The score could have been much like the score against NYCFC. The awful passing in the early part of the first half was depressing. We’re lucky it wasn’t 0-2 in the 8th minute. They outclassed us completely. By comparison, it shows how much the organization still has to do to sniff being a regular season power in this league.
I don’t think Saravino will elevate us all that much. He will improve our attack I think, but it will still be below the MLS average.
In my first post on this thread, I said that a loss should fully be expected. I don't see any serious reason to be upset with a road loss to Nashville, with how good they are at home. The concerning thing for me, though, was the manner in which we played. Lineup Choices: Despite having Orozco back with the team, Pablo stuck to a 4-man backline. This puts two of our more interesting/game changing attacking options in Herrera and Brody further back on the field. Their heatmaps were especially depressing to go look at. Looking at those, compare the positions of Brody & Meram to that of Herrera & Chang. It's... not ideal Despite having Caldwell on the bench, Pablo went with a midfield 2-man duo of Ruiz and Luiz. Everton wasn't bad in this game, but he wasn't good. Despite having more traditional box-to-box outside mids available, he stuck with Meram and Chang - two guys that you would call wingers far sooner than an outside mid. Again, look at their heatmaps, it's depressing. Style of Play Look at this incredibly strange passing breakdown for RSL. Just... wow Ideally the player that has the most shots on goals or the highest expected goals is one of your forwards or maybe a winger or attacking mid. But your CB... well, that's a bold strategy. Also on that passing breakdown, look at the position of Meram vs Rubio vs Everton. That's... not a good shape Whereas, if you want to see a truly great shape and execution of a 3-5-2, look at Nashville. That's impressive I tend to not care about possession stats. However, if the shift is to have a 442 and keep a more solid block, you'd expect that there would be some moments of more possession. Nashville won the possession battle, especially in the first half. However, second half saw us actually win 5 of the 9 "5-min intervals". Which... is something? I dunno, once we were trailing Nashville was fine waiting for us to open up more Overall, I'm sick of the Freddy approach of having to have this 4-man backline and 2 more defensive focused mids. Doing both is so detrimental to any attacking options. The other 4 guys are expected to just figure shit out. When we have the quality of player we currently do, that's rarely going to happen
I tried to listen (NSH announcers) to the game (driving home from St. Louis), but not being able to watch it meant I didn't have a good frame of reference, so reading through the comments here today meant there was some real good foreshadowing. This team has a long way to go if they want to stay in the playoff hunt. The 4-4-2 won't work with the players and strategy we saw (continue to see unfortunately). We don't know if Wood and Rubio are good enough, because they don't get the ball/service. Meram and Chang may not even be starters in the league, but they shouldn't be starters for this team in this formation. Sava might make it a bit better, but he's a winger, too. Everton is not a regular starter anymore, in any formation. Brody is not a LB and both he and Herrera aren't fully utilized as has been mentioned. The spine with MacMath, Glad and Silva has been the best part of the team this year. That's a great place to be with a rebuilding team (that has to be what they are with so many years of low/no investment in the roster, right?). If they are rebuilding, should MacMath be playing over Ochoa if he's healthy? I'm torn on that. Question is, what kind of team does Pablo want? You can't play players in roles that they aren't suited to play and expect good results. Put the players in the best spot to succeed, even if that means putting better players on the bench, it's better for the team and results. Then you work on bringing in the players to fit your preferred style of play.
Ochoa missed for "personal reasons". I was very confused by that statement during the game. What the hell is going on there? The dude is young, but can he ever stay healthy/around enough to be with the team for a significant length of time? I think the club should seriously look at selling him to a Liga MX side like we did Lalo years back. I was hopeful he'd have some good games for us to up the asking price, but it's starting to look like the value might be highest now. The longer we wait, the sooner his contract expires.
