Originally Posted by
jloome
For cripes sake, we outshot them 12-3. How much more carved up do you want?
The problem here is obvious: scoring. ANd my original point hangs on two important facts: one, an open net, the other a penalty. Guevara is a great player, no doubt (maybe our best), but he choked yesterday. That was a 2-0 win that a single player blew, when it comes down to it. He missed a sitter into an open net and he shot the penalty waist height and too close to Cannon.
End of story, at least on yesterday's game.
But you're right. There are other issues (not even getting into the idiotic statement here earlier than Marvell Wynne is a great defender; he's a great track star right now, and a pretty bloody average defender) that I didn't bring up in starting this thread; I was feeling optimistic. Having said that:
* Our team cohesion is still sorely lacking; I put much of this down to lack of time practising together since the first month of the season, due to the shittily crowed schedule. But obviously that's not enough of an excuse for the lack of aggressive runs into the box and into dangerous lanes towards goal; right now, we move well into open space to maintain control, but that's about it. (And having said that, it's obvious from the Guevara/Rosenlund through ball attempts that Carver is pushing this issue."
* Tactically, we've never performed with offensive aggression while in the 4-5-1. Although it can be useful in that regard when the wingers pinch in,it's obvious this team is too stocked with guys who've only ever used a 4-5-1 defensively (which was the norm for years).
The wingers tend to only move into offesnive space once the ball is already in the defensive zone, which makes it easier for the defense to shift around in their zone and cover people (instead of the wingers coming in earlier and drawing defenders away from the strikers or the ball away from the defenders). We should switch to a proper 442, with two strikers.
I know this is effectively waht they play, with Guevara withdrawn, but guevara is too withdrawn, all match long -- he's never harassing the backline consistently before the ball even gets there with his movement, so they're rarely pulled out of position.
* There's not enough passion during the early stages. We play clinically, which is not only predictable and easy to defend, it also sucks the energy out of our side. I mentioned in a different thread how 3/4 of our players tend to walk when they're off the ball, instead of jogging. They seem deflated unless they're on the ball and don't realize intensity and heart will beat you 9 times out of 10.
* There are times when they seem so intent on team control that they're simply not pushing the play, just shifting it around; about the only time we're direct is from the backline, which is next to useless. As great as Robert was yesterday, for example, I would love on a couple of those neat runs to have seen him simply charge the box and let fly. Guy can hit the thing at over 80 mph, for fuck sake. That's generally true, as evidenced by the fact that 16=year=old ibee is the only striker we have who consistently challenges the defence and puts them on their backfoot. Shit, USL career notwithstanding, Eddie Sebrango would be a step up from the way our strikers have attacked the box.
But again, I'm optimistic despite all that. Why? One, I'm a lifer; this is the second season. It's kind of like having a kid and then being pissed off when it hasn't learned to walk by 9 months; realism suggests patience is required.
Why were you more optimistic? We have no widespread scouting system yet, no production and promotion from our youth academy next, almost no significant talent base to draw from, handicaps in the form of the turf and the (perceived) weather in terms of attracting players, .
Shit, we shouldn't even be having the audacity to think about winning anything outside of the NCC until year five.
I think part of the reason we're all chomping at the bit isn't because we suck so bad; it's because we know with the players we already have, we shouldn't suck at all. And yes, I think a striker knocking a few in consistently would go a long way right now, if not for the inidividual contributions he would bring, then at least for the boost in team morale, which must just be the shits right now.
Fair play. I really think we're not playing too bad, we just need to score. Apart from one blowout (DC) we've been very close to getting points out of our pevious matches.
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I agree also Marvell has great speed, but it can be exposed on the big pitches like DC where he was caught with his pants down. Don't get me wrong though he's easily our biggest talent in terms of defenders. (JimmyB is a midfielder imo).
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