4-0, no effort, no passion, no desire...this team has run out of excuses, they just flat out suck right now.
A complete and utter embarassment. Again. If SN doesn't change things up before Chivas next thursday (ie GO TO A 3-5-2), then he shouldn't be coaching this team. A 2-year-old could have realzied a couple weeks ago that the 4-4-2 wasn't working, but Nicol has ignored any rational thinking and decided to stick to his failing strategy. Ugh. On the rest of the team, I don't even know where to begin. Can't think of a player who played remotely well. I can't think of a player who even came close to trying. No effort whatsoever. That's not to mention that any USL team would have smoked us today as well. I don't care how injured he is, Ralston better be back next game. We don't stand a chance without him
I have a question to you guys who favor the 3-5-2 (which I'm not necessarily in disagreement with): Don't you think the squad should have the personnel to be able to play several formations? Shouldn't the players be coached on how to play properly in several formations, and not restrained to one?
Games like this really show how little depth the Revs have. Once you get past their starting 11, the quality drops off significantly. A team like the Crew is able to bring effective players in off the bench that can make a difference. The Rev's have nothing. Their second tier players can barely play at MLS level (Thompson, Igwe, Tierney, Phelan, Smith, etc.). I think the Revs were over achieves in the first half of the season and were lucky to do as well as they did. I really don't think they have a team this year good enough to win the cup and the SS is quickly getting out their reach too. The referee, Geiger, was his usually crappy self but the team have no one to blame but themselves for this loss.
Yes they should, but right now we don't have the personnel to do it. Between injuries and open roster spots, the players aren't there to play several formations and based on the last month's performance, our defense doesn't have the slightest idea how to play in a 4-4-2. In a perfect world, the team would be able to play in multiple formations and if Nicol wants to try switching to something else besides a 3-5-2, fine. But sticking to the 4-4-2 can only lead to us getting blown out. Everyone else has realized that the 4-4-2, for whatever reason, doesn't work for us, but Nicol has been content not to change from it. Now we have one win in our last 9 games and got beaten 4-0 twice in the same week. Yeah, the 4-4-2 is working great.
Ralston coming back was Greg Lalas' key to the Revolution getting better, for those that didn't here it after the game ended. Agreed. 3-5-2 against Chivas is a must. I'm curious though to see how this line-up would do latter on this season: Reis Albright-Parkhurst-Badilla-Heaps Nyassi-Joseph-Larentowicz-Castro Twellman-Dube/Mansally/new forward I'm pretty sure the Revs and Crew are playing a reserve game tomorrow morning. I hope to see some guest players out there trying out for a spot.
Chicago-NY Score, highlight to reveal: Chicago 1-0 New York. If the score holds, Revs slip to 3rd in division. If season ended today, we would play Chicago in the 1st round with the 2nd game in Chicago.
Omigod. I actually couldn't bear to watch until the end. The other night against Joe P I had brought my cousin to watch, and he likes Toronto because he is a fan of Joe Cannon. He saw the shellacking Toronto gave us and then the embarrassing game against Joe P. He must wonder what I see in this team. Yes we really need Ralston back, Coach better go back to the 3-5-2, I actually liked the 4-4-2 for I thought we needed the xtra defense, but what we need is more attack from the midfielders! I want Wells back instead of Khano too. Please heal fast Dube so I can see you do the kangaroo dance, we are dying here! I usually so look forward to watching the Revs, and for the first time in years I am not excited about Thursday. Please rest up guys and remember how good you can be!
Early in the season wasn't there a lot of talk about how Albright was most comfortable in a 4-back formation? Indeed, he looked shaky in the 3-5-2 early on, but after the first handful of games, he's been solid up until the last few with the supposed more comfortable arrangement. Tierney's been too exposed of late after an okay start. Shalrie and Larentowicz have been getting taken off the ball too frequently and too easily. Khano has been working hard, but just isn't good enough. Just too much stuff gone wrong all at once. One hopes that Ralston is the key that puts all that back together, but that seems pretty wishful right now.
Your welcome, lets hope the Pats come up with win, at least its some sort of futbol. I will be there Thursday to cheer my Revs!
More thoughts, to play devil's advocate: We're all asking for a 3-5-2 instead of 4-4-2, even me. But the 4-4-2 worked out very well in SuperLiga, even without Parkhurst. It was Igwe/Tierney-Heaps-Larentowicz-Albright, so why is the defense worse today with Parkhurst in on the backline and Larentowicz with Joseph at DM? Also, how effective would the offense be in a 3-5-2 without Dube, Mansally, Cristman, Ralston, and the recent form of Thompson and Khano? Is it worth sacrificing a defender? What do you think?
The wheels are officially off the bus. There are so many things that are wrong right now. Can things improve? There's another game in 5 days. Right now, they don't look like they could beat a college team.
I think that the best defense is a good offense. With Ralston in the lineup for SuperLiga and a competent group of strikers, we had the offensive power to use a back four and still spend more time in the attacking zone then the defensive zone. Now a lot of that offensive power is gone and we are spending very little time in the attacking zone. That means that we are spending a lot of time defending and not much time going for goal. Switching to a 3-5-2 will allow our offense to put more pressure on the other team and take some off our defense.
Ok. I thought I read that on a Crew or Columbus website. Something like 10am, "free to the public". Too bad.
That was my feeling too. Having the extra defender pushes Shalrie and Jeff up and then the opponents have way too much room to make problems. The Crew's defenders didn't look that good, but it was effective against the Rev's due to their lack of ... ... ... offense. The Crew's midfield (and Rev's back passing) helped a lot to shut down whatever the Rev's were trying to put together.