This is a circular notion, simply because it's players that make plays. It may not be calculas, buts it's not just a matter of discipline and testosterone either (although they sure wouldn't hurt). The team needs more than one avenue (the right wing) for bringing the ball out of the back, holding the ball, advancing into the attacking third, and attacking. The Revs right now are a one trick pony, and everyone's figured out that trick. True, if the other nine guys play as malodorously as they did Saturday, it won't make a difference if the Revs sign Zidane. But now that the word is out about how to defend the Revs (and keeping in mind that most MLS teams have actually improved since last season), even if the other nine players perform as well as they did during last year's Cup run, it ain't going to earn the Revs better than even odds of getting a win.
A playmaker would be a fine addition. We need options and a playmaker could give us that. However, we have bigger fish to fry. What we saw against the crew was not a lack of imagination on attack. It was very poor execution of offense and defense and midfield. Strength in your shape is something I heard Winalda say a couple of times in the broadcast. I agreed. Last year teams could not get by us because of our sound defensive structure. Passes would be intercepted and only the most amazing efforts could get through. This game we had Rev players chasing players, chasing the ball, chasing the game. This left WIDE open holes in our defense and not much attack from the midfield. Long balls over the top to Twellman 1v4 are not going to make goals happen. Possession, passing? Absent. Plainly, we reverted to Rev's of old. Optimistically speaking there is no reason for us not to get back to winning ways. A playmaker would help us then.
i agree scrub- defense wins championships. the ontrick pony revs would have won 1-0 if they didn't let in any goals. you don't get extra points for winning pretty. "The fans have to understand that the team has a manager. If not, there will be 170 million Brazilians who are the team coach. Scolari states that ....as his main objectives a greater coordination between the players and a faster movement of the ball from defence into attack. Brazil will play in the finals with three central defenders, two midfield players marking the opposing forwards and two fluid wings, moving up in support of the attack. It is not the system which wins games. What wins games is the players- concentration, the enthusiasm they show in their contribution to team spirit and the seriousness with which they consider being picked to play for their country, declared Filipao"
I don't necessarily agree that we need a playmaker, but we need something. The way I see it, there are 4 ways we can initiate our offense: 1. Play the ball down the wings and whip crosses in to our forwards. Ralston does this very well, when healthy, but if you don't have someone capable of doing this on the other side(and we don't), the other team can overload Ralston's side to shut this down. 2. Play counterattacks out of the back. This requires someone who can send good balls out of the back line into space behind the defense, where someone with a lot of pace who can get beat the other team to the ball. We have no speedster on this team at all really, so that's right out. 3. Have a central midfield capable of initiating attacks by holding the ball, making runs, distributing, playmaking, etc. No playmaker here, so that's a problem. Moore may be able to fill this role. We'll have to see. 4. Play long balls out of the back to a target forward who can then hold the ball and dish off when help arrives, or make space to generate his own offense. Franchino can to a pretty good job sending balls out of the back, but we've got no target. This just isn't Wolde's game. Moore and Twellman are good at finishing in the air on crosses, but are two small to hold off big defenders. Maybe Noonan? The Crew clearly have all of these options to some extent: 1. Hejduk 2. Cunningham 3. Martino 4. McBride We don't need to have all 4 of these options, but we only have a half of one. We've got two guys on this team who can really finish, but we've got to find a way to put them in these positions. We need to find either a good left sided crosser of the ball(Jason Moore, Noonan?), a target forward(Noonan?), a playmaker or a speedster. If we had guys on both sides of the field spreading the defense, or a speedster, we would open up a lot of space for our central mids making them a whole lot more effective. It may be too hard to find a great playmaker, but the other three options may be a little easier to fill. Lee
Can we throw just one more cliche into this mix? Sure an undermotivated badly executing group of players looses. But usually, the better group of players wins. Sure the Revs will go undefeated if they don't allow another goal this season. But I'm guessing this is unlikely... Sure the revs might do better if they could attack from both wings, counterattack more effectively out of the back, or play over the top to a target forward. But they really don't have the personnel to accomplish these things either. I was/am a big proponent of Nicols system from last year. But the same system with the same players probably just ain't going to get the job done this year. Joe Max will certainly help (and hopefully Noonan), but they're probably not going to be enough.
agree. but letting in 2 goals a game is unacceptable, even for a talentless team like the revs. they would be undefeated right now if they only let in 1 per game, and one clean sheet in two games would put them at 1-0-1. they can score. without adding anyone. playing down a goal every game makes it tough to ever win. build this team from the back, and the goals will come. that is my point. the revs didn't lose to the crew becasue they needed a playmaker or a goal scorer. no soccer team builds itself around the premise that it needs to net 3 every week to win. if the other team can't get throught the midfield & dfense - the scoreing chances will come, even without a playmaker. a playmaker that is running backwards all game, chasing the other team and the ball doesn't get many chances to make plays. this team is blue collar, and there is not any MLS teams that is capable of beating a blue collar team that doesn't give an inch. even LA took 100 minutes to score against a rev team with no talent that didn't give them an inch. when a blue collar team doesn't play tough - well you get what happend last week. they need to get medival on the other teams ass.
no team has scored more than 2 yet. all games have been low scoreing. do all teams need mythical playmakers? I think not.
they played a bad game! once they start playing like this every game, i will jump on this "revolution needs this, that, and the other thing" bandwagon. every time we lose, a thread like this pops up. this is worse than pop-up ads.
