why does mathis get the blame for horrible all around performances? true he's not been good as of late, but who has?!?
Fault Not having any wing mids that can beat people 1 v 1 so we can force some of the opponents center backs to leave the middle. Not having any strikers who can create their own chance off the dribble, and none of them can beat a back 1 v 1 off the dribble. Are up top players are content with waiting up top with defenders on them, instead of creating up top space by leaving the middle and dragging a center back with them. So who fault is that? We don't have the right kind of player on this team at the important attacking positions at this point of time. Oh well maybe next season.
Mathis is main problem though others exist. Clint never runs onto ball in space, always tracks back and clogs midfield. National team player, highest paid Metro should take most blame as is supposed to be a scoring threat yet we score more when he is out. We did OK without him didn't we. Hence, Mathis is main culprit.
You're spot on. Lack of proper wing play has been an issue all season that just doesn't get rectified. Add to that Guevara, Digi, Lisi etc. who all dribble immediately into the center of the field and it is a surprise that we score at all. I still don't know why we didn't give McGee a shot at right wing in the Open Cup final. Putting Rico at D-mid was good, but RW on the wing was ludicrous. Ironically, he wasn't bad positionally, but every time he got the ball the play went dead. Digi started the season going 1 on 1. Why did he stop? Guevara has been the most dangerous in games where he worked the left corner. Watching the game Saturday I almost felt like I was watching Pareira-ball again. Ugh! V.O.R.
Because every time he went 1v1 he lost the ball. The real culprit is not having a third competent central defender so that we could play with three in the back and leave Gaven and Barto as dedicated flankers. Bob's done great with what he has, but hasn't shown much ability to improvise.
The rest of the team is getting paid max salary and isn't expected to lead the team and score goals, Mathis is.
You know what bothered me the most in the NE game. We hardly ever counter attack any more. Then we did, ball was moving up before the opponent could fall back. Then for some reason someone back passes and it was not high pressure. While they did that the opponents were falling back which ended the counter. I almost throw my TV out the window. If I had the team and saw that I would sub him out of the game. I would not care who the heck he was. That would send a good message to the rest of the team. Another thing I hate player like Mathis goes to the ball. He gets the pass and has no one in front of him, and he still passes back to the player that passed to him. Why is that? Don't they communicate with each other on the field? No one tells mathis he can turn up field?
I think Mathis has played pretty well recently, granted he hasn't been lighting up the scoreboard, but he can't do it all by himself either. It wasn't Clint who kicked a gimme-goal straight into the hands of Reis on Saturday, it was Guevara. Don't get me wrong, I think Guevara is a great addition to the team, and one of the best mids in the league, but you just can't put all the responsibility for the team's struggles lately on Clint's shoulders. It isn't fair and it's doesn't make any sense. We haven't been finishing well at all since practically the San Jose game back in July, we are probably one of the worst passing teams in the league, and let's be honest - quite a few guys on this team are questionable as MLS-caliber players. And that is somehow all Clint's fault?
At this level of the game, in the US, most of the players are pretty decent. There are a few real stars and some clinkers that got thru, but by and large they all can play the game. So, put simply, the person who elects to go without any consistent wing play game after game. The person who allows the midfield to endlessly clog. The person who allows his forwards to simply not shoot The person who allows corners and set pieces to go by game after game without creating a consitent plan. Clearly anyone who follows the game can see this and Bob has a lot of good qualities and we're appreciative of what he's contributed thus far. However, he's really gotta address the above. Every other team we play sees this weakness. So, Bob how about steppin up and doing your job...not the easy part, not the part where you do wonders for the young draft picks. Yes, we are asking for a little more. Yes, we are used to a coach that did shite. You are so much better than OZ, so show us. Get to work and solve the above problems with what you got to work with.
i agree w/studsup. I know i dont kno what goes in practice but it seems like the same problems we've had just dont go away. and this leads me to believe that Bob is not addressing them in practice. I have never seen a team so afraid to shoot. we all know they never shoot, im sure every other team in the league by now knows we never shoot. this just seems like something a coach would drill into the heads of the players if it went on 4 more than 1 game. maybe this is all just a rope-a-dope tactic to fool New England before the playoffs.
YESS!!! Based on some of these posts, apparently I'm not the only one who thinks that we need WINGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!
ITA. Those back passes, especially from Mathis, simply allow the opposition time to organize. If he's being tightly marked and cannot do much with the ball, JUST DON'T come back for a meaningless touch. It's better off if he leads his marker to some other place and open up the space.