Houston - Postmatch
- Thread starter NYCFC_Dan
- Start date
Well, we may have lost like chumps but at least it was to the lowest-paid team in MLS.
All I'm going to say is if we hadn't forced the 3-5-2 on a game where we had no reason to play it, Ofori and Ibeagha wouldn't have been on the field.
Also this:
Also this:
Vieira wasn't wrong to experiment the 352 some more. He was wrong to play narrow against Houston though. Also I expect some extremely reasonable and high quality discussion in this thread so have at it.
Thought the 3-5-2 wasn’t terrible until Herrera went down. Seemed lost after that.
Was going to take a lot to ruin my MDW but a long term Herrera injury might do it.
Edit: did anyone else feel like PV couldn’t adapt again? Came in with a game plan and didn’t know what to do after Herrera went down or after his shit zonal marking failed him again. Maybe I’m wrong (or drunk) but damn when Herrera went down the team just looked lost.
Was going to take a lot to ruin my MDW but a long term Herrera injury might do it.
Edit: did anyone else feel like PV couldn’t adapt again? Came in with a game plan and didn’t know what to do after Herrera went down or after his shit zonal marking failed him again. Maybe I’m wrong (or drunk) but damn when Herrera went down the team just looked lost.
Last edited:
Frustrating performance against what was really not a great team - until Herrera went out NYCFC was getting a ton of space and moving the ball well, and Houston’s 3 goals were the result of not marking on a set piece, an awful give away at the back, and a well-executed counter. (Houston’s finishing was atrocious).
However, the team was completely inept in the second half - for the whole second half until the brain fart goal, NYCFC could not connect three passes forward. This is because they literally had no midfield: TMac was freaking walking and pointing, not playing, and Ofori had no clue how to pass the ball forward. Houston realized this and pressed more, knowing they didn’t have to fear getting passed around. And they were right.
I feel for Alex Ring. He’s being played out of position and saving tackles left and right. At one point it looked like he wanted to kill the rest of the team.
Several other things:
1. Berget runs, he opens up space on the field but for effs sake he needs to finish that 1:1 with the mighty Joe Willis. That makes the game 2-2. Instead a well-executed counter the other way and it’s another L.
2. I get that PV fell in love with the 3-5-2 against the Rapids. But come on just because it worked against Colorado, we all know about Houston’s speed and pressing. Come on, stop overthinking it.
3. Fuck zonal marking. That is all.
4. What is the deal with Chanot? Is he hurt? Wouldn’t it have been nice to bring him in after Herrera’s injury and slide Ring to his usual 6? Or, move Ring up and play a 4 man back line (bring in a winger *cough Lewis cough* or Shradi)? Everybody knew that Tommy Mac was going to SUCK trying to play Herrera’s role.
5. Stop trying to shoot over the keeper from 35 yards out. This applies to everyone on the team.
6. The team has a serious problem on the road - outscored 12-3 and 0-3-1 over the last four games. Shield contenders don’t shit the bed that much.
7. If Herrera is out for a significant time (broken bone or torn ligament) - this will negatively affect the team. He really made this formation work and now they don’t have a backup for him. Ugh.
However, the team was completely inept in the second half - for the whole second half until the brain fart goal, NYCFC could not connect three passes forward. This is because they literally had no midfield: TMac was freaking walking and pointing, not playing, and Ofori had no clue how to pass the ball forward. Houston realized this and pressed more, knowing they didn’t have to fear getting passed around. And they were right.
I feel for Alex Ring. He’s being played out of position and saving tackles left and right. At one point it looked like he wanted to kill the rest of the team.
Several other things:
1. Berget runs, he opens up space on the field but for effs sake he needs to finish that 1:1 with the mighty Joe Willis. That makes the game 2-2. Instead a well-executed counter the other way and it’s another L.
2. I get that PV fell in love with the 3-5-2 against the Rapids. But come on just because it worked against Colorado, we all know about Houston’s speed and pressing. Come on, stop overthinking it.
3. Fuck zonal marking. That is all.
4. What is the deal with Chanot? Is he hurt? Wouldn’t it have been nice to bring him in after Herrera’s injury and slide Ring to his usual 6? Or, move Ring up and play a 4 man back line (bring in a winger *cough Lewis cough* or Shradi)? Everybody knew that Tommy Mac was going to SUCK trying to play Herrera’s role.
5. Stop trying to shoot over the keeper from 35 yards out. This applies to everyone on the team.
6. The team has a serious problem on the road - outscored 12-3 and 0-3-1 over the last four games. Shield contenders don’t shit the bed that much.
7. If Herrera is out for a significant time (broken bone or torn ligament) - this will negatively affect the team. He really made this formation work and now they don’t have a backup for him. Ugh.
I don't want to criticize too much because our front office has done a really nice job of player acquisition lately, but we spent two offseasons trying to bring Ofori in.
Berget is so frustrating. He makes good runs and is in good spots, but he's never able to anticipate where the ball is going to go. He reacts to where it's been, not where it's going.
