I agree. Brugman, Raveloson and Delgado in the middle was a beautiful sight to behold. It reminded me of Barcelona back when they had Xavi, Inesta and Busquets in the middle. This is why I want Costa in the False 9 Messi role to feed Chicharito and DeJan. The when the fullbacks push forward you'd get a 5 man midfield with Brugman acting as sweeper of a 3 man back line when he gets flanked by a Centerback on both sides. UGHHH this dang team could be Super Heroes if Vanney would just let it happen.
I'd rather have Costa at false 9 over Raveloson and I'd keep DePuy as a sub and put Williams into his CB spot and let Brugman play in that sweeper spot instead. That being said, your lineup is still really good just super defensive and it thins out the our bench on defense a bit too much for my liking.
VIDEO: Catch the complete Post-Game Media Availability with Vanney, Joveljic, and Bond.📼 https://t.co/kN5YTWw3C7#LAGalaxy #MLS #CH14#LAvATL— Corner Of The Galaxy (@GalaxyPodcast) July 25, 2022 press conferences here (for LA)
Doyle tries to get thru to Vanney for the umpteenth time: Toronto's Italian makeover looks amazing, Orlando's offense is MIA & more from Week 22 | MLSSoccer.com The addition of Gaston Brugman to the central midfield mix worked for the Galaxy, as he and Mark Delgado mostly sat deeper as a double pivot while Rayan Raveloson pushed up as more of a box-arriving attacking midfielder in Greg Vanney’s 4-2-3-1 formation. But still, I’m gonna say the thing: playing the 4-2-3-1 puts the Galaxy in a situation where they’ve only got one guy on the field who can reliably put the ball in the back of the net (and truth be told, I’m not even sure Chicharito qualifies as that anymore). Yes, Cabral finally got his first goal of the season – he stabbed home a rebound from literally less than a yard out – but the Galaxy spent the game’s final 35 minutes holding on for dear life ...edit....At some point, Joveljic has got to be the full-time starter.
Time got away from me yesterday from posting a thank you for doing the maths. That said, one down, four to go!
I didn't pay much attention to his defensive efforts yesterday so I am not arguing with your point about his effort. But from just looking solely at fbref.com stats he looks ok on pressing (# of times putting pressure on opposing player who is receiving, carrying or releasing the ball) but poor on their other defensive stats (tackles, interceptions and blocks). Note: These should be mentally adjusted for playing time. Rayan and Delgado played entire game, Cabral sat out last 15 minutes and Costa and Brugman sat out a third of the game (played 63 minutes). Pressing: Kevin 13, (tied 4th-5th on team). Rayan 19, Brugman 17, Delgado 13, Costa 5(??!) Tackles+Interceptions+Blocks: Kevin 2 (tied 8th-16th). Brugman 7, Rayan & Delgado 4, Costa 3, So based just on the defensive stats from this site Cabral seemed ok at pressuring the ball but poor at forcing turnovers. He won the ball only twice, making 2 tackles but no interceptions or blocks. Note that Costa was even worse defensively, doing almost no pressing (5) and winning the ball just three times. Delgado was average across the board: 13 presses, 2 tackles, 1 interception and 1 block. Rayan surprisingly (to me) lead the way on pressing with 19. But he had no tackles or interceptions but did have a healthy 4 blocks. Finally Brugmans class showed up across the board: 17 presses, 5 tackles, 1 interception and 1 block. Remember Gaston only played 63 minutes. The other indirect way a player can help the defense is by helping the team keep possession. That will show up as a lot of touches and a high pass completion rate. Touches, starting mids: Brugman 70 (in 73 minutes!), Costa 56 (also good for only 63 minutes.), Delgado 55, Cabral 44, Rayan 38. Pass completion: Costa 92%, Delgado 88%, Cabral 82%, Gaston 80 (??!), Rayan 79(??!). The common view is that Cabral works hard and runs a lot. However in this game of the starting mids only Rayan touched the ball less (btw 38 touches in 90 minutes is a stat of someone who isn't working hard and fits the "Rayan is lazy" narrative). Also none of Cabral, Gaston or Rayan were accurate passers, completing only 79-82% of their passes. So Cabral didn't help with possession either. Not sure what is going on with Gaston's passing. He aced every other stat, but not this one. Did he try a lot of difficult long passes or tight passes in the final third?
