Jermain Defoe

[mcolvy]

Not that mature. LOL. To simply sit deeper? A coach would normally be the one to instruct them to sit deeper..... And all they would do is walk deeper down the field.. Not much experience needed there.

The real trick is the decision-making that you are now sitting deep and open to lots of chaos that the coach cant hug you through, like when to step up and cut down all the space and what not. Thats were they can get burned...

LOL MLS professional soccer players cant figure out how to play deeper against an opponent that would beat them for speed and cleverness on through/lofted balls. common man.

[jazzy]

MLS Defenders are not that mature. They will leave tons of space for this guy to make his runs.
Thing is though - MLS is an athletic league. Guys may not be smart with their positioning, but they can run like the fucking wind to make up for their mistake.

If we pair him up with Earnshaw, then I see him playing deeper in the box with Earnshaw playing higher up. stretching the defence that way

with those two up front then who heads the hoof balls......? seriously Earnshaw has too have size paired with him or we will constantly lose the battles up front . The only way I see Earnshaw on the team is as a bencher for Dafoe , or occasionally teamed with him but with a loss of height advantage. If only Koev's calves held up for part-time duty at a newly negotiated low cost....I can dream can't I.

[jazzy]

Not that mature. LOL. To simply sit deeper? A coach would normally be the one to instruct them to sit deeper..... And all they would do is walk deeper down the field.. Not much experience needed there.

The real trick is the decision-making that you are now sitting deep and open to lots of chaos that the coach cant hug you through, like when to step up and cut down all the space and what not. Thats were they can get burned...



LOL MLS professional soccer players cant figure out how to play deeper against an opponent that would beat them for speed and cleverness on through/lofted balls. common man.

this where the effective AM is a must with Laba. and\if new striker.

[ag futbol]

MLS Defenders are not that mature. They will leave tons of space for this guy to make his runs.
Thing is though - MLS is an athletic league. Guys may not be smart with their positioning, but they can run like the fucking wind to make up for their mistake.

If we pair him up with Earnshaw, then I see him playing deeper in the box with Earnshaw playing higher up. stretching the defence that way

I can agree with this, to a degree. The defending in MLS is physical, but it's still technically not the greatest. Most guys are built to deal with aerial threats and direct attacks, they really struggle to deal with the craftier players who will make runs in behind, try do drag you out of position, or attempt to wrong-foot you.

i'd expect to see more crafty strikers in the next couple of years and less out-and-out target men. It's a good model to deal with defenders who overly rely on two tools: pace and physicality. And "pace" is meant to be a limited term. Those guys are fast in an out-and-out sprint, but if you ask them to change directions they are incredibly slow.

So in this regard Defoe could be a good model. But we still need more players who are capable of delivering a final ball and slicing open a defence.