Matarrita already had one foot on the plane, was he even on the field? At least Tinnerholm gave us something.
McNamara was a good player for us. The league has passed him by, though. He's no longer a viable player.
That's two weeks in a row the team told us Chanot was fit and healthy, and he still didn't make the 18. Either they're lying, or he's fallen out of favor. Strange.
I don't hate sitting Medina and Tajouri-Shradi. Medina's young, let's manage his minutes. And Shradi just came off injury, no need to push him out of the gate. Hopefully he starts next game.
We were going so well with a 4-3-3, I'd like to see us go back to that. If Herrera is out for a while, I really don't know who gets that spot. I guess Ofori by default because we're all of a sudden really thin in that position. I also think Ofori needs to play higher up the field. Something like this now that Matarrita is gone for the next month or so:
Medina-Villa-ITS
--Maxi-Ofori----
------Ring-------
Tinnerholm-Chanot-Callens-SAS
Berget is so frustrating. He makes good runs and is in good spots, but he's never able to anticipate where the ball is going to go. He reacts to where it's been, not where it's going.
Matarrita already had one foot on the plane, was he even on the field? At least Tinnerholm gave us something.
McNamara was a good player for us. The league has passed him by, though. He's no longer a viable player.
That's two weeks in a row the team told us Chanot was fit and healthy, and he still didn't make the 18. Either they're lying, or he's fallen out of favor. Strange.
I don't hate sitting Medina and Tajouri-Shradi. Medina's young, let's manage his minutes. And Shradi just came off injury, no need to push him out of the gate. Hopefully he starts next game.
We were going so well with a 4-3-3, I'd like to see us go back to that. If Herrera is out for a while, I really don't know who gets that spot. I guess Ofori by default because we're all of a sudden really thin in that position. I also think Ofori needs to play higher up the field. Something like this now that Matarrita is gone for the next month or so:
Medina-Villa-ITS
--Maxi-Ofori----
------Ring-------
Tinnerholm-Chanot-Callens-SAS
It’s odd. It’s not in the highlights. I just wanted to see what happened. It’s odd that for something that seemed it changed the game, there’s no coverage. It’s almost like they are covering it up or something. And why was TMac allowed on the pitch? Are we that shallow in midfield?
I only watched the 2nd half, but boy was Ofori bad. His giveaway was the obvious cause of the 2nd goal, but his poor defense is what led to the 3rd.
Houston was on the counter, but Ofori was back in plenty of time to guard Elis in the box. Except Ebenezer didn’t bother to look around and see where his mark was. He just ambled into the penalty area and stared at the potential crossing player. Thus, he pulled off the mean trick of both being in the box with the player he is supposed to be marking and also not within 10 yards of the guy.
Ring managed to get back as the cross was played but couldn’t prevent the header. The rebound fell on the far side of Elis from Ring, so Alex couldn’t get to it. If Ofori had managed to be anywhere in the same zip code as Elis, he could have cleared it, but he was just starting to pull his finger out of his nose and react to the situation, so he was effectively useless.
Houston was on the counter, but Ofori was back in plenty of time to guard Elis in the box. Except Ebenezer didn’t bother to look around and see where his mark was. He just ambled into the penalty area and stared at the potential crossing player. Thus, he pulled off the mean trick of both being in the box with the player he is supposed to be marking and also not within 10 yards of the guy.
Ring managed to get back as the cross was played but couldn’t prevent the header. The rebound fell on the far side of Elis from Ring, so Alex couldn’t get to it. If Ofori had managed to be anywhere in the same zip code as Elis, he could have cleared it, but he was just starting to pull his finger out of his nose and react to the situation, so he was effectively useless.
It was an obvious mistake that the ref didn’t give a straight red and that VAR didn’t intervene. The telecast showed the replay multiple times and it was right there in plain sight. I don’t think the league wants to call attention to the fact it was completely ignored by the officials.
I agree. After seeing maybe 400 minutes of him we can agree he's a poor defender. His talents (good passing, finesse on the ball) are completely redundant and add nothing to the team. Herrera has been criticized a lot here, and justly, but we are all freaking out at the though of him being absent for a long while because he brings a degree of physicality, chaos and surprising aggressiveness that nobody else has. The most infuriating thing about a team is how we seem to take adversity laying down. We're chasing a goal and still Maxi receives the ball and does a cute 360 on his own axis before passing sideways and trotting not very far to receive the ball again and pass sideways to the other side. We have no verticality and not a lot of fight either. But Herrera does, which is the reason why he has the second most shots on the team.
I have no idea what PV thinks, but Chanot was until 3 games ago one of a handful on indispensable players, and his CB pair with Callens was considered top-notch for MLS. Now he's banned and we get Ring playing CB all the time, so if Herrera goes down we get a defensive midfield pair of Tummy and Ofori, which has no bite and no defense and little athleticism. Playing away against a team that's raw and not very organized, but fast and physical. It was literally a recipe for embarrassment. ANYTHING would have been better. Hountodji in CB and Ring as 6 with Ofori as 8 would have been at least sensible, if untested.
The truth is that we got run out of town by a very mediocre team, whose only truly talented player is Quioto. Elis has a horrible first touch and does pretty much nothing without ogles of space. Martinez switches off. Their backline is bad. And they humiliated us.
The truth is that 13 games in we seem to have no set starting XI. The injury report said everybody was available, and we got a puzzling selection. And after Herrera was carted off PV decided to avoid tackling in the MF, because that's always a good idea. It's a mess.
I just don't understand what bringing on Tommy was going to accomplish. He's the exact opposite of Herrera to fill into that role. Tommy was literally doing nothing out there, just walking around, standing, watching. I'd have rather brought on another CB and allowed Ring to move up to at least give us some consistency in form or anything of the sort. We had a chance still at that point to continue dominating the game and PV took the bite right out of our gameplan.
We only looked venomous again when we made our way-too-late subs. Ofori looked like shit going backwards but better than previously playing forward, even if he played like he'd be tased if he took more than 4 touches. Maxi and Villa had great games. I thought Berget was in the right position a lot of times but gets in awkward situations with throughballs that kill his run. SJ had the game of the season -- it's a shame his back line fucked him the way they did. He was phenomenal.
We only looked venomous again when we made our way-too-late subs. Ofori looked like shit going backwards but better than previously playing forward, even if he played like he'd be tased if he took more than 4 touches. Maxi and Villa had great games. I thought Berget was in the right position a lot of times but gets in awkward situations with throughballs that kill his run. SJ had the game of the season -- it's a shame his back line fucked him the way they did. He was phenomenal.
The 3-5-2 runout with Ring in back protecting against Elis, etc. counters was working fine until the Herrera was injured on a red card type foul. Bad luck for us.
PV didn't adjust. The 1 for 1 McNamara sub didn't work which he should have known before making it and definitely should have seen and adjusted to by halftime. Once Herrera was gone we weren't able to transition the ball from the back through the midfield into Maxi or the forwards. Teams are learning the key to defending us is to shadow mark Maxi and keep him from getting the ball in dangerous spots so we need other avenues of attack.
Houston ran out Machado as right back at the last minute -- slow and unfamiliar position for him. Should have been a point of attack for us. Halftime adjustments needed to be made once it was obvious the 3-5-2 wasn't working with TMac in for Herrera.
Its hot in Houston and that makes it tough to play but PV let the team down with his coaching on this one. His in-game subs and adjustments are still below MLS average.
PV didn't adjust. The 1 for 1 McNamara sub didn't work which he should have known before making it and definitely should have seen and adjusted to by halftime. Once Herrera was gone we weren't able to transition the ball from the back through the midfield into Maxi or the forwards. Teams are learning the key to defending us is to shadow mark Maxi and keep him from getting the ball in dangerous spots so we need other avenues of attack.
Houston ran out Machado as right back at the last minute -- slow and unfamiliar position for him. Should have been a point of attack for us. Halftime adjustments needed to be made once it was obvious the 3-5-2 wasn't working with TMac in for Herrera.
Its hot in Houston and that makes it tough to play but PV let the team down with his coaching on this one. His in-game subs and adjustments are still below MLS average.
We know Chanot left a few weeks ago for personal reasons, so he must still dealing with whatever those issues are they may have taken his mind off of the game. Either that or he had some type of blowup off the field and is in the doghouse now.
Also, I'd think that if any euro clubs actually analyze PV's managerial performance here, they will quickly realize that they can easily find a higher quality manager. He won't win any domestic or euro cups because he is prone to massive mistakes, and if put up against a higher calibre of managers on a weekly basis.......well.... He is too often outmanaged by MLS level managers so...
Also, I'd think that if any euro clubs actually analyze PV's managerial performance here, they will quickly realize that they can easily find a higher quality manager. He won't win any domestic or euro cups because he is prone to massive mistakes, and if put up against a higher calibre of managers on a weekly basis.......well.... He is too often outmanaged by MLS level managers so...
if Nice or any other team want Vieira at this point, let them have him. He pissed away a great opportunity against a mediocre team because he has no feel for substitutions or tactical changes. Our losses this year are directly due to his inability to get the players/tactics right, and it’s understandable to get the initial ones wrong if a wrinkle is thrown at you, but to not be able to properly adjust is killing our team.
Reyna and David Lee better be searching for a Herrera-style clone (or better) because Vieira has no idea how to play without him.
And somebody please let Lewis and Chanot out of the doghouse, and usher TMac into it. The guy has no business being on the field if he’s not will to run and move off the ball - his finger pointing is embarrassing, even the commentators took a dig at him for it.
Reyna and David Lee better be searching for a Herrera-style clone (or better) because Vieira has no idea how to play without him.
And somebody please let Lewis and Chanot out of the doghouse, and usher TMac into it. The guy has no business being on the field if he’s not will to run and move off the ball - his finger pointing is embarrassing, even the commentators took a dig at him for it.
Last edited:
