I'd put Herrera above Ofori but yeah, point taken. The 4-1-4-1 swaps out a second DM for a winger, which is a good trade structurally but puts a lot of pressure on the front lines to pull their weight in defense.
Vancouver - Postmatch
- Thread starter NYCFC_Dan
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I'd put Herrera above Ofori but yeah, point taken. The 4-1-4-1 swaps out a second DM for a winger, which is a good trade structurally but puts a lot of pressure on the front lines to pull their weight in defense.
Just because you caught me in the middle of playing with this stuff: The dot outlined in orange is Maxi's average pass location against Vancouver. Plain black is his average pass location under Dome.
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Ehhh, Houston was quite good early in the year, and they were at home where very tough. When looking at the whole season, sure Seattle should have been easy, but we all know the travel involved and it was on the road, and add in that Seattle that unbeaten in their previous 5 coming into that (including a draw at Atlanta) and have now extended that to 7, and I don't think that's as cupcake-y as it appeared on paper.
Just because you caught me in the middle of playing with this stuff: The dot outlined in orange is Maxi's average pass location against Vancouver. Plain black is his average pass location under Dome.
So a little deeper then?
Nah the opponent's goal is on the right, so he's farther up and to the left than where he's been lately as the 10 in a 4-2-3-1. Maxi's role against Vancouver as a "free 8" (ugh) in the 4-1-4-1 meant his standard attacking position was between Vancouver's center backs and right back, like so:
I was thinking about ITS today and I wonder if its the injury or the tactical change that is affecting him. Dome wants our wingers providing the width rather than our fullbacks, whereas PV wanted our wingers to cut inside. I think it was very telling that we made a move for Valentin Castellanos to basically provide pure speed from the wings. Is that pure width type of game ITS's game? I do agree that Medina is a wide player in this system.
Also with the discussion about Ring playing the single pivot, we are playing with inverted fullbacks and Ring shouldn't be on an island. When we turn the ball over we should have 3 CDMs in the middle.
We haven't really seen Sands enough to know how good he is against MLS level competition. We all thought it was a travesty that Lewis wasn't starting but now that we've seen more of him we can tell that it's defensive abilities that bring him down. There's probably a good reason why Awuah is getting minutes and Sands isn't. Personally I can't see the reason why and to me Awuah looks like Mikey Lopez 2.0 but I trust that the people who see these players every day in training have a better grasp on their abilities than I do.
I wonder if ITS is the better candidate for the other CAM role than Castellanos or Medina. Not because he's necessarily a better CAM but because he's the least suited to playing wide wing
That’s a good point! But I’d like to think that whatever Sands liabilities are, that he’s put in a position to maximize his strengths and protect against his weaknesses.
Since you mentioned Lewis, frankly I’m really surprised that if Lewis wasn’t getting playing time because of his defense - and this is something the coaches recognized, while at the same time his offense is unquestionably solid, why isn’t he put in a free attacking role that doesn’t require him to track back??? Protect his weakness while maximizing his strength. I think the last match, after all of the subs, the new formation had Medina up high and free, with Lewis wide and responsible for some defensive assignments; should have had Lewis up high looking for a pure speed breakout where he’s not worried about a guy leaving him flat footed.
I think he should be the highest midfielder, basically a second striker.
Or maybe the first striker, since I’m still not entirely convinced on Berget ever scoring enough for us.
