Are you saying that Josh Wolff should have got a PK? Cuz that's not the same as Josh Wolff getting a goal.
Yeah, he did earn it. I thought we also earned more fouls at the top of the box than were allotted. Seems like they were pulling our players down from behind a lot on Sunday.
My thoughts on the match. Well for 30 seconds I was happy, only then to be crushed by the lack off effort. Major weakness, midfield or lack of really. Everytime we got the ball it was *hoof* the ball over the midfield looking for one of the strikers. Which I guess it is fine if it was 20 years ago and we were Wimbledon. Or if they were the Crew and a crap team with a horrible back line. That is not going to win very many games. The only time an attack started in the midfile is when KZ or Sasha broke up an attack and countered from there. Midfield is nothing but a place to break up attacks. There is no creating done there, which will be our downfall.
Well, look at who our midfielders are. KZ - d-mid. Strengths are breaking up the other team's attack and then countering. Victorine - doing well so far, good 2-way guy Jewsbury - meh Enter Dave van den Bergh!
but as I've stated on van den Bergh, he's a left sided player, and in the 4-3-3 the midfielders are more central, it doesn't make that much sense to play him as a central midfielder when he's a left sided winger/wing forward. And personally I think Jack has been one of our better players so far this season.
The problem is that there is no width in a 4-3-3 midfield. The midfielders are there to muddle up the middle and take possession back. In our setup KZ and Sasha are there to stop the other team and get the ball distributed to one of 6 players: the full backs, Jack or the three forwards. They did their job. The biggest issue I saw was that Josh and Eddie didn't move as much as needed to be outlets for the midfielders or outside backs to get the ball to.
There's got to be more checking-in from the forwards in the 4-3-3... and they simply didn't do that on Sunday. I also agree with whoever it was that said they thought Jack had been one of our best players thus far this season.
Dallas was Jewsbury's worst game though. We ran multiple short corners that had him crossing to the back post. I don't know if it's just a poor play that doesn't give him enough time, but one he missed by about 15 yards and the other about 30. His service is still light years ahead of 2005 Klein. He also tried to play Josh and EJ through a couple times too close to the endline, when the right play was to slow it up, and if the defenders didn't come out to press him, to take a shot on goal. However, I also thought he got fouled in the box once, and was unlucky to have another good shot blocked.
I agree on both of these Jeff, he definitly had his worst game so far this year against Dallas, and definitly agree that his services on corner have been a lot better then Kleins. And Chad, who doesn't like my dashing good looks?
What about withdrawing Josh a little, and playing a diamond midfield after vdB arrives? -----------Johnson-----------Arnaud---------- ---------------------Wolff-------------------- ---v.d.Bergh--------------------Victorine------ --------------------Zavagnin------------------ ---Burciaga----Garcia---Conrad---Groenwald----
I doubt Gansler is going to be changing formations after just changing it. I think if anything we'll see what happened at the end of the Dallas game, Arnaud dropping into midfield and V.D. Bergh going up top.
You mean in that Bobby Rhine meets Taylor Twellman kind of way? Hey I could've said in that John Wolyniec meets Ronnie O'brien kind of way... I guess I would be in that Hristo Stoichkov meets Tony Meola kind of way though...
Not to break up the Hot or not.com talk, but I'd like to see this too when VDB finally joins. The guy specializes as a left winger in a 4-3-3, something very unique in MLS. Why not capitalize on that and just get better at what we're doing? Arnaud can fight for a forward spot or drop back and make his case there.
As I've said before, that's how I want to see it as well. Although with the way the current form has been, Jack stays in the midfield and it's Wolff that fights for his forward spot.
Changing the way it's layed out is changing the formation. If we push two of our 3 midfielders out wide and drop a forward in behind like an attacking mid (like Sachsen's lineup) we're basically playing a 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield. Like Szazzy said V.D.B. has played as a left winger in a 4-3-3 before and if we're playing a 4-3-3 why play him anywhere different? Whether you consider it a change of formation or not it is a change of tactics and maybe I should have said that first but I don't think Gansler is going to change the way we play halfway through the season right after just changing it.