Can the Timbers follow up their first win in over two months with *gasp* another win?? Unlikely, since this game is in Minnesota, but hey, you never know! Come chat through it.
Timbers : strikers didn’t make big plays, back line is slow, Chara’s better years behind him, goalkeeper didn’t make big saves.
Minnesota: back line was exposed but goalkeeper made big saves. Front line was patient enough to break through and win.
Overall analysis: Timbers had this game if they wanted it but the Minnesota goalkeeper frankly outsmarted our attackers and our defense isn’t strong enough to hold any team to a clean sheet.
Just too to bottom terrible. I’ve been somewhat blown away by the whole starting Rodriguez and Mora except during rotation simply because it severely limits the firepower off the bench when you need a goal. If you sign a DP 9 and they end up quickly being a winger which leaves you a lack of depth up top you screwed up badly.
I feel bad saying anything about the offense though as we’re second in the league in goals. We’re 2nd worst on goals allowed. It’s a complete disaster game in and game out. I’d be firing the head coach and defensive coach asap if I was running the club. There’s constant pressure on the team because we don’t pressure the ball, can’t possess worth beans, and we are constantly leaving ourselves exposed and open at the back. Gio always had to pull the plug on a more open type of soccer to get a deeper block and sit back and counter. The team after being coached for years by him has no clue how to play with possession or defend without just being overly defensive. With Phil they still can’t play in a more open style but they can’t organize themselves defensively and shut things down. Sitting back just invites pressure they can’t ever relieve. Just put team and roster building and a poor coach led by a terrible owner.
A man down and up a goal. I still the the biggest issues are defensive blunders and tactics. It’s just the sign of a poor organization to tout a new 9 that is almost immediately a winger that leaves you without great depth behind your 9. Fogacia looks decent at times but isn’t the level of your second best 9 if you want to be good in this league.
He doesn't need to be at the same level of mora or Jonathan. He is a depth player. But he is also very quick. Our chances came from turnovers and quick direct through balls between their back line. Nathan would do a great job of keeping them pinned with his pace and movement. If it were me and all players are available for next week this is how I would do it.
Nope. And he never will. It's always the players who didn't work hard enough, or the other team who worked harder, or something that isn't his shitty coaching work.
Evander should have been taken out. I don't get it. He either needs to be pushed way up or benched. If you have to keep him in and take out Mora, play him as a second forward. HE CANNOT DEFEND. LIKE AT ALL. HE IS JUST A BODY ON THE FIELD AND IT LEAVES US EXPOSED. THATS WHY WE WERE LOSING THE MIDFIELD BATTLE. PAREDES WAS PUSHING FORWARD MORE THAN HIM. FFS
It wasn’t his fault he got put at defensive midfield next to Chara at the 60th minute. I just don’t understand taking Ayala off just to put Evander there. He’s better higher up the field. He was clearly gassed. Evander was fine this game, Paredes was really poor, but it’s on the coach
Evander is a shit defender and I agree he needs to be pushed up. However, Paredes was pushing forward more in this game than Evander. It was like Evander wanted to be the 8 and Paredes wanted to be the 10. That's laughable. It was also weird that Evander was playing on the left of the midfield 3 in the 5 player midfield. He should be central and honestly should be in front of the midfield line. Creating a triangle with the forwards. This way on turnovers the midfield can get it to him quick and he can combine or slip a through ball to one of the forwards. Instead he was deep. Which means no defensive cover or duels won around him.
Wasn’t expecting a win. But a tie for sure after how we started. We punished one mistake, they punished two of ours. Not sure where our midfield was on the straggler in the second goal. I think we had one d-mid on the field for their second goal.
Minneapolis is the home of The Replacements, Husker Du, Babes In Toyland, Dillinger Four, The Hold Steady, and any number of other good bands. Oh, and also some guy named Prince. And they landed on fucking Oasis as their, pardon the pun, north star?
I don't see how they can't see that this is absolutely a coaching issue. Sure, we could use better players, but so could other teams. This was very very clearly a coaching defect. I'm pretty sick of it. Last couple years has been rough but this season is a new low.
I think is an organizational issue. From the FO on down. We have a stubborn owner who needs to sell the team for various reasons; a gm who learned the wrong lessions form the preiovus one, and a coach andmore than a few players who aren not league stnanard. Maybe you could have gotten away with it in mls 1.0 but not mls 4.0 or whatever edition of this league is in the Messi era.
