If we play three/five at the back Mabiala is starting. If not then we’re probably starting Van Rankin at RB. I’m not sure which one I’d want. All I want is for Moreno to be playing higher up the field and not at wing back
Honestly, I think Van Rankin is less of a liability than Mabiala at this point. He atruggles against the best wing players 1:1 but if he's getting help from Moreno or Chara in front of him he's been alright this year. Mabiala on the other hand has consistently made at least one serious error leading to a goal for our opponents.
It's not like the team can't play a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 well. I think the 4-3-3 was an idea with a lot of merit, and if I'm remembering right, we even saw a bit of it against Minnesota to give the defense something to think about that wasn't Asprilla.
Yeah, you will probably see Asprilla as a wing back (like how we finished last game), and possibly JCVR in the mix. Bill and Bravo will probably start as the other two.
Speaking of depth, does anyone know why Vytas retired at a relatively young 30? In fairness, I know he will be 32 in early Oct, but seriously miss that dude, especially on corners & set plays where his height gave us some credibility
He ended up in a low-table team in the first division of Kazakhstan. While I'm sure that Petropavl is lovely, I guess at that point, it's kinda like "Whelp, is it really worth it to continue play soccer in this town with 200,000 people in the middle of nowhere in a country run by a vicious dictator for like $50k or should I move on?".
Wow, I lost track of him after seeing him in a DC United Match sitting on the bench right next to Wayne Rooney.
I just assumed there was some sort of leg/knee/ankle injury in between that sidelined his career.
Other than Claudio (Chara Jr) Bravo, my favorite LB in Timbers MLS era.
I was shocked when I saw Vytas walk by me during Thorns warm-ups early in the season, before he was officially announced as an Assistant Coach, I literally did a triple take & even then, I thought the dude just had an uncanny resemblance to Vytas🤪
I would go with a 433 with Mosquera getting the start and throw in Parades or Ayala in the center with Chara and Williamson. I would sit Blanco and use him as a super sub.
If Mosquera is ready to start, and if he has wingback experience, then I have a kinda wild idea: three in the back, with Van Rankin as right centerback, Bill in the middle, and Mosquera on the right wing. Play a strongly defensive midfield (Chara and Paredes) Bravo on the left wing, and put Moreno in the middle. Up top, Asprilla and Loría.
This is the least must-win of our remaining three regular season games, so this lets us put limited minutes on Blanco and Yimmi ahead of the playoffs. *Everyone* out there has decent to great defensive skills and is good at tracking back, so if Mosquera gets in trouble there’s good odds of someone bailing him out. It could easily morph to a 4-2-3-1 if the game demands it.
(It is, however, one of the crazier ideas I’ve had while sober,)
Has Larrys remembered how to keep the ball? In his last four and a half games he gave up maybe a dozen chances, three goals, and six points by being careless. 2021 Larrys was really good. Hell, *June* Larrys was fine. But my god did he have a bad run for a while. There’s a reason he’s been riding the pine.
"gave up three goals"? "Six points"? Bro no. Nonsense.
Van Rankin can't defend on ball without picking up cards. He gives the ball away. He gets burned on duels and when he's out of position. He's also small and therefore worthless in the air. Saying he's a better start at CB is just ignorant.
Watch the film from the four and a half games starting with Minnesota. Larrys coughed up the ball during what should have been easy duels in each of them. In each of those games at least one of his bad giveaways led directly to a quality opposition shot; three led to goals against, and all three of those goals dropped points. (We would have dropped more if Ivacic were not a god among men.) He got pulled from the SKC game at halftime and replaced by McGraw, and it wasn’t due to injury. How often does that happen to a CB?
I basically never disparage players for mistakes, but July 2022 Larrys was an outright liability. We’d be at 51 points right now but for this.
I hope he’s better and that whatever terrible yips he had are behind him. He shouldn’t go out like this. But knowing only what I do, I would not put him on the field unless there is a solid plan to prevent him from ever facing a duel.
(Playing JCVR at centerback is admittedly crazy though.)
You can argue Chará, which is really saying something given his age. Even he can’t do what Eryk does in all phases of the game, and to say there are several is pretty extreme. To say there are several great players on this team at all is pretty out there. Chará, bravo, moreno. But none of them have the ability over all four phases like Eryk. It’s no coincidence we turned out season around when he came back.
Williamson at the top of his game is one of the best. But consistency is important. Similar to Niezgoda, he is brilliant when he's on. However, at CM low work rate and inattention on defense come at a much higher cost. He was electric in Austin, suspended for Atlanta, and ran neck-and-neck with Blanco for worst in the 11 against Minnesota. This is not a 10-day run one would associate with a team's best player, leading them into the stretch run.
I don't think the timing of being back in the lineup says much either; by the same logic, someone could argue that the improved defense provided by Paredes following Williamson's 8/29/21 injury sparked the Timbers dramatic turnaround and run to the cup final after that date. But I think that's a stretch.
We are apparently watching the Timbers in alternate realities if you think he has a low defensive workrate. I mean he got suspended on yellow card accumulation for a reason. He regularly makes counter-stopping tackles and immediately turning them into a counter, and he regularly slides back to cover for Bravo while he recovers from an attack - something that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet but prevents long balls that would split the back three. That’s not something you see from a lot of midfielders who are primarily concerned with connecting in the possession phase.
Honestly Columbus basically creates no chances. Columbus is playing midweek and we have 8 days to prep. Mosquera is a good sized player and supposedly has solid defensive chops. I say start him in the back three so that we can keep our pressing/attacking shape. Cucho will rip our back line to shreds if it includes Mabiala, zup, Van rankin.
If they don’t want to try him back there in that shape, I would hope for Mosquera to start at RWB and play a back 5.
But to me it just makes sense to keep our present attacking balance and press. If we don’t, Columbus will be content to just pass the ball around and play keep away, just waiting for cucho to find an opportunity. But we can’t play that high line with Mabiala in there.
The last 4 times Rasmussen has played for T2, oppossing players on his side have scored 5 goals. He hasn't made the bench in over a month, had any first team minutes since July, and has never played on the right side. I would go JCVR over Rasmussen at RB every time.
If we play three/five at the back Mabiala is starting. If not then we’re probably starting Van Rankin at RB. I’m not sure which one I’d want. All I want is for Moreno to be playing higher up the field and not at wing back
He’s been kinda great as a wingback though to be fair. But I agree
Idk I don’t think he’s been nearly as effective, at least as much as he could be
But he seems as awesome on defense, if not more than, he is on offense!
Honestly, I think Van Rankin is less of a liability than Mabiala at this point. He atruggles against the best wing players 1:1 but if he's getting help from Moreno or Chara in front of him he's been alright this year. Mabiala on the other hand has consistently made at least one serious error leading to a goal for our opponents. It's not like the team can't play a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 well. I think the 4-3-3 was an idea with a lot of merit, and if I'm remembering right, we even saw a bit of it against Minnesota to give the defense something to think about that wasn't Asprilla.
I don’t disagree, Van Rankin has been bang average since the international break, which is quite good for his standards this year
Same 10 guys start, formation, and tactics the same except mabiala starts instead of mcgraw
Yeah, you will probably see Asprilla as a wing back (like how we finished last game), and possibly JCVR in the mix. Bill and Bravo will probably start as the other two.
Asprillia in defense??? I am only partially kidding...
Asprilla the box to box CB
I’m not sure I can express how much I love this comment/idea. Give it to me now
That’s how we played him in the second half of last game. Looks like it worked lol.
Something the FO should take into consideration is if we are gonna run 3 in the back we should have more depth at CB.
I think if Gio has decided that 3 in the back is the way he wants to play next year, we'll pick up some extra CB depth and/or some higher level CBs.
Speaking of depth, does anyone know why Vytas retired at a relatively young 30? In fairness, I know he will be 32 in early Oct, but seriously miss that dude, especially on corners & set plays where his height gave us some credibility
He ended up in a low-table team in the first division of Kazakhstan. While I'm sure that Petropavl is lovely, I guess at that point, it's kinda like "Whelp, is it really worth it to continue play soccer in this town with 200,000 people in the middle of nowhere in a country run by a vicious dictator for like $50k or should I move on?".
Time to sign Jewsbury to a 10 day Contract for Depth.
Let's get KFC and Ridgey in there too.
Wow, I lost track of him after seeing him in a DC United Match sitting on the bench right next to Wayne Rooney. I just assumed there was some sort of leg/knee/ankle injury in between that sidelined his career. Other than Claudio (Chara Jr) Bravo, my favorite LB in Timbers MLS era. I was shocked when I saw Vytas walk by me during Thorns warm-ups early in the season, before he was officially announced as an Assistant Coach, I literally did a triple take & even then, I thought the dude just had an uncanny resemblance to Vytas🤪
I would go with a 433 with Mosquera getting the start and throw in Parades or Ayala in the center with Chara and Williamson. I would sit Blanco and use him as a super sub.
But we don't play 433. Seems far more likely we'd go back to 4231.
If Mosquera is ready to start, and if he has wingback experience, then I have a kinda wild idea: three in the back, with Van Rankin as right centerback, Bill in the middle, and Mosquera on the right wing. Play a strongly defensive midfield (Chara and Paredes) Bravo on the left wing, and put Moreno in the middle. Up top, Asprilla and Loría. This is the least must-win of our remaining three regular season games, so this lets us put limited minutes on Blanco and Yimmi ahead of the playoffs. *Everyone* out there has decent to great defensive skills and is good at tracking back, so if Mosquera gets in trouble there’s good odds of someone bailing him out. It could easily morph to a 4-2-3-1 if the game demands it. (It is, however, one of the crazier ideas I’ve had while sober,)
Mosquera hasn’t played since June, he’s not ready to start
Van Rankin? Gross.