I think that this was the first game that I was truly frustrated watching RSL this season. I was kind of getting pissed watching them flounder around pinned to their own 18 by Nashville for the first 45 minutes. I have to agree that the 4-4-2 has got to go or get players that fill the roles necessary to play in that formation. First though I absolutely agree with Med-Phys on the MacMath, Glad and Silva have been the best part of the team so far this season with Herrera and Ruiz right there behind them. The back line has a great start with Herrera, Silva, Glad, & Orosco. Maybe Kablan could be what's needed on the left if they're going to stick with the 4-4-2. But I would love to see them get back to 3 in the back myself. I could not believe that RSL could not get out of their own 18. How hard is it to find a team mate to break the pressure? How many times did they just play a weak ass hopeful 10 yard pass out to a Nashville player because no one was working back to help out the guy with the ball? Time and time again they couldn't find help or kick the ball more than 10 yards. The absolute worst part of the game was watching Rubin, Wood, and Chang try and do absolutely nothing and accomplishing nothing with spectacular flair and flop. It could be that because RSL doesn't have a midfield that can connect with them and create any kind of scoring opportunities to speak of or they could just not be that good. I'm thinking that Wood and Rubin are just not that good. Rubin is slow but tries hard and Wood tries hard to look like he's trying hard and Chang should just not be a starter. An improved midfield could definitely make that trio better and getting Julio and Sava back could open more opportunities for them because they certainly can't do anything as a group together to even look dangerous. In reality this is not a great team and the first part of this season may have done a great job masking that fact but it's a long season and RSL will probably end up right where I thought they would finish, just in or out of the playoffs. Aaron hit the nail on the head in the post game interview, "our whole identity can't just be heart and will and grinding out results and having to get a shut out every game in order to win games. We've got to figure out how to be more dangerous as team going forward...we've got a lot to figure out this week..." And yes they do have a lot to figure out this week because Austin is a better team than Nashville. They have scored over twice as many goals as RSL this season, 22-10 and given up almost half as many as RSL, 9-15. RSL has only scored 10 goals in 11 games. Only the bottom 3 teams in the west and the bottom 2 in the east have scored embarrassingly fewer goals this season so far. Shake up the line up. Get back to the 3-5-2 and stop worrying about making the playoffs in May and set up the team to be successful in August, September, and October. Home sweet home but it not going to be easy.
Around the interwebs there were reports that Ochoa is/was a pain in the ass during rehab and is pretty much a diva and not a great team player. I was skeptical about him from the start and he proved me wrong, for at least last season, but I would send him packing to any team interested at the moment. Trade him to some sucker in the league and get an aging/experienced player like that douche bag McCarty or similar that could be a stabilizing influence in the midfield like Everton should be but can't quite seem to fill that role. I would definitely get something for him before he runs out of "potential" which could be pretty soon at the rate he is going at the moment.
Poor Lalo never once had a first team game, for either RSL or Tigres. Too bad we couldn't have brought him back instead of Gomez this season, though it looks like Lalo hasn't played in a while and may be retired.
I was pretty tuned out once Nashville scored. I was busy making dinner, with the game on in the background, with waning interest to watch RSL try to hump a lightbulb into socket. So, to say the least, I missed this post game interview... That is a direct shot at Pablo. No way around it. You can see the frustration in Aaron's game, for him to vent that in a public interview was only a matter of time. Pablo teased him with the ability to bomb forward and truly be an influential player (not to mention one who was garnishing interest from Europe and the national team). Now? Aaron is a bit player on a backline that is asked to defend for 60+% of the game, with the token run forward. Pablo's way of getting the locker room on his side - very emotional, raw-raw type stuff - is a delicate balance. Once things go wrong, the players will demand better. No longer can it just be "go have good vibes, boys". It's gotta be more.
It probably is a shot at Pablo but it's got to be a shot at nearly everyone else in front of Aaron and that back line as well. If I had to watch Rubio and Wood do whatever it is they do every game and then have to bust my ass just to keep the team in the game I would be pretty frustrated as well. It does seem like Pablo is great at getting players on board and together and in his post game he seemed to recognize the issue and struggles they are having being creative and not being able to find the back of the net. Now, does that mean he knows how to fix the issue? I don't know. Seems like a great question that if he can't find the answer all the rah rah stuff will wear thin before the 4th of July. Julio and Sava could help make things better but they don't really fix the problem that hasn't been addressed by the FO just yet. The midfield. This team can't get from the back to the front in less than 10 passes at the moment while their opposition slice through the RSL middle like it's butter half the time. That was incredibly frustrating watching Nashville just zip through the middle like they were going against practice cones. How they didn't score more is absolutely incredible and thanks to a back line that can't possibly hold together all season at this pace.
We've looked so much better overall when we're in the 3-5-2 IMO. I feel like it puts more players in spots where they play their best. I just don't get why we've seemed to abandoned it on a whim.
oh its a shot at the attackers too, don't get me wrong. But the specific words he used "...heart and will..." is a staple of the Pablo coaching approach. He doubles down on it all the time. I don't think Pablo is completely ignorant of the tactical side of things, but I'm getting a Manchester under Ole vibe with the "just go play, lads" approach that seems to be our attacking identity.