I am all for the strategy of lampard standing on the 6yrd line and they launch shots at him and he score's off of different body parts. A season of that and I can begin to forgive.
Revolution Postmatch
- Thread starter NYCFC_Dan
- Start date
the only mention of softening it is if the last man genuinely tries to go for the ball and by judgment of the ref he can be given a yellow card, and the PK still happens. But the triple effect still happens if say shelton passes him and he grabs his leg or a defender bear hugs a guy in the box. No free pass for terribly dirty play.
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Super Frank was third lowest on team in touches behind Tmac, who was subbed off 15 minutes before him, and Jack Jack. ZERO tackles, interceptions, clearances or blocks. 66% of his goals this year could have been scored by the yellow practice dummies, one off his hand, one off his weiner.
Just can't understand the love for this guy
It's not so much love as it is we just want New York City to win. Winning football is so much more fun than losing football.
I'm not even remotely a Lampard fanboy. I'm obviously very horny for Pirlo.
Who would you like to see starting in place of Lampard?
Well, someone has to be bottom third in touches. (Three someone's, in fact.)
But you're right. Lampard has pretty much been a pure poacher. As an attacking midfielder, he's expected to do a lot more than that.
We are all heaping praises on our current form right now, but I'm nervous we are going to get figured out. What happens when we play a team with a well functioning narrow diamond midfield? Four center mids would torch our three veterans. And Lampard would be exposed for his lack of contribution diversity.
Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't it being talked about in the shout box that this wasn't his best game? Obviously the goal was huge, so he gets a pass, but I don't think anyone was talking about him having a great game.
That being said, it was very clear watching the game how much smarter the midfield trio + Villa look on the ball. Just in their movement off the ball, and their one touch passing. Revs fans were even pointing out that the talent level of the Europeans was clearly evident last night
I think our midfield has been getting torched that past three games with frank in there. If your only CM is getting the lowest touches on the team, that means you are bypassing him, and thats what its been on the field. Lumping it up to villa and harrison. The results are there, but that is not going to beat a good midfield.
Past two games have been against a press, which our back 6 have beaten, doesn't seem sustainable against good teams though.
Scoring the only goal will always skew that. Villa wins about half the time or more, which is more warranted than Lampsy here, but it's regardless of how much anyone else contributed to the win or if it was one of Villa's 2 goals/8 shot games.
Scoring the lone goal in a 1-0 win will usually lead to that.
That doesn't necessarily mean he had a great game all around. Who would you have named instead?
For what it's worth, whoscored.com rated Villa as MOTM
The issue all along with our midfield has been the fact that our actual attacking midfielder, Pirlo, doesn't play advanced. We found a great partner with Iraola's defense and distribution (or Bravo's more defense and less distribution), but what do we truly need out of the other CM spot? Almost need the inverse of Pirlo - an advanced destroyer type with some distribution skills. It would explain Vieira's sudden love for Mike Lopez in the past two months.
Lampard has provided what the *team* has needed - another poaching goal scorer in the box to supplement Villa's attacks. But I agree he still isn't a great fit for what the *midfield* needs, and it really does leave us exposed to the first team that exploits the weakness.
Before Lampard came back we had a team full of guys afraid to take a shot at the net (minus Villa and T-Mac obviously).
We don't need anymore guys who can dribble the ball the length of the field only to make a horrible pass/get dispossessed in the area.
We don't need anymore guys who can dribble the ball the length of the field only to make a horrible pass/get dispossessed in the area.
This graphic is not accurate - I specifically remember at least 2 interceptions he had, and the commentators made mention of them.
I've often wondered how reliable the MLS stat tracker really is, because in the run of play, how the hell is the IT/Stats intern able to keep up with who has the ball, where on the field they are, where the pass goes & how far, etc. I'd wager that a majority of the stats are Wild Ass Guesses that nobody will go back and check.
Probably depends on what you're looking for / how you look at it. The DOGSO rule suggests that it can can result in a PK, but the PK rule makes it clear that it has to happen in the box. Hence the confusion.
Why do people think Shelton was in the game at that point?
It was to win balls in the air - both downfield on clearances and in the box on set pieces - and to provide speed on the counterattack. I thought he did both of those things just fine.
It was to win balls in the air - both downfield on clearances and in the box on set pieces - and to provide speed on the counterattack. I thought he did both of those things just fine.
