Episode 3 -Ultra low block at home? Really Rene?

DCU lost 1-3 at home to Chicago Fire in a match decided more in the dugout than on the pitch. Gregg Berhalter brought a scouted plan to overload our wings. René Weiler answered with ten men behind the ball abandoning four games of pressure-building progression in a single lineup card. At home. In our nest. The episode digs into my match-day sensations, player ratings, and a peek at our next opponent.

Transcript

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Two coaches walked yesterday to the Audi Field Arena. One of them had four straight games, building step by step a high pressure on the first initial minutes with results and then setting a midfield wall. The other one came from three straight losses, did the tactical homework, set a plan, and was trying to bounce back. Unfortunately, we got on the losing side and we got outclassed, out smoth by Greg Behalter and his tactical homework. This is, I would say, the most coachable loss of the season. Let's try to unpack it. Welcome to the Buzzler Nest podcast. Thank you for giving me a few minutes of your time to talk about the DC United, the team we support. The DC United got beaten yesterday, 3-1, by Chicago Fire. A very tough one to swallow because we came up pretty strong from a Nashville game, a MLS contender team that we handled pretty good. And Chicago was actually coming up of three straight game losses. So they had a point to prove to bounce back. And unfortunately, they did that. Let's talk about before game impression of the starting 11, because I think there is uh a couple of novelties that we need to talk about, especially our right hand side was pretty fresh. Um Makovich was taking the place of Hefty, which got that red card versus Nashville and was suspended. And the right wing was uh Hopkins, which is not a novelty. He played there pretty well at the beginning of the season. But the last time Hopkins took the right wing position as starting player was eight games ago. So the combination of the new right back and Hopkins going back to this right one position, it was expected to be a little bit of a struggle, a little bit of adaptation period. And boy, Chicago took advantage of that situation. On top, an expected duo, Baribo and Louis, these are our most dangerous player finally playing together. And I think you know, every disunited fan was excited about what these two can give us. I think they did give us a man of magic at the end of the first half, which ended in a goal. But let's just be patient with these two on top. There's at least a few more games that they need to adapt and to give us the full potential that they can bring together. Other than that, the team was as expected. Let's just dive in into my game impression. Uh let's start with the first half. I think uh since the first minutes of the game, uh alarms just went off because we were so uncomfortable on the game. I think they have a clear plan, which was overuse the wings, kind of like the NYCDFC, go to the final third by overlapping a lot. I think uh Goodman on a right wing side got full advantage of and adapting Makovich to that position. And I think he got a lot of good spaces and a good runs until a final third. Other than that, or attacking side was pretty poor. I think we overused the long passes, and I think uh one critique that I'm gonna talk about later, it's we completely dropped the high pressure, which was working so well for us in the last two or three games, where we were winning a lot of interceptions, winning a lot of changes in their opposition half because of the high pressure. We were setting the tone for the majority of the first half and the majority of the game in some cases. But we had none of that because Renee decided to go ultra conservative and put 10 minutes behind the ball all the time. So we lost that capability of getting the ball in an effective area, go vertical a couple of passes, and then find something, either a shot or a through pass to the opposition box. Without that, we felt really uncomfortable. I don't think Peltor and Cervania got the off-the-ball movement just by tactic to get the ball to the men's on the front, a ground passes, because most of the time we were trying to back to build from the back, but we just didn't have that off-the-ball movement. And I feel like Luis and Borebo was just were just playing two on top, and there was a huge gap between Peltola and Servania, and then Luis and Borebo. Definitely Hopkins and Piglow got a lot of situations that they did connect to the men's on front, but boy, we struggled a lot. Um, we got some moments, uh, especially I remember one that is a long pass to um Piglow. He do a magic reception, a great control, and then he just do an inside cut dribble, and then right away he just shoot a rocket that went inside, outside, inside. No, hopefully, outside um the bar, and what a beauty to see. Other than that, very, very poor. I think their um their tactical