Subject: [U21] vs Moldova

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I didn't like the tactic that was chosen. I've never understood the needs of having 3 forwards. They never received a nice pass from the midfielders either. The midfielder positioning was also a waste because they were too far away from each other and they didn't even block passing lanes from the other team. The forwards also should be put a little more ahead because every time they received the ball they would face the defender through the front thus always losing the battle. I believe that we were lucky to draw.

I agree mostly

I think 3 forwards is the way to play it, but in this case the midfield positioning and chooses along with the defensive positioning left us in with 3 forwards watching the ball go the other way.

I believe we were very lucky to get a draw.

why play with 3 forwards if we cant even get them at least a nice pass? i would rather have played with a 451 with 2 wingers and one striker and he'd have a lot more chances of scoring than those 3 did
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We have 2 wingers?

they didn't seem like wingers to me. A winger to me has to be very wide and positioned one square behind the forwards some thing like this

----x---x--------
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to me it seemed like we had 1 central mid and 2 wide cm.

I really don't know the skills of the players but they were getting their ass whooped in the midfield
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You see it the same way I do.

Fla had said to me Banda was playing winger, that was definitely wide cm.

What I meant by 2 wingers is, I don't believe there is 2 guys on the roster who have good enough skills to play what we think of as winger.

ok, i misunderstood.

like I said tho, I don't know the skills of any of the nt players. We can even play with one winger just to have a variation in our attack that way its not always their defenders heads on with our attackers.

Banda's goal was quite the screamer.

Yeah, I don't think he did so well in that position. Moldova left a huge gap between their defense and midfield at times, so it was a shame to see our strikers tracking back to retrieve the ball.

Formation-wise, some tweaks need to be made on throw in positions and a few players were caught running back and forth. But these things can be worked out.

IMO what hurt us the most was the defensive positioning.

Banda nearly broke the net with that equalizer! Overall, agreed, formation and choosing to play where seems not to have worked out too well. Banda clearly doesnt have the defence to play that deep in the midfield and would have been better utilized in one of the more attacking positions as at least he can pass. I wonder if the inexperienced Llama would have done any worse.......

Llama where art thou?

a few players were caught running back and forth

True, especially Tarley :\

Look at Trigg, he got a 23. Want to know why he got a 23? He didn't make 1 tackle, why did he not make a tackle?
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Still a solid game imo. We were lucky yes, but thats part of the game. Also, having a short week to get used to all sorts of new players probably didn't help Fla out.(I believe he said he left last night so wasn't able to tweak things the way he wanted in time or w/e?)

Also Unseld is out for next match.

As I don't know Tarley's skills, is he a CM? Or can he be converted to wing?

Here I am dag :)

Start of match notes looking at tactics and such:

1. Crap they didn't stack their forwards but rather pushed them out wide to make 2 wingers, oh well hopefully we can cover that
2. Our forwards/midfielder stack up nicely on their defenders, that should be able to get us some chances


first few minutes: STOP PASSING THE BALL BACKWARDS USA

Their cross: Crap...he runs right between our two central defenders, that could be trouble

8' - Injury for Moldova - HAH EAT IT SUCKERS

Their two offensive midfielders must have hella good stamina cause that tactic of theirs makes them run like no other.

15' - WTF PUT THAT AWAY

17' their goal - crap...I knew that player would be trouble with how he runs vs our tactic

19'- WOOHOO!!!!

Quick note, I really like Devlin, good player. Also another quick note I think we should talk more defensive tactics/positioning.

28' - there's that cross that we aren't set to guard again...damn.

31' - Did we just get double tackled?

Singer needs some crossing work if he's going to keep going out to that right side...

38' - OMG YOU CAN HAVE THEM SETUP A WALL?!?!? SINCE WHEN!?

can we stop getting yellow cards?

59' - WTF MAKE A DAMN PENALTY KICK. THESE ARE THE FREEBIES WE NEED TO PUT AWAY!!!

70' No way...

85' - OMG OMG OMG OMG SO WE MAKE THAT AND NOT A PK?!?!?


2-2 final, overall I'd like to say we were a tad lucky but we also didn't put away the chances we should have so it was a very strange game. We could've won it with a slightly better defensive tactic I think but oh well not a bad start :)

Ps. for being in 49. place Moldova sure is pretty dang good...their stats are pretty high up there with some top 32 teams easy...