if there was say, a kickstarter campaign, I'd help donate for that one. Kroenke and his twerp son are the biggest bum owners in almost all of sports. they have all the resources to build successful teams but none of the vision, will or desire. Kroenke is sports cancer.
I was not able to attend the Dallas game, but I did watch the game on the DVR and was able to analyze and truly figure exactly why our offense has been so woefully ineffective all season. The Short Answer: We have no tactical direction on offense. The Long Answer: Pablo teaches our defense to stay rigid when in comes to lateral movement. This helps keep our shape and is a big reason as to why the Rapids are so rarely "caught out" on the defensive side of ball. Unfortunately it is pretty evident that he is giving similar instructions to his attacking players as well. When we have possession in the final third, the offensive players stay largely locked into their position. Off the ball movement is virtually non-existent and the player only makes minor forwards/backwards movements to adjust to the ball and wait for the play to come their way. Virtually no diagonal or lateral runs are made by the players unless they are directly involved in the play. This lack of off-the-ball movement severely limits the options the person with the ball has to create a dangerous pass. This forces player to try and do things that are frankly beyond their skill level, such as dribbling through multiple defenders or trying to play an impossible pass that really only a handful of world's best players can perform with any regularity. These factors lower the quality of our chances and are a major reason why we have such difficulty in creating meaningful chances and scoring goals. Since the problem outlined in the preceding paragraph makes it very difficult to play a build-up style offense, the end result is for players to take the easy way out by hoofing long balls, or by dribbling into the corner and playing in a hopeful cross. The lack of players coming forward and the poor quality of the service makes this a largely ineffective and non-threatening proposition for defenders. The lack of lateral movement also explains why we so often see low passes into the box that are actually pretty good passes, but they ultimately end up being too far in front/behind the intended target player. Earlier in the season I firmly believed this lack of movement was caused by the lack of strikers. I assumed that placing a target player in a central role would give the offense a pivot point to which the central midfielders and wingers could fluidly move around. Instead we seem to have a midfield that remains painfully static and forces the striker to do all of the work. Compared to Pareja's approach to the game, we have honestly seen two extremely poor tactical approaches to the game that are on different ends of the spectrum. Pareja was overly fluid and had no structure in defense, which helped a fairly skill-less offense, but severely harmed the defense. Pablo in contrast, is overly structured and keeps the defense organized, but ends up making the offense stagnant and anemic. You want to know why we only seem to wake up as a team near the end of the game? It's because the offense starts taking risks and throwing that rigidity out the window. It actually forces the opponents to make difficult decisions and creates space and dangerous opportunities. In essence Pablo's tactical approach on offense is fatally flawed and it's causing the roster, which has been significantly upgraded from last year, to play at a level below what they are statistically and practically capable off. The team is using a liner attacking approach that actually needs a non-linear approach to be effective.
Just watched the Orlando game and your analysis was dead on today too. While the Rapids aren't good (understatement), I don't think they are historically awful talentwise. Yet they hold most records for futility. Hard to defend the current coaching staff.
This isn't Pablo's fault, he was given the role of Harry Potter when he was only ready to be the third goblin at the bank.
The 4-0 win against Dallas is the only game this year where we've scored more than one goal in a game. One game out of 16 where we've scored more than one goal. If you want to extend that back further, it's 1 out of 22, going back to just after a 2-2 tie against Portland last year. Absolutely pathetic.