Gaston had some missed easy passes. First game in a while sort of errors. Also showed some intelligent passing in working out of trouble. Cabral tracked back well yesterday.
No one's slick as Gaston. No one's quick as Gaston. No one's passes are quite as damn sick as Gaston. For there's no midfielder half as dead-on. Perfect, a pure paragon. You can ask any Mark, Chich or Rayan. And they'll tell you whose team they prefer to be on...
This solves a some issues, but creates others for me, particularly creativity. But I mean, I would've run this out by now. Why not? Having both Costa and Cabral out was a good opportunity to give it a shot. I mean, it's rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic to an extent. A lot of our midfielders are flawed, which is the main thing. You could nudge Vanney away from trying to be so possession-oriented, but neither Chicharito or Dejan are counter-attack guys either; that's where it'd help to have a Grandsir or Cabral in a countering line-up.
There are some interesting takeaways from this; would be interesting to see averaged over the season. I didn't think this was necessarily a great Galaxy performance, so maybe it's not that representative, but still interesting nonetheless. We've performed better in games we've lost recently, I think, but only fell behind early or switched off momentarily. But to the data -- I...don't know what Raveloson's role is. Like, I get that Vanney sees him as a late runner into the box and he had some nice moments in this game, being involved in the build-up of some good chances. But he doesn't get on the ball enough otherwise and I don't know exactly what he's supposed to be doing when he's not in the middle 3rd. Is he like a ball-carrying 8? As to Cabral, he does close down quickly and press earnestly, which Vanney seems to value.
Exactly how it feels to me at this point. Six of one and half a dozen of another. This team is fractured with a coach that keeps the band playing hoping his schemes will help the team survive to the playoffs, somehow. But there is no consistency to our play while the ship keeps taking on more water. I don't know where the tipping point will be but it is depressing to watch all this go down. I am hoping with the fans, but yeah, I have that feeling also.
I can see the advanced midfield role elements to Rayan's game at times. He has scored some goals (mostly last year) so I can see it. But I thought against Atlanta he didn't quite find the right spots in this role and he made some bad passes/decisions. And then it got worse when he was asked to drop back into Gaston's role when Gaston subbed off. Not a great performance for RR to my eyes.
We had 14 remaining games and needed 7 victories to make playoffs (conventional wisdom stuff). We now have 13 remaining and need 6 victories. A quick look at our schedule and I see Group 1) we play Vancouver twice and SKC twice. MLS power rankings of today have them 25th and 27th respectively. 4 victories? Come on Galaxy, you can do it. That would mean we'd be looking for 2 victories or 6 points in group 2 and 3. Group 2) Quakes at 26th in power rankings- we play them away in Cali Classic. We play Houston once - away on decision day. Hopefully they are out of contention by then and just mail it in Salt Lake are starting to stall but the main thing is we play our remaining game with them home. Colorado can be tough away but we play our remaining game with them home. Seattle we already played tought and now we play them home The next group is tough away games. I'd look to pick up 3 points total either by 1 upset or 3 draws Group 3) Dallas, NE, Toronto, Nashville, all away in tough venues. Moral of the story is win the games you're supposed to win and we're in playoffs. No need to fall apart just because we lose in 97 degree weather in Dallas coming up on the week end. It is supposed to rain as well. And they didn't mention lightning delays yet.
