Agreed. And the question is more like, what are our options, and Jakovic is a better option there, despite his limitations, than almost anybody else on the roster. If you're going to have 2 CM.
Well I think he serves 3 very useful roles, that's a good one. The other is starting him against tough defenders and making them work for 70 minutes so you can bring in someone like Ruiz who may not have the legs to do it for 90. And the third we saw last fall, let's call him, October Pajoy, who is a great target man and somehow fights off every defender he sees and lays off a great simple pass to someone else. I wouldn't mind if he changed his name to April Pajoy.
I really think the idea that Pajoy tires defenders out is overstated because most teams don't expect as much work from individual players. Pajoy has managed to tire himself out (and need replacement) more often than he tired out the opposing defenders.
October Pajoy disagrees with you. That guy was great. He ran hard all game long, won practically every header and 50/50 ball, caused errant long balls, and even notched some good passes over 8 feet in length. That guy surprised the hell out of me.
Was that because he somehow "saw the light" or was it because we were dealing with low-end-of-the-table teams?
This reminds me of something Jaime Moreno said about being a professional, that you can't go 110% all of the time in a season. You have to pace yourself.
This was the #1 priority when DeRo got injured. Boskovic's form and our feel good ending to the season seems to erase that. Really THE failing of the off-season. So what do we do?
YES. I've commented on this in a number of places. The idea that he provides some sort of "forward defense" by applying high pressure is bizarre to me, because high pressure only works when several players commit to applying it together. When only one person is doing it, it's trivial for the opposition to pass their way out of it through triangles with other defenders/the keeper, running the pressing attacker around and tiring him out. There's no point to sustained high pressure from just one person. And if you throw that out, then what's the point of Pajoy again? Heh. How did we get from the midfield to Pajoy? I'm wondering if there's some new DCU Forum version of Godwin's Law here: "As a discussion about DCU goes on, the probability of the discussion becoming focused on Lionard Pajoy will approach 1."
Weird: my post below looked like it was duplicated, so I deleted the second occurence. Then they both disappeared. Good thing I had it my clipboard to cut and paste back in. Anyway, this is an excellent thread. Short term, I don't particularly see any complete solutions that respond to what really appears to be a player personnel quandary, as others have pointed out. Best option to me (with everyone healthy) in the short term is a 4-4-1-1. Rafael is the "true" forward up top (or maybe Ruiz once he's fit), DeRo is withdrawn. I'd generally start Kitchen and Saragosa as center mids. Playing DeRo as a withdrawn forward would help compensate (to the extent our available options allow) for the lack of two true "two-way" center mids. ------------------------------------Rafael ----------------------------------------------DeRo ---------Pontius-----------Kitchen---------Saragosa---------------DeLeon ---------Woolard-------------Jakovic---------McDonald---------------Korb -------------------------------------------Hamid When everyone's not healthy, my advice is to start drinking heavily and/or pray (if that's your style). Actually, we do have some depth, just not particularly at center mid, Augusto being the one exception if we need more offense. Long term, my solution is as follows: Chad Ashton: GTFO Dave Kasper: Maybe GTFO or figure out how our signees fit together in advance, thanks. Ben Olsen: Free Your Mind (see also the latter half of Dave Kasper, above)
. . .which, IIRC, is essentially what we did for NYRB (except you're replacing Pajoy with Rafael, and Riley with Woolard).
This doesn't seem like something Ben Olsen ever believed as a player. I wonder if that's significant.
I have argued for a 4-3-2-1 in other threads. I like it for three reasons: I think it's the best way to get our best players on the field. I think it solves the midfield dilema we face right now because it will provide more options for the back four to play the ball forward so we shouldn't have to just boot it up the field all the time. It puts less defensive pressure on our offensive/creative players to do their stuff Here's how I lined it up before: -------------------Hamid---------------------- ----Riley---BMAC---Jackovic---Korb---- ------DeLeon----Kitchen----Porter------- --------Sanchez-------Pontius---------- -----------------DeRo-------------------- Woolard/White/Russell are defensive subs Lewis Neal is the sub in the second row along with Thorrington and Saragosa. Taylor Kemp I think could also eventually slot in here. If we could get another outside back or if Woolard can recover last year's form, I'd love to see Korb in this line as well on either side. Raphael is your sub in the third row with DeLeon and DeRo also options Rafael/Name I will not Write/Townsend/Seaton/Eddie Pope/and finally Pajoy all options up top. Ok. sorry, about that last bit. No reason for Pajoy hate in this post, it just slips out... But look at that line-up and it seems defensively sound to me, there are more options readily available to pass the ball out of the back so we can work on just moving the ball quickly with nice short passes - there should be options everywhere, there is very little defensive responsibility on Pontius/DeRo, Pontius isn't hemmed in over on the sideline, Kitchen actually will have the possibility of going forward a little bit more without being terrified of getting caught out of position with no cover, and we actually have a little bit of depth... Now, with DeLeon out for the next 6 weeks or so and with what I saw out of Rafael last week, right now I would probably go with: -------------------Hamid---------------------- ----Riley---BMAC---Jackovic---Korb---- ------Porter----Kitchen----Neal------- --------DeRo-------Pontius---------- -----------------Rafael-------------------- but if you told me you wanted to put no defensive responsibilities what so ever on DeRo and you wanted to give him total freedom to find the game where he needed to, then I would probably slot him in the top spot and keep Sanchez there with Pontius...
I like this. I think Pontius out wide is going to yield diminishing returns. I want to see what he can do a little more centrally, and this allows for that.
My concern is that he doesn't have space to do his thing. I think if he is played wide in a 3 man attack (my suggestion very similar to this one), he will have space to take players to the end line, cross the ball, or cut inside. He can also make late runs across the box for one-time shots. He's good at all these things and I think he would have an easier time bringing others into the game as well. But either is a better fit than wide in a 442, IMO. He, like Dero, needs to be more free of defensive responsibilities. Lately I keep thinking of parallels to Quaranta.
Great point. And now that I think about it, that's what I really meant--he's still outside in a 3-man line, there's just more room to move in.
Great thread. Central mid is the biggest hole on the team. This team has lots of great pieces but a true center mid is the glue that should bring those pieces together. Link the defense, both wings and the attack together. This position was already a question mark before the season but now with injuries in that area it's bordering on a crisis
Assuming we're not about to sign an incredible attacking midfielder, I'd work on moving Pontius into an attacking midfielder role. I think his creativity on the wing has been lacking but his size and relative speed and age are good for development. Then I'd make O'Neal a starter. The one trade I'd make is for Rodney Wallace. He's the one player who can come close to replacing Najar. I'd trade a bundle of cash, draft picks, and through in Woolard for good measure.
So with a few weeks left in the transfer window, we could still fix the CM issue, right? Here's to hoping for a surprise signing.
The worst thing about the preseason was Payne's presser where we said "we have positions we need to fill but don't worry, we're looking within MLS to fix them." Then we get nothing but Riley.