Bench Acosta

I agree that Acosta is playing like garbage right now, but Olsen is not putting him in a situation where he can be successful. Watch him when he has the ball and you pick out who he should pass to. Everybody is either waaay back on defense or it's Rooney covered by two guys. Sometimes there's a cross field pass available to a winger, but most of the time Acosta's best chance is to go solo because nobody is available.

 

Yes, Acosta was better last night than he's been for awhile. I think he finally realized that the team was playing such poor defense that he had to step up to prevent a rout. He wasn't able to do that, but he did appear to be trying.

 

coaching??? really?? to defend a ball hog????

 

Defending a ball hog by leading with, "I agree that Acosta is playing like garbage right now..."

Please. Watch the film and identify all of the great open teammates he has to pass the ball to. There is rarely an obvious pass forward. When he back passes, the ball is hoofed forward. Yes, I'd rather see the back pass and hope that DCU can recycle possession, but is your point that there are lots of obvious good decisions for Acosta to make?!?!

 

Mora overlaps, Arriolla is open on the far side. Rooney is covered by 6 guys but can still do something with the ball. Sorry no pity for the ball hog here.

 

I have to agree with Shawn here. Olsen is a terrible coach and his tactics are woeful. But most of Acosta's issues are down to Acosta. In the UK they have a term for what Lucho does... its called 'running down a blind alley'. He is doing this constantly now in games and its maddening.

When Lucho receives a pass, very often he does have options within his first 2 touches. Last season he was making the quick pass, then moving to space and getting it back. This season he is holding the ball too long, the quick pass lanes close and now he can do nothing but pass backwards or try to dribble on his own. When dribbling on his own with his head down, he frequently gets double teamed, dispossessed, then flails his arms looking for a foul.

Dribbling with your head down...straight into trouble... that's running down a blind alley.

 

I agree that he dribbles into trouble too much. Never ever disputed that.

At the same time I don’t see enough overlap from our fullbacks, or even attacking runs from both wingers at the same time. Sure it happens every so often, but not enough. Look at the gaps between Acosta, Rooney a wide player and the rest of the team.

It’s like we have 3 attackers and 7 defenders with no midfield. Not only does Acosta go for the low probability live but I see wild passes, through balls and crosses that have an extremely low chance of success from loads of players.

I believe Olsen wants the guys to counter very direct and very quickly. If it doesn’t pan out, we still have tons of guys in defense. How often do we see more than 3 guys on the attack? How often do we build up play by consolidating the midfield first and then going into an attacking phase from the midfield. All of DCU attack starts from deep. That’s an embrace of a low probability attack.

(Typed on a tiny screen. Probably typos.)

 

I agree with that too. Wild passes, the 3 attacking players are isolated often etc etc. This whole team is disfunctional right now. This 3CB formation is terrible.

 

Acosta is having a bad year, but who would you replace him with? This team stinks. Plus, the way we set up with 7 defenders, we are just playing for a 0-0 draw. There is no discernible plan for how to score goals.