That was so painful to watch. Basically we have structural problems that we can't gloss over anymore. 1) Of our 2 DP forwards, Cabral needs to be in a 4-3-3 and Chich in a 4-4-2 and I'm not sure there is any way to reconcile that. 2) Of our 3 DPs, Cabral is ineffective, Chich can only give us limited minutes and DosSantos is done. None of the 3 is going to be able to carry the team. 3) We have a bunch of central midfielders who can't hustle or scrap which leaves a hole above our defense. Raveloson was supposed to fix this but he's not that guy. I think the bad passing and the lack of hustle is a result of a demoralized team, but I think part of it goes on Vanney too. No one seems to have an idea of what to do out there. We'll I don't have much in the way of ideas either, but maybe we should give up on being an elegant possession team until we can fix the defense. --------------------Joveljic-----Chich------------- ------------------Lletget-------Raveloson------- Villafana------------Steres---------------Arauho -----------Williams/DePuy----Coulibali------------ or --------------------Joveljic-----Chich------------- Hamalainen----------Lletget---------Grandsir----- Villafana------------Raveloson------------Arauho ---------------Williams/Steres--------Coulibali------------ Cabral needs to go to the bench.
Raveloson’s early random golatzo streak distracted us from the fact that he’s not that good. He has no hustle, he makes bad passes, he’s just disappointing.
Great games across the league today. Unfortunately our was not one of them unless you are a Loon. So it looks like Heath is turning his ship around while Vanney's seems to continue adrift. What was that not starting Chicharito and Dejan and Vazquez. I understand we have to pace Javier along but if he was destined to only play one half, why not the first half? Him and Dejan seemed to be coming to an understanding. As soon as those subs came in our team looked stronger. Why not start with our best foot forward? Then maybe the Loons don't get ahead of us and just maybe we get ahead of them and then we go to our bench to close out the match. But that aside, it looks like the one losing his team is not Heath but Vanney. We are certainly regressing. No grit, no focus, no sense of urgency, no chemistry. I was hoping by this time with all our guys healthy and present and the three weeks Vanney asked for and all the training he would have a better command of his team and Galaxy manifesting through cunning and craftsmanship all that Vanney wished for and commanded. Sadly it is not to be.
It's time for Vanney to admit that his Cabral signing hasn't worked so far, and he needs to be benched. It's always the same story for Cabral : he seems shy or not involved, is completely unable to beat an opponent one-on-one, often dispossessed, and finishing is atrocious. He can score a goal from nowhere but overall, I can't remember a complete game from him. Cabral needs to wake up, and a few games on the bench could help him. And Grandsir can be benched too. He's getting a pass because he looks useful and involved (instead of Cabral), but 2 goals and 2 assists in 1634 minutes for a TAM winger? These are disappointing numbers. Chicharito and Joveljic are our hottest offensive players right now (even after Dejan's terrible game), play them together. I don't know if it's for a 4-4-2 or a 3-5-2 (a system who has worked well at Toronto for Vanney, and I can see it work too with Villafana and Araujo as our wingbacks). Also, I always enjoy Minnesota play. Their composure in the opponent half is superb, and Reynoso is an awesome player. Signing a CAM DP like him next offseason is a priority.
Looks like I picked a good game to miss entirely. what a weird season. I’d have been happy with our spot in the standings at this point if you had asked me before the season but never would have thought we’d be fading so badly at this point. I’d have thought surely the opposite. we will see what Vanney is made of now. There are a lot of good pieces here but it never fits together too well. I think I’d go 5-3-2 from here on out.
The problem with benching Cabral and Grandsir is that there really is no better alternative on the bench. Cabral in particular we took on knowing he was a project and what we get from him this year is a sort of bonus.
5-3-2 fixes that right up... ------------Dejan-----Chicharito -------Vazquez------------Lletget Nikko--------Raveloson--------Araujo ---Williams----Steres-----Sega ------------------Bond Or can play Klejstan and/or JDS in those advanced midfield roles. But this provides so much better balance and puts Cabral where he can do the least damage to the team (on the Bench).
