I was meaning my crazy lineup could be seen as the 4-2-2-1-1 or a 4-2-3-1 as there's only 1 true forward. Wasn't debating what Jill's lineup was. Yeah, that's why I put in the two true DMs, even though they lack experience. I think it would help a lot. I would prefer someone other than Heath on the wing, who could help more defensively, but you gotta work with what you got.
No, not saying you were debating what Jill was saying. Was just saying we were in a 4-2-2-2 last match. We need take care of the midfield and put the right people there. Most of us would like a dmid starting. And I agree, i'd prefer not to have heath on the wing. How many times and for how many years have we all seen heath play with out a positive effect on a game (sans concacaf teams)?
Ah. I see. Yeah, I made my lineup on the presumption that Dunn isn't healthy (so Heath and HAO are the only real options). But if she is, I would gladly replace Heath with Dunn. She can be pretty good at sending in crosses, as we saw in that video kernel_thai posted...
if we are doing crazy line-ups, here's mine: --Morgan---Press---Arod -----------Lloyd---------- -------JJ---------Brian--- Dunn--Becky--Engen--Kriegs Dunn and Kriegs need to get forward. Press needs to hold the ball well. JJ and Brian need to distribute well and stop anything down the middle. Arod and Morgan would have to cover a lot of ground. Arod can, not sure Morgan can right now.
Well it all depends on how much pressure England put on the ball. If they can press hard then there will be midfield problems again. If they decide to sit back or cant win the ball off the press the US will pick them apart.
England have been trying the 4-4-2 diamond system and are not there yet in term of defensive organisation. They weren't back in November when they played Germany. maybe they have improved but, if they play again with that diamond, there will be space everywhere for the US WNT.
What sticks with me is seeing our defense back up and back up while France steadily advanced. It's much easier to defend further upfield than in the box. Rampone was always a loud captain organizing the defense. Who takes on that role now? It's important; defense wins tournaments.
I think your impression is correct, but is there much they can do when France is charging through the midfield with pace and no one directly on the attacker with the ball?
One defender challenges the attack. Another covers in case the challenge fails. There's a system. And, it works better further away from goal. I saw little coordination among our back line, and of course, none whatsoever between the back line and the midfield.
This team is never going to out possess quality teams before WC. Even if they had total commitment, they couldnt do it. This team needs to make a total commitment to defense and hope their offensive talent can grab enough goals to win.
I agree, I am just not convinced the current coach sees it that way. Not sure I agree here, I don't see our midfield being strong enough to pick apart any top ten team.
you want crazy...3-5-2 .......Morgan.....Lloyd........ O'Hara......Press............HAO ..............JJ......Rampone... ....Dunn...SBrun......Krieger KO and HAO as wing backs, stamina to spare. Maybe Brian could replace JJ if Rampone provided a fair share of defensive cover...allowing Brian to do her best Pirlo impression.....Maybe Engen for Dunn and push Dunn to left wing back instead of O'Hara...still I think you need Dunn's recovery speed in a back three.
Until it was 2-0 you had a backline that has not played very much as a unit and was part, I hope, of the Jill Ellis "tryouts". Depending on injuries you could easily have Krieger, Brunn, Rampone, and KO on the backline with the only change from the last WC being Brunn for RVH. That is a pretty good backline. Maybe Engen for Rampone or Dunn for KO as the next couple of months go in practice and matches. But as a number of us have said we need to establish this starting back four and they need to play TOGETHER as a unit for three or four matches in a row. I understand flexibility and playing multiple positions and most of these girls can meet these possible needs. But now is the time to put them in place where we expect them to play and let them practice and play as a unit. All of the moving up as a unit, marking correctly in the box, etc. comes from the same unit practicing and playing together and understanding thier roles and thier fellow defenders. The tryouts are over Jill, pick and play!
I thought tryout time was over too. but most posters on here keep asking for new players to get their shot. I do not think harris is a better gk than barnhart, so I thought barnhart should have been in the nets against france. ellis knows that ohara played thomis pretty well in the olympics. so kelly should have been patrolling the left side where we lost the match on sunday. ellis also knows that the french mids have played thousands of hours together for lyon and the nt, requiring her to play our mids in their natural positions as much as possible. yet she starts lloyd as a left winger. klingenberg is a second stringer on the right side. she can not defend in the air as well as krieger, or even the shorter dunn who has hops beyond her diminutive size. so kling should not have been losing us the match against les blues. but posters on this board, and ellis herself think it's still time for experimentation. I myself think that's bizarre a short few months before the wc, but.... if we had our best available team on the field in lorient, we might have been able to blunt the french attack and win that game 1 - 0. but we messed around and not only lost, but gave a rising team BELIEF, which at this level of the game is TEN TIMES worse. (excuse the shouting...but....) mark my words.
If it ain't working, you have to experiment. It ain't working. I have no problem with playing Dunn and O'Hara, as you propose, but doing so is an experiment just like it is to play Kling and Chalupny. Dunn and O'Hara have both been injured and have not proven themselves recently. Holiday hasn't proven she can fulfill her defensive duties. Brian looks sporadically good, but is nervous on defense, a possible red card waiting to happen. What's with O'Reilly's exile to the gulag? We still need to experiment with the midfield. Barnhart has been injured -- and is aging. Given that and Solo's proclivities we need to experiment with a third goalkeeper. I agree that putting Lloyd out there on the left wing was a ridiculous experiment. You're not going to change Lloyd. She's a shooter and a good one -- and plays aggressively. That's all she is -- but that's quite a bit.
ko is not an experiment. she has proven herself in that position - especially against thomis. jill just doesn't like her there. i wasn't advocating playing dunn on the right. i was advocating playing krieger - our best rb. i was just pointing out that imo, dunn is a better rb than kling. not with lloyd as a left wing.... and no, we should not be experimenting on such a large scale so close to the wc. she's younger than solo (barely, but she's younger). and she was left out of camp while healing her injury. she's back in camp because, i assume, she's healthy. she, healthy, and with all her experience should have been in the nets, not harris, prepping for the possibility of a sololess uswnt.
I think they are experimenting simply because they don't know their best 11 or even their best tactics/system.
This was not an experiment...well the whole formation was but Klingenberg and Chalupny werent. Ellis explained that with this formation Lloyd and Heath would slide inside allowing Klingenberg and Chalupny to get forward. It isnt really a bad theory as both backs get forward well...BUT...two things became very obvious very quickly. The US couldnt hold the ball long enough for Usain Bolt to get forward let alone her two backs and neither back could defend their side. The failure wasnt trying it, it was not reacting to what she learned. If she had brought in Krieger on right and either Dunn or KO on the left and maybe replace Holiday with either Huster, Boxx, or Johnston, she could have played for a draw and maybe steal the game. You absolutely cant be a hopeful coach and expect to win WC. U need to be reactive and have solid game plans for each team. That she thought this strategy would work against a fast French team was dumb from the get go. That she didnt react to developments during the game was dumber. And her explanation of what happened was the dumbest of them all.
So here are my thoughts after the game. I somewhat agree with the comments by Sauerbrunn after the game and this may be because my expectations where low but I don't think this team have a systemic problem like others are making it out to be. We don't need a complete overall. From my perspective, we have all the right parts to win, it's just a matter of putting them in the right place. That is something that can be fixed but we may be running out of quality games to solidify the starting 11. Therefore I'm not a full on panic mode because at some point we will run out of wrong moves to make and will stumble on the right one. Either that or this is the biggest scam in the history of women's soccer and Ellis already knows her starting 11 and is lulling the others into a false sense of security. So let's take this position by position and analyze what this game plus others have revealed. Goal keeping (The Solo Conundrum) While I agree Barny is a better keeper than Harris (not by much), I think the Solo situation is a wake up call for everyone such that they realize that Barny really is just a short term fix and if in the event Solo can't make the world cup (and you'll assume her NT career will be done by than), you want some one who is battle tested and can be the number 1 immediately. Also, given Barny's injury history, she's a risky choice. In this regard, I agree with starting Harris in this game and against England. Left back (The Thomis Trial) First mistake was in dropping Cox who was the only true left back in the pool after the game against France in June. Than the search begin. The first choice was Dunn but her continued injury problem means she can't be a preferred starter. Ellis have Kling as her utility fullback but really not a starter on the left. So than Chalupny was recalled. She did well for herself in Brazil but had to face the final trial against Thomis for Ellis to deem her a true starter. She was set up to fail from the beginning with no cover up top for the left winger. But she did well for herself though it doesn't look good that both goals came from her end. The good news for Chalupny is that it's too late to look for another LB so she may get the job after all. The one concern I have and have seen is that she should look to play the ball from the back more (which is something Cox excels at) and not rely on the long ball to Morgan. Centerback (It's all rainbows and unicorns) This position have been set for a while now. It will always be a combination of Sauerbrunn and Rampone/Engen with Johnston or RVH making cameos. In this last came, they were left out to dry by Brian and Holiday but they recovered well and had a great performance.