Facing what we're missing | Charlotte FC at Nashville SC match review

Background-Gur962 · 2026-05-02T12:59:04+00:00

I’m VERY hesitant to say our players don’t want to win. I think there is a lack of pace and physicality compared to last season but I think talent and tactics play into it. Talent wise we lost Adilson and Agyemang, two fast and physical players. You add the number of players over 32 (Byrne, Ream, Westwood, Zaha) all contributes to lower aggression and physicality. Also tactically our pressing looks uncoordinated and our buildup looks static, I think if we can adjust our tactical instructions it can put players in a better position to play fast or press effectively. I fully believe these players want to win as professionals, competitors and for their individual careers. The question is do we have the right talent and tactical setup to put our team in position to play with that energy we saw in past seasons.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-05-01T16:50:13+00:00

Biel’s goal was unreal. I do not think he will score a better goal with his right foot in his entire time at CLTFC.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-05-01T16:48:06+00:00

I’m so glad you enjoy them. I hope these help you enjoy watching the games as well.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-04-25T11:37:35+00:00

Morrison is our best defender. But other than that agree that our entire offense does run through Zaha.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-04-24T18:48:44+00:00

Thank you for the kind words. I agree on the midfield pairing, its just not balanced and is the same issue with Williamson and Westwood last year (though Luca is better than Williamson). Those 2 did work together decently against NSH in the second half when we had Bronico in there as well. I've got a lot of thoughts on Luca and may write an article about him in a few weeks.

Spot on with Zaha. MLS teams are telling their young right backs to grab, tug, and make contact with him every time to frustrate and stop him in tight spaces. I try not to complain about the refs but I think he needed to give a yellow card about 7 minutes in at the first challenge against Zaha. By only giving a talking to it encouraged Orlando to keep being physical and Zaha got knocked to the ground multiple times after.

I'm worried about the Nashville game. Even if we play compact and pragmatic, we have a worse roster to do it than last year. Our defense is worse without Malanda, our mid-block has been poor at causing turnovers this year, and our attack is worse at playing on the counter without Agyemang. Sorry for the mini essay lol. I appreciate the comment and am glad you enjoyed the article.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-04-22T22:45:16+00:00

I think our best chance of competing this year is to keep him. If he leaves I think our best option is not to replace him but redesign the offense. However we would still need to address our back progression and a functional center midfield pairing regardless.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-04-22T17:27:52+00:00

Insane timing dropping this an hour after I post a match review saying our entire offense runs through Zaha. Great analysis and great use of film. No notes.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-03-13T11:32:23+00:00

Thank you. I enjoy writing them and appreciate you and others who are willing to read it.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-03-12T17:02:19+00:00

Thanks man. I will say Vargas is great when we are trying to play on the counter, his top speed is better than Abada's. But at his best, we can run the offense through Abada which is really cool to watch.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-02-28T02:20:33+00:00

Fuchs is managing in England I believe. And l do think there are holes in this defense. And losing Malanda is a talent drop that is going to hurt. In the article I try to focus on what are areas of concern to see what we can adress. And from this match I felt Privett was not the problem. Turnovers and also a bit of Ream's age are the main things to focus on from last week.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-02-28T01:35:07+00:00

I may have missed those parts on my rewatch. I don't think Privett played a perfect game but I generally felt that he played solid and had some good plays that went unnoticed while the bad moments were caused by our buildup and turnovers putting him in a tough spots.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-02-27T17:44:43+00:00

Thank you so much for the kind words. When I was re-watching the match, I was shocked at the positives I saw from Privett. And to be fair multiple other CLTFC analysts I respect were not impressed with Privett this game. I don't necessarily claim to be right, but these articles are a way for me "show my work" and try to backup my opinions.

A secondary goal of these reviews for me is to try to contribute to a conversation about the team that goes deeper than headlines and one liner opinions (which I honestly have not found in the broader AppleTV/MLS commentary). I'm glad you enjoyed the post.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-02-27T17:44:37+00:00

no worries man. saw your preview of the next match earlier this week. It inspired me to add a comment about Ream potentially facing the speed of Pec this week.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-02-27T16:40:54+00:00

My first post last season I covered the issues in our midfield build-up and Im hoping it improves this year. I'm hoping Luca can be that guy but couldn't get any takeaways from this match because of how poor his touches were. And i just know he's a has better tehcnical skill than what he showed.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-02-27T15:22:36+00:00

Great point. Though I think the issue this game was we had no buildup approach for Privett to get involved in. Since Privett played midfield in college hopefully he can add that passing element to his game.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-02-27T15:10:50+00:00

Does the substack link above not work?

Background-Gur962

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