An excellent and well deserved shredding of this team after last night's debacle. Do you ever get to go to Neville's post game pressers? If so, have you or could you post a question about why he doesn't use a third mid fielder as you advocate? I'd like to hear what his response would be. If I were Neville, I'd read your stuff and probably tell no one that I did. I really think he could benefit from it. You didn't say a lot about the team's almost total reluctance to shoot the ball from just about anywhere on the pitch. That was again on display last night.. They get into the box then try to make passes in a lot of defensive traffic instead of just firing away. I would think it's pretty hard to go a whole game and not get a shot on goal. Maybe they should get minus points for that sorry fete.
I thought Toronto did a pretty good job of closing down shooting angles so their lack of shooting wasn't really that high on the priority list considering all the other issues that were on display
"If so, have you or could you post a question about why he doesn't use a third mid fielder as you advocate?"
We usually do have a third midfielder. Da Costa and Ayala are in ink. Chara, Paredes, and Ortiz have alternated as the third. The problem isn't necessarily personnel but rather how the system "works" and what players are asked to do in it. Paredes may not have the best first touch, Chara may have lost a step, and Ortiz may not have adapted to the league yet, but none of them are bad players. They are good players. Not great, though Chara once was and has his moments. The system just sucks for them and some other players. What I believe Jeremy and others are talking about with a "third" midfielder is upgrading the player that isn't Da Costa or Ayala. That could help but just to mask the problems, which go higher up.
Whenever the players look like they aren't moving off the ball, they aren't passing into space, they aren't making runs into the box, they aren't decisive, that isn't because every individual player on the team sucks or collectively decided they weren't going to show up to work. It's that what they are being asked to do doesn't freaking work. Unless the argument is that pretty much nobody is doing what they're told to do, the problem is what they are told to do. Many of the same problems have existed regardless of players, opponent, game state, etc. What's the common thread?
Newbie question, why weren't the mids able to get any balls forward ? I'm watching these long forward passes fail again and again and again whereas Toronto didn't seem to have this issue, at least not as much. What's the systemic reason for this? Thanks
There are many reasons why, but I'll provide the most direct answer. Portland's lack of off-ball movement allows opposition defenders to easily block passing lanes and Portland's defenders leave a ton of space (passing lanes) for opposition attackers to pick out passes.
An excellent and well deserved shredding of this team after last night's debacle. Do you ever get to go to Neville's post game pressers? If so, have you or could you post a question about why he doesn't use a third mid fielder as you advocate? I'd like to hear what his response would be. If I were Neville, I'd read your stuff and probably tell no one that I did. I really think he could benefit from it. You didn't say a lot about the team's almost total reluctance to shoot the ball from just about anywhere on the pitch. That was again on display last night.. They get into the box then try to make passes in a lot of defensive traffic instead of just firing away. I would think it's pretty hard to go a whole game and not get a shot on goal. Maybe they should get minus points for that sorry fete.
I thought Toronto did a pretty good job of closing down shooting angles so their lack of shooting wasn't really that high on the priority list considering all the other issues that were on display
"If so, have you or could you post a question about why he doesn't use a third mid fielder as you advocate?"
We usually do have a third midfielder. Da Costa and Ayala are in ink. Chara, Paredes, and Ortiz have alternated as the third. The problem isn't necessarily personnel but rather how the system "works" and what players are asked to do in it. Paredes may not have the best first touch, Chara may have lost a step, and Ortiz may not have adapted to the league yet, but none of them are bad players. They are good players. Not great, though Chara once was and has his moments. The system just sucks for them and some other players. What I believe Jeremy and others are talking about with a "third" midfielder is upgrading the player that isn't Da Costa or Ayala. That could help but just to mask the problems, which go higher up.
Whenever the players look like they aren't moving off the ball, they aren't passing into space, they aren't making runs into the box, they aren't decisive, that isn't because every individual player on the team sucks or collectively decided they weren't going to show up to work. It's that what they are being asked to do doesn't freaking work. Unless the argument is that pretty much nobody is doing what they're told to do, the problem is what they are told to do. Many of the same problems have existed regardless of players, opponent, game state, etc. What's the common thread?
There are not enough letters in the word "awful" to fully describe how awful the lads were last night.
I'm most grateful for your coaches rating. It was truly abysmal.
Newbie question, why weren't the mids able to get any balls forward ? I'm watching these long forward passes fail again and again and again whereas Toronto didn't seem to have this issue, at least not as much. What's the systemic reason for this? Thanks
There are many reasons why, but I'll provide the most direct answer. Portland's lack of off-ball movement allows opposition defenders to easily block passing lanes and Portland's defenders leave a ton of space (passing lanes) for opposition attackers to pick out passes.