General Discussion on CMNT

[Floortom]

10 minutes ago, Obinna said:

Fullbacks need to be able to defend, that much is obvious and we'd all agree. The thing though is that turnovers occur when players cannot play in the rhythm of the team. Being an attacking player doesn't necessarily they guarantee they can, but chances are they'll fare better.

The value of moving attackers backward is not limited to attacking, it can improve the overall team function in possession, which helps the team avoid turnovers that put our defense under pressure. 

I think if you stick ZBG in the Nashville line up he does equally well.

He has been encouraged by Henry to attack and take risks, primarily from a wing back role, and mistakes were made, but that comes with the territory and how he's been asked to play. I would like to see some stats on his turnovers under Garde versus Henry, because in 2019 he was almost flawless with his decision making. By contrast he was a turn over machine in 2020, but he also won praise and got noticed for his contribution to the attack. Montreal in general were more prone to turnovers than Toronto or New England or Nashville, so that must be considered too.

I just wanted to provide some context to your comment.

I think where Brault-Guillard can improve is his one-on-one defending. Based on what I see that is the only area Johnston has demonstrated a clear advantage, in my opinion. I suspect ZBG would be more conservative at Nashville, and who knows perhaps we'd see more attacking qualities from Johnston if he were in Montreal. 

I have to agree - the difference in the way they are deployed is significant. ZBG has had some moments of brilliance but also struggled at times. Johnston was quite solid most of the time. I don’t think Johnston has the ability to go forward like ZBG though but I could be wrong about that 

[SpursFlu]

I agree. In the case of Buchanan I don't know his game well enough to know his skill set. Based on that logic you need to put a passer to the full back position. Someone who can calmly pick out passes that keep you in possession. That was probably the thinking when we saw MAK pop up at a fullback position 

Edited January 5, 2021 by SpursFlu

[Obinna]

2 hours ago, SpursFlu said:

I agree. In the case of Buchanan I don't know his game well enough to know his skill set. Based on that logic you need to put a passer to the full back position. Someone who can calmly pick out passes that keep you in possession. That was probably the thinking when we saw MAK pop up at a fullback position 

And since most attackers are comfortable on the ball, they generally have the ability to calmly pick out those passes that keep you in possession. My hope is that we see that with Buchanan, should he play fullback for us. Of course he needs to pick up on the defensive positioning, but that can be learned. Laryea is a good example of that. 

[sebdeserio]

I really dislike the idea of Buchanan at fullback. We're developing a good amount of right backs, with Laryea as the oldest at 25 years old. Meanwhile Our wingers are Davies, a 30 year old Hoilett and then he's arguably the 3rd best. We have players like Millar and Corbeanu who's ceiling may be higher but Buchanan's coming off a season as a starter where he helped score and assist important playoff goals.

[Aird25]

19 minutes ago, sebdeserio said:

I really dislike the idea of Buchanan at fullback. We're developing a good amount of right backs, with Laryea as the oldest at 25 years old. Meanwhile Our wingers are Davies, a 30 year old Hoilett and then he's arguably the 3rd best. We have players like Millar and Corbeanu who's ceiling may be higher but Buchanan's coming off a season as a starter where he helped score and assist important playoff goals.

I don't know. I'd say we have far more players that I'd trust to do a job on the wing (Davies, Hoilett, Arfield, Osorio, Larin, Millar, Corbeanu, Buchanon, Laryea etc.) than we do fullbacks with any great deal of experience. Even David has played the majority of his games for us on the wing, and looked unstoppable doing so.

Edited January 5, 2021 by Aird25

[Obinna]

I think Buchanan may turn out like Davies, able to do a job at both positions. Laryea is more like a converted fullback who can play in midfield, if needed. Not sure we'll see that with Buchanan....though it is early days.

[CanadaFan123]

1 hour ago, sebdeserio said:

I really dislike the idea of Buchanan at fullback. We're developing a good amount of right backs, with Laryea as the oldest at 25 years old. Meanwhile Our wingers are Davies, a 30 year old Hoilett and then he's arguably the 3rd best. We have players like Millar and Corbeanu who's ceiling may be higher but Buchanan's coming off a season as a starter where he helped score and assist important playoff goals.

