I thought this analysis was so-so, or at least incomplete. The three areas that he touched upon - central defense, target striker, and dead balls - all need improvement. But after yesterday's game, much more than that was evident: Skill on the ball and good decision making in the back is needed at every defensive position. Our defenders have given the ball away far too often, keeping our team under constant pressure. I first brought this up after the Mexico friendly. We need to upgrade our outside defenders to provide outlets to our midfielders. Vanney and Hejduk do not have high levels of skill. To compete against the best, we need outside defenders who can get into the attack, provide poise on the ball, and who can read the game and make themselves available when our midfielders are under pressure. The idea of moving Reyna and JOB to right and left back, respectively, might have been sneered at in the past, but it is something that needs to be thought about more seriously as Convey develops into our central midfielder. We need two players, not one, in the middle of the field, who can be dangerous at the international level on a consistent basis. They also both have to be committed to defense. One of the most impressive aspects of Convey's game yesterday was how willing he was to come back and defend. His workrate is underrated. The right midfield dilemma is still alive and well. Although DMB scored, he looked out of place much of the night. It was immediately apparent that his level of play rose when Stewart came in and DaMarcus shifted back to his comfortable left side. I still contend that Donovan could assume the EarnieGoal role and Mathis could start up top. MLS defending and international defending are two different animals, and young MLS defenders really need to ramp up their games.
Thanks - I've got Dish Network and have been unable to find it. I'll definitely check this out. Thanks to Nutmeg for confirming my thoughts about Convey yesterday - I just didn't feel he was anywhere near as poor as everyone else. Depth is our major problem, especially along the back line.
Though I've always secretly loved the Reyna and O'Brien wingback theory, I just disagree that this vision requires Convey as the central mid. I think that a lot of the turnovers yesterday were due to a lack of confidence in our ability to bring the ball up the middle as well as a lack of a holding midfielder getting open to receive passes from the back. Option A: Only one of O'Brien or Reyna plays as a back, leaving the other in the middle. Option B: Someone else is in the middle of the field, making checking runs to the ball and springing the attack. I don't think this will necessarily be Bobby's ultimate role with this team. (Bruce may not either - see "the great Bobby Convey experiment at left back of 2003" for details.)
This seems obvious. However, with an improved midfield along the lines of your point below, the defenders would have more options to move the ball forward rather than dumping the ball in the opposite half. Agreed. In the 4-4-2, we need to have both central midfielders have attacking/defending tasks. Convey/Martino seem to be able to do both. Reyna maybe the answer at right back. He doesn't have the speed and range to constantly be a threat down the line in Bruce's current scheme. If you have a strong right midfielder, then Reyna may be a good option for right back. 100% in agreement. I would have liked Convey to show a little better than yesterday, but he will learn in time...
JO'B as wingback = wingnut Any one who thinks JO'B's best position with the Nats would be as a defender is out of their minds. JO'B, simply put, is the most gifted player the USMNT has ever had. He is better than Reyna or Ramos were at their peak. And the scary thing is he is only going to get better. His ball control, passing and vision of the game are unparalleled. You don't put your best player at left back. He is our #10. He is, for lack of a better analogy, our Zidane. Look how lost they were without someone with composure on the ball against Turkey. Their was no focal point, no go-to guy. JO'B needs to transfer to a club team that will play him as the A-Mid. I don't care if it's in Scotland, Argentina, or even France; he needs to run the next team he plays for. The caveat being, of course, if FC Barcelona or Valencia want him.
Solid efforts by Conneley and Nutmeg. However, I am not sold on Convey as our A-Mid just yet. I thought he was o.k. defensively yesterday, but that would make me more sold on his future as d-mid. Offensively he added nothing to the attack yesterday, although our insistence on letting Frankie and Vanney direct the attack may have had something to do with that.
We know JOB can defend, but can Reyna? Would a healthy Reyna been more effective defensively than Hejduk was on Thursday? I don't know, I love the idea of packing our back line with skill but we can't overlook the fact that we need defensive prowess in our back. JOB gives both skill and D, I'm of the notion that he plays left back for us if we have Donovan or Reyna to play in the center of the midfield.
it's hard to judge Convey in the center of the field in this game given the poor performance by Armas. we were definitely weak in the middle. for a newcomer to the international scene, Convey was a bright spot. also, i continue to think that Donovan's role is in the midfield. he seems to disappear for too long when he's up front. if all of these midfielders develop, we have a surplus and JOB and Reyna may be the best options to move back. as others have noted, it would sure be nice to have some "skill on the ball" back there. JOB and Reyna on the back 4 would be a huge step forward for us in terms of overall skill level of the team.
I didn't think he was poor, I just thought that after the 20th minute or so, Turkey began roughing him up and that seemed to take him out of the attack. Did some good work on defense (when your 20 year old attacking midfielder was your best defensive player, there should probably be some finger pointing at the back line and d-mid). Connolly nailed the problem with set pieces and Berhalter's level of play. If DaMarcus Beasley is going to play for us for the next 11 years, we best learn how to punish teams on free kicks as we're going to see a lot of them. Mathis seems to be the most likely suspect to be a danger on the shooters. I think Donovan provides the best service on the balls in.
Probably would help if Hudson played him in this role so he could get more comfortable at the MLS level before being thrown into it at the international level.