Let's also not lose sight of the fact that:
1. We played on the road.
2. We played on a crappy turf field that slowed the ball down.
3. We played in 90+ degree heat.
3A. The heat will affect different players in different ways. Frank is from London and has rarely if ever had to play in those conditions. He also is not at full fitness; I can attest to the fact that a fully fit player can handle insane heat better than one that isn't as fit. Compare that to Jack, who is younger and has lived in the states for years and has played games in these horrid conditions.
4. We controlled the game completely - why change the way we were playing to get Lampard more touches?
5. We played a very professional game, did enough to win, and closed it out without a late-game meltdown.
Last night was not the night to criticize as too many game-centric conditions were extreme outliers and any data gleaned will be flawed.
1. We played on the road.
2. We played on a crappy turf field that slowed the ball down.
3. We played in 90+ degree heat.
3A. The heat will affect different players in different ways. Frank is from London and has rarely if ever had to play in those conditions. He also is not at full fitness; I can attest to the fact that a fully fit player can handle insane heat better than one that isn't as fit. Compare that to Jack, who is younger and has lived in the states for years and has played games in these horrid conditions.
4. We controlled the game completely - why change the way we were playing to get Lampard more touches?
5. We played a very professional game, did enough to win, and closed it out without a late-game meltdown.
Last night was not the night to criticize as too many game-centric conditions were extreme outliers and any data gleaned will be flawed.
Just posting this morning because I got back late last night. Was at the game (un/fortunately I live in Boston now, which has limited my NYCFC time) and actually met T-Mac's family. They were great!
On the play, I thought Frank looked good. The strategy was clearly to run the ball down the flanks and edge in towards the goal/cross in, so Frank naturally got bypassed a lot. That said, I thought his defensive positioning was pretty OK, and obviously the goal helps. He also did a good job working the ball around in some tight spaces, but he clearly wasn't as instrumental to that as Pirlo.
Not sure where the hate for T-Mac is coming from. Admittedly he isn't as flashy as jack, and his running style is pretty weird, but the work rate and intelligence are definitely there. Looked like he want hard in the first half hour or so and then ended up pretty gassed towards the end, but I had nothing but love for him this game. Thought the goal was all him too.
In many ways, I felt the same about Jack. The heat clearly kind of got to him, which ended up removing him from the game some.
Mena was a mixed bag. So many poor passes, but also some magisterial tackles. Would need to watch a replay to have other comments.
Shelton--eh. He did a pretty good job of being a target for long balls and stretching the field, and of course his last play definitely sealed the game. But he is clearly not a starter, with good reason. Even during warmups he didn't show any finishing ability.
On the whole, except for the last 10 minutes where we were dying in the heat and just trying to hang onto the lead, I thought we looked really good. clear, crisp, incisive passing. good movement of the ball. We looked much more creative and much more dangerous than the Revs did, even though we had a hard time getting the ball on goal. Good performance on the whole, I thought.
EDIT: one other point on TMac. Matarrita was playing so far forward for most of the game that in many instances TMac was staying home to try to break up pressure along that flank. That also tended to make him invisible, but not "unvaluable".
On the play, I thought Frank looked good. The strategy was clearly to run the ball down the flanks and edge in towards the goal/cross in, so Frank naturally got bypassed a lot. That said, I thought his defensive positioning was pretty OK, and obviously the goal helps. He also did a good job working the ball around in some tight spaces, but he clearly wasn't as instrumental to that as Pirlo.
Not sure where the hate for T-Mac is coming from. Admittedly he isn't as flashy as jack, and his running style is pretty weird, but the work rate and intelligence are definitely there. Looked like he want hard in the first half hour or so and then ended up pretty gassed towards the end, but I had nothing but love for him this game. Thought the goal was all him too.
In many ways, I felt the same about Jack. The heat clearly kind of got to him, which ended up removing him from the game some.
Mena was a mixed bag. So many poor passes, but also some magisterial tackles. Would need to watch a replay to have other comments.
Shelton--eh. He did a pretty good job of being a target for long balls and stretching the field, and of course his last play definitely sealed the game. But he is clearly not a starter, with good reason. Even during warmups he didn't show any finishing ability.
On the whole, except for the last 10 minutes where we were dying in the heat and just trying to hang onto the lead, I thought we looked really good. clear, crisp, incisive passing. good movement of the ball. We looked much more creative and much more dangerous than the Revs did, even though we had a hard time getting the ball on goal. Good performance on the whole, I thought.
EDIT: one other point on TMac. Matarrita was playing so far forward for most of the game that in many instances TMac was staying home to try to break up pressure along that flank. That also tended to make him invisible, but not "unvaluable".
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