Agreed. Buchanan is being called a fullback off of 3 games where he filled in for his club side. This happened because he was valuable and a quality footballer and they had to find a spot for him while also filling in a weakness. For Canada we have neither issue so I want to see him in his best position, which is at RW. Him being decent defensively is a bonus but he has attacking instincts similar to Hoilett, which we don’t really have in our pool (long shots, creativity, 1v1 ability). We don’t want to waste that at RB.

Keep in mind Millar played a few games at RB for Canada .. but no one is calling him a RB. 

[Grandbloke]

1 hour ago, CanadaFan123 said:

Agreed. Buchanan is being called a fullback off of 3 games where he filled in for his club side. This happened because he was valuable and a quality footballer and they had to find a spot for him while also filling in a weakness. For Canada we have neither issue so I want to see him in his best position, which is at RW. Him being decent defensively is a bonus but he has attacking instincts similar to Hoilett, which we don’t really have in our pool (long shots, creativity, 1v1 ability). We don’t want to waste that at RB.

Keep in mind Millar played a few games at RB for Canada .. but no one is calling him a RB. 

If we play Buchanan at RW, we would have to either sit Hoilett, or move him to LW, in which case we would have to move Davies to LB.

[CanadaFan123]

2 minutes ago, Grandbloke said:

If we play Buchanan at RW, we would have to either sit Hoilett, or move him to LW, in which case we would have to move Davies to LB.

I’m not suggesting he starts there necessarily, though he inevitably will at some point with many games to play. Wingers are Davies and Hoilett... Laryea is our RB. 

[Obinna]

1 hour ago, CanadaFan123 said:

I’m not suggesting he starts there necessarily, though he inevitably will at some point with many games to play. Wingers are Davies and Hoilett... Laryea is our RB. 

Buchanan also appears to be a starting calibre player. Herdman has been willing to play guys out of position to get the best players on field. I think it may happen whether we like it or not.

If you are a purist and want to see guys in their rightful positions then fair enough, I get it. I was in that camp back when Kaye was deployed as a left back. I am currently in that camp when it comes to Davies at left back.

This time around I am on the other side. I think it's worth trying. At least he has played there recently, whereas Kaye never played left back for LAFC. I know it's only 3 games, but they were the biggest games of his young career. And it's not as if he can't do what he's good at from that position. We have enough wing depth with Hoilett, Millar and Corbeanu. Nelsen and even Tabla may pan out too, plus I don't think it'll be the end of his career as a forward if he plays a few games in the back for us in friendlies. I think he'll get reps at winger at some point, and if he never plays fullback for us I am okay with that too. I just see Herdman testing him there, all signs seem to point in that direction. I'm cool with it. 

Edited January 6, 2021 by Obinna

[BearcatSA]

Johnson and especially Buchanan need to show me a bigger body of work to displace ZBG at RB.  Both these guys are learning the craft of coordinated back line defending, especially when your mark doesn't have the ball (which is the hardest thing to learn, and some never learn it):  anybody who has watched Jake Nerwinski still struggle with far post ball positioning and defending even after four years of regular starts at RB for the Caps would attest to that.

That said, I hope both Johnson and Buchanan can have contined growth encores this year to their breakout performances of 2020.  Competition for spots is the key to a healthy NT program.

 

[PopePouri]

The current CanMNT lineup lives rent-free in my brain on a daily basis. 

I know going to back 3 has been mentioned before and I always felt we didn't have the talent to play that amount of centre backs before 2020. I think I'm warming to it now if either Vitoria or Hutch are playing in the middle. If the Gold Cup and the recent Canada/US game are any indication, I don't think Hutch and Vitoria work well in a 2 due to their certain defending deficiencies. Specifically Hutch and his lack of body position, and Vitoria and his lack of pace. However, with the emergence of Kennedy, Miller (in his natural position) and a couple of younger CBs in the pool, we can probably play in a 3 with either Hutch or Vitoria shepherding the backline with a much higher line. That also gives Davies and Layrea the ability to bomb forward and create.

