https://twitter.com/Total_TFC
Jesús Jiménez reportedly said goodbye to his Górnik Zabrze teammates this morning. He's leaving the club.
🔜🇨🇦🔴 #TFCLive
[via @UEFAComPiotrK]
https://twitter.com/Total_TFC
Jesús Jiménez reportedly said goodbye to his Górnik Zabrze teammates this morning. He's leaving the club.
🔜🇨🇦🔴 #TFCLive
[via @UEFAComPiotrK]
Cheers mate. Shaff is actually two-footed, although dominant left. That's a really good point about Insigne; they've never had the pretense of him being a wide player, he's always cut inside onto the right (his goal reel from that position is wildly impressive; I suspect he's going to batter MLS defenders if they give him any time at all.) Putting a guy on the opposite side who is also fast and tricky on the ball makes a lot of sense.
Mike, good point on JMR, too. That full-field recovery he made last year when he was pushed back to wingback was extremely impressive. Reminscent of Phonzie at Vancouver a little.
He was listed as left-right when he was drafted and he scored one on his right last year (or 2020? Either way it surprised the announcer). But yeah, it doesn't look like he uses it much so perhaps it was overstated. I do remember a couple of times when I thought last year he should've stopped short on a run to the byline and pulled it back onto his right but he didn't , so I might just be remembering it wrong. Also a reference online from college of him having to improve his right foot.
Maybe every guy trying to get drafted lists himself as two-footed
Edit: This online scouting site says he plays 83% to his left, so he may technically be able to use both but his right isn't strong, as you mentioned.
https://fbref.com/en/players/339a2561/Jacob-Shaffelburg
Last edited by jloome; 02-02-2022 at 08:34 PM.
A little bird tells me the Salcedo-Soteldo swap was worked on for nearly a month before it was reported, and there were numerous non-team insiders who had knowledge of it.
Here's hoping the rumors on this guy are equally accurate, as you're right, his highlights are impressive. Not mind-blowing, just a really solid sense of timing to beat the backline AND the skill to beat a one-on-one defender on the dribble.
With Marky gone, I am gonna need a new guy to defend and love unconditionally. I think Jesus might be that guy.
Jiminez, Giovinco, Peruzza, Akinola all play in that CF/Striker role. I would have liked to target at least one high quality winger to play opposite to Insgine.
On the upside, Jiminez only switched to striker from the wing three years ago. He can play wide on both sides. His youtube clips certainly make him look like a dangerous dribbler.
I like Gogon's suggestion of using Shaffelburg as an outside-in forward on the right side, using his strong left foot to cut in at the top of the box.
Apart from Shaff & Insigne, do we have any wide players who can put in a decent cross?
JMo & Richie were are other options out there.
Auro prefers to slow down & recycle & Lawrence prefers to drive into the box rather then to the line.
My concern is
a) without Shaff, there still is no outside width presence
b) Bradley prefers his players to play out to in rather then in to out
That's a recipe for teams to bungle up the middle on us.
With the number of smaller attacking players we have (insigne, Gio, poz, Oso)I don't think we will be relying on crosses into the box the way we used to. Those high arching balls into the box looking for a header isn't going to be common.
I'd assume we would want to cycling outside to in on the ground - basically guy runs with the ball from the line toward the middle, if there is nothing there, cycle back out the other end and attempt to come back in again. Keep doing that and eventually the middle will start to "unbungle" itself - at that point if crosses do come in, they would be low and fast to take advantage of the "unbungled" space created or if they are high crosses - they will be more of that hard rising cross that is sent in from just inside the box on the wings.
We won't know until we see them actually play.
Yes, this is a very legitimate concern.
Yes! This is exactly right.
Two great observations here. One of the problems of playing with inverted wingers is if/when they drive to the byline by going outside their defender, they are on their less-favoured foot. In fact most inverted wingers are loathe to ever do this and it does dictate how you defend them.
The most stark example of this (for me) was the 2012 Champions League semi-final between Chelsea and Barca. A significantly inferior Chelsea side took away the channels and gave Barca the deep flanks. But Barca was so ill-equipped to hit crosses they looked confused and frustrated and were unable to adapt and take advantage of what was given to them. A great recent example was CMNT vs USMNT this past Sunday. The US team uses inverted wingers. Canada clogged the channels, intentionally hosted the match on a very narrow pitch, played with CBs who stand 6’5” and 6’3” with a GK at 6’5”. The US was welcome to take the ball deep and hit crosses, but not only did they not do so, they had no backup ideas either (a big criticism of Berhalter is his lack of tactical flexibility, and it was on full display).
So if Bob Bradley favours inverted wingers, we need to hope he has a tactical plan for when teams organize their defence appropriately. Typically this comes through deploying overlapping wingbacks who can go to the byline and be on their strong foot. But of course, your roster needs to be constructed to enable this. This is where a guy like Criscito perfectly compliments Insigne by lining up on the left side with him. But, it also makes Auro an non-option for filling in on the left side as he’s done on occasion. A legitiamte overlapping run, even if the ball isn’t played, pulls apart a compact defence.
Ever since the Richie transfer, I’ve been worried about this. We no longer have anyone who is a real threat as an overlapping right wingback. I’ve been expecting to hear a rumour about us sniffing around on this. But so far crickets. I love the roster additions Bradley has made and I love the ones who seem pending. But in order for Shaff to be killer on the right side, we do need a legitimate overlapping threat in behind him. I think we’re going to miss Richie a lot unless there is someone new coming.
Even though is was heavily hinted at during the season ending presser, the Richie transfer was a huge blow for me. The runs that guy makes for both club and country would do so well in our hypothetical Bradley system.
He is able to get so deep into the attacking end and then cut into the middle without losing the ball. He would get himself in such a good spot that he then had the option to take it on goal himself or pass it off.
Where are you going to find a player like that? You gotta make one through the academy or find one in CanPL I guess, teams are not just going to give up a player like that. Can Lawrence do that? I don't even know what his strengths are.
I used to think Raheem Edwards had the potential to do that kind of thing well, but he just never progressed.
Last edited by jabbronies; 02-03-2022 at 03:01 PM.
As much as I will miss Richie doing his thing running at defenders it should be noted that his fearless style did lead to tons of space behind. There is a reason our 2017 team was so successful and we had Morrow (sort of a going forward FB but not at the expense of defense) and Beitashour (total defense) on the other side. That was the key to our success back then.
Yeah, I think you're spot on. Like you, I recall his arriving with some hype about his flair and ability. I also recall it was Vanney who stressed the need for him to rein it in a lot. He took some heat for being positionally undisciplined. He was never an overlapping player though, so I think it's all worked out pretty well with Auro. He's a reliable and hard-working fullback for us now.
Good point. When Bradley's LAFC ran up 72 points in 2019, he had Vela as the inverted winger on the right, but it was Beitashour who started almost every game at right back. Beita obviously never went marauding forward with the ball a la Richie, but as I recall, he did make a lot of dummy overlapping runs and that would open up the cuts inside for Vela. So maybe Auro can be harnessed the same way if we have the right guy on the wing.
Looks like Singh isnt going to Pacific after all
https://twitter.com/ManuelVeth/statu...38666900066311
Might be just comparison. Before Auro was Beitashour, who was defense-first, so Auro may have seenlmed more attacking by comparison. Then we got Richie, who is attack-first, which makes Auro seem way more defensive. I don't think he's changed much, it's just who we compare him to has changed