When the score was 2-0 an offensive minded CM would have helped. Ralston is the only playmaker on the team. Noonan played well, but can he keep it up? The biggest problem is having the mindset to take risks. The Revs constantly defeated their own counterattack when they refused to send in early crosses and played back passes instead. This was the most disapointing part of their game according to the fans around me. I think that JMM is going to help the team, but I prefer to have a tall guy next to Twellman. Twellman is great at mopping up lose balls in the box. Now he just needs someone to flick on some headers. JMM is pretty good in the air, but is no McBride. I do think that JMM will be able to combine and create some chances for Twellman. I don't remember Harris setting the table once for Twellman.
Yes. The biggest problem was not tactical, but that more than half of our starters- Ralston, Pierce, Hernandez and to a lesser extent Kamler, Twellman, Wolde and Kante- played as badly as they have in a long time. No one on the Revolution passes the ball better than Ralston, but on Saturday he couldn't complete a simple 6 or 7 yard pass. And it wasn't because the Crew were focusing on him, or that they had figured out that he is a dangerous attacking player. Everybody who has been paying attention to the league the last few years knows that. It was just that he played poorly. If the return of JMM coincides with some of the above players returning to form, we'll be fine.
This is hardly a talentless team. However, it is a team of players whose strengths too closely duplicate one another. When everyone is a bit off and the other team is very much on then the kind of stuff that we saw Saturday happens. The Rev would greatly benefit from a wider range of abilities in the front six and better passing and ball use from the back five, including Adin. JIM DOW
Which means there are quite alot of threads like this because they lose alot! I'd say it is distressing to me that we can lose as often as we do and still have pop up adds saying, "Just wait til they gel," or, "It is only one game, don't panic." Two views of the same problem.
Just curious...but has anyone watched a tape of last year's playoff series v Crew? What were we missing last Saturday? Intensity? Lucky bounces? Rain? 100% Ralston? Crew had more quality opponents in the last month? Plus, didn't we play a couple of those matches last fall with 10 men? Same folks, vastly different look. SN was probably asking the very same thing, as were we.
The Galaxy haven't won a game yet in three tries. They must really suck too. Yeeeaaaah, that's it, especially since we've lost, what... one game to this point? Take a load off Henny Penny. The Magpie
Yeah it is pretty amazing that, 2 games removed from an MLS Cup final and with the return of probably the best player ever to wear a Rev uniform, not everyone considers the Revolution a hopeless team dramatically in need of an overhaul, cause they've tied one game and lost another.
The REVS can look lousy even when they win a game. IMHO they didn't even look good enough last year to make it to the final no matter what the scoreboard said. Had it not been for Adin they wouldn't have made it. Every game is a toss up. They've NEVER played with the consistency and confidence of a strong team. Pre-seasons are non-productive. Sorry..I guess I just expect more. Jane
Shoot... I'm not looking for a major overhaul. Just one player. And it doesn't even have to be the vaunted "playmaker" that everyone is clamoring for. IMO, we would be better served searching for a left wing or a target forward. Probably easier to find and fill that role without messing with our current "system". Our defense is very good and this team will not lose too many games. I still think we're the 2nd best team in the East. I was just trying to point out areas for improvement. If we continue to rely on one player(Ralston) to drive the offense, it will be easy for opponents to shut us down offensively - as they have been since the middle of last year. We will still win(and tie) alot due to our defense and above average offensive set pieces(we've got 3 or 4 of the better free-kick/cornerkick guys in the league), but I'm just looking for something a bit more. Lee
gee thats funny - sounds like the same complaints that were leveled against Brasil when they won the penta. what the heck do they have to do to win you over? why all the hate? its better to look lousy on the field, than to look great watching the final from the stands. And I'd argue the revs when hot last year looked brilliant. this gets lost on people who mistake flash for substance. even "ugly" styles can be brilliant when executed perfectly to the frustration of the opponents. probably why we see "bring back andy williams" posts every three days.
The Crew is MUCH closer to midseason form than we are. They are a significantly faster team to start with, and if they are much further ahead in excuting their game plan, you get what we got. All the bad defending, lack of imagination, few offensive chances, players unable to win balls, hold balls, support the forwards, play through midfield, etc., etc. are all SYMPTOMS of playing a team that's just much farther ahead at this point. When you are gassed, frustrated, constantly under pressure and teams are passing circles around you, you usually start doing bad things tactically.
Amen brother. I agree that the Revs are not a talentless bunch of hackers. What has struck me the most is the relentless barrage of long balls out of the back. What I think would help the midfield out more than "The Midfielder", is consistent service to the midfield, from the backs, in the form of short (and while I'm wishing, early) passes on the carpet. Of course a great player who can collect any ball that comes out of the defense, and beat the first guy to relieve pressure thus signaling the transition into offense would be a solution. But to me it would be more better if the backs would show a bit more commitment to making meaningful passes. So far I haven't seen them trying and failing at this, I've only seen them content to send it up and out. Granted this is difficult to do under pressure, but I would gladly trade in each of Franchino's sputtering runs up the flank for a simple pass to one of his midfielders.