Derek Cornelius

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

24 minutes ago, costarg said:

Back three really needs more pace and height.  We'd have to balance it out better if we want to stick with it, something along the lines of:

Cornelius-Kennedy-MacGraw(or MacNaughton)

Kennedy hasn't been as composed as Vitoria, however his height and speed is required.  Partner him with stable more stay-home CB's on either side and it might just work.  Still not my preference, but it at least gives us a better chance and coverage than what we've been seeing.

For me, you need some height but pace and smarts and knowing the system is way more important in a 3.

So, Johnston over McGraw at RCB every day of the week for me. We have seen McGraw there.

de Fougerolles is pretty two-footed from what I have seen and so I am looking forward to him on the right eventually.

McGraw is a younger Vitoria in the centre but not as smart or experienced. 

When you have two smaller guys, the big guy needs to have decent pace and awareness, to cover aerial balls (see the Nunez goal pre World Cup) but it is doable. Not sure McGraw is that guy. He can get smarter but probably not quicker.

 

[Bigandy]

58 minutes ago, costarg said:

Back three really needs more pace and height.  We'd have to balance it out better if we want to stick with it, something along the lines of:

Cornelius-Kennedy-MacGraw(or MacNaughton)

Kennedy hasn't been as composed as Vitoria, however his height and speed is required.  Partner him with stable more stay-home CB's on either side and it might just work.  Still not my preference, but it at least gives us a better chance and coverage than what we've been seeing.

this back 3 is what im against when im talking about ripping up our gameplan and starting new players. 

Kennedy is out of form and struggled hard against the usa in the middle of back 3. Away to jamiaca with no familiarity besides him is only going to make it harder. Now add in the fact that hes going to be pulled out of position every single time jamaica plays a pass to bailey/gray/reid/antonio in the general area of ZMG and hes going to struggle.

ZMG is going to get roasted as an outside CB. Hes about as fast as vitoria with less skill, experience and IQ. And you have him playing out of position. I dont get why we would want to bench vitoria for his lack of speed and then we play someone who has all of vitorias downsides, only one of vitorias upsides (tall) and we want to play him in a position where his lack of speed is painfully exposed. If its a matter of vitoria or zmg - why would we not choose vitoria over zmg, play him in his correct position and reap the benefits of his composure, leadership, organization etc. 

[Obinna]

26 minutes ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

For me, you need some height but pace and smarts and knowing the system is way more important in a 3.

So, Johnston over McGraw at RCB every day of the week for me. We have seen McGraw there.

de Fougerolles is pretty two-footed from what I have seen and so I am looking forward to him on the right eventually.

McGraw is a younger Vitoria in the centre but not as smart or experienced. 

When you have two smaller guys, the big guy needs to have decent pace and awareness, to cover aerial balls (see the Nunez goal pre World Cup) but it is doable. Not sure McGraw is that guy. He can get smarter but probably not quicker.

 

Agree with this. At best I think McGraw is going to be a serviceable stop-gap for this cycle and maybe next. Waterman has a much different profile, but could be another stop-gap for the position over the same peroid. It's early days, but I don't think we'd make the most of LDF there, ditto with Cornelius. Problem is, I really don't know who is on the horizon that could play that position (JKL?).

At the end of the day, if we don't have that player we shouldn't play 3 in the back. 

............................

Looking ahead at what our depth chart (in a back four) may look like from now until 26 (post-Vitoria):

RB: Johnston, Laryea, Buchanan, ZBG, Godinho

RCB: LDF, McGraw, MacNaughton, Waterman, Bombito, Zator, JKL

LCB: Miller, Cornelius, Kennedy, Heibert

LB: Davies, Adekugbe, Ahmed, Raposo

*Italics are guys who may play elsewhere.

 

Anyone I am missing here? I tried to rank these guys from most-to-least likely to start in the position, based on club level today and looking forward, and considered that some guys may play elsewhere. For example, Buchanan is arguably our top RB but is not likely to play there before Johnston or Richie based on NT history.

I left out Farsi and Abzi as we don't know if they will come out, but if they did I would probably slot Farsi just behind ZBG (because of Zach's history with the team) and would slot Abzi just in front of Ahmed (because I think he's likely to play play mid). 

Finally, given his potential I think JKL can shoot up this list quickly depending on how quick he develops. However, if he's a slow burner he won't bypass older guys who play regularly in MLS (Bombito, Waterman, etc.). 

