I'm going to say right here what the biggest problem of the team is: Lorenzo decided to throw away the 4231--which had been yielding results--in favor of the 433 just because we beat Germany with it. As others have noted, beating this Germany really means nothing. Nevertheless, Lorenzo went to play Venezuela with that same exact 433 with the result of an impotent offense. Even though he put in Carrascal tonight against Chile, it was still in a 433, which doesn't convene Carrascal at all. The whole point of a 433, the only way a 433 works, lies in having two really solid 8s on either side of your 5. One might be more offensive, the other defensive. One might be a runner, the other a passer. Regardless, you need those two guys to have real class--unless you got Pirlo at the 5. Why did we move to a 433 if the only 8 on the roster who can play is Uribe? Why??? Now we're forcing one of our best wingers/AMs in Arias or our best 10 in Carrascal to play there which just detriments both of their play style. The 10 was what we needed to make up for the lack of skill our central midfielders have in distributing the ball. The ten also helped give more positions for our false 9--who isn't a terrific scorer--to move into. The selection of certain players (Cuadrado, Uribe, etc) obviously are big factors, too. Even in those good friendly matches, we were better in the 2nd halves when he subbed in younger guys. But 4231 was the best formation for overcoming the deficiencies of different players we have. If Lorenzo wants to play 433, then he needed to debut Rios TONIGHT and he needed to bring in other players (Alzate) who can play as 8.
btw, I just realized the next set of WCQ are in October which is really soon, he's going to have to figure this out quick. I expect Uruguay and Ecuador to be even harder
Lerma never been able to play as a lone CDM and playing him there is the coaches fault. Uribe has been really bad for us for a long time and is terrible in possession as is Lerma really. Lorenzo is setting us up to press but in possession he's basically just rolling the dice. I like the 4-3-3 but you need to play Barrios over Lerma and get in the midfielders who can play as an 8 in possession even if they aren't the highest profile players or are young, that takes balls as a coach. Problem is we've had coaches who don't have the balls or vision to go outside the old guard of players who although good players may not fit a system that you're trying to play.
We need to survive the pressure that they'll apply on the first half and then use our deeper bench to beat them when they're gassed out. Bielsa's teams are very predictable in that sense.
Cuesta and Lucumi should be our starting CBs. He had Cuesta and Rios as alternatives that didn't even make the bench? I'm sure that builds Cuesta's confidence. Can't put JFQ AND James on at the same time. I'd rather not have any of the 2 but if you do need to adjust for the game JFQ would be my choice. Only other guy that would have possibly changed the look of this game is Asprilla. He gives you that same 1 v 1 offense and draws a lot of attention the way Carrascal can. Too bad he wasn't even called up. These were 2 disappointing matches from Lorenzo but I'll take the 4 points.
Rios, Puerta and Alzate need to be on the next call up. Drop Uribe, start Barrios, add one or two of those three in the middle, move Lerma out to 8, or just simply bench him.
Not going to lie this gives me 2022 qualifier vibes . I really hope im wrong and we show up for the next 2 games. Lorenzo needs to analyse these two games a bit and drop some players. Yes the turf was crap but sheesh chile wasnt having as much trouble as we did ..rhe worst chile squad in 20 years.
Agreed. When people use the excuse of field conditions or weather or whatever, the road goes both ways - both teams face the same challenge I hope I am wrong here but I have a feeling Uribe is going to be the whipping boy for us this cycle (and probably Cuadrado too). The player we all groan when we see him in the starting lineup.
This. OMG. This. We don't even need fantastic play from the 8s but like just be where you are supposed to be on the field and be capable of controlling the ball and passing it to a teammate.
Fantastic analysis. This kind of stuff is why it's such a pleasure to have this forum and get to exchange ideas with you all.
I'm a big Barrios fan. Love his tenacious attitude/style of play. I do prefer him over Lerma. But, the problem with Barrios is he doesn't give much to the attack. We appear to be playing with 3 CBs. That leaves a huge gap between the defense and the attack. We just haven't found that one guy to fill that gap and lead the transition.
Your 6 really shouldn't be giving too much to the attack, sure Lerma is better attacking but he's terrible in the areas where we need him to be on the ball. I'd argue that Barrios gives us a lot more in attack overall because he's good at getting the ball off the CB's and linking play, by doing that we are going to get much more attacks up the field vs having Lerma who hides from the ball in possession. It also hurts even more because Uribe is the same, hides in possession and can't control the midfield. Barrios has always performed well for us and he fits a 4-3-3 if we want to play that, but we also need an 8 who's comfy in possession, both Lerma and Uribe pop up in the box from time to Time with a goal, but really we don't need that, we need build up play and people do hold the Ball and draw pressure to help release our attacking 3 or 4.
Bogotá 🇨🇴 presentó una megarrenovación de El Campín 🏟️. Fue anunciada por el Instituto de Recreación y Deporte. El estadio pasará a contar con 45 mil espectadores y tendrá techo. Las obras iniciarán en diciembre. Se espera que esté finalizado para 2027.pic.twitter.com/s8oJjQkKyi— VarskySports (@VarskySports) September 14, 2023 Should be bigger then 45,000.
I think the 4-3-3 works perfectly for our front 3 we have in Diaz/Arias/Sini/Borre being the main attackers who all fit in that system pretty well. The 4-3-3 def fits us defensively as one bright spot is that we press pretty well now and that makes sense with our players. Could be we are better away from the 4-3-3 but really no matter what we play its going to be hard for us to control games without center mids who can possess the ball, and that was also our major problem last cycle. Rueda basically didn't play with a midfield, we could'nt create good chances or control games and then we become a high variance team that doesn't get a lot of chances and rely's on crosses or individual brilliance to win games. I think really we just need at minimum to find one 8 who can have possession and progress the ball and play him with Barrios if we play with a 6 ideally.
ideally, I would like Barrios Lerma but neither can hold the ball for more than 5 seconds. So it's going to wire down Barrios - Uribe(Alzate)(Rios) or Lerma - Uribe(Alzate)(Rios). Then an attacking play maker which can be Carrascal(James/Quintero) Next game is against Uruguay, so it's going to be slow build up and winning headers against them. The 4-3-3 might actually work against them. With Ecuador we might need a better midfield possession game. They are going to press high and invite counters so they can counter a counter.
If we don't lose up to March that will mark 2 years of being undefeated. I don't recall us ever going this long without being defeated even once. 12 games undefeated (USA friendly was unofficial) and hopefully we can continue on.
Gotta hand it to Gustavo. He was one of the first players to go to KSA before it became the cool thing to do. Mac10 is the only other one that went even sooner