We need a crew type makeover. New owner and new gm. Complete with new coach and a still uncompleteed roster refrfesh.
Hate to tell you but it's a combination of subpar players and coaching. It's not either or. Any new coach won't cure too many players being crappy passers every game. And who's to blame for the Timbers being consistently one of the shortest teams in the league? In fact, they're probably the least dominant in the box on headers.
Yeah even though the midfield had some issues it was protecting the back line by keeping pssession and not letting Minny - for the most part - get to the 18. After the formation - like you said - r guys standing around and ball watching.
We now have a new problem as our coach managed to get the starting lineup and tactics correct but screwed up the in-game adjustments. Just like the team he coaches, he can't put together a complete 90.
If Neville doesn't take full credit for this loss, he's delusional. He's delusional anyway, but that would confirm it and probably lose the locker room too.
SPOILER ALERT: he won't. He'll talk about how the players just didn't have enough fight in them like back in the old days when Eric Cantona karate kicked a fan in the chest or something
It was all working decently until the 57th min when our tactical genius of a coach decided to change formations and remove an attacker/possession minded player for a slow limited defensive one. Great job, Phil!
Switched to a back 4 that has us 2nd in the league for goals conceded. Instead of taking out the players that were struggling and keeping the same formation.
The players that were struggling was Paredes, Evander, asprilla and masquera. However we can only take out one wingback so it needed to be asprilla for Antony. Chara for Paredes and Williamson for Evander.
As Dee alluded to - tactcial genius Phil Neville took a look at a formation that was having some success and thought, "yeah let's remove a clinical goal scoreer to a purely defensive fullback."
I don't blame Mora for being pissed. I was pissed. One of the dumbest substitute moves I've seen this year and Phil has made a bunch of dumb lineup decisions
I'm wrong on a very regular basis, and I'm not afraid to acknowledge or admit it. And I have done so on this very website several times. But i'm not wrong in saying that Phil Neville is bad at soccer tactics. He has a very large body of work to prove that point.
I don't want to say it but kinda dpressing that Neville is going 4 in the back. Can we at least give the new formation more time? Hope John can score another goal cause taking Mora off for Eric Miller isn't going give us more offense.
I was just gonna say, Tactical Genius Phil Neville sees a three at the back working pretty well, has a 1-0 lead, and decides...to go four at the back and bring in Eric Miller in place of a goal scorer.
Timbers : strikers didn’t make big plays, back line is slow, Chara’s better years behind him, goalkeeper didn’t make big saves.
Minnesota: back line was exposed but goalkeeper made big saves. Front line was patient enough to break through and win.
Overall analysis: Timbers had this game if they wanted it but the Minnesota goalkeeper frankly outsmarted our attackers and our defense isn’t strong enough to hold any team to a clean sheet.
Just too to bottom terrible. I’ve been somewhat blown away by the whole starting Rodriguez and Mora except during rotation simply because it severely limits the firepower off the bench when you need a goal. If you sign a DP 9 and they end up quickly being a winger which leaves you a lack of depth up top you screwed up badly.
I feel bad saying anything about the offense though as we’re second in the league in goals. We’re 2nd worst on goals allowed. It’s a complete disaster game in and game out. I’d be firing the head coach and defensive coach asap if I was running the club. There’s constant pressure on the team because we don’t pressure the ball, can’t possess worth beans, and we are constantly leaving ourselves exposed and open at the back. Gio always had to pull the plug on a more open type of soccer to get a deeper block and sit back and counter. The team after being coached for years by him has no clue how to play with possession or defend without just being overly defensive. With Phil they still can’t play in a more open style but they can’t organize themselves defensively and shut things down. Sitting back just invites pressure they can’t ever relieve. Just put team and roster building and a poor coach led by a terrible owner.
Nathan came on and had two shots on goal. The formation was correct. The subs and tactics at the 56th minute were not.
A man down and up a goal. I still the the biggest issues are defensive blunders and tactics. It’s just the sign of a poor organization to tout a new 9 that is almost immediately a winger that leaves you without great depth behind your 9. Fogacia looks decent at times but isn’t the level of your second best 9 if you want to be good in this league.
He doesn't need to be at the same level of mora or Jonathan. He is a depth player. But he is also very quick. Our chances came from turnovers and quick direct through balls between their back line. Nathan would do a great job of keeping them pinned with his pace and movement. If it were me and all players are available for next week this is how I would do it.