If only someone could have predicted this. Oh, wait I did - in one of those overly long posts about how the ‘4+Rayan’ doesn’t work bc it leaves too much open space for our opponents. Yeah, but if only someone had the answer? I posted 4 different formations that would stiffen our central defense immediately, including one that has already been proven on the field and is being promoted here mainly by Trickhog and me. But apparently Vanney, the only opinion that matters, disagrees. So I guess (fear) we will be sticking with a formation that makes us look awful and fails repeatedly… (I’m frustrated as hell if you can’t tell.)
PS - For me the player of the game was Cobi Jones. Maybe he IS reading our posts because he came out of the gate with improved commentary, fewer platitudes and a bit more depth to his analyses. So kudos to Cobi. Now if we could just get some emotion out of him.
I feel like Rayan is what Jona is supposed to be. A B2B who can tackle, win the ball, and make a late run into the box to score. Maybe Rayan moves to his role next year and we look for a dedicated DM.
Yay - I see Baysider, mbar and MP#9 have joined the dark side! And Lem-Lag is leaning in. All joking aside we either have to go with 3 central defenders & 2 wingbacks or else two DM’s given our current roster. As Baysider noted our our midfielders aren’t scrappy 2 way players that give us the luxury of a 4-1-x-x defense. Also I think having a solid defensive spine will help our offense. We will force more turnovers when our opponents are pushed up and be more connected when we switch into attack mode. Being more connected means that our turnovers won’t frequently force long recovery runs like we are seeing now. Fewer long recovery runs = fresher legs = more support runs when we attack. And I think Raveloson might actually be good with a solid foundation behind him. His style of play isn’t conservative, patient containment (necessary when playing a lone DM in front of an iffy defense) - it’s more about swooping up loose balls and then going forward. I also like seeing Chich and Jevan together. If we put them both on we can switch to a 4-2-2-3 with 2 DM’s. Jona with another dedicated DM would protect the center. Less running required of Jona because we have #’s in the central D.
So reading all posts I am in the camp of lets always use our very best squad going in to any match going forward. All this musical chairs bit cost us 2 at home and 3 on the road. 5 friggin points that have put us in a precarious situation. Vanney got it wrong We are still in 4th place by the grace of God. But we flub the Austin match and we are going down like a lead weight and lose any home advantage possibility. We can kiss it goodbye. SKC is now in first place with 46 points followed by Seattle with 45 and Colorado stays in 3rd with 44 points. Like a little choo-choo train one after the other and real tight. We OTH are still staring at 38 points and in 4th place. But Portland, RSL, Loons and yes LAFC all hot on our behind with 37, 36, 34 and 33 respectively. Just a game or two from knocking us aside. Vanney plays around with the formations and doesn't get it right and we are screwed. Austin is a must-win.
Let me give you guys a super fun look at the next games: Portland is one point behind. We play them in a month. RSL is two points behind. We play them away, at altitude, on the 29th. Minnesota is 4 points behind with a game in hand. They can make that up. Plastic FC is 5 points behind. We play them in a week. The galaxy had 0 room to drop results like the Vancouver and Houston games and now they have 0 room for error. Don't be surprised if this team doesn't make playoffs.
I was actually thinking maybe we should stick Raveloson at CB in a 5-3-2 where he can kind of act as a DM on the attacks and CB on defense. This also allows us to play Lletget-Jona-Vazquez as the CMs then with Chicha and Dejan up top.
Hmmm... ------------Dejan-----Chicharito -------Vazquez------------Lletget Nikko-------------JDS-----------Araujo ---Williams---Raveloson---Sega ------------------Bond
This looks good to me. We would need to sub Nikko and/or Araujo for Cabral/Grandsir by the 70th minute IMO.