set on the defensive side was pretty clear. They they put a line of three in front of or four defenders, uh, with Bamba, Kupier's, and Siker Nagel, which was so difficult to break. And they behind that they put another line of three, very marked with the Avila, Lot and Pineda, which was uh a killer for us because I I don't think I remember any situation where Peltulon Sorbenia give uh one or two combinations to give uh uh uh ground passes either to the men's on the wing or the men's on the top. Definitely uh they got the better half of us for the majority of the first half, but we did find a moment of magic at um 41 minutes where we got a long throw, which got into the area, the opposition half. Lewis controlled the ball. He has a moment of um pure magic, pure spirit, and he sees Barribo coming in, do a back pass. Barribo got into a good position um shooting moment, and he just went clinical, put the ball inside, and then one-nil. I think um they were very comfortable in the field to that moment, and I think the momentum completely chipped at least for the last five five or six minutes of the first half. I think we played the better football on those six minutes of the um final six minutes of the first half where we find a lot of space. I don't think it was because uh we intentionally uh moved the line up. I think the momentum was vital, and I think we got morale up. And I at least I remember two or three Kurokawa uh situations, which which he just cut the ball and make a run to the opposition box and put across, creating a lot of danger. I was expecting the momentum of that last six minutes was carried to the second half, but unfortunately, on the second half, the tactical battle was again completely dominated by Gret Behalter, where his idea of overloading the area, overloading the wings, do the overlapping runs were just too much to us to handle. And in one of those executions for then side, uh from our left-hand side, a cross coming, Lott gives a off-the-ball run. And Markovich just it's completely cut out of flat, poor anticipation, and Lott just got a heather, a rocket to the back of the net. I think after that, um we did not have the capability of React. I think I was expecting a little bit more of Rene. We're gonna talk about uh the general game impressions after we finish with the second half. I think you know the penalty comes in, very soft penalty, I would say, is about top 25, soft penalty that I've seen as a soccer fan. I think the guy just completely tripped on his own feet. But other than that, this I don't think the penalty set the tone of the second half. I think the tactical battle was setting the tone long time ago before the penalty. Unfortunately, as a DC United fan, I was pretty angry and confused about the penalty. I don't know how you have a video assistant referee system in place and you can let this one go. It was just clear to anyone who has played soccer, football, you know, how this was completely not a foul, a wrong call by the referee, but the video assistant referee having all this technology just cannot uh reverse the play. So they scored the second goal, unfortunately, another rebound after a good save by Johnson, 2-1, and after that, I think it comes the set piece by their uh their date side. They score a third goal, a set piece again that it's uh controlled by Johnson, but the ball finds uh Hela Salisi, which cut again Makovic a little bit out of position, and the anticipation was not there. And then Hela Salisi just put a rocket to the back of the net. 3-1. I think after that, um the rhythm of the game was set to them. We found a couple of situations here and there, but I think it was more like a heroic, very physically based situation, other than that, you know, uh uh a tactical um build up. So the whistle came in and uh we just need to talk now about the in-game impression. I have a few, a couple of points to talk. The first one is just you know the complete lack of reaction by Rene. I think as a coach, it's your job to spec, you know, be down in the score sheet and react. I think he got a couple of options in the bench. I think he had a couple of tools. For example, if you see that Markovic is obviously suffering so much by their left wingers and their overlapping left back, then why don't you go five in the back? Give a little bit more uh room to Markovic to go to more central area, which is more comfortable, and let a guy like Herrera take that winger precision, defensive winger precision, and then just give it a breather to Markovic onto a right-hand side. Other than that, you know, there's options like here and there. He's he's been using Markovic as a CDM. Why don't you go Markovich CDM, go Savani a little bit up, and put Herrera as a right back, he's a natural right back. There's a few options that I feel as just as a fan, I have in my mind that he could use, but he did nothing of that. His uh substitution was pretty lame, in my opinion. Uh, we never had a plan and we never