The formation makes no sense. Clark and Aaronson are the same player. They take up the same positions. Cowell is not a winger. Sealy has no right foot. Why would you play him on the left?
On second look, I still can’t tell. I’ll split the difference and call that a neutral action from Slonina.
It would be nice if the things they were doing made sense. Like why play a slow 6-8 v. Brazil? Why play wings and CAM's at striker? Why be so dedicated to building from the back against Brasil? The fed are virtual ideologues and in ways that are illogical to begin with even. I suppose we get more from it at the youth level, but still don't know if it's worth it. And they do it at the senior level too.
I mean I’m not a fan of how we’re set up, but I guess I won’t worry about it unless it persists and we don’t adjust as the tournament goes on. I guess I don’t have a huge issue with trying to play out of the back, no harm in trying it in the first game of the cycle.
We are holding up well defensively through CM. Much better than most expected. The holding mids have made like two bad plays so far, and that’s with their biggest strengths. The biggest problem is that we have no outlet up top. The players up top have no cohesion and are losing the ball too easily. Our offense is anemic because of that, which keeps our defense under constant pressure. Our fullbacks also are way too green defensively. They are getting skinned.
Disagree. The MFers have been quite poor, as have the center backs. Do agree that the attacker selections make absolutely no sense
Agreed. I know it's a tournament and whatever, but now is the time to make these mistakes rather than when the games begin to count. It's good to face a team like Brazil that will punish miscues.
I must be watching a different game than you. I think this would look a lot worse if those guys weren’t holding up well.
3-0. Che looked to be settling in, and then he got beat in behind again. CM’s didn’t do a great job marking up the ball to the top of the box, albeit in tough circumstances.
But it looked the same way at the last u-17 WC, didn't it? This is a persistent problem, player selection, setup, tactics, and collectively looking less than the sum of our parts.
Che is really struggling. Brazil nearly walked to another chance if it wasn’t for Cowell making a great recovery run.
Eh, I'm not sure I agree. I don't think think we have Brazil talent, but I'm not seeing a vast difference in individual play. We've just clearly never played together. Then again, I started watching at 24'.
Hard to point to a positive performance in the first half. They did settle down for a little while after Brazil went up by two goals. I'm also not sure the penalty Sealy earned was actually offside.
Che was #4, right? He was caught out a ton. I started watching at 24', and aside from him being absent on defense, I actually think we were better for the last 20 minutes or so. The whole team is a step off -- to be expected, and every seems like they are trying to do too much. Every pass is an attempt to make something happen -- this team could afford to make some easy passes, etc., and get a rhythm. I don't really care about results here; I'm more interesting in individual play. I'm not writing anyone off right now, though I think McGlynn has really forced it, Che has been bad and Sealy needs to bring a more consistent play. Neal does look good! I've never seen him but am impressed with his movement and touch. I'm no expert on defense, though.