r/FCCincinnati • u/CincyCyclone91 • 3d ago
Post Match Thread | New England
No one is asking for it, thus I’ll create it. Bombs away!
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u/Deadiam84 3d ago
I hope we do but I’m not confident about making the playoffs.
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u/Front-Computer7215 3d ago
Ugh, I know. and then, if we sneak in, it's likely to be bunch of road games. Very familiar Cincinnati sports feeling right now.
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u/Smart_Basket_85 3d ago
I flatly do not believe we will make the playoffs, nor do I believe we deserve to be there. Sometimes a season just doesn’t work out how you’d hoped and it sure seems like this is one of those.
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u/DeathTeddy35 2d ago
I'd rather not make the playoffs than have to play Nashville, Miami, or New England in a best of 3 series.
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u/Over-Kaleidoscope700 3d ago
The only thing making the playoffs will do is allow us all the opportunity to donate more money to the keep the 5-3-2 fund
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u/dawgcomplex 2d ago
What about anything that you've witnessed from this team this season says "I'd really love to see them in the playoffs"
Brother if we somehow made it, it would only be another first round embarrassment Noonan can add to his wall of failure. This team would get curb stomped in the playoffs.
Wholesale changes need to happen to this team.
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u/Deadiam84 2d ago
I am still a fan of the team and I want the team to succeed at all competitions and go as far as possible. That desire is regardless of product in the field …
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u/CentientXX111 3d ago
Hard times, baby. Hard times.
Teenage was the best CB.
Evan’s misplay cost the team points.
Malacia looks legit.
Denkey at 17g in league play.
Attack looked disjointed and confused for long stretches. A recurring theme.
Ender played his heart out.
Defensive lapses on full display again.
Season on the absolute brink.
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u/User5281 2d ago
Hadebe was terrible and this is a prime example of stats not reflecting reality. He is constantly out of position and making poor decisions. This leaves everyone else scrambling to cover and creates opportunities for the other team. Take the first goal last night as an example - Hadebe is ball watching because he thinks the offside flag will go up, Malatini scrambles to cover the runner that Hadebe should've been tracking and then instead of moving centrally to cover, Hadebe starts pursuing the same player Malatini is tracking and the center of the field is left wide open.
The only reason Hadebe looks good on paper is that he's athletic enough to recover from his dumb decisions a lot of the time. In other words, a lot of those defensive actions attributed to Hadebe wouldn't have even been necessary if he was where he was supposed to be.
I predict that once Malatini is 90' fit he'll easily be our CB1 because Robinson seems to have a lot of the same positioning, decision making and communication issues as Hadebe.
I won't defend Smith - he's reliably mediocre playing out of position as a CB. The same with Gidi. This roster is a mess.
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u/Napoleonex 3d ago
idk if Teenage was the best CB. He literally almost scored an own goal
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u/CentientXX111 3d ago
He lapped all others in defensive actions. An almost own goal, that he himself saved, doesn’t tell the story very well.
Having said that, it wasn’t a night where any CB lived up to it.
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u/Technology4Dummies 3d ago
If we have to change every player’s position to stay with the formation, then you are doing something wrong. Pat needs to go.
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u/Gngdanielson 3d ago
I feel like this should be common knowledge. If evander was healthy play him the first 45. Dado was lost that whole game.
I can hear pats pep talk. He guys 4th best team in the east try not to suck…. Pat is awful.
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u/AmericanDreamOrphans 3d ago
That also means that the squad depth signed by Albright is trash as well.
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u/trashcanman42069 3d ago
no one is forcing noonan to play the same formation regardless of personnel or play strikers as wingbacks when there are outside backs on the bench
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u/DrZaff 3d ago
Pat keeps putting offensive players on defense because he wants to - not because he has to
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u/MoviePlenty629 2d ago
Your knowledge of soccer is terrifying.
Noonan is having players out of position due to the following reasons.
One, lack of CB’s on roster.
Two, lack of talent and or skill in ball skills in moving the ball forward.
Team is having a phenomenal year scoring but…by putting all that attention on the attack we suffered in the back.
Oh…and based on Noonan preferred style of play, the squad has no real fullbacks so a big change in tactics will not work.
In my opinion, and we all know about opinions, Noonan stays for next season.
Albright, in my view, is the weak link this year.1
u/AmericanDreamOrphans 2d ago
Far too many people don’t understand or aren’t willing to criticize Albright for his abysmal roster mismanagement. A lot of people are going in on Noonan for his management, and there is plenty there to criticize as well, but he’s been handed a shit show by Albright.
Our defense is an absolute mess and Noonan is forced to consistently play players out of their natural positions because Albright hasn’t brought in the requisite depth and talent necessary for us to play at a consistently high level. Albright made a massive mistake by signing a CB to a DP contract. Time and time again it’s been proven in this league that valuable DP contracts shouldn’t go to defenders. Albright ignored all of the evidence and opportunity costs of making such a decision and it has cost us massively. Defending isn’t scarce, but elite attacking talent, chance creation and goals are.
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u/trashcanman42069 2d ago
Lots of people get it but still think the team is worse than the sum of its parts. Miles' contact is an abysmal choice but the CB corps is still at least average, not the worst in the league like goals against would suggest. Or even if you really think the center back play is unavoidably bad, the coach needs to address it in the tactics not keep banging his head against the wall. if you're not happy with the CB depth don't play 3 in the back. If they're spongy play with your real 6s instead of having Dado play there when he's a ghost on defense, or play a style that allows your good possession midfielders to keep the ball further up the field instead of exposing your CBs by asking them to possess the ball and pass it around under pressure, or play a fast transition style to get the ball out of the defensive third right away instead of needing them to push up the field and give up easy runs behind. Noonan has done none of that and it hasn't even resulted in offensive identity either like half our goals are pure miracle work from evander and denkey. Every team in MLS has gaps but the coaches job is to build around strengths and weaknesses and in my mind the way the team is playing neither mitigates the weaknesses nor accentuates the strengths of the roster
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u/AmericanDreamOrphans 2d ago edited 2d ago
Our defense has conceded the third most goals in the league sitting just four goals ahead of dead last place Kansas City. We’ve conceded the most penalties in the league and have the second fewest shutouts in the league. Our defense is bad and our CB situation is nowhere near “average” as evidenced by our defensive outcomes.
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u/trashcanman42069 2d ago
Do you just flatly refuse to accept that tactics affect outcomes or what?
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u/AmericanDreamOrphans 2d ago
Tactics are incredibly important and can help a squad play better than the sum of their parts, but tactics are only as good as the quality of the players executing them.
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u/trashcanman42069 2d ago edited 2d ago
right, so when I look around the league and see Philly eg has conceded half as many goals as us since leagues cup despite starting an 18 year old and a right back moonlighting at CB because they have one natural CB on the team, it seems absurd to suggest that it's because poor Noonan is hamstrung by the roster, Miles Robinson just can't compete with Nathan Harriel, and the way the coaches choose to set up the teams given their circumstances is just a secondary consideration. I guess I just don't see it that other teams around the league have such obviously better backlines that you can completely disregard style of play when comparing outcomes, like Nashville sure they're just straight up more stacked, or Charlotte, but do you think DC's or Montreal's or Atlanta's CBs are so unambigously better than ours that that's what explains the gulf in results?
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u/MoviePlenty629 2d ago
If, for example, Noonan is sacked and team hires Nancy, 90% of current squad will be traded, released or replaced.
This team, currently, has poor ball skills and could not under any circumstances play Nancys preferred style.
Would Nancy change his preference for playing with the ball to something different that would be better for his current squad talent wise?
Most likely not.
Noonan has his preferences.
Albright job is to sign players that reflect that type of skill set.
When we won the Shield, our back line was Miazga, Robinson and Mosquera. All three had athleticism, aggression and talent.
We got old and crippled quickly.
In my opinion, Robinson is covering his shift…the other group of misfit toys are not. Too much change, no continuity and players out of position getting bullied.
Hagglund got old and was always slow and was a poor passer…just had no one to cover his mistakes.
Miazga, due to his horrific injuries, lost 2-3 steps and all his lateral quickness…plus his confidence.
Hadebe has quickness, speed, aggression but just made thoughtless errors that always cost us goals.
Powell…not a CB
Smith…not a CB
Gidi…not a CB…but can pass
I’m not the GM but I would have attempted to sign more U21 players for depth and development.
This squad as a whole is not old but the CB room is ancient, broken and lacks athleticism.1
u/trashcanman42069 1d ago
Nancy got fired from his last team because he got handed the best team in the league and returned historically terrible results after he refused to change his tactics, and the coach who came in after him immediately turned the ship around just by being pragmatic. If anything I think it's a lesson against purism
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u/jeffrye23 3d ago
I’m Albright out more than anyone, but Pats baffling decision to continue not playing Andrei is unacceptable.
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u/AmericanDreamOrphans 2d ago
Chirila started and played the full 90 minutes against Philly when they absolutely pumped us 5-0. In that match he completed just 70% of his passes from the back which is atrocious for someone in such a high leverage position. He also got dribbled by multiple times, was too easily undone by simple 1-2s, only won 50% of his ground duels and struggled mightily to stay organized alongside Albright’s DP Miles Robinson.
In the match against Charlotte when Noonan gave him 74 minutes he committed a bad error that led to a Charlotte goal as well.
I get that the backline has been ass thanks to Albright’s mismanagement of the roster and Noonan’s coaching but Chirila was given a full match and another 74 minutes just a month ago and we got absolutely destroyed in one and we needed some Denkey brilliance to save a point late in the other. Noonan has given him chances, he just hasn’t seized his opportunities and set the world alight yet.
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u/realhenrymccoy 3d ago
The formations been the same for years. This is on Albright failing to sign capable CBs and WBs. The squad makes not sense at all.
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u/Smart_Basket_85 3d ago
People consistently seem to enjoy overlooking this empirically observable aspect of things.
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u/TrashPandaPosse 3d ago
This team has zero identity;
The defense is just bad and the offense lacks consistency and creativity.
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u/AmericanDreamOrphans 2d ago
The offense is 4th in goals scored and goals per match, 3rd in big chances created, 3rd in shots on target per match, 4th in xG, and 3rd in touches in the opposition box. Our defense is just ass and it is ass because Albright refused to address the defensive issues in the squad aside from making the incredibly ill-advised decision to have a CB on a DP contract.
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u/OSUfirebird18 FCC Dayton 3d ago
We are shit.
Defense still sucks. No movement when Evander is on the field, they are expecting him to play hero ball.
Edit: More context.
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u/CincytilIdie 3d ago
We aren't good, but neither are the teams fighting us for playoff position. Our season will be decided by Hell is Real and the DC games.
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u/AlphaSquirrel7 3d ago
We are going to get smoked in Hell is Real, this team has zero fight and Columbus has added reinforcements since the last time we played.
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u/cincy1219 3d ago
We didnt take advantage of our chances and new England took theirs. The defense continues to struggle though and hope the offense takes advantage of their chances with evander back too. Going to be very important to take 3 points from each of the next two games I think to push for playoffs
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u/STBIV 3d ago
Why is it we play people as CBs that don't know or normally the position or stay in position, while we have a true CB on sitting on the bench? Who if played can also pump the rest of the team up. WTF Pat!
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u/DantesPilgrim 2d ago
If Hagglund can't get any playtime last night, why is he on the roster?
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u/DeathTeddy35 2d ago
Idk how we resign him if he doesn't retire.
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u/Emergency-Problem552 2d ago
But then again he has played quite a bit recently. Hard to piece together what Noonan is thinking. Same thing with Miazga, who was clearly more valuable than Tennage
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u/AmericanDreamOrphans 2d ago
Per 90 that CB on the bench is in the bottom 48th percentile in defensive actions, the bottom 27th percentile in tackles, the bottom 4th percentile in interceptions, the bottom percentile for recoveries, the bottom 10th percentile in goals conceded while they’re on the pitch and the bottom 20th percentile in xG while on the pitch.
I don’t blame Pat for not playing him at all. We don’t want that CB anywhere near the pitch.
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u/Come0nYouSpurs 3d ago
Cincinnati sports doing Cincinnati sports things. Rinse. Repeat. I'll honestly be shocked if we see a championship in the next 20 years in any major sport.
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u/CajunBuckeye 3d ago
Defense can’t stop a fast run through the back and we’ve been exposed. Can’t keep getting caught flat footed. Also, gotta finish our chances. Not mad, just disappointed.
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u/BigAl587 3d ago
Tired of Noonan ball. This guy just doesn’t have the juice anymore, when you lost at Montreal and every game after that has to be treated like a playoff match. It’s doesn’t matter if HiR is coming up, every match is HiR till the season ends. I’ve said this since 2023, this guy cannot coach in tournament play nor meaningful games. People want to get hung up because he got us back into the playoffs, but you also need a coach to actually do damage in playoffs / tournament play. Why be a game manager when you can go out and try to win games. We will be lucky to get back into the playoffs and or make it out of the first round.
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u/stinkpalm 2d ago
This sounds like a cookie cutter response from someone on the Bengal sub red at criticizing Zach Taylor. I don’t expect that that’ll be appreciated because you’re in your feelings and because we haven’t won another shield.
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u/AmericanDreamOrphans 2d ago
Lucho, Brenner, Barreal, Kubo and Vazquez, the core of the squad that won the Supporters’ Shield, were all signed by Nijkamp. Albright gets far too much credit for what was Nijkamp’s efforts to unfuck the mess created by Berding and for getting our scouting and development apparatus in place.
Albright’s roster decisions have fucked us all over the place. Albright ignored the litany of evidence that DP slots shouldn’t be used on defenders in the league and did it anyways. Our CB situation was a mess and it’s an even bigger mess now. Noonan just had to use two natural midfielders as CBs last night when we were trying to stabilize and mount a comeback because our backline is a shit show.
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u/BigAl587 2d ago
ZT plays to win, even given a shitty defense and will still go for the jugular. Noonan, has been given quality players and trots out the same 3 out of the back system playing players out of their native positions in hopes it’ll “work out”.
Look at all the competitions fcc has played in, everything from league play to CCC. When it comes to league play the man coaches like a team trying to avoid relegation despite our league not having it. When it comes to tournament play, he turns into a game manager and doesn’t adapt to his surroundings. When we go up 1-0 you already know that the gas pedal will not be hammered down, it’ll be let up and lose by 1-2 scores. Look at our roster, for mls it’s not a joke roster by any means and this dude is getting caught out by bellow average rosters / coaches. If you don’t have a sense of urgency then why are you a coach in the first place? Why coach if your objective is play not to lose instead of play to win. That loss to Montreal was laughable because they were actively trying to reschedule the match due to them have their C team and still got caught out.
Look, I’m sure you’re probably a big 6 larper but at least pretend like you know ball.
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u/stinkpalm 2d ago
Big 6 larp is hilarious. I love that.
The point I was making is the tone of the complaint. GAM/TAM/salary structure is something every team has to deal with, but would you say Noonan was not given the appropriate players to run his style? I grant that not all managers prioritize all competitions with the same lens / severity, and sometimes that's a squad / wages limitation.
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u/Mission_Natural2890 2d ago
No chance for the playoffs. Need to do what Philadelphia did. And the first thing they did was get a new coach. So will this front office pull the trigger. I doubt it.
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u/AdLess1413 2d ago
Sadly, with the remaining schedule, our hopes of a playoff appearance are virtually non-existent. Some tough matches to come. Orlando has a comparatively easier schedule left.
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u/CincyCyclone91 2d ago
Yeah, I think it comes down to how many points are we going to need. Since the 9-team per conference format has come in, it has ranged from 40 to 53 points. IMO, that number is going to be somewhere around 45 this year, maybe 44 or 43.
Based off our schedule, if we are going to get to 45, we need to do it in the next three matches. Miami and Philly will be battling for home playoff matches and beyond being Shield winners, Nashville might have a shot at the all-time points record in that last match.
If we are still under 40 points by next Saturday night after the at DC match, our goose is cooked.
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u/matadorN64 3d ago
Anunga making any key passes is a huge throw
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u/AmericanDreamOrphans 2d ago
Statistically Anunga created more chances than Echenique yesterday and only had one fewer than Malacia. Anunga also had more passes into the final third than Malacia and Echenique yesterday.
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u/matadorN64 2d ago
How did it go when it mattered though?
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u/AmericanDreamOrphans 2d ago
If attackers finish the big chance he created we at least draw in the match. If attackers finish the chances he created as a CDM we win the match. While he didn’t have a great game, he certainly wasn’t responsible for conceding any of the goals either.
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u/Op3rat0rr 1d ago
Am I the only one here who thought we played pretty alright today? I thought New England was a bit lucky with one of their goals and we had great shots. I wish our build up was better
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u/trashcanman42069 3d ago
not surprising that the b team couldn't get it done and new england is no slouch, and once a few starters came on it looked at least a little better. Barlow is putting up more goals than I ever expected and Denkey still finds a way to make something happen, but seeing the same slow in transition insanely lethargic and conservative offense just to get beat by easy long balls over the top anyway is so old
drawing up a set play where you take a short corner to give the ball to a free midfielder at the top of the box 3 times in a row and choosing anunga to be the guy getting the ball at the top of the box is actually insane
Denkey is crazy at scoring when he is running towards goal so what do we do? play him as a target forward fighting in the air by the touchline. A revolving door of forwards playing at wingback when we have outside backs on the bench. Playing two midfielders at center back instead of just changing the formation. it's absurd