really we haven't even seen any evidence that Attakora can play in MLS in any formation ... let alone an unusual one like the 3-5-2. As for Parke maybe he'd be OK depending on what kind of 3-5-2 we're talking about. You'd have to hold Franklin back to help cover that flank because Parke simply will not be able. Or if Franklin charges upfield, you have Kitchen drop into that RB area allowing Parke to stay true to his more central channel. At Napoli they had Campagnaro as the right sided CB in that 3-5-2 who couldn't be more different from Parke. Campagnaro had the stamina and work rate and quickness to cover an insanely large area for a defender. Without that ability the opposing team will just go over the top into that space and suck Parke out into no man's land where they'll repeatedly abuse him 1v1.
Good point about different kinds of 3-5-2 formation - Most of us think about it with: 3 defenders as being relatively compact; 2 outside midfielders who are responsible for everything along the flanks, incl Defense; 2 central defensive midfielders who man-mark any offensive midfielder who comes forward; plus an attacking midfielder in the center and two forwards up top Having an outsider Defender who can cover his normal zone PLUS anything outside up to mid-field really skews the formation by releasing that outside midfielder up field or into the center can really force opponents into adjustments they don't want I just don't see us with the Defensive personnel nor the outside midfielders (PLURAL) that is needed for this kind of 3-5-2. I see a more or less starting with a normal 4 defenders in the back, and then figuring out from there.