MLS - March 23 - Cincinnati (Away)
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
Cushing says he wants to play aggressively and attacking, but the way he sets up the team tactically belies that. Like you said, three at the back, and only ever three going forward into the final third. No coincidence that we only ever score zero or 1.
Homer announcers totally added to the aggravation.
Brightest spot not yet mentioned: There were a few really nice passages of interplay down the right side with Julian and Jasson.
Lowest spot for me: Announcers said Cushing said he absolutely doesn't want to play this formation and will probably never do so again once he gets his players back. If that is the case FFS, WTF did he do it last night. As others have said, there was some momentum out of the previous 2 matches. Keep as much of is as possible. That means subbing for what you're missing and allowing everyone else to continue what they've been doing. Jasson in at RB. Jones (I guess) in at #9. Leave everything else the same. FFS.
If not for that comment, I'd feel differently. If you want to have multiple looks and you want to build multiple systems, fantastic! But if you don't ever want to do this again, WTF start now??
Brightest spot not yet mentioned: There were a few really nice passages of interplay down the right side with Julian and Jasson.
Lowest spot for me: Announcers said Cushing said he absolutely doesn't want to play this formation and will probably never do so again once he gets his players back. If that is the case FFS, WTF did he do it last night. As others have said, there was some momentum out of the previous 2 matches. Keep as much of is as possible. That means subbing for what you're missing and allowing everyone else to continue what they've been doing. Jasson in at RB. Jones (I guess) in at #9. Leave everything else the same. FFS.
If not for that comment, I'd feel differently. If you want to have multiple looks and you want to build multiple systems, fantastic! But if you don't ever want to do this again, WTF start now??
Apparently we have players that are good enough to play internationally but are not good enough to be over the playoff line…
while Cincy has players that are not good enough to play internationally but are good enough to win the supporters shield and be top of the conference so far this year.
Something doesn’t compute here.
The team was an Acosta foot length and a favorable VAR decision from being blasted 3-0…same score as last year in the Cincy away game.
That truly depends on nationality and age. For me, Acosta and Orellanos were a cut above last night, but Argentina senior team will never call them. Our call ups were for low-rated national teams and juniors, and Bakrar, who is Gx elite but rarely scores
I honestly believed we would have 7-8 points after 5 games at a bare minimum. If we failed to get that, I thought it would be due to some flukey events, and the team would still have 5-6 points, solid play and improved numbers. But everything is worse. Not a single metric shows improvement. All figures per game comparing 2023 to this year:
Shots 12.32 in 2023 down to 11.0.
Goals 1.00 down to 0.60
xG 1.17 down to 1.05
GA 1.12 up to 1.40
xGA 1.04 up to 1.20
GD -0.12 down to -0.80
xGD +0.13 down to -0.15
Points 1.21 down to 0.60
xPoints 1.43 down to 1.19
Five games is not a lot but the sheer consistency of trending worse in every single measure is quite remarkable, given how terrible 2023 was.
Shots 12.32 in 2023 down to 11.0.
Goals 1.00 down to 0.60
xG 1.17 down to 1.05
GA 1.12 up to 1.40
xGA 1.04 up to 1.20
GD -0.12 down to -0.80
xGD +0.13 down to -0.15
Points 1.21 down to 0.60
xPoints 1.43 down to 1.19
Five games is not a lot but the sheer consistency of trending worse in every single measure is quite remarkable, given how terrible 2023 was.
i think we have improved since game 1 though. but our defense is not as good as we have grown accustomed to.
Martins and Risa are decent CBs, but they are not amazing. Martins has proved to be a solid CB but not one who can cover for Risa's flaws. Risa is simply not a great CB. He has good passing range, but his positioning and physicality aren't good at all and for a CB, i want defending to be their primary objective and skill. Add to that, poor communication and lack of 6th sense awareness of each other's habits and intentions, and we get what we have now. Sure, all these things can be improved and is expected with a new CB pairing. But getting a converted CB simply for "passing range" when he's not really allowed to really make those passes when we already had a solid and natural CB with decent passing range made absolutely no sense to me.
