MLS - July 7 - Montreal (Away)

Predict the Result!

  • Win

    Votes: 4 100.0%
  • Draw

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Loss

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    4
  • Poll closed .
Honduras does not have a game until next Tuesday, which is probably why Quioto was able to play.

Meanwhile, all of MLS took three weeks off in early June, which mostly coincided with the CONCACAF Nations Cup which had I think zero? MLS players and definitely none from NYCFC. Then the Copa America calls up multiple MLS players, but only overlapped with the time that MLS was closed by less than a week. Plus those CONMEBOL f#cks had to spend 2.5 weeks to eliminate just 2 teams, and then have a completely pointless third place game which even the corruptocratic f#cks of CONCACAF have had the sense to eliminate (and f#ck Callens if he stays for a stupid useless third place game instead returning for games that count for us).

Now we begin the Gold Cup -- because none of the f#cking regional confederations can leave any bribes uncollected so we have to have 2 f#cking CONCACAF tournaments plus WC qualifiers in 2021, plus the 2020 Copa in 2021 plus the 2020 Euros in 2021, and even though everyone always knew the Gold Cup would have the most MLS players of any of these tournaments called up, including 2 from NYCFC, MLS puts the season in overdrive to coincide with this tournament and we have NYCFC scheduled to play 5 games in 3 weeks in the middle of it.

Just fuck every fucking FA AF and confed in the world, and the MLS idiots who decided to take off 3 weeks during a tournament that almost nobody from MLS played in instead of when MLS players were called up because we suck without Sands, Callens and Johnson.
 
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I think Ronny's game day roster management (both selection and in-game changes) gets worse when the schedule is irregular and when players are unavailable. Unfortunately, MLS features both of those quite often. Last year it was in effect almost the entire season. This year started better and so did he IMO, but since the beginning of June the team went from 3 weeks off to 3 games in a week, to currently 1 game in 3 weeks to an upcoming 6 games in 3 weeks. And last night we were without Johnson, Callens and Sands -- the core of our defensive spine -- and Rodriguez. Ronny just seems to freeze when too many of these things pile up.

I think the idea that some players have trouble adjusting to the pace of MLS is a real thing. Let's hope Morales and Amundsen catch up. Acevedo clearly needed some adjustment and is doing great. Ronny seems to be alternating Thorarinson and Amundsen and I'm not sure Amundsen is much of an upgrade, and even less so when you account for Gudi's free kick skills. But Thiago is ready now and should be playing more, unless he has shown in training that he cannot go 90 minutes.

The xG for Quioto's goal was 87% and I'm surprised it wasn't higher.

The team played better when Maxi was hurt. He just isn't contributing as he was. His combined G+A/90 for 2020-21 is 0.469 (and just 0.409 in 2021 to date) which is less than half of the 0.998 he put up in 2019 (which probably was an unrepeatable outlier) but also well below 2018. The defensive lapses were more notable but we created almost nothing last night and that cannot be excused by the national team call ups. It's not entirely Maxi's fault but he is at the center of it.
 
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After the performance on the field last night, the reason we lost certainly wasn't because they fixed the email countdown.
But just in case it helps
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Wait so ronny thinks... bringing on..... bringing on Thiago was a mistake? wtf.
I don't think it's that simple. He thinks switching out of the back 3/5 was the mistake.

ETA: Which I think I agree with at that moment, especially with someone who has played CB once in his career (according to Transfermarkt), then played as a CCB in a back 3, then switched to LCB in a back 4.

The biggest mistake IMO was trotting out the back 3/5 to begin with.
 
I don't think it's that simple. He thinks switching out of the back 3/5 was the mistake.
I think switching to a back 4 would have been fine if he kept ibby instead of Alfredo. Even with how horrible ibby was playing at least he would have made the effort as a CB instead of what ever the fuck Alfredo was doing on that second goal.
 
Barraza is underwhelming. I accept he needs play time to improve, but let him do so in USL. His lean on the penalty was poor, his distribution was useless (and at times dangerous), and he had to do better on the second goal.
I'm hopeful he'll be better (and I also realize I'm quite biased on this one) and I hope he doesn't get the hook quite yet as perhaps he could use a boost of confidence and getting the hook right away may be a blast to that.