Edited November 14, 2023 by Obinna

[costarg]

11 minutes ago, Bigandy said:

this back 3 is what im against when im talking about ripping up our gameplan and starting new players. 

Kennedy is out of form and struggled hard against the usa in the middle of back 3. Away to jamiaca with no familiarity besides him is only going to make it harder. Now add in the fact that hes going to be pulled out of position every single time jamaica plays a pass to bailey/gray/reid/antonio in the general area of ZMG and hes going to struggle.

ZMG is going to get roasted as an outside CB. Hes about as fast as vitoria with less skill, experience and IQ. And you have him playing out of position. I dont get why we would want to bench vitoria for his lack of speed and then we play someone who has all of vitorias downsides, only one of vitorias upsides (tall) and we want to play him in a position where his lack of speed is painfully exposed. If its a matter of vitoria or zmg - why would we not choose vitoria over zmg, play him in his correct position and reap the benefits of his composure, leadership, organization etc. 

You can't hold one game against Kennedy and bench him.  Miller, Vitoria and Johnston have all had stinkers, why do they get mulligans?

You can't say MCG will get roasted, and ignore Miller and Vitoria.  

Kennedy has played 12 of 14 games for a mid-table team.  How is he out of form?

Right now: 2 of the 3 are slow, 1 of the 3 has decent height & 1 of the 3 is out of position.

This plan: 2 of the 3 are quick, 3/3 have decent height, they're all in their real positions. 

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

Just now, Obinna said:

Agree with this. At best I think McGraw is going to be a serviceable stop-gap for this cycle and maybe next. Waterman has a much different profile, but could be another stop-gap for the position over the same peroid. It's early days, but I don't think we'd make the most of LDF there, ditto with Cornelius. Problem is, I really don't know who is on the horizon that could play that position (JKL?).

At the end of the day, if we don't have that player we shouldn't play 3 in the back. 

............................

Looking ahead at what our depth chart (in a back four) may look like from now until 26 (post-Vitoria):

RB: Johnston, Buchanan, Laryea, ZBG, Godinho

RCB: LDF, McGraw, MacNaughton, Waterman, Bombito, Zator, JKL

LCB: Miller, Cornelius, Kennedy, Heibert

LB: Davies, Adekugbe, Ahmed, Raposo

*Italics are guys who may play elsewhere.

 

Anyone I am missing here? I tried to rank these guys from most-to-least likely to start in the position, based on club level today and looking forward, and considered that some guys may play elsewhere. For example, Buchanan is arguably our top RB but is less likely than Johnston and Richie to play there based on NT history.

I left out Farsi and Abzi as we don't know if they will come out, but if they did I would probably slot Farsi just behind ZBG (because of Zach's history with the team) and would slot Abzi just in front of Ahmed (because I think he's likely to play play mid). 

Finally, given his potential I think JKL can shoot up this list quickly depending on how quick he develops. However, if he's a slow burner he won't bypass older guys who play regularly in MLS (Bombito, Waterman, etc.). 

I agree that if we are moving on from Vitoria, which I think we should against Jamaica pace, then it is safest to go to a back 4.

Until we find that leader in the centre. 

 

Knight-Lebel and Cornelius have decent height, them with de Fougerolles would be a great back three with some maturity and a decent amount of development.

 

[Bigandy]

8 minutes ago, costarg said:

You can't hold one game against Kennedy and bench him.  Miller, Vitoria and Johnston have all had stinkers, why do they get mulligans?

You can't say MCG will get roasted, and ignore Miller and Vitoria.  

Kennedy has played 12 of 14 games for a mid-table team.  How is he out of form?

Right now: 2 of the 3 are slow, 1 of the 3 has decent height & 1 of the 3 is out of position.

This plan: 2 of the 3 are quick, 3/3 have decent height, they're all in their real positions. 

No one is holding one bad game against kennedy. What I am saying is that he has never produced as a central CB in his extremely limited experience there for CMNT. Now you want to add in the difficulties of a concacaf away game AND give him 2 new CB partners with no experience AND you want his RCB to be painfully slow so that kennedy will be pulled out of position. The issue isnt kennedy. It would be the same if you wanted a LMN or waterman as central CB with zmg and cornelius flanking him. 