Then we have our wingbacks. Granted, Otoole has been serviceable and I'd argue he's even improved defensively since last year, but we still don't have solid, defending wingbacks. Gray started a lot of games last year and although offensively he wasn't great, he was generally pretty solid defensively, which helped lock down his side of the field and defending in the box.
All these things have affected our defensive ability in the course of play as well as in set pieces. I don't know about you, but a strong attacker would be lickin his chops going up against Risa on a corner kick. If I recall correctly, Risa was originally a striker/winger before being converted to a CB. I think it shows.
Our attack is simply toothless for reasons I stated in my earlier post. We simply aren't ruthless in attack as a team.
Job 1 of a CB is defense and Risa is adequate/good at best. Martins is good/very good but as a CB DP has to be First or Second Team Best 11 CB level in MLS and he is very much not. Also agree with Risa's lack of physicality. The MLS roster page lists him at 6'2" 174 pounds, and Martins at 6'1" and 172 pounds. If accurate, that's not much of an advantage to Martins but Risa seems so slight in comparison.
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sometimes physical stats don't give the full picture. how you use your body and positioning play a big part in being physical and strong while not necessarily being built like a tank.
i don't think martins is much better physicality wise but it's a lot more noticeable when it comes to Risa. Agree with your other points. We were just so used to Chanot/Callens combo that covered most of the bases you'd want from a solid CB pairing. There are always growing pains with new CBs, but Risa just doesn't have the qualities of a good CB.
Means he didn't defend very well or at all on that goal and was partially responsible for it going in.
pretty unfair statement. he was in the box 1v1 vs one of the best dribblers in MLS. he got beat. that's all there is to it. Doesn't mean it was his "fault" or "responsibility", imo. these things happen and it's part of the game. He attempted to defend and got outclassed. It would only be a fair statement if he had been lazy and made no attempt.
I said "partially" responsible. You've admitted he was outclassed. I never said he was lazy. I rest my case.
you didn't say lazy but you said "optional defending", which generally means "made no attempt to defend", i.e., lazy.
and "partially responsible" could be said for the entire team. singling haak out is nonsensical.
Thiago is too slow to close down, which leaves Haak left to cover Acosta. Haak doesn't attempt to make a play at the ball and doesn't attempt to contain Acosta either. It is completely rational to single out Haak. It was his man who scored the goal.
that's like saying freese should have saved the shot because it's his goal to defend and the ball was realistically not that far from him!
he got beat. that doesn't make him a bad defender. the best defenders in the world get beat now and again. it's part of the game and why we watch. if defenders never lost 1v1 battles, it'd be pretty boring.
singling him out when he did nothing obviously wrong is unfair.
he could have made an attempt at the ball and in doing so, he could have potentially given away a PK. would that have been better? perhaps.
he could have contained acosta. Oh? how do you know he didn't TRY to do exactly that? Again, acosta is one of the best dribblers in the league. He could have tried and failed.
why haven't you singled out any of the 2-3 players who acosta also avoided to get to haak and then went through after haak to get the shot away? surely, they should have made a play on the ball and/or contained acosta as well. First, tanisevic being completely fooled by a dummy cause he's too busy worrying about bodying up the player, then martins getting easily turned which forces haak to cover. then once haak is beat, martins does not attempt a tackle but instead stands with his arms behind his back about a yard or two away from acosta with a half hearted block attempt. maybe the person who let the pass happen in the first place? shouldn't they have contained and closed down the initial passer?
not that's not to say tanisevic or martins were at FAULT per se. it was a clever play and executed/finished off by one of the best players in the league. my point is singling out Haak when he did nothing wrong with "optional defending" makes no sense to me.
You're clearly not going to agree with me.
But you can't argue with the fact he was the last defender and he has to make a play on the ball. He did neither and he is partially to blame for the goal.