had an idea how to counteract. Just to give you an idea of how much they use their uh wind attack, their third the final third passes of Chicago was 56% of their passes on the final third were completely on or right-hand side, taking full advantage of that adaptation and struggling of Hopkins, Makovich. Then on their left-hand side, they got around 40% of their passes. And they only used 3% of the passes on their central areas. And why they did that? Well, it was obvious that they did their homework. They were looking at the tapes, they were looking at how well we did uh versus NYCD FC when we complete send missing in action to the number 10 Morales, very technical player, but he got nothing from us. They obviously saw the game versus Nashville, analyzed how much we recover on those areas, how much we build vertically from the recoveries, from the challenge that we won. How players like Acosta, as I mentioned in the last episode, were completely gone, missing in action again. And players like Mukhtar struggle so much in this area. So their plan, they execute pretty well. They have an idea. We're not going to give them their advantage, we're not going to play the central areas. We should have adapted because it was pretty clear that they were using the wings, they were tools at our disposals as that the manager has to have before the game planned for seeing these kind of you know situations. And I didn't feel any reaction from uh Renee Weller. We're gonna talk about this in future episodes, but if you see the the Rene stretch with Anderlecht, his first season was pretty successful. The things were his way. Actually, he used a lot the Chicago fire system. So he got a little bit play there. He used a lot the strong wind game with two guys in front and high pressure, high to mid pressure. So the second season where he got fired, one of the major critiques that I was just reading was like he never had that ability to react to, you know, the games that were not as his original plan. So he the his his face to adversity is, I think, his uh Achilles Hill. So something definitely to keep in mind. Um, so I think the the last topic that I want to talk is also about Rene, as in general, why would you drop the high pressure, that initial high pressure? We have been building a system to get interceptions, challenges, 20 minutes, set the tone, the rhythm for the first half, base it on or high pressure. And I understand some line of thinking of Renee. I have a fresh right back, I have a player on the right wing that is having played there for the eight games, so there's gonna be a little of a struggle in defense. Maybe I'm not gonna go full high pressure because I'm gonna open so many spaces that the opposition will explode. I understand that. But if there's a 20-minute mark and you're seeing that your ultra-conservative tactics is not working, it's not working to put 10 minutes behind the ball, obviously. And what you feared the most, which was your right-hand side being overloaded by them, is just happening naturally, and it's their tactical plan. Why would you not adapt dynamic adaptation and just push the team a little bit up and try to make their life a little bit more complicated in the midfielder? Because they were getting the ball in such a comfortable position in the midfield with a lot of space, and they were playing wide or defense for most of the time. We're playing narrow. So we were just handle them the game and the keys to our final third. And these people know what to do. This was this was not NYCDFC. They have a killer forward with size and football. So why would you first gonna drop the at least keep that middle of the park midfield wall that it was so effective versus Nashville? Don't go high pressure. I understand there's a line of thinking there. Although I would say if by the 20 minute, 25-minute mark, it's not working your plan, then go to what you know it's secure and has been working. Surprise them, push them. No reaction for Renee whatsoever. And even more bothering or progression in the last few games of going and get that high pressure step by step, it was getting better. I think Nashville was a great indicator that we have the team, the capability, and the mentality to put the pressure up. It was completely dropped for this game. So now versus uh St. Louis, it's just a question of what Renee are we going to have? Are we going to have Saturday Nashville Renee, which is gonna go courage in? I'm gonna go high pressure and gonna apply when I've been progressing, getting balls, interceptions, and building from there, or I'm gonna go again 10 men behind the ball, ultra conservative. So let's see what happened on our next game. And for now, let's just talk about uh very quickly about the football, uh, the football ratings. I got we got just to corroborate the story, our worst rating are Markovich and Rose, which was on right-hand side, right back and right defender with 5.7. Uh, we got on the top, a surprise, Borebo