ZMG will 100% get roasted as an outside CB. Vitoria will 100% get roasted as an outside CB. Miller is likely to get roasted as an outside CB but not nearly to the same degree as the other 2. Im not ignoring either of them. Im saying that the best way to compensate for extreme lack of pace is to play in the middle. You have ZMG on the outside where he is directly exposed into 1v1 footraces. Kennedy then gets dragged out of position. It's vital for a central CB to stay central or else we have a massive gap for antonio to drive into. Now miller has to decide if he leaves his man to cover the central gap or not (likely hes a few steps behind as well). If he goes, davies now has to cover for miller. So he cant play as high as we want him to.  We would literally have to shift our whole backline to compensate for ZMG. Of course this happens at times during any game but we have never played such an immobile RCB as ZMG. 

It makes no sense to play zmg outside cb and kennedy central cb given their profiles. To simply use height and speed as requirements for your backline ignores soooo much more that goes on in a back 3. 

[Obinna]

Bump

No real updates, but saw in the abroad thread he and Malmo are playing a friendly and that Swedish Cup starts in Febuary, so I got curious to see what Malmo's European adventures may look like in 2024/25.

As Champions of the Allsvenskan, they qualified for 2nd round UCL qualifiers via the champions path. Basically, if they lose they drop down to 3rd round Europa league qualifiers. Then, if they lose that, I think they drop down to the Conference league playoff round.

If I have that right, there are multiple chances for Malmo to participate in Europe. It will be a first European participation for Cornelius if they are to qualify for the UCL,EL, or ECL proper. 

Edited January 25 by Obinna

[PegCityCam]

Malmo playing consecutive friendlies in Spain today. Won 4-1 against FC Dallas earlier and now Cornelius is in the 11 against Norwegian champs Bodo/Glimt.

 

[Unnamed Trialist]

46 minutes ago, PegCityCam said:

Malmo playing consecutive friendlies in Spain today. Won 4-1 against FC Dallas earlier and now Cornelius is in the 11 against Norwegian champs Bodo/Glimt. Enes Salis

 

FC Dallas is also playing 2 games today, I see Liam Fraser started for them vs. Malmo in this mentioned loss. I also see Enes Sali played half the game for Dallas.

Edited February 8 by Unnamed Trialist

[InglewoodJack]

Derek my brother your squad is getting HONKED 

[JamboAl]

18 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

Derek my brother your squad is getting HONKED 

In spite of losing a few very good players every year, B/G are a very good side with an excellent manager.  Amazing what can happen at a club north of the Arctic Circle with a very small population base.

[InglewoodJack]

20 minutes ago, JamboAl said:

In spite of losing a few very good players every year, B/G are a very good side with an excellent manager.  Amazing what can happen at a club north of the Arctic Circle with a very small population base.

Yeah, absolutely. I watched some YouTube video not to long ago about the Bodo Glimt/Trømso derby which is apparently the northern most derby in the world. I think they’re over 500km apart and still the closest teams to each other. Pretty cool little story between those two clubs. 

 

[Unnamed Trialist]

21 minutes ago, JamboAl said:

In spite of losing a few very good players every year, B/G are a very good side with an excellent manager.  Amazing what can happen at a club north of the Arctic Circle with a very small population base.

Think about it, Trondheim where Rosenborg is from, is further north than Yellowknife, decades of European competition. Tromso has an even longer history in top flight Norway than Bodo, and they are also in the Arctic Circle. Further north than Iceland.

Maybe we are just not anywhere near our demographic potential in Canada.

 

[PegCityCam]

Last group stage game for Malmo tomorrow in the Swedish Cup. They lead the group with 2 wins and 10-0 goal diff.

 

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

18 hours ago, PegCityCam said:

Last group stage game for Malmo tomorrow in the Swedish Cup. They lead the group with 2 wins and 10-0 goal diff.

 

1-1 draw puts them through to the quarterfinals as group winners. 

 

Their coach was not best pleased from the bits of the interview that were translated.

Cornelius went 90' it seems. 

 

Regular season starts the end of the month.

Edited March 3 by WestHamCanadianinOxford

[footballfreak]

He was right at the centre of the Malmo red card. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/s/K1j5awVIes

Edited March 4 by footballfreak

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

Hmm.  On the bench for the Swedish Cup semi-final away to Halmstads, unfortunately. 

 

 

Edit: Normal service resumed.  Probably knew they didn't need 90 from him, given he's travelling. 

 

Comes on in the 62' minute up 0-2, game finishes 0-4 and Malmo is off to the Cup final.  They find out their opponent tomorrow and the match is played in May. 

