Subject: [U21] USA Vs England

Yell at me??? This loss I'm going to go ahead and blame on your decision to not listen to my def midfielder who drops back into line idea :)


Anyways here is my thoughts as I watched the game

Alrightttt gonna be a tough game

initial thoughts...Seems their wingers are still a bit spread for us...wish fla would've spread those a bit and had that 5th central mid def to drop back in the middle.

Also that double midfield stack looks interesting, I'd like to see how that works

Anyways, GAME ON


5' - PLAY THE THROUGH BALL SINGER, CMONNN

7' - yep there's that winger...oh well thank good ness for a poor shot

9' - Please choose the better player to pass to Tarley...

Also quick note, England has some good runners going with that winger, that could be trouble...

14' - Crap...

16' - CMONNN 2v1 goalie and YOU MESS IT UP?!?!?! we could've used that chance...

21' - Those strikers need to move with that free kick.

22 - Hmm good coice Sultis, forget the breakaway, you should pass the bal to trouble...Sheesh

25' - Allrigttt!!! guess that makes up for the 1 on 1 we missed

28' - Nice tackling USA...

34' - CMON CAN WE MAKE A SHOT?!

38' - NOOOO NOT SINGER :( :( :( That better be a 5 day injury tops...

43' - We really need to start making these 1 on 1's count...

Why isn't singer subbed after his injury?

58' - Still need a guy at the top of the box to defend thsoe strikers

60' - Hey we finally subbed the injured guy!

61' - WTH what kind of corner kick tactic is that?!?!

61' - THE KIND THAT SCORES F*** YEA!!!!!

65' - Wow...they put some Fresh legs out there...

68' - Card happy ref much? what is that yellow card number 5?

70' - FRESH LEGS GO USA

73' - Awwww so close

83' - Offsides?? he totally wasn't even close to touching the ball

86' - ... REALLY?!?!?!? top of the box crap...


WOW...What a freaking terribly unlucky game. I think we outplayed them so much. We had so many quality chances there that we wouldn't put away. Our only real weaknesses were 1. The wingers weren't as far out as I would've liked 2. The top of our box was unprotected

Both of those were fixed by the tactic I was talking to you about where you play that defensive midfielder who when the ball is up some drops into the line to allow the wingbacks to play out further and then when the ball is down in your defense he stands at the top of the box and defends.

Well can't say I was displeased, it surely didn't help missing our best midfielder (Hale), best defender (Unseld) and top striker (Bogans).

Llama to your point, it was considered to play your formation, but the players to pull it off are not there. Maybe if Hale was fit. But Tarley clearly is the only one capable of playing a holding midfield position, and he is too valuable to play defensively.

As for the wideness, maybe, but I tried that last week, and it did not hold well. And again, I don't think the talent is really there to play them wider.

As for your top of box comment, will have to look at it further, not sure I see enough to agree it was unprotected.

I think we could've pulled off my formation if we played Zwick in the defensive midfielder position that I spoke about.

I agree missing our best players really hurt us...but I still think we should've gone with my formation

As to the defenders, you played a lot better positioning with them compared to last week, but as to my comment about the top of the box, you're still playing the defenders around the 10 yard line as opposed to the 16 yard line, which is where I think we need to have that defensive midfielder to make a tackle while keeping our defenders where you had them. The reason being is where the defenders were is to protect against headers since a striker will probably go for the header from there, but at the 18 yard box he will most likely control the ball then turn and shoot, so we need somewhere there to make a tackle

if someone else thinks I'm wrong please let me know, just what I've observed in the past 100 NT/U21 matches

The back line is too deep

you really think its too deep? It didn't seem too deep to me..

blah, sorry

I was thinking about the throw ins, the wide ball side defender wasn't wide enough. Other than that positioning was much better.

Yea no seemed fine in depth, just the wingers weren't wide enough which I think my formation would've covered

do you think I was mistaken in my tactic dag?

I really don't get the throw in positioning in the 1/3 part of our side of the pitch. they were always alone and free to do whatever they wanted? If they had better passing skill they would have murdered us...

Yea that was disastrous

I'm not really following you, seems Tarley was just above the cd's.

No, i'm not saying your tactic is mistaken.

I think we could of won today under better circumstances.(fixing the throw ins)

Bogans and Cullen out, Hale and Unseld....

There keeper

I'm saying here's what happens

We play our wingbacks further out a notch, then whenever the ball drops into our area, Tarley (though I'd make it Zwick in that case probably) would drop into the back line creating a 5-3-2. This allows for a stronger defense that can cover the outside wings which I knew Enland was going to try and dominate.

This would also allow the wingbacks to be there for the throw ins without losing any central defense power

then when we push up some, It will fall back into that 4 defense and the defensive midfielder will push ahead some to help out in the midfield as that holding position

throw ins are always crucial

get plus
(edited)

Dags, I took your 3 top tactic and used it for the defense positioning, there was VERY little diversion from that, so the "deepness" was not something I incorporated.

Vovo, I will have to look at throw ins again

Sorry I thought I explained that, anyway my thoughts were on the throw ins, deepness was fine.

As far as I recall we discussed corners not throw ins.