This probably will work even better if there's other right footed CBs emerge between now and June. My hope is either Dunn, Waterman, Yao, Halbouni, Zator (if he gets that move to the Championship) will get a lot more minutes in early 2020 at a decent level. Maybe we can play Johnston there who seems to have some sort idea where his backpost is. Right now, probably Henry would be our starter at RCB.

For the midfields and forwards, if it's 3-5-2 or 3-4-3, we're pretty flexible and I don't have any concerns. David probably needs a position change because he's playing with his back to goal too much. Move him to LW similar to Larin or Aubameyang and give him time to create in the half spaces between the opponent's right centre back and fullback. So right now:

3-5-2

----------------Larin--------------David----------------
--Davies----Oso---Eustaquio----Arfield-------Laryea--
------------Miller------Hutch------Henry---------------

3-4-3

---------David----------Larin----------Hoilett----------
--Davies---------Oso---------Eustaquio-------Laryea--
------------Miller------Hutch------Henry---------------

Edited January 7, 2021 by PopePouri

[Kent]

I love Hutch, but I don’t love him at CB. I didn’t think he played well there, was it in the 2019 Gold Cup?

[Mikmacdo]

51 minutes ago, Kent said:

I love Hutch, but I don’t love him at CB. I didn’t think he played well there, was it in the 2019 Gold Cup?

I agree, he's also playing as a number 10/8 these days. 

[One American]

On 1/5/2021 at 5:26 PM, sebdeserio said:

I really dislike the idea of Buchanan at fullback. We're developing a good amount of right backs, with Laryea as the oldest at 25 years old. Meanwhile Our wingers are Davies, a 30 year old Hoilett and then he's arguably the 3rd best. We have players like Millar and Corbeanu who's ceiling may be higher but Buchanan's coming off a season as a starter where he helped score and assist important playoff goals.

I'm not convinced that Corbeanu's ceiling is higher than Buchanan's. Watching tape of Corbeanu, he's obviously successful for the youth teams, but he doesn't really stand out to me. Flores does. I've seen Buchanan take over MLS games. Needs more consistency. He has the ability. 

Again, that's on limited YouTube videos. 

[Obinna]

16 minutes ago, One American said:

I'm not convinced that Corbeanu's ceiling is higher than Buchanan's. Watching tape of Corbeanu, he's obviously successful for the youth teams, but he doesn't really stand out to me. Flores does. I've seen Buchanan take over MLS games. Needs more consistency. He has the ability. 

Again, that's on limited YouTube videos. 

I kind of agree with this.

I am not sure Corbeanu would have a greater impact than Buchanan in New England. Conversely, who's to say Buchanan wouldn't be making the bench right now if he was in Theo's shoes at Wolves. They are both wide players who are good on the ball with a lot of pace, but if anything Corbeanu is more of an unknown. It's hard to judge based on PL2 level. 

Right now I think Corbeanu, Buchanan and Millar are all probably around a similar level in truth, but out of the 3 I think it's natural to be most excited about the player who is youngest and making the bench in the EPL.

[SthMelbRed]

13 minutes ago, Obinna said:

I kind of agree with this.

I am not sure Corbeanu would have a greater impact than Buchanan in New England. Conversely, who's to say Buchanan wouldn't be making the bench right now if he was in Theo's shoes at Wolves. They are both wide players who are good on the ball with a lot of pace, but if anything Corbeanu is more of an unknown. It's hard to judge based on PL2 level. 

Right now I think Corbeanu, Buchanan and Millar are all probably around a similar level in truth, but out of the 3 I think it's natural to be most excited about the player who is youngest and making the bench in the EPL.

Tajon Buchanan - 21 years-old (DOB 08/02/1999)

Liam Millar - 21 years-old (DOB 27/09/1999)

Theo Corbeanu - 18 years-old (DOB 22/05/2002)

Is it any wonder why Buchanan is further along in his development?

Edited January 9, