About a week ago I was looking at the lineups of our losses to figure out in which of them we were missing many of the team's Best 11. My problem was I couldn't get below a Best 12.
I know. What's the best top three: Mitrita-Heber-Taty? Mitira-Heber-Isi? Does Isi go in the midfield? Does Dome want a back five with Sands on the field? If so, who does he remove from the attack? SO MANY OPTIONS!
exactly. difficult decisions and it will greatly depend on who we're playing and the formation we decide to start with. the chemistry between heber and taty cannot be underappreciated. Heber has that poaching mentality, some 1v1 ability, and hold up play. Taty has some hold up play (though he falls over too easy sometimes), speed to get in behind and aerial ability (probably our only true aerial threat). Isi is a 1v1 specialist with a killer left foot. Unfortunately, if Mitri is playing, I think Isi sits in our best XI because Mitri and Isi kind of offer similar player attributes.
We play completely different styles with Sands in the back vs Parks in the midfield. Sands provides additional confidence for chanot and callens to defend and cover for Anton/Mata going up the wings. We attack more freely in the width when Sands and also allows Maxi and Ring to play a bit further up the field because Sands give us better distribution out of the back. However, what we gain in defensive posture, we lose in midfield numbers. Sands tends to stay deeper and more defensive than Ring does when he's playing that role with Parks on the field.
Parks also offers more offensive threat with his dribbling, possession, and distribution along with his ability to win 50/50 balls tossed up in the midfield. With Parks on the field, we gain more numbers in the midfield because Ring stays in the midfield more than dropping into the back line. And while Parks has gotten a lot better defensively off the ball, he's not as good as Sands and so we lose that bit of defensive ability in the midfield. On the whole, we play through the middle a LOT more with Parks as both he and Maxi sit between the lines to break pressure before going wide or hitting a through ball.
Personally, I think Sands is a better fit vs a team that counters since he provides more protection when mata and anton are inevitably out of position and need cover from callens/chanot. Parks would be better against a high press team where possession, passing through and between lines to break down the pressure, and winning 50/50 balls is critical.
And that's just on Sands and Parks.
Whether Taty or Isi play, I think depends on how the opponent plays. If they park the bus and counter, Isi is a better choice because he and mitri will both provide 1v1 threats that can disorganize defensive lines and create space for others. Taty's speed and clever runs is more valuable in a team we can stretch out or defend high.
Philly won't park the bus and they press high. I think if Parks is healthy, he'll play and Taty as well, since he is rested. Crooks said Dome wanted to start Isi against the Revs but Isi said he did not feel 100%. Let's hope he's at 100% soon. I have a feeling we're gonna need his left foot to score some bangers for us in the playoffs.