Highlight Time Folks The potential! The potential!! The Potential!!! The Brugman signing is great and if what I saw was not a fluke, this man changes this team significantly. I said it earlier but it bares repeating,...With Brugman joining Delgado and Raveloson, you get a midfield 3 that has the ability to function in the same way Barcelona operated during the reign of Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets. Brugman takes on Busquets defensive duties Raveloson takes on Iniesta's advancing duties Delgado takes Xavi Box-to-Box duties Here is a good video that explains how they functioned and why they were such a pain in the a$$. If this team really wanted to do it they can attack like those Barca squads did as well. It's really just a matter of putting your best people into the attacking spots. In this game we saw Cabral and Costa in the game. Due to his form I don't mind Costa but I'm done with Cabral getting major minutes,...especially as a forward. We should have been playing with DeJan in that spot. The first goal is basically a Barca style goal that starts with a Xavi to Iniesta setup. Delgado gets the ball and passes to Raveloson who passes to Chicha who dropped back false 9 style and passes it to Costa who cuts across from the right. Costa path is blocked so he passes it back to Chicha who is now advancing for the shot at goal with Delgado right behind him incase just in case. Chicha takes the shot but the keeper blocks it causing a rebound right into the path of a wide open Cabral on the left. End Result = Galaxy Goal. I have seen Xavi and Iniesta do that same thing a million times with Messi in the Chicharito spot, Pedro in the Costa spot and David Villa in the Cabral spot. If they want to do an overlapping fullback that's easy as well. Say for instance Brugman gets a turnover. He starts the play with either a simple pass to Delgado who then plays to an advancing Araujo; or Brugman instead passes directly to Araujo who would then work his way up the flank alongside Delgado and Costa in support. Once high enough, Araujo overlaps Costa who cuts inside to receive Araujo's cross. Costa can then either shoot it himself if he is open or he can pass it to Chicha. Chicha can then either go forward and take the shot himself or he can drop back false 9 style and pass to DeJan or Rayan who are advancing forward for the finish. The whole time Delgado is underneath Chicha for support. This exact same thing can happen on the opposite side with Edwards, Raveloson, DeJan and Chicha. Vanney please dude!! I'm begging you!! Start DeJan into this lineup DeJan---Chicha---Costa ------Rayan---Delgado ----------Brugman They will smash teams like the Hulk smashes everything else!!
It was Delgado to Brugman to Chich to Rayan to Costa - which makes your point even more. Every one of our front 6 touches the ball on that goal. Also, after he makes the vertical pass that really starts the play, Brugman makes a run into the box and darts near post, which drags the Atlanta centerback with him and opens the space for Chich to take the shot.
You are right. I put that in the wrong order. This would be a Busquets to Messi with Iniesta & Pedro for support type play. Brugman to Chicha to Rayan to Costa then back to Chicha for the shot followed by Cabral for the rebound goal with Brugman underneath Chicha for additional support. I recorded the game so I will need to go watch the moment Delgado gets the ball forward so Brugman can start the sequence. Man on Man I hope Brugman is not a fluke. A Galaxy team that suddenly goes from hoping to win against teams we should smoke into playing Barcelona style Tiki Taka would be hilariously awesome. Edit: Yep I just realized that's indeed in the same highlight video. Delgado cuts off the ball from Atlanta's keeper and passes it to Brugman to start the sequence. Just excellent awareness by the midfield.
@mbar 's summary earlier was the same as mine. At least we got the three points? I literally laughed when Cabral missed. But I cheered when he scored. Man, he needs to be off the team, but I pull for him so hard in these games. Same with Samuel. I'm too much of a softie (and again, to be clear, they should be replaced). We live to see another day.
There's a wrinkle in this one. It's actually Brugman who passes to Javi after taking the inside space right up the gut. What's not seen in the replay is the key. The Atlanta keeper starts the play by taking a clearance kick right up the middle over Brugman's head but Delgado has already shifted into the central space Brugman usually occupies and puts a beautiful header down to Brugman who relays the ball to Javi who backpasses to Raveloson for the diagonal to Costa for the cutback to Javi. The typical MLS replay cuts out the genesis of goal scoring plays which is too bad. ps edit: Took a second look and see I cheated Javi out of some credit on this one. He presses the keeper who takes a hurried clearance to 2 Atlanta shirts near the center circle where Delgado has moved over to take Brugman's usual space. I originally remembered a goal kick but it wasn't a goal kick. Javi is involved 3 different times on this play.
Thank you for noticing Chich’s non-scoring contributions. I’m a lonely voice here saying he is playing better than his recent goal drought indicates. Even in these scoreless games (where our crappy midfield gives him almost no quality service, just blind crosses that are useless for a player of his type) he still does a lot of other things well: he is continually pressing and urging his teammates on, makes several great attack-launching passes and keeps working from the moment he steps on the field until he is subbed out. I’m not arguing for him to be continued as our long term DP, his age makes anything more than year to year contracts too risky, but he isn’t our main problem. In this last game the addition of Brugman organized our midfield and we finally got some good in-the-box passing happening. The result was Chich’s too hot to handle shot that created our first tap in goal. That is exactly what Chich hasn’t been getting. With Brugman helping our midfield composure I will go on record predicting that, barring injury, Chich will get 9 or more goals+assists in our remaining 14 games. He’s not our weak link like some seem to think.
TrickHog brought this same thing to my attention already thus my revision in my response. However the point of how this midfield can work going forward remains and its just up to Vanney to allow it to happen.