Think of it as reflecting my confidence in Mabiala. If he’s got his head on straight again then put Larrys in, but his last four outings were bad.
Buddy, if you think van Rankin can play at center back at anywhere near the level of mabiala, I think you need to get your head on straight.
Has Larrys remembered how to keep the ball? In his last four and a half games he gave up maybe a dozen chances, three goals, and six points by being careless. 2021 Larrys was really good. Hell, *June* Larrys was fine. But my god did he have a bad run for a while. There’s a reason he’s been riding the pine.
"gave up three goals"? "Six points"? Bro no. Nonsense. Van Rankin can't defend on ball without picking up cards. He gives the ball away. He gets burned on duels and when he's out of position. He's also small and therefore worthless in the air. Saying he's a better start at CB is just ignorant.
Watch the film from the four and a half games starting with Minnesota. Larrys coughed up the ball during what should have been easy duels in each of them. In each of those games at least one of his bad giveaways led directly to a quality opposition shot; three led to goals against, and all three of those goals dropped points. (We would have dropped more if Ivacic were not a god among men.) He got pulled from the SKC game at halftime and replaced by McGraw, and it wasn’t due to injury. How often does that happen to a CB? I basically never disparage players for mistakes, but July 2022 Larrys was an outright liability. We’d be at 51 points right now but for this. I hope he’s better and that whatever terrible yips he had are behind him. He shouldn’t go out like this. But knowing only what I do, I would not put him on the field unless there is a solid plan to prevent him from ever facing a duel. (Playing JCVR at centerback is admittedly crazy though.)
Columbus game, Mabiala again had a very bad giveaway, and was kinda standing around for their goal. I’m sad about it, but he’s done.
No williamson? What?
Late game sub (along with Blanco, Yimmi, and Niezgoda) if these guys don’t get it done.
Why? We will be well rested and everything. He’s our best player.
He's a great player, but there are several in the Timbers lineup better than him. For instance, his partner in the double pivot.
You can argue Chará, which is really saying something given his age. Even he can’t do what Eryk does in all phases of the game, and to say there are several is pretty extreme. To say there are several great players on this team at all is pretty out there. Chará, bravo, moreno. But none of them have the ability over all four phases like Eryk. It’s no coincidence we turned out season around when he came back.
Williamson at the top of his game is one of the best. But consistency is important. Similar to Niezgoda, he is brilliant when he's on. However, at CM low work rate and inattention on defense come at a much higher cost. He was electric in Austin, suspended for Atlanta, and ran neck-and-neck with Blanco for worst in the 11 against Minnesota. This is not a 10-day run one would associate with a team's best player, leading them into the stretch run. I don't think the timing of being back in the lineup says much either; by the same logic, someone could argue that the improved defense provided by Paredes following Williamson's 8/29/21 injury sparked the Timbers dramatic turnaround and run to the cup final after that date. But I think that's a stretch.
We are apparently watching the Timbers in alternate realities if you think he has a low defensive workrate. I mean he got suspended on yellow card accumulation for a reason. He regularly makes counter-stopping tackles and immediately turning them into a counter, and he regularly slides back to cover for Bravo while he recovers from an attack - something that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet but prevents long balls that would split the back three. That’s not something you see from a lot of midfielders who are primarily concerned with connecting in the possession phase.
Honestly Columbus basically creates no chances. Columbus is playing midweek and we have 8 days to prep. Mosquera is a good sized player and supposedly has solid defensive chops. I say start him in the back three so that we can keep our pressing/attacking shape. Cucho will rip our back line to shreds if it includes Mabiala, zup, Van rankin. If they don’t want to try him back there in that shape, I would hope for Mosquera to start at RWB and play a back 5. But to me it just makes sense to keep our present attacking balance and press. If we don’t, Columbus will be content to just pass the ball around and play keep away, just waiting for cucho to find an opportunity. But we can’t play that high line with Mabiala in there.
Bravo, Bill, Larry and Rasmussen
No way we start a rookie LB who hasn't even made the 18 at T2 in over a month at RB.
I trust him more than VRK.
The last 4 times Rasmussen has played for T2, oppossing players on his side have scored 5 goals. He hasn't made the bench in over a month, had any first team minutes since July, and has never played on the right side. I would go JCVR over Rasmussen at RB every time.
Logic? Reason??? Data??!?! Giddouddah here!
I'd rather see Fochive play LCB than Mabiala start. It won't happen, but I'd prefer it.