Season-by-season; Asterisks indicate years we missed the playoffs: 1. 1999 - Mooch - 1.59375 2. 2010 - Smith - 1.5333 3. 2002 - Hankinson - 1.5 3. 2013 - Pareja - 1.5 5. 2011 - Smith - 1.4412 6. 1998 - Mooch - 1.4375 7. 2005 - Clavijo - 1.40625 8. 2004 - Hankinson - 1.367 9. 2009 - Smith - 1.3333* 10. 1997 - Mooch - 1.28125 10. 2006 - Clavijo - 1.28125 12. 2003 - Hankinson - 1.267 12. 2008 - Clavijo/Smith - 1.267* 14. 2000 - Mooch - 1.1875 15. 2007 - Clavijo - 1.167* 16. 2012 - Pareja - 1.08823* 17. 1996 - Houghton/Wegerle - 1.03125* 18. 2014 - Mastroeni - 0.941* 19. 2015 - Mastroeni - 0.938 20. 2001 - Hankinson - 0.923* All-Time Overall: 1. Smith - 104 Games - 1.43 2. Mooch - 128 Games - 1.41 3. Hankinson - 114 Games - 1.29 3. Pareja - 68 Games - 1.29 5. Clavijo - 114 Games - 1.18 6. Houghton - 31 Games - 1.06 7. Mastroeni - 50 Games - 0.940 8. Wegerle - 1 Game - 0.00 #PabloOut
For what it's worth, even though Pareja indeed had no defensive tactical acumen, his Rapids conceded 88 goals in 68 games (1.29 GPG). Pablo's Rapids have conceded 77 goals through 50 games (1.54 GPG). This is by no means a show of support for Pareja - I hated his tenure here about as much as you did. It's just more of an indication that Pablo's tactical acumen on the defensive side of the ball sucks as well. Pareja, in his second season, overcompensated for a bad defense in Year 1 by playing his back line deeper...far too deep. Pablo, in his second season, has overcompensated for his bad defense in Year 1 by playing with 2 straight-up DMIDS every game, + 1 box to box central mid, and sometimes one additional Dmid and expecting his forwards to make something out of nothing as you noted, stunting the offense. Neither coach seems to have a tactical concept besides Cover Your Ass on defense. And that's without even touching on the shuffling back line or the way Irwin has played this season which makes the defensive stats less embarrassing that they ought to be.
The Rapids will not fire Pablo anytime soon. There is no pressure to do so. No pressure from the owner, president, supporters group, fans, press. No pressure from being a historically successful franchise. It was obvious after last year Pablo was over his head. I reluctantly was willing to give him a full year with "his guys". But it is again painfully obvious that he his not growing as a head coach and needs to go. There are no more excuses to fall back on. Last year it was injuries, lack of depth etc, etc. What are the excuses this year? #pabloout #kseout
Eternal optimist left the asterisk off of this year. ;>) And in fairness some of those low performing years were still playoff years back when well over half the league made the playoffs.
The other reason Pablo won't be fired any time soon is because he's the coach for the All Star Game. KSE only cares about saving face. So, we definitely have him till at least August.
If we have to deal w/ Pablo through the All Star Game....he better apply his boring defensive tactics to the All Star Squad..lol. It would make my year if he comes out in his 4-2-3-1!!! Oh would that be funny.
Had to jump over to the Pablo thread after the KC game. You cannot watch the way they play and argue he should continue as coach. After a year and a half, it's no more organized than his first game.
The RFO kept the coach whose name should never again be mentioned for most of a season after it was obvious that a change was needed. They will keep Pablo through this season.
For the record, the coach Who Shan't Be Named was fired ("resigned") August 20 of that season, with a record that season of 6-10-3. Yes, expectations have slipped enough in RFO land that performing worse than He Who Shan't Be Named doesn't even raise a public eyebrow.
I've been told by several people that he is losing the locker room (as if that doesn't look obvious at the point). Thats why certain key players aren't seeing any play time, and why training is now closed to the public. The best part is, whenever Pablo stops being our coach, we get to look forward to another 2-3 years of "rebuilding" and not being competitive with the next guy.
A friend put it this way: Pablo the player: legend, Pablo the coach: another team's intern Time for anyone else (except Bravo)
Pablo needs to go, but any coaching change is meaningless if not accompanied by a complete FO clean out.
I'm in financially. "Kroenke; Holding Denver Teams back Since 2000". For at least 30 minutes during the All Star game.
The Pablo situation is embarrassing. He's got to go. Let one of the assistants or Bravo finish out this lame campaign.
Who found the plane link again? Let's make this happen...KsE needs to be publicly shamed and ASG is the best time we will get all season
When Pablo was hired (talk about a train wreck of a hiring process), I had hope that he would at least instill passion into the team's play. There wasn't one person who knew whether he could coach, but his name alone brought with it a lot of good will. Now I regret that if the FO was going to select a Rapids legend with no coaching experience, they didn't take Balboa. Despite his announcing homerism (no problem there; they pay him), he seems to understand it. Plus he's well respected by American and Latin players. Frankly, as Quinn said above, they are a long ways away from being competitive. It's sad when I'm down to woulda-coulda's instead of how to fix-a's.