Piol and Gozo have pretty high ceilings imo but need playing time to get there. Last night Piol was much much better than Barea. Defenders have to account for Piol because he makes runs and recycles runs continuously. Last night no one even seemed to look his way when he did. He also was active in the defensive press. Gozo is getting more confident with each opportunity. His all around game needs work, other than the motor and the desire; but last night the main area for development that was apparent to me was that final decision to be made in the box. I think all of the above posts about Goncalves are accurate. Pablo alluded to the talent and skills last night and said he’s still finding his way with the team. At the same time we have to admit that he might never produce at a DP level here. The above observations about his lack of fight are disturbing. I was on the other side of the stadium and missed the details. In this league they will run right over you if you don’t fight. The dilemma is that Pablo can’t sit him. As I posted elsewhere, the highly paid players in American sports don’t sit. I think Russell was on the bench last night to be used only if we were a goal down late in the game where his defensive form wouldn’t have mattered.
Unless we're talking about the NBA. Game load management is the worst thing introduced to pro sports...
That's free beer at 7 goals the rest of the year* *barring injury/the premise is that he's getting starting minutes.
That's probably the only way to do if you want to play Eneli and Ojeda in the middle. Then you aren't playing Katranis.
Trevor from wasatch sentinel went right at Pablo in the postgame asking if there is actually competition for Diogos spot Pablo says the backup only has 2 professional games… who is he talking about?
Saying Russell would be a defensive liability seems like such a weak excuse. I'm not saying play him for 45, but I'm sure he could easily go 10-15. Worse than a completely gassed Luna, or Diogo who doesn't fight for anything?
It's not Wolff. Could be referring to Brook or Barea. Neither has two starts (3&1). Hard to believe that Barea has already passed Brook and Wolff (60 appearances) if that's what he's implying. There's some big whiffs from the club lately that's been pretty solid with their signings over the last several windows. So many guys need to be playing at the Monarchs if they aren't playing with RSL, but there's such a huge difference between that and MLS that I'm not sure that's even the best idea.
Exactly, especially in a 3 games in 8 days situation. I believe only 3 subs were used on Wednesday. Crazy.
Correct Pablo’s unwillingness to play Russell is crazy That he rode a visibly slower Luna the full 90 was crazy. He got lucky to not give up a goal late so that sort of justifies not subbing across the back, but I’d rather he go for it at home
This might seem to be counterintuitive, but I think keeping Luna in was, actually, Pablo going for it. I interpreted it as him thinking Luna gave us our better chance to score.
We basically play 3 in the back in the attack. Katranis pushes WAY up, even in front of Eneli/Ojeda. Our RB typically holds a bit more defensive shape. Ojeda/Eneli sometimes invert but typically remain a double pivot. Then you have Luna floating or way up playing next to the striker, Diogo in the CAM spot, Marczuk on one wing, and the other wing sometimes moves ahead and towards the middle. So it is basically a 3 / 2 / 3 / 2 in the attack now. When we take a defensive position we have 4 in the back.
My point is, remove Diogo, shift Luna in to the CAM spot (where Diogo plays now), move Gozo up top where Luna currently floats, and promote another wing to play opposite Marczuk. Defensively, it is more of a 4 / 4 / 2 or a 4 / 2 / 4 however you want to look at it. I think you get a little more dangerous with that lineup. Plus Diogo can taste that Utah pine for once.
I guess that was my question: who do you put opposite of Marczuk who can cover that wide left spot in defense? Could Brook cover that much ground? Maybe it would be least disruptive to just have Katranis in his regular spot and have Gozo line up on the wing, but drift into the wide forward position in attack.
In these formation discussions how would Luna’s role of coming back deep to rescue our back line when they can’t beat the press be accounted for? Because he often does that. In every game so far this season.