Because we’re paraphrasing Vanney’s own admissions about poor performance by the squad when speaking about possession not being used to score goals. Considering the actual coach of this team has referred to it and identified it, your take is the classic example of a “bad take.” Then again, Vanney hasn’t trotted out how great our xG, GF or whatever other stats to prove a point.
People simultaneously saying our offense is good and defense is bad are missing the point. The defense isn’t “bad.” The problem is that the defense is overstressed because of tactical decisions and not having the pieces to play the style of football that they’re trying to play. Mavinga is great, Ciman has at least started to show up, and even Zavaleta didn’t look like a pylon last time he played. Westburg seems competent enough. Bono obviously hasn’t showed up either, which has affected our defense. There’s a reason a possession-oriented team like City virtually had to buy a keeper like Ederson.
We don’t even have any actual wingers, so we’d need to buy some before they track back.
I don’t think our offense is trash either. I just think Hamilton starting is not ideal and a lack of threats will make it easy for better teams to shut down our attack.
I’ll also note that possession didn’t really account for either goal last game, they were both individual skill goals.
What we're referring to with the terms useless and purposeless possession is that there is no plan, no impetus to work for a clear cut chance on goal. Much of our possession is through Bradley initially and then too many sideways and backwards passes which culminates in us having trouble breaking through the defense. Also Steg's point about wasteful possession putting a strain on our backline is correct too. Because not everyone is a proficient passer we give up a lot of sloppy turnovers that result in our defense being overrun. If we had more purpose in our attacking possession and worked to get into the attacking third with numbers on our side at least a turnover wouldn't leave us hollow at the back and it usually does since our FBs push up high.
We're not making a run in the playoffs without adding a starting-caliber CB. I just can't see it. We need to make this move in the summer if we don't do it now, and luckily we've earned ourselves enough points thus far that we'll probably be okay until then. If we had a rough start and this window closed without adding a CB (or winger) it would look really ugly.
Thankfully we're doing alright because panic buys never, ever work out well for us.
I think we could make the playoffs with our backline as is IF we adjusted our tactics to support them a bit more and move faster to minimize giveaways in our third. We don't fix this and we will get bollocksed by hard pressing teams.
Well Gonzalez to TFC is off, Atlas unwilling to sell which is interesting as I was under the impression this was a free transfer/end of contract deal. Deadline day is upon us...
Is tomorrow the deadline? Time is running out. Hope there is some iron in the fire.
I don't really want Gonzalez but every bit of info put out over the past week makes no sense if Atlas still has him under contract.
Also I think the high profile sale of Almiron to Newcastle will make all league deals more costly. Teams are going to ask a lot and want large sell on prices if any teams come after younger players.
Very strange. Second time in a season there have been issues with the FO not being clear on the status of the player.
What did the “Liga MX doesn’t want to sell” thing mean? Don’t Mexican teams hold the contracts not the league?
Edit: From Twitter, unsure of validity as I don’t follow Liga MX very closely: “you mean atlas wouldn't agree to end the loan so pachuca could make the deal, he's not an atlas player.”
Last edited by stegosaurus; 05-06-2019 at 07:42 PM.
I guess Atlas rates him then.
IF as we see everywhere his contract & loan is done by the end of June, Atlas have the right to say "you are not going anywhere right now". Its a crappy move IF MLS was willing to take on all or some of his current contract.
Way it might have gone
MLS - "The player wants to go - Just release him. Pay him a bit and he's off your books early"
Atlas - "No...we want something, if you want him now. Here's the figure"
MLS - "Seems a bit high. Come on, you are going to eat his salary for 2 months - that's your deal, you get to save some money."
Atlas - "You want him now? Pay up"
MLS - "insert wtf meme here"
MLS to Gonzalez agent - "We'll discuss this in July"
*******
Edit - saw steg's post - good point. Why would Atlas want to do Pachuca a favour. He's here in July. Can live with that.
BTW, the MLS comparison here is Opara or Hedges. If he gives us that good a game, we are laughing.
Last edited by OgtheDim; 05-06-2019 at 08:13 PM.
is the deadline for trades within mls tomorrow also?
Atlas dont have him under contract. He's on loan there. Pachuca own his contract. Given they paid a couple of mil for him i guess they dont want him walking for nothing. He'll get a new deal and be sent on loan in Liga MX again is my bet.
Ali was at MLS HQ today with the French Fixer so hold on tight...
I saw this too... would like to see what’s coming out of it.
PSG is looking to offload a bunch of players... all of them too expensive to come here, but PSG academy is like the absolute worst for generating talented players and just getting rid of them for peanuts to other teams.
Thanks for the additional clarification on the Gonzalez stuff. Reporters at publications owned by the team still suck, and the FO has seriously been tugging chains.
ali was in france last week.so maybe they are talking players,isnt it kinda strange that ali is ny and not at the home office.
Apparently Xavier Arreaga, a 24 year old, 6 foot CB is coming to the MLS. People are suggesting it could be TFC. He is capped with Ecuador.
Genk played hardball with TFC, dragged it out late and got extra $$$ out of it. Maybe Atlas figuring they could do the same if they think TFC is desperate. Might backfire on them. Unless they do actually rate him.
Going to throw Hatem Ben Arfa's name out there for fun.
Digging deeper into wingers in France, Marcus Coco really stands out to me. 22 years old super quick, experience with French national youth sides. Stuttgart was rumoured for him in March with a price of 3m euros quoted in an article I read. That interest fell off, but his club (Guingamp) is likely about to be relegated and next January he'll be available on a free. He's currently on 335k a year.
Pay that 3m euro fee (maybe less) and then a salary of 500-700k a year, then if amortized over 3/4 years that deal could work.
^If Ali is trying for players like this Coco, man.. we need to stop kidding ourselves....
It is very hard/impossible for me to see why a 22 year old who has a shot at moving from the periphery of Ligue Un to a decent Bundesliga team would ever move to MLS.
I think Ali and Manning are getting played by agents, and part of it is that they are not being realistic about what actually makes sense, and are wasting precious cycles on things that common sense says won’t happen.
If you need a release from Atlas, well, that's a 30 second conversation. Not happening? Move on. If you are buying players in Argentina, a notoriously expensive and frankly corrupt market, don't spend six months negotiating for marginal players. Pay up or move on, you are not going to change Argentina.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
Last edited by portu; 05-07-2019 at 06:41 AM.
So can someone clarify for certainty, is Gonzalez’s contract up for sure in the summer? I am warming to Ciman and Mavinga but we are one injury away from big trouble in the back. We need another starter but more importantly we need reliable depth.
The winger is to unlock the true potential in the offense, the CB is table stakes to keeping us in games.
And the goalie Westberg/Bono are to not let in an easy one, which just kills you (Bono 2018) and save our bacon when a good scoring chance occurs (Bono 2017 and actually Westberg last week)
i dont one think we can sit on a CB until the summer. 5 games in 15 days. Is there any shot we see Moore again? Anyone know?
——
Actually found it, says his contract expires 6/30/2019. https://www.transfermarkt.com/omar-g.../spieler/99690 , so Pachuca and Atlas don’t have a ton of leverage, but to be pains. If Gonzalez wants to come back his agent needs to be telling them they are signing with MLS in July. So get something or nothing for me.
Last edited by Bushmancan; 05-07-2019 at 06:52 AM.
Peace. It may be a great idea, I don’t know the player.
I just have have a sense that we are getting sold stories about how players are “almost” there, just a few more dollars and they will come... when the real issue is something else, ie we need to bung someone, or all we are is a stalking horse.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff