u/Famous_Act4164

The return of Hanks was incredible, and Tordin played at a very high level.That being said, without Moorhouse, we probably would not have secured these precious three points.

We were not that lucky,however, since we had to play Orlando with Banda. Had Zambia qualified for the knockout stage, or had the fixture been scheduled a week earlier, we would not have had to deal with Banda.

How the team moves forward will be interesting. Castellanos is technical and can contribute to playmaking, but her presence greatly undermines the midfield’s ability to contest possession and disrupt the opponent’s build-up and she is very turnover-prone. Nijstad is technical as well and passes the ball better than Bogere, but in this game she increasingly became a weak link in the face of Orlando’s press, and she was not physical enough. Her defense tackle seldom succeeds and usually borders a bookable foul had her “tackle” actually contacted the opponent’s players. Weaver and Hanks are also not yet fit enough to play 90 minutes.

The future setup could be very tricky because many of our current players are not well-rounded, and some difficult trade-offs will have to be made when selecting the lineup.

Wow, a 4-3 nail-biter away at Boston is incredible. I am pleasantly surprised that we managed to stop the bleeding. Tordin and Wilson delivered superstar performances, and we did not over-press and actively expose our weaknesses.

Despite the good result and the incredible performances from our star players, the underlying problems remain. We had a much better first half largely because Boston applied little pressure and lacked width in attack. In the second half, after Traore and Gutierrez were subbed on, Boston gained both a target and width in their attack, and they succeeded in sustaining offensive pressure.

Our wide areas are becoming increasingly vulnerable. Our fullbacks tuck inside way too much, and opposing wide players have little difficulty dribbling to the byline and delivering crosses. This probably has a lot to do with our lack of genuine wingers.

Given that Moultrie is recently injured, and we do not know when Turner and Hanks will return and be fully fit, we will probably continue to struggle. Hopefully, we can return to full strength for the final stretch of the season.

Sophie scored the fastest goal of the season, and for the first 30 minutes or so, we adopted a fairly effective mid-block that forced Utah to go long and turn over possession. The collapse that followed shared a similar pattern as our earlier away losses.

We conceded shortly after the cooling break when the back line lost concentration and failed to coordinate after Arnold’s long clearance was intercepted. The second goal, conceded immediately after the start of the second half, followed a similar pattern: poor coordination, slow decision-making, and hesitation in taking defensive action.

Perry has issues with her ball handling and is weak on her right foot, but she is the only center-back who consistently steps up and actually defends rather than acting like a traffic cone. Sophie then had a golden opportunity to equalize, but unfortunately failed to convert. After that moment, the game was essentailly over.

There is not much to say tactically about this match. Put differently, I do not think the tactical setup was wrong. We simply have serious personnel problems and were also very unlucky.

Dudley's violent conduct deserved a red without dispute, but this is only part of the very biased calling in the second half.

Moultrie's foul on O'Sullivan was extremely soft. Basically ref forcefully changed a duel win into a foul. Fleming was called foul shortly afterforwards for a contact happened after she successfully tackled the ball and Moultrie was ready to carry the ball forward.

A few moments later, Fleming did not get the call after she fell with contact, and this strand of absurd calling ended with calling Bogere foul when she tackled O'Sullivan with a very slight contact. The red against Perry was not problematic, however, the callings in the second half before were unacceptably poor.

Dudley was a huge reason Gotham can level the score, and ref's poor decision to not expell her after an obvious violent conduct greatly changed the course of the game.

I usually have a very high tolerance of ref's calling but I simply cannot overlook how biased the calling was tonight.

Although Turner is not the most technically secure player and can struggle with her touch and dribbling, her injury has negatively affected our pressing effectiveness, attacking width, and ability to defend wide areas.

We should probably abandon the high press in away games without Turner. Mueller is far less effective at pressing, and Tordin was pinned back. A press involving only Wilson and Moultrie is unlikely to dispossess opponents or force turnovers. It would be better to play a mid-block in away games when we do not have any true wingers available.

1. When Moultrie, Wilson, and Tordin are spatially close and play the ball to each other, they can create openings. The problem is that we often struggle to connect the rest of the lineup to them. In other words, when we recover possession, it is difficult to pass the ball to one of them in a good position. This is especially true in central areas, where neither of our double pivots can reliably move the ball forward under pressure. Moultrie did a lot of pressing and rotated positions with Tordin and Wilson frequently. However, for the purpose of a more structured build-up scheme, she should probably be positioned a bit deeper and had a more disciplined and precise role.

2. We are losing more 50/50 balls in away games than in home games. This has a lot to do with our relatively poor away results this season. It is not easy to replicate the intensity we have when there is a 20k crowd on our side, but we really need be more active and intense in away games if we want to maintain a high-pressing style. Otherwise, we should probably adopt a more compact and conservative posture when starting away games in the future.

I just watched both legs of the Women’s Europa Cup Round of 16 tie between PSV and Frankfurt. Nijstad played the full match in both legs. Below are my impressions.

Position

Nijstad is a midfielder without dispute, but it is not very accurate to map her directly onto the English numbering system. Neither 6, 8, nor 10 reflects her role and style sufficiently. As a Dutch player developed in the Dutch system, it is better to situate her game within the classic Dutch categorization of midfielders.

The typical Dutch system is a 4-3-3, which is also the system played by PSV. In the midfield three of a Dutch 4-3-3, there is usually one holding midfielder whose duties are comparable to those of an English 6, and two symmetrically positioned midfielders who, together with the holding midfielder, form an inverted triangle. These two midfielders share similar duties. In Dutch terms, they are called linkerhalf and rechterhalf (left half and right half), or more generally, inside halves.

It is tempting to label this position as an English 8, but one key difference is that the English 8 emphasizes back-and-forth vertical movement in central areas, while the Dutch inside half has more opportunities to drift wide and interchange positions with the winger and the attacking fullback making forward runs. One major difference between the English and continental understandings of soccer tactics is that English football tends to expect central players to stay in central areas and wide players to stay in wide areas. In continental systems, it is more common for central and wide players to interchange positions.

Model Player

Lily Yohannes shares a great deal of similarity with Nijstad in both playing style and technical profile.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Nijstad is technical on the ball, has good vision, and has a consistent touch and ball-striking ability. In the first leg, her over-the-top through ball created a one-on-one chance for the striker. She also dribbles pretty well and has reasonably good ball control. In the second leg, she dispossessed Grawe, which was more of an exception than the norm, as I will discuss further in the weaknesses section, and dribbled toward goal before unleashing a decent shot. The shot led to a rebound that was converted by another PSV attacker.

That being said, Nijstad’s weaknesses are also glaring.

First, she lacks the speed to be a mobile midfielder who can effectively track and pressure opponent’s ball carriers. Her defensive contribution is mediocre overall, and she was often out of position or lost her mark in both fixtures against Frankfurt.

Second, her physicality is a big question mark. She was easily bodied by Frankfurt players and could not retain possession or pass the ball accurately when she was under physical contact.

Third, her tackling skills seem underdeveloped. More often than not, she fails to dispossess her opponent even when the opponent has already been held up by her teammates.

Overall, I see her as a weaker version of Yohannes. She definitely has potential, but by no means can she replace Coffey. What we need is a mobile midfielder who is good at dispossessing the opponent’s ball carrier and then can carry or pass the ball out of pressure on her own. Fleming is good at the first task but usually struggles to get the ball out of the pressured area. Bogere and Immethun are both young and green, but they are still better for a defensive midfielder role than Nijstad.

Considering Alidou has left and Castellanos is more likely than not on her way out, Nijstad is more likely to be used as a rotational attacking midfielder. She can also play in wide areas. It seems possible that her role is to be a substitute for Moultrie and Turner.

It has also been suggested that we spent a not-so-small fortune to bring her in. I can only hope her potential will be realized one day. However, I am not super optimistic after watching her play for PSV.

If you want to check her play on your own, I am sharing the replays through Google Drive.

1. One common theme across the last five games, especially in the two losses against Louisville and Kansas City and today’s draw against Utah, is that we keep losing 50/50 duels. We scored first in all three of those games, but the momentum quickly shifted in our opponents’ favor because of our inability to win duels, especially when our back line was pressed. This problem may be partly due to our very unfriendly schedule, with many midweek games against difficult opponents. Bogere’s fitness is also becoming questionable. She has looked less energetic and more streaky than earlier in the season. Reyes has started to lose more duels that she should not lose, and she has become indecisive when clearing the ball. Hiatt was never a dominant defender, and she has a poor tendency to keep backpedaling. She is also very indecisive when contesting 50/50 balls, even when her defensive duties require her to step up.
2. The experiment of Hiatt playing as a weak-footed ball-playing center-back should end. Her tendency to backpedal away from ball contests has a very negative impact on the integrity of the entire back-line defense. Many center-backs are not dominant defensively, but they are still used because their on-ball skills help facilitate build-up. Playing Hiatt on her weak-footed side suggests that the coaching staff has high expectations for her passing ability, but I am not convinced by her in this department either. Her ball handling and passing are acceptable, but not exceptional. Both Obaze and Perry are likely better at passing and handling the ball. Moreover, Perry is left-footed, so it may be more natural for her to play as the left center-back after all. If Hiatt’s experience is highly valued, it would also be more natural for her to play as the right center-back.
3. The good news is that our front line can still generate many scoring opportunities. Wilson, Tordin, and Moultrie are very effective in pressing and lethal in transition. However, their difficulty receiving the ball comfortably is one key factor that hurts our offensive efficiency. Our inability to move the ball from the back line to the front line, along with the relative inability of our midfield double pivot to shake off markers and create passing angles into the front line, is becoming increasingly concerning. One possible adjustment is to have Moultrie drop back more frequently to help circulate the ball in the backfield. However, this would come at a significant cost by weakening the effectiveness of the high press. Perhaps a more standard 4-3-3, rather than a 4-2-3-1, could be tried when Hanks and Weaver are available.

We have had a very difficult stretch of four matches since the April international break, with three away games and one midweek game. Winning three and losing one is a very good result.

The first two victories came against truly quality opponents. The away victory against Angel City featured one of the most intense midfield contests I have ever witnessed at the club level. The victory against San Diego indicated that the new front four, plus Fleming occasionally stepping up, probably gave us the best high-press setup in the entire league.

One shared characteristic of those two hard-earned victories was our very high intensity. We contested 50/50 balls, tackled hard, and brought a lot of physicality. However, due to consecutive high-intensity games, our stamina situation had become worrying since last weekend. Chicago has a roster that is not very competitive, and we were somewhat lucky to secure a third win.

The situation was no longer tenable in the recent loss against Racing. Racing are a very physical team, and their home games always feature extremely high intensity. Unfortunately, because of our critical stamina condition and probably because we were not fully prepared for their intensity, we simply could not match their level. We kept losing 50/50 balls everywhere and kept getting disrupted in the build-up.

This loss also exposed the importance of Coffey. Fleming is very good at man-marking and tackling, and her coverage is incredible. Overall she is not a significant downgrade purely defense-wise even compared to Coffey. But her ability to shake off defenders and break the lines of pressure is far inferior to Coffey’s. She also does not contribute equally to offense in the final third. Bogere had an incredibly good defensive match against Angel City, but her level has declined recently, and her fitness appears to be problematic. Two things are probably connected. Getting used to NWSL intensity can be very challenging.

Naturally, due to this stretch of games being extremely difficult, we started to have depth issues. Turner cannot go beyond halftime, Bogere needs to be subbed off in the early 50s, and Tordin cannot go beyond 65 minutes. These unplanned substitutions hurt our ability to fight for a better result today. 

Moreover, I am also curious about the rationale for subbing on Castellanos and making her one of the two pivots instead of dropping Moultrie deeper. Castellanos is weak physically and was dispossessed twice in the backfield in the roughly 40 minutes she played, with almost no positive contribution. Moultrie and Tordin were the only two players today who could win on-ball duels in the central areas of the pitch. Taking off Tordin may have been necessary for fitness reasons, but it definitely made the situation worse. Tordin has also been pinned into deeper defensive positions recently. This may be the price she and the team need to pay to ensure that she and Sophie can both start, but her impact can only be maximized if she has frequent opportunities to enter the penalty area. 

The two center-backs were pretty poor, but I don’t blame them too much. Calzada was not prepared for the opponent’s intensity, and she should have been more decisive. The first goal was preventable if she had stepped up earlier and more assertively. Hiatt has experience, but overall she is not a very good defender. Don’t get me wrong: she is not a terrible defender who should never see the pitch. We had one defender who fit that description two seasons ago. But it is also not a good idea to count on her to be the backbone of our back line.

For the second goal conceded, Arnold made a wrong judgment and should bear some blame. Still, she was vital in our previous three victories and has played very well overall this season. I hope this mistake will not affect her future performance.