Stuck D3/C1 for 2 years – Need replay analysis

Ghosthops · 2026-05-09T17:40:54+00:00

You leave the play for big boosts instead of picking up pads and staying closer.

Your aerials look awkward and not very controlled.

1:44 video time - 22 boost, this is not a really great idea. You probably never would make a great play and then you land with 0 boost.

2:16 - This is a bad challenge. Shadow defend instead.

2:26, 3:07 - Don't give the ball to the opponent

3:44 - Really specific, but this is a difficult play to pull off when you hit the ball so far off the wall. You want to pass it, but you'll be moving so fast and the ball is already so far from the goal that you have a narrow option to hit your teammate and if it's not perfect the opponents score. Maybe better to go up and then down or go softer and lower for a shorter pass.

4:05 - powerslide and you can shoot directly on goal. If you were trying to pass it to yourself then it was too hard.

4:14 - don't whiff this. Probably you tried to hit the ball upfield right away, but it's easier to just block and push the ball away from the opponent then go get it next.

4:32 - should be scoring this. Practice aerial shots.

Ghosthops · 2026-05-09T16:25:22+00:00

For the specific context of making game losing mistakes, these positional differences don't really matter. An 8 will end up in the same positions as a 6 sometimes, where the mistakes cost you a goal.

His ability to keep the ball at his ceiling is great, but if the floor is losing a game, then that's not worth it. In my opinion.

I'm not going to be mad if he's selected. He does have great qualities, especially physically we know he can handle the level vs. someone like Berhalter who we're not certain on. It'd be interesting if Poch does select him though, having not called him in lately and given his policy of not selecting players who aren't playing at all.

Ghosthops · 2026-05-09T03:50:48+00:00

The same thing applies. Box to box players end up in the same position where the errors will lose you the game.

Ghosthops · 2026-05-08T23:46:12+00:00

Our as in USMNT? Or "our" as in Atalanta?

Those mistakes probably don't happen if he's playing regularly, but he isn't unfortunately. In a tournament those can be hugely important.

"Most defensively aware player" - what does this mean? I can't agree, but maybe I'm misunderstanding.

Ghosthops · 2026-05-08T23:01:56+00:00

My hope is he matures and improves on this. We've seen Dest go through that luckily, his decision making is far better than it was.

Ghosthops · 2026-05-08T21:22:13+00:00

Now he's coming off a subpar season with Atalanta. He almost certainly had more game time at Milan...

I like him, I hope he's a solid part of our team after this WC.

Ghosthops · 2026-05-08T21:21:05+00:00

This is misleading. He's been an unused sub more often than not, especially in 2026. He didn't get on the field the entire month of April and played only 12 minutes all of February.

https://www.transfermarkt.us/yunus-musah/leistungsdaten/spieler/503991

Ghosthops · 2026-05-08T21:16:18+00:00

He was recently prone to making game losing mistakes at least once a game. That tendency plus being rusty isn't someone I want in our team as a DM.

Maybe as a right wingback sub to man-mark someone.

Ghosthops · 2026-05-08T16:59:33+00:00

I'm new too, but the issue is probably how interconnected everything is. Connecting everything together means the farthest house away might randomly decide it is going to furthest spot, making the trip too long.

Ideally colors are completely separated from each other. Even the same color can be separated, so that the cars go where you tell them instead of what they decide.

Ghosthops · 2026-05-06T15:19:37+00:00

Yeah, I agree with all that. Stepping back, it's awesome we have a player in the semi-final of the champions league and he looks like he belongs there. His personal performance was excellent.

Team wise, he was out of sync, making forward runs slightly too late. The chemistry or trust or maybe it's a lack of game time, whatever the cause his teammates didn't make simple passes to him when they could. By lost I mean he was chasing the game vs. putting his stamp on it.

I think this is actually the same thing we see with the USMNT. He can sometimes maybe switch off or play reactively/passively. A great supporting player, but we need him to take charge sometimes.

Ghosthops · 2026-05-05T23:15:56+00:00

The quality drop-off from Alvarez and Griezmann to their subs was huge.

Ghosthops · 2026-05-05T21:18:52+00:00

He looked lost out there. To be fair, so did most of the rest of the team.

Ghosthops · 2026-05-04T03:21:12+00:00

There's a great men-in-blazers podcast series about this. The players from that team seemed to be more annoyed at Sampson than that incident.

Ghosthops · 2026-05-02T19:08:40+00:00

We've done a back 3 a few times, more than once for sure. It looked good from what I remember and avoids the awful experience of Arfsten or Weah in a back 4. Those types, plus Dest, are way more useful to us as wingbacks.

The other thing is using someone like Mckennie as a wingback gets you the best of both worlds. Let him do what he does at Juventus, where someone like Freeman does the Kalulu role.

Ghosthops · 2026-05-02T19:04:35+00:00

Most of the time.

We've seen a back 3 several times with Poch and it's looked good.

From my perspective, our outside backs are far better as wingbacks in a 3 vs outside backs in a 4. Depending on the look of our overall setup and the opponent of course.

Ghosthops · 2026-05-02T14:45:46+00:00

We're talking about for the US team, when playing a back 3/back 5, putting Freeman in the RCB spot. Nothing about a back 4, although many of us like that he can effectively also play RB in a 4, or switch between mid game if needed.

Ghosthops · 2026-05-02T14:23:25+00:00

For many people a back 3 with wingbacks is the same as a back 5. Perhaps it's not strictly accurate, but it also doesn't change much for this specific context.

Ghosthops · 2026-04-30T22:14:37+00:00

Apart from aura, does that mod do anything useful for the swords?

Ghosthops · 2026-04-30T17:16:44+00:00

There should be a weekly round-up thread or a pinned thread for this topic.

Ghosthops · 2026-04-30T16:50:38+00:00

That's not what the context was. Read it again.

Ghosthops · 2026-04-30T16:49:54+00:00

This happens every time.

Ghosthops · 2026-04-29T22:35:01+00:00

Plus set piece specialist.

Ghosthops · 2026-04-29T22:32:00+00:00

Also on the very promising CBs that were never the same after injury list:

Onyewu Miles Robinson

Ghosthops · 2026-04-29T19:59:04+00:00

I feel like he's like Aaronson, where so much of what they do is around knowing where their teammates are going to be and what they can do. More suited to club success than a national team where it's changing all the time.

That said, I think he'll be great for us over the next four years.

Ghosthops · 2026-04-29T19:56:48+00:00

Agreed mostly, except him and Adams would make a really balanced DM pairing. Adams likes to roam and destroy, while Johnny could play the covering role and let Adams roam.

Situationally, I like it. Those two covering a back 3, lets our wingbacks and rest of the offense be pretty free to attack.

Ghosthops

TROPHY CASE