Jonathan mora
Evander
Antony ayala chara Moreno
E. Miller K. Miller zuparic
Subs
Jonathan Nathan
Williamson
Asprilla Paredes Chara JDM
E. Miller K.miller zuparic
Neville-- ""I thought their keeper won them the game. I didn't think that they had too many shots on target.".....
Them= 6 SOT, 3.3xG
Us= 6 SOT, 1.7xG
Has he EVER taken any accountability?!
Their keeper has one or two good plays. Everything else was pretty routine. Phil isn’t a good coach though.
Nope. And he never will. It's always the players who didn't work hard enough, or the other team who worked harder, or something that isn't his shitty coaching work.
Evander should have been taken out. I don't get it. He either needs to be pushed way up or benched. If you have to keep him in and take out Mora, play him as a second forward. HE CANNOT DEFEND. LIKE AT ALL. HE IS JUST A BODY ON THE FIELD AND IT LEAVES US EXPOSED. THATS WHY WE WERE LOSING THE MIDFIELD BATTLE. PAREDES WAS PUSHING FORWARD MORE THAN HIM. FFS
It wasn’t his fault he got put at defensive midfield next to Chara at the 60th minute. I just don’t understand taking Ayala off just to put Evander there. He’s better higher up the field. He was clearly gassed. Evander was fine this game, Paredes was really poor, but it’s on the coach
Evander is a shit defender and I agree he needs to be pushed up. However, Paredes was pushing forward more in this game than Evander. It was like Evander wanted to be the 8 and Paredes wanted to be the 10. That's laughable. It was also weird that Evander was playing on the left of the midfield 3 in the 5 player midfield. He should be central and honestly should be in front of the midfield line. Creating a triangle with the forwards. This way on turnovers the midfield can get it to him quick and he can combine or slip a through ball to one of the forwards. Instead he was deep. Which means no defensive cover or duels won around him.
Wasn’t expecting a win. But a tie for sure after how we started. We punished one mistake, they punished two of ours. Not sure where our midfield was on the straggler in the second goal. I think we had one d-mid on the field for their second goal.
Imagine singing fucking wonderwall with pride. Jesus christ
Minneapolis is the home of The Replacements, Husker Du, Babes In Toyland, Dillinger Four, The Hold Steady, and any number of other good bands. Oh, and also some guy named Prince. And they landed on fucking Oasis as their, pardon the pun, north star?
Imagine that entire wall of people just shouting NEW DAY RISING for five minutes after a game hahaha
After the Wednesday night anomaly, things are quickly returning to the 2024 normal for the Timbers.
I don't see how they can't see that this is absolutely a coaching issue. Sure, we could use better players, but so could other teams. This was very very clearly a coaching defect. I'm pretty sick of it. Last couple years has been rough but this season is a new low.
I think is an organizational issue. From the FO on down. We have a stubborn owner who needs to sell the team for various reasons; a gm who learned the wrong lessions form the preiovus one, and a coach andmore than a few players who aren not league stnanard. Maybe you could have gotten away with it in mls 1.0 but not mls 4.0 or whatever edition of this league is in the Messi era.
We need a crew type makeover. New owner and new gm. Complete with new coach and a still uncompleteed roster refrfesh.
Hate to tell you but it's a combination of subpar players and coaching. It's not either or. Any new coach won't cure too many players being crappy passers every game. And who's to blame for the Timbers being consistently one of the shortest teams in the league? In fact, they're probably the least dominant in the box on headers.
IIt won't happen but our tactical genius of a coach deserves to be fired in the tunnel.
I regret that I have but only one like to give
Hopefully Timbers learn something by watching the Loons defend.
It is nice that they have someone like Rosales with speed to recover.
Ridiculously out-of-control, dangerous play by Taylor. FFS...
now Marrufo trying to bail the Timbers out apparently
Well. Now the Timbers will score 4, I’m sure
Wow, I can't believe that obvious second yellow on the Minnesota player was called a second yellow.
4j guys standing around and can’t clear a ball from goal.
Yeah even though the midfield had some issues it was protecting the back line by keeping pssession and not letting Minny - for the most part - get to the 18. After the formation - like you said - r guys standing around and ball watching.
We now have a new problem as our coach managed to get the starting lineup and tactics correct but screwed up the in-game adjustments. Just like the team he coaches, he can't put together a complete 90.
If Neville doesn't take full credit for this loss, he's delusional. He's delusional anyway, but that would confirm it and probably lose the locker room too.
SPOILER ALERT: he won't. He'll talk about how the players just didn't have enough fight in them like back in the old days when Eric Cantona karate kicked a fan in the chest or something
"We're ally close. I mean it. We're really close!"
Conceding 2 or more goals the last 10 games.. smh
Consistency!
The tactics of Neville are mind blowing. This is 100% on him.
"tactics"
It was all working decently until the 57th min when our tactical genius of a coach decided to change formations and remove an attacker/possession minded player for a slow limited defensive one. Great job, Phil!
Why did he do that? To preserve our ironclad 1-0 lead?
total clown move
Typical Phil move
It was too much to hope for a first win in Minnesota with this team.
It was too much to hope for a first win in Minnesota with this coach.
FTFY
The team that scores first usually wins, correct?
So much space for Minn since the subs. No possession.
Three at the back seems pretty great we should try that
welp
Glad to see our defense finally showed up...
So easy
Switched to a back 4 that has us 2nd in the league for goals conceded. Instead of taking out the players that were struggling and keeping the same formation.
The players that were struggling was Paredes, Evander, asprilla and masquera. However we can only take out one wingback so it needed to be asprilla for Antony. Chara for Paredes and Williamson for Evander.
But Phil Neville Played For Manchester United Back In the 90's So He Has To Be Good At The Soccer! Because England! Or Something!
So why wasn't the Rosales foul on Evander a textbook yellow card?
ProRefs use either a dart board or Ouija Board to determine their calls
because Marrufo.
And we (and Jair) get saved by VAR.
I'm glad they are reviewing the foul that wasn't called before Minnesota went into the box, I thought that was obvious.
Pretty much a textbook sumo 小手投げ (kotenage = "armlock throw") by Pukki on that one.
Good. They got that right.
Araujo has certainly had a nightmare match.
Motion to have Jair deported into the Sun
No one told him about Jair's phantom calls.
seconded
As Dee alluded to - tactcial genius Phil Neville took a look at a formation that was having some success and thought, "yeah let's remove a clinical goal scoreer to a purely defensive fullback."
I don't blame Mora for being pissed. I was pissed. One of the dumbest substitute moves I've seen this year and Phil has made a bunch of dumb lineup decisions
Dude fell before Chara even hit him
Ridiculously bad call.
Added to the list.
Should have left mora on. Took put Paredes for chara, and put Antony in for asprilla. Then brought Williamson on for Evander with 10 minutes left.
Tactical Genius Phil Neville
One trick pony RCTEyeDee
am I wrong?
No, you’re never wrong
I'm wrong on a very regular basis, and I'm not afraid to acknowledge or admit it. And I have done so on this very website several times. But i'm not wrong in saying that Phil Neville is bad at soccer tactics. He has a very large body of work to prove that point.
Suboptimal man marking is Suboptimal
You could see that goal coming a mile away.
Mosquera was major-ball-watching on that Minnesota goal.
I don't want to say it but kinda dpressing that Neville is going 4 in the back. Can we at least give the new formation more time? Hope John can score another goal cause taking Mora off for Eric Miller isn't going give us more offense.
Putting a lot of pressure on Jona to make down pitch success
I was just gonna say, Tactical Genius Phil Neville sees a three at the back working pretty well, has a 1-0 lead, and decides...to go four at the back and bring in Eric Miller in place of a goal scorer.
And people wonder why I was against this hire.
ooooh Timbers broke the new substitution rule. Fun.
Is it me or was that Fernando adi on the coaching bench of Minnesota
I thought he was coaching in their acadmey? Did he get a promotion? Damn. He should be coaching for us.
U19 coach I think?
So are former Timbers Cameron Knowles and Jeremy Hall.
Would like to have some ball control which will spell the defense. Don’t like Minn hanging out inside the box so much.
We are still giving away too much space. Good thing right now Minny can't finish. This team is really allergic to shutting down passing lanes.
Mora got pushed!
Mora. Ouch.
DAMMIT
Oh Pipe.
Minnesota has great kits yet has the worst kit sponsor ever
As a company, maybe you have a point, but as a logo on a shirt aesthetically I gotta say it's pretty damn good.
My .02 on that half is I'm pleasantly surprised to be up a goal at one of our usual house of horrors. Glad that Pukki is a terrible shot