got a 7.6. I would actually give Borebo a 7. I know he scored the ball. He was clinical, he ran a lot, but I think I in particular feel like he was a little bit ineffective. He didn't feel um comfortable with the ball. He misplayed a few easy passes here and there, but definitely, I mean, I understand why the chance that he got, he put it in the back of the net as a forward, you have to give them. Uh Peltola and Piclo got a seven, uh, each one of them. And I think, you know, the boys in the middle of the park, Cervenia and Peltola, I think they did the job. Both of them, Cervenia got a 6.9. But it was not much to do in that area because the the tactical plan from Chicago was perfectly set to not give us anything in the central areas, as I mentioned before. This was a strong suit point for us, and we did not use it at all. So they they tactical plan actually give them the advantage of not having to handle a dealing with us in that particular area. So uh kudos to them, and I think in general, the chess battle for this game was overwhelmingly won by Greg Berhouter versus Rene Weiler, and that set 14 for you know, a very difficult um game in or next at outfield. Give me a moment and I'm gonna just talk about our next opposition, San Luis, an interesting game, especially to see what our coach Rene does. Alright, let's finish this podcast talking about our next opposition, and that will be St. Luis. St. Louis is coming to a two-game winning streak, so they're building a bit of momentum, but they are not great on the road on the last five games. They only have one win, a couple of draws, and three losses. Their coach Johan Dalmet usually go 4-3-3, and fortunately for us, they use a lot their central areas as a keystone to building their attack. Although, if I will be any opposition versus Tadis United, I will be looking at the tape versus Chicago Fire, and I will be looking at the wings at a very, very suitable place to start my attacking strategy. The most important question that I have for this game is how Rene will react. Are we gonna get some of the Saturday versus Nashville tactics, or he going to stick again to the low block? Hopefully, if the first one. A couple of players to follow on St. Louis, it's Marcer Hartel. I think it's a top-tier play merker. Um, he usually goes to uh the or right hand, he will be stepping into our right hand side. So hopefully hefty is back, and I will not be surprised if we use a more conservative player as a right winger as uh Straud. Um, I will also obviously understand if Hopkins keeps getting that position. That's the general idea to have it there. But you know, after this game, everything for me is on the table. Uh, a couple of other players. It's their central midfielder, which is a keystone on their passing game. That will be Edward Lowen. If he proves to be healthy for this game, he is very dangerous, especially. Because of his passing game at his range. Finally, a player very physical, Bing Jong. It's on the right hand side. Again, given what we saw on the wings, this player likes to run a lot if finding in opposition areas with spaces. And I think we should keep an eye on his direct run, especially off the ball. I think this is for today for this podcast. Generally, I would say we had a poor performance, but I don't think we should have taken with the players, especially. I've seen a lot of people pointing off Markovich. Yes, he was caught out of position. But he is not really a right back. I think I saw a couple of people here and there talking about Rene saying that he was the future for right back handside. He has if he if that's the plan, he's you know lots of street behind of a a you know player like Kurokawa talking about just positioning uh composure for the back position. So don't take it very strong with the players. I think you know they were set to tactically assist him that was a nightmare for most of the time. They were all the time running through the ball. And in general, I don't think this should be getting a marker of individual player. I think if someone is to blame here, it's Rene. He completely lost the chess tactical battle versus Greg Berhutter. And I think we have to give him at least the opportunity to react in this upcoming game versus Saint Louis at home. I can say happily that I'm going to be in the stadium. So getting that live magic of professional football at our place or honest, hopefully. I was checking the weather, it's gonna be a beautiful day to play football. And I hope Rene reacts and gets back to our original progression plan. See some high pressure, see some good recovery and strong game in the central areas, pushing the opposition side to have an uncomfortable first 20-30 minutes, and using this team how we use it at Nashville at full steam, and get that W that we need after this super tough love. Tough love, tough loss versus Chicago. That's all for the pot. I think I it's time to say ciao for now hasta la vista y que sea buena vista. See you.