I'm worried about Delgado's covid because I've seen some guys get covid, come back and start for their teams because they think they are ok, when the truth is they take months to get back to 100%. I saw some staff people talk about it when covid was a new thing but I expect their FO would tell them to stop talking about it. Maybe the cure is the same anyway: Play yourself back to 100% Having said that, Putting Delgado and Gaston in midfield to push the possession game may work. If it does, the question will be who is in the CAM role? I personally like Rayan as an early 2nd half sub midfielder who sneaks into the box to score some goals. Some might prefer to try him outright in the spot we've been trying to play Sacha or VV or Costa or Efra or Aguirre. Here's my logic which dovetails with Sacha's constructive criticism when he says we need more than Chicha and Dejan scoring goals. I think we need 4 goal scorers (bold). -------------------dejan---javi -----------------------efra -----------rayan------------delgado ----------------------gaston ----edwards--derr--------sega----araujo Let delgado find the game defensively and let rayan find the game offensively. Problems? It's easy to run down the sides against the "skinny" diamond and edwards' defense is not his strong suit. 3142 /352 (who is 4th goal scorer? Should be one of wb's but do we have it?) ------------------dejan---javi --edwards--rayan-----delgado?--araujo --------------------gaston ------------cb--------cb------cb In a well functioning team, some half-goal scorers can add up to a whole. For example, a cb can run into the attack and head one in, especially with 3 cb's on the pitch and 2 dmids. I think @The Beautiful Gamer likes this one with Delgado taken out and a CAM added. I think what happens is that the game ends up "back and forth" with less possession. I.o.w., the game becomes more of one that tests our back line vis a vis a more possession style we would have with Delgado and Gaston both in there. Finally, the ol' 4231/433 with javi as a scoring 10 and our 2 french wingers thrown in. Will this work better with 2 real dmids and Rayan being a sub in the second half for offense? --------------------dejan -- ---g/sir----------javi------cabral-- -------------gaston---delgado ----edwards--derr----sega---araujo
In response: Vanney's game is possession. He needs 2 dmids to keep possession. We're just now getting a 2nd. Next problem up when he gets his wish? Find enough scorers. That's why the cherry on top in the Vanney system is the wb's. He's had a parade of them. I remember the lwb scoring a hat trick in Toronto. He converted Laryea to rwb. He went out and got Luxembourg's player of the year to play wb at one point. Vanney can get his system (identity) going with the right selection based on the MLS model of 3dp's Tam etc, but he'll need some people looking over his shoulder to remind him not to get so obsessed with certain players that he forgets to weigh their weaknesses into the equation. He loves to pretend that some players are fit enough to play when that just is not the case, e.g. Jozy, Bradley, Giovinco........they had some real groaners playing with nagging injuries. He also has to be pushed to play youngsters. He gets too caught up in tactics while missing the striving, battling element of the youngsters. Over time, the old players just get older and the youngsters stay "young". There's no balance.
I agree that Victor's and Sasha's age and slowness are issues. But I think our defensive problems run a lot deeper than that, so I looked at our stats in games with and without these players. The overall team defense since 5/14/22: Our 10 game regular season defensive collapse started on 5/14/22, allowing 20 goals over 900 minutes for an average of 2.0 GA per game. In games with Sasha played: 6 of these 10 games, Sasha playing only 170 of 900 min available, so 19% of available minutes. In the 6 games where Sasha played we allowed 12 goals, for an average of 2.0 GA per game. In the 4 games where Sasha didn't play we allowed 8 games for an average of 2.0 GA. In games with Victor: Victor played in 9 of the 10 games for 328 of the 900 min, so 36% of available min. In those games we gave up 17 goals, a 1.9 GA on average. But this doesn't mean much- the averages with and without have to be close because Victor just missed one game, the 3-1 loss to Dallas that was the start of our collapse. Summary: Statistically hard to pin this bad streak on Sasha since we give up the same # of goals in games with Sasha as games without him. Plus he's only on the field 19% of the time. The other 81% of the time our struggles come from someone not named Sasha. I mainly point this out not to defend Sasha, but to point out that he shouldn't be used as an excuse for our poor performances during this terrible stretch. Btw we score more in games where Sasha appears: 1.7 GF per game vs 1.4 when he doesn't play. So if you look at goal differential our team's performance has actually been better in games where Sasha appeared. Note: A weakness of my analysis is that I didn't look within games, just across games, nor did I adjust for Home vs Away or opp strength. But if Sasha is such a sieve it would have to be a big coincidence that we don't allow more goals in games where he appears.
I’m not pinning our problems on the two of them. I’m just suggesting that Vanney leaning so heavily on them may affect his credibility with the wider locker room. Particularly lately. I like Sacha and Victor. I just don’t think they can be more then window dressing at this point. hopefully a midfield trio of the new guy, Mark D and Rayan playing advanced will be the difference maker for this sad season.
Don't talk about months - I just tested positive today! I got a sore throat yesterday, still don't feel that bad, knock on wood everywhere.
Hope it’s as minor as mine was. 2-3 days of minor issues and then felt 100% fine. Tested positive for 11 though.
Here is the second goal we gave up. This goal is 100% on the back line. They are completely unbalanced, allowing themselves to be pulled all to one side of the field. Note that they only have 2 attacking players but because our entire defense has abandoned the danger area (area around pk spot) those two players find themselves in a dreamy 2 vs 1. Araujo at fault because he has been on walkabout. Williams (who I love) at fault because he has allowed himself to get waaaay out of positon, near the sideline. Gasper is on the touchline, on the wrong side of the third COL player. At this point DePuy has almost no chance. He follows the ball a bit too much, he should have hedged a little. But whatever he does it's over because Zardes has gotten behind our defense and is allowed to attack the acres of open space in the middle of the box. Well coached defenses stay compact - they don't allow opponents to take them on road trips or twist them into pretzels. Or in our case into a Mobius strip far from the goal.
I'm hoping for that. Good so far but who knows. Testing positive for 11 days though - that is a major pain in the ass. Did you take the anti-viral?
I would be shocked if Williams is talking about Sasha for many reasons. First Sasha has played <=21 minutes in 7 of the 10 games during our meltdown. Plus I think Sasha would be easy to talk to one on one, and would listen if Williams told him his concerns. It's much more likely to be a regular starter. I think Araujo, Edwards and even Sega are likely culprits - all of them leave him alone and outnumbered too often. And none of them are fighting to defend the area in front of the goal like he is. He could also be talking about all our midfielders not coming back enough to help. While I'm sure he gets frustrated at Sasha from time to time I doubt he is his main focus. I could be wrong of course.
As far as Covid goes it really comes down to a couple of things based on the individual. How they feel and how fast they recover will be based on if they got the vax or not, if this is the 1st time getting it and finally their overall age and health prior to becoming infected. If they got the vax then recovery is almost always possible and it happens in a shorter time in general. If they didn't get it (the vax) then they may not recover at all depending on other potential issues with their body based on age and general health. (The really young tend to be dang near immune out the gate whereas if you are in your late 40's and older and out of shape, it's not only easier to get but would be like catching flu and it potentially progressing into pneumonia). However if the unvaxed does recover, then they now have natural immunity. Now if this is the 2nd time they got it due to the various strains out there now, then in general the 2nd time is pretty much like going through a common cold and any complications at that point are pretty unique regardless of prior vax status. Being a pro athlete, I am assume all Galaxy players have been vaccinated; and if this is his 2nd time, then he is likely fine. Especially being that was an athlete post diagnosis. And being in good shape can ultimately aid in recovery time. All that being said, bringing in Brugman as a pure CDM means Vanney can either go super defensive in the middle if he wants by playing all 3 (Brugman, Rayan and Delgado) or he can have one of either Rayan or Delgado partner with Brugman to be the person that pushes up. Defensive 3 man midfield using a CDM sweeper Rayan---Delgado -----Brugman or Traditional 2 man center pairing with one man as attacker and the other as defender Rayan--Brugman or Delgado--Brugman If you want 4 proven goal scorers playing you have several options. Use your 2 best Forwards as much as possible in DeJan and Chicha along with having both Delgado and Rayan underneath allowing service to those pushing forward to come in from the wings. Or you go with Brugman as CDM and have one of the wingers go for goal as well. We won games on the first option before Brugman made the team. But now that he is here, I would be lying if I said I didn't want to see Lineup 3 as soon as possible. Option 1 Example: ---------------------------Chicha--DeJan Grandsir/Costa---------------------------------Cabral/Efra -------------------------Raveloson--Delgado Option 2 Example: -----------------------------------DeJan------Chicha Cabral/Grandsir--------Rayan/Marco-----Brugman-----Costa/Efra Option 3 Example: ----------DeJan------Chicha------Costa ----------------Rayan--------Marco ---------------------Brugman
Tylenol, Vitamin D and Zinc works wonders. I got the vax and still caught it twice. Both times healed in 3 days.
