Re: 10/4 Revs v. Real Grass Salt Lake I honestly don't think Jeff is playing as well has he was at the begining of the year. Be interesting to sit him down and see what Badilla can do
What's gone wrong? I'll stick to what's gone wrong ON the field: 1. Parkhurst gets bullied physically when he's forced to man-mark (how many times did Ale Moreno shove him aside? plenty). He needs to go back to a sweeper role in a 3-5-2. 2. Playing the 4-4-2 has also resulted in less offense because Nicol refuses to allow the outside backs to consistently attack (the way Hejduk does for Columbus). Albright is being wasted out there--he's only a so-so defender, and his biggest upside is that he makes THEM defend HIM. He did that constantly for LA. Once he put on a Revs jersey, his attacking forays have ceased. 3. With limited outside backs attacking, and physically bringing the ball up the flanks, we've fallen back on long balls, through balls and switches of field WHICH DON'T WORK ON FAKE TURF, much less wet fake turf. What was the Revs formula for success last year? An almost mechanical flank game of take it down, cross it in. Simple, but effective. And while defending cross in the air on fake turf is the same as on grass, defending crosses on the ground is a huge challenge, with the ball moving in faster and liable to bounce more. These days, far too much is going through the middle. Jeff L, god love him, is getting too WAY many touches on the ball. That's not his strength. Shalrie has been forced forward at times in an uncertain role. The team needs a rededication to flank play, bolstered either by turning loose the outside backs in a 4-4-2, or returning to a 3-5-2, which better suits Parkhurst.
Re: 10/4 Revs v. Real Grass Salt Lake I would like to see them try this and come onto the field with guns blazing.
Re: 10/4 Revs v. Real Grass Salt Lake no, which is why it teams silly to me. Why move a guy that is an established professional and National Team player at CB to CDM now?
Re: 10/4 Revs v. Real Grass Salt Lake Why not? Good players are flexible. I think this lineup is the best we could produce and vote YES for it. Someone forward it to SN totally off topic - Im in France and watching some soccer game on TV right now. I wonder if the coaches involved realize that these midweek games will just get their players tired
Re: 10/4 Revs v. Real Grass Salt Lake That is a good point. Either way, I would like to see the Africans and Twellman in all together upfront.
Re: 10/4 Revs v. Real Grass Salt Lake I am not so sure that this team is so different from the one we saw earlier in the season. While the Revs were in first place for so long I hoped they could have a successful season, but I never thought they would be a great team. The Revs were very fortunate to walk away with some of those 1-0 and 2-1 wins early on, especially the constant 1-0 victories in Superliga. The poor Revs defence offered the opponents lots of quality scoring chances but either the opponents' shooting was poor or great shots were saved by Matt Reis who stood on his head and was the first half MVP of this team, and maybe of MLS. Lately, the luck has evened-out, and the Revs have been exposed as an average MLS side that will lose if Matt Reis doesn't have the game of his life every week. What this team misses the most is a good central mid, like Dempsey or Dorman, so that Ralston can stay outside and Shalrie can stay deep. With Ralston in the middle our outside midfield has little quality and even less consistency. One thing that bothers me is that the Revs made what looks to be a good mid-season signing in Badilla, but when we play 4 men in back we have no offence, and Nicol does not have any confidence in Badilla's ability to play in a 3 man backline. So why did we sign him?
Interesting to read all these creating ideas, may of which conflict or contradict each other. IMO the current run of poor form since the Superliga win is between the ears of the players. Sports outcomes often have more to do with players mental focus than individual player ability, formations or tactics. I'm not sure why the team went into a funk after winning the Superliga but the team leaders and Coaching staff need to gets the players collective heads out of the crapper if they want to get back to the big dance.
Re: 10/4 Revs v. Real Grass Salt Lake its not like he is an old dog that can't be taught new tricks. He is what 23? seems to be a very good athlete. Was heaps an established right back that was asked to move to the left? Albright was a forward converted to a right back in a 4-4-2 and now a 3-5-2. Larentowitz a CB in college? its not that big of a deal
Doc, I agree the mental part needs to be improved, but I think we've learned a lot (perhaps some folks already knew it) this year about putting players in position for them to succeed. Twellman is not effective as a lone striker, the team needs an attacking midfielder on the field. Shalrie is not an attacking midfielder. Parkhurst seems less effective when he is not in a sweeper position. The only one of the above that I think is not absolutely certain (IMO) is the Parkhurst conclusion although it seems to be a accurate. I don't have a strong opinion on 4-4-2 or 3-5-2, but I think whichever one they go to, they need to address the above. I'm a big fan of Nicol, but I don't think this second half has been one of his best both for his tactics and his public comments.
I think the core group of players, Heaps, Reis, Twellman, Parky, Ralston and Joseph(Jackson) are exhausted, not just from this season but the previous ones as well. Three straight years of MLS Cups and the *thought* of making it again and not winning a fourth time in a row, has got to a be huge thing to play through. I think they will go out of the playoffs in the first round, very happily. I think they have no desire to win MLS Cup this year.
In answer to the original question, I think the amount of time Shalrie has spent at attacking mid (if we have such a thing) answers a lot of the question. Also, we just don't have the midfield to succeed in a 4 man midfield. No offensive flair to speak of in any of the central players. Nobody aside from Nyassi (who needs some more experience, especially in the crossing department) is likely to create an advantage by beating people off the dribble, nobody who can really unbalance a defense with a clever pass. We're generally successful when we possess the ball (especially in the attacking third) but we don't do enough of that when we don't have 5 in the midfield. Also, we rarely do long through balls from our half or near midfield so we don't really take advantage of any speed advantage we have at the forward position. Most of our longer passes ar high balls where we hope that our forwards can outduel bigger defenders for the ball.
I sure would love to see what would happen if you repeated thse two statements to the players you mentioned.
So what were they resting for then? Seriously, I can't imagine this being true, unless you are talking about their subconscious. Does the fear of another MLS cup loss taste that much worse than losing the ECF? I can believe they are playing discouraged because they don't think they have the talent to win, or believe that injuries have seriously dented their chances. I've questioned that myself! However, more than most MLS players, the Revs understand the difference between winning and losing the final can be razor thin. The 2008 Revolution wouldn't be the worst team to ever win MLS Cup.
Megan works at the Patriots HOF now, she said she walks by the Revs' offices a lot, I should find out if that word is painted along a wall (like the Raiders' "Commitment To Excellence")...
So is the adjective satisficient? Example: Revolution's personnel acquisitions this year have been satisficient.
It all went wrong on 8/12 when we forfeited the open cup semi-final. Results before then: WLWLTWLWWWTWWTLWWWTWWTWTL Results after the forfeit: LWTLTLLWTL 3 of those losses were by a 4-0 score. You can draw your own conclusion why the forfeit had this big of an effect. I have to think it was the combination of the injuries, the Psychological effect of the forfeit giving the players a "legitimate" excuse, and the three 4-0 losses creating an inkling of self doubt in the players minds. But what do I know? I'm just a 20 year old mackem
"You'd know all about teams crashing and burning," is what I'd normally say but then again nothing's going well at my Northeast team either so... Anyway, back to this country's Northeastern-most club: I have to say I agree. It just seems like once the foot was taken off the gas, the engine sputtered.