This is probably grasping at straws, but I'm wondering if we might actually do better with other teams unable to play the super high pressure tactics that have been crushing us lately due to the summer heat. Maybe SH built this team to perform at 110 degrees F. Or maybe we're headed for despair of Southlake-ian proportions. I dunno.
I'm reading a lot of posts that completely rip DH, which I think is pretty unfair. Is he old? yes. Is he getting slower? yes. But he's not the reason we're getting overrun in the middle of the park. There are 2 reasons we looked weak in the middle: 1. Our outside mids didn't track back very well. When the outside mids don't track back, a CM has to slide over to pressure ball. When a CM is caught wide, he's not shielding the backline. 2. Our back line played wayyyyy too deep for most of the game. when the backline plays too deep there's too much space for the midfield to cover - DH had acres of space infront of him, and acres of space behind him - there's not much you can do when the backline puts you on a island like that. The answer: backline needs to hold a higher line - confidence is a big issue here, so having John back would help (Pertuz is good, but I thought his positioning was the weakest of the back four on Friday). On the attacking end, my biggest problems are with Jacobson and Villar. Villar would be great to have in a linking role between DH and DF10. Villar just isn't a 10 shirt - he doesn't have the vision, and he doesn't do a great job of working off of Perez. I don't know what to do with Jacobson - i like the guy overall, but his passing & distribution is too weak to play the linking role. For me, he's the biggest reason we can't maintain possession. He gets on the pitch because he covers ground and he's good on set pieces.
I've been making this point for awhile now... That's why he is only going after the brown and black guys... Genius I tell you.
What in the defense has changed since the first two halves of soccer in the first two games? Not only have we not fixed problems in our midfield, now we have screwed up our back line too. And, for what? What are FCD fans going to get out of the changes?
i love DH but you cant really justify him getting extended minutes anymore if you go strictly based on his performances this year. also agree that AJ is not a linking player and Villar is not a CAM...not sure when coach will realize we don't have the personnel to play a 4-1-4-1 without DF10. let's get another striker out there.