I got my second booster a couple months ago (did the switcheroo - 2 Pfizer vaccines, then Moderna boosters). That probably has helped.
I know several of you like this and it will likely be the way we go. But neither Delgado nor Rayan are good passers in and around the box. Hopefully an improved midfield will allow new guy to move up and deliver those magical passes he showed on his highlights and which are backed by his assist stats.
Listening to the media call was very interesting. It could be Vanney and Sacha are both spinning things, but their explanations seem credible and match what's observable (IMO). When asked to interpret Williams' comments, both echoed each other's sentiments that teammates are just having lapses in concentration in moments, not necessarily willfully going against the plan. I think that's probably true. I think the absences, the attrition of the season (Vanney mentioned some guys who are playing have been working through injuries, like Rayan) and a bit of lull in team-wide confidence are all factors. Doesn't mean this isn't a potential turning point in the season, though, where things can really spiral if not pulled back on-track. I do think the Colorado game was unlike other games. I don't think there were many positives in the game at all and we didn't play well consistently. In other games, we've played fairly well for long stretches and maybe had a momentary defensive lapse that lead to disaster, such as Julian giving up a PK or the completely unpredictable red card to Cabral. Interestingly both Vanney and Sacha talked about the lack of scoring, with Vanney calling out Cabral specifically. I don't know that there is a "systemic" defensive problem, except that we're very reliant on the fullbacks and teams know to attack us that way when they are pushed up.
During his time in Toronto, Bradley was one of the best CMs in the league. He had DPs that were pulling their weight at his disposal. I doubt anyone we could put in that triangle (Raveloson, Brugman or Delgado) is going to be a "best-in-the-league" caliber player, which is a challenge to controlling the midfield consistently, which is Vanney's goal. Can Costa play as a centrally oriented 10? I would probably at least try it. He created the best chance of the match with a perfectly weighted throughball versus Colorado. Vanney has already stated his intention to push Raveloson up as the further forward CM in that triangle, however.
The biggest culprit of this goal is Gasper however the defense is not solely to blame for the goal. It starts because of Gasper's terrible turnover. We had the ball on a throw-in and instead of waiting for guys to get in better position to get the ball forward, he quickly throws it back to Williams who has Zardes charging at him full speed. Williams plays it out of danger back to Gasper who then promptly proceeds to place the ball right back into the danger zone by passing it across our backline right into the path of an oncoming and wide open and Jonathan Lewis who had lost his mark in Raveloson in the midfield. Because of Gasper's lazy pass and Rayan losing his mark, Depuy is put into the spot of trying to close down Lewis's shot angle which he does. However because Gyasi was already running away from Williams towards the goal, Gyasi arrives in the perfect spot to receive the back hill pass that allows him to be one on one with Bond. And the rest is history. Gasper put us in a terrible spot, but Rayan losing his mark allowed for Colorado to get into position to exploit this mistake as well. Miscommunication between the midfield and backline is killing us as a whole defensively. Highlight Time Folks Go to minute 2 and watch the shenanigans unfold.
I’m positive Vanney told Cabral to finish his chances. And, Cabral is certainly defying the boss in that regard.
I forgot about that horrible pass by Gaspar. He definitely deserved an assist on their goal and was the main culprit. But Williams shouldn’t be over next to the touchline either. Bad turnovers happen in games and good defenses keep their balance so they can e handle such mistakes. You will almost never see a decent EPL team with their entire back line bunched up on one side of the field.