Edited March 16 by WestHamCanadianinOxford

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

Late by gets the (AI -ish?) picture for the lineup.  

Currently 4-0 up in the first league game of the season.

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

His game ends with away win 1-5.

It looks like Discovery+ in Sweden had the game, be interested to see if it would work with a VPN

 

 

So they are in the Cup Final in May and today started the league strong again.

Really curious to see him against better oppositon. But it won't come until after the Copa.  They start in the Champions League qualifying round and the draw for that is 19 June.  First leg 23/24 July. 

Edited March 30 by WestHamCanadianinOxford

[PegCityCam]

Beautiful bit of defending leads to the first goal.

 

[DeRo_Is_King]

1 minute ago, PegCityCam said:

Beautiful bit of defending leads to the first goal.

 

Wow. Way to clear it and effectively create an opportunity in transition. Used his body well and efficient header. 

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

1 minute ago, DeRo_Is_King said:

Wow. Way to clear it and effectively create an opportunity in transition. Used his body well and efficient header. 

With respect to Miller and his experience, this guy needs a run as LCB in either a 3 or a pair. 

[Obinna]

7 hours ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

With respect to Miller and his experience, this guy needs a run as LCB in either a 3 or a pair. 

Feels to me like Cornelius has all the tools to be able to play ahead of Miller, except maybe for mentality. He's always been good with Canada for the most part, but hasn't had the type of performance where he's undroppable. There's usually a shakey moment here, or a rusty moment there.

Funny enough when they both broke into the national team Cornelius was initially the starter at CB and Miller was used as a left back. 

[GasPed]

17 hours ago, Obinna said:

Feels to me like Cornelius has all the tools to be able to play ahead of Miller, except maybe for mentality. He's always been good with Canada for the most part, but hasn't had the type of performance where he's undroppable. There's usually a shakey moment here, or a rusty moment there.

Funny enough when they both broke into the national team Cornelius was initially the starter at CB and Miller was used as a left back. 

This.  But for some reason DC's mistakes seem to be viewed more critically than Miller's - I mean, it's not like Kamal plays error-free.  I do think DC is more of a stay-at-home, back two CB, while Kamal likes to push up and might be better in a back three.  Still, I think DC really deserves more of a look than he has been getting. 

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

18 hours ago, Obinna said:

Feels to me like Cornelius has all the tools to be able to play ahead of Miller, except maybe for mentality. He's always been good with Canada for the most part, but hasn't had the type of performance where he's undroppable. There's usually a shakey moment here, or a rusty moment there.

Funny enough when they both broke into the national team Cornelius was initially the starter at CB and Miller was used as a left back. 

Took some time and review of games to respond.

It is an interesting problem because you want some leadership back there and his most consistent performances for us have been in a pair with an experienced guy.  And that is what he is doing so far this year in Sweden.  

I still think he has been a bit unlucky. He missed out of the beginning of Qualifying and it does not feel like he got "brotherhooded" with the rest.  The introduction of 3 probably hurt him as well because he was the constant with Henry, even James and then Vitoria after that. 

In the same vein, I look at a recent disaster, the 4-1 loss to Japan.  He made a poor clearance leading to a goal, which would not have been needed if Piette hadn't done the same just before, Davies mishit a ball into our net and Johnston dallied on the ball and got caught for another.  We need all of those guys to be solid defensively against good teams, wherever they are playing.  He (not saying it was the wrong decision) was one the one that got pulled at half.  All that said, we looked all the sea defensively the whole time, a lot of that was down to them being an amazing pressing team but in theory as the middle centre back some organization falls on you. 

Jamaica is the other big loss recently and he played, though hard to blame him specifically.  

In remembering these games and going back even to the 4-1 loss to the States after we beat them 2-0 (in which he played) in the first Nations League, I am again reminded that I don't want Davies playing left back and Miller does not have the pace to make up for his lack of height. 

 

Tough how you lineup, going forward.  Can either Johnston or Miller organize from the wide spots or do you need that guy in the middle?  Shorter centre backs have played in the middle of a 3 and been the ball player and semi-sweeper, though not sure Miller has the pace for the latter. But Cornelius, Miller, Bombito might work. Maybe Bombito can be the man in the middle right now but I think you are asking a lot leadership-wise for someone fairly new to the squad. 

Hopefully Cornelius is learning lots from Pontus Jansson, and not just letting him be the leader.

 

Edited April 8 by WestHamCanadianinOxford