The distribution was fairly useless. I asked him about the plan to play out of the back and he mentioned if the short pass wasn't there, then he needed to skip a line. I don't think I remember him skipping any lines with his passing, so I'm curious to see if those options were there and he missed them, or if guys weren't making themselves available. I'm guessing a combination of the two as Alfredo and Tajouri-Shradi aren't exactly the best options in possession and quick combination passing needed to break a high press like that.

I liked Barraza's aggressiveness coming off his line and he made a great save doing that once. But you're definitely right regarding the second and as mgarbowski mgarbowski mentioned, if you come out, you HAVE to get to the ball. While Alfredo was terrible on that goal, I'd pin that one on Luis. (Also, Montreal was trying to play in behind all game long? Why would you switch to Alfredo as a LCB in a back 4???? You have seen what they're trying to do all game long)
 
I think switching to a back 4 would have been fine if he kept ibby instead of Alfredo. Even with how horrible ibby was playing at least he would have made the effort as a CB instead of what ever the fuck Alfredo was doing on that second goal.
I agree with you if one of Johnson, Callens or Sands are there.

The problem I have with switching mid or late game to a back 4, is defensive organization and communication. We have our normal RCB. Other than that Ibeagha, a right footed defender, has only started twice this year. Alfredo has played one game at CB in his career and that was back in 2017, and this was Barraza's first ever MLS start.

If these guys were planning for the back 3/5 this week, I just don't think the required communication for an in-game tactical switch with that group would be there. Especially with Luis being the one back there behind it all.
 
I think switching to a back 4 would have been fine if he kept ibby instead of Alfredo. Even with how horrible ibby was playing at least he would have made the effort as a CB instead of what ever the fuck Alfredo was doing on that second goal.
I agree with you if one of Johnson, Callens or Sands are there.

The problem I have with switching mid or late game to a back 4, is defensive organization and communication. We have our normal RCB. Other than that Ibeagha, a right footed defender, has only started twice this year. Alfredo has played one game at CB in his career and that was back in 2017, and this was Barraza's first ever MLS start.

If these guys were planning for the back 3/5 this week, I just don't think the required communication for an in-game tactical switch with that group would be there. Especially with Luis being the one back there behind it all.
I feel he took Ibby out due to the yellow card, that's why Morales was left in. Only somewhat logical situation I can make based on the desire to leave a first time CB who was under performing in over an experienced CB who was also underperforming, but not as poor.
 
I agree with you if one of Johnson, Callens or Sands are there.

The problem I have with switching mid or late game to a back 4, is defensive organization and communication. We have our normal RCB. Other than that Ibeagha, a right footed defender, has only started twice this year. Alfredo has played one game at CB in his career and that was back in 2017, and this was Barraza's first ever MLS start.

If these guys were planning for the back 3/5 this week, I just don't think the required communication for an in-game tactical switch with that group would be there. Especially with Luis being the one back there behind it all.

agree totally with your assessment of the tactical switch. Also agree with Schwallacus about taking off Ibby for the yellow. He was committing a lot of fouls already and we didn't also want to go down a man either. That was my take on the sub at least. Switching to the back 4 at the time wasn't a great idea, but I also think with 5 subs, he could have brought someone on for Morales. Ronny actually said in his conf that he thought Morales played well, which I totally disagree with. He was very sloppy on the ball, casual with his passing, and clearly wasn't strong or quick enough to handle Quioto. Most of all, his lack of effort to hustle til the end of the play was missing.

Personally, I thought he should have started Gray at CCB with Ibby and Chanot. At least Gray has played there often and is brimming with confidence. Also, no doubt he would hustle his ass off for every single play and has the quickness and pace to keep up with quioto - something that no one on the starting back line had.

There should have been more offensive subs at the 60th minute once he saw we weren't creating chances. We needed a spark and there were tired legs in the hot, humid orlando weather. The line change with 10 mins to go didn't do us any favors. There wasn't enough time to grow into the game for that many subs to make a real difference.

Parks had a great game. He's picked it up a lot since the early season games. Same with Isi.