He's a million times more engaging than Gio, I'll give him that, and he gets how the fan dynamic works, but results are the only thing I care about from a coach. Get this team to the playoffs. Make a somewhat deep run. Build on that and let's see a stronger team next year. Then I'll be happy with what he's done and is doing.
He's improved the squad a lot since May, which is great, but none of it will matter if they stumble over this last hurdle of a run-in. A strong performance against Colorado, carrying on what they did well against Seattle, would go a long way towards building belief that this team can win on the road when they have to - and it's the time of the season that they have to.
I'm looking forward to seeing how they handle it - I think they're set up to do well, certainly more so than earlier this season, but they have to actually execute now. Fingers crossed.
Totally, will definitely come down to results. The team camaraderie & his bond with the players has only gotten stronger since the start of the season - quite special. I look forward to seeing it help with the late stretch run. Like you said, it starts this weekend at Colorado. Tough fixtures to end the season, it's time to get the job done for the Portland Timbers.
Zuparic + Araujo were a tie in Jeremy’s piece about centerback pairings, with the tiebreaker being home vs away. If we went three-back, McGraw is the even man out, because Araujo has historically played on the right in a 3-back.
I appreciate trying to get some clarification on what he means by mentality but he still didn’t say anything especially meaningful or specific lol.
I haven’t seen the second half of the Sounders match, so I can’t speak to whether we made a tactical shift, if they were bad, if we were lucky, or whatever. I want to see tactical changes that are sustained throughout the rest of the season, especially on set pieces, off-the-ball movement, and organization.
I really like what he says about youth development and attitude/mentality as far as opportunities go.
Thanks to you and the whole crew for your coverage. As much as I want more Xs and Os sometimes, I really like the human interest angle too. I hope Phil figures some things out and has a successful tenure as Timbers gaffer. He’s got less of an uphill than Rob does at Thorns, as he at least has a working attack.
Nicholas, thanks so much for your support! We have Luukas’ first piece coming out in the next day or two. He is our analytics and film study expert so I’m excited for you all to see that very, very soon.
He's a million times more engaging than Gio, I'll give him that, and he gets how the fan dynamic works, but results are the only thing I care about from a coach. Get this team to the playoffs. Make a somewhat deep run. Build on that and let's see a stronger team next year. Then I'll be happy with what he's done and is doing.
He's improved the squad a lot since May, which is great, but none of it will matter if they stumble over this last hurdle of a run-in. A strong performance against Colorado, carrying on what they did well against Seattle, would go a long way towards building belief that this team can win on the road when they have to - and it's the time of the season that they have to.
I'm looking forward to seeing how they handle it - I think they're set up to do well, certainly more so than earlier this season, but they have to actually execute now. Fingers crossed.
Totally, will definitely come down to results. The team camaraderie & his bond with the players has only gotten stronger since the start of the season - quite special. I look forward to seeing it help with the late stretch run. Like you said, it starts this weekend at Colorado. Tough fixtures to end the season, it's time to get the job done for the Portland Timbers.
Zuparic + Araujo were a tie in Jeremy’s piece about centerback pairings, with the tiebreaker being home vs away. If we went three-back, McGraw is the even man out, because Araujo has historically played on the right in a 3-back.
I appreciate trying to get some clarification on what he means by mentality but he still didn’t say anything especially meaningful or specific lol.
I haven’t seen the second half of the Sounders match, so I can’t speak to whether we made a tactical shift, if they were bad, if we were lucky, or whatever. I want to see tactical changes that are sustained throughout the rest of the season, especially on set pieces, off-the-ball movement, and organization.
I really like what he says about youth development and attitude/mentality as far as opportunities go.
Thank you for listening, Nicholas!
Thanks to you and the whole crew for your coverage. As much as I want more Xs and Os sometimes, I really like the human interest angle too. I hope Phil figures some things out and has a successful tenure as Timbers gaffer. He’s got less of an uphill than Rob does at Thorns, as he at least has a working attack.
Nicholas, thanks so much for your support! We have Luukas’ first piece coming out in the next day or two. He is our analytics and film study expert so I’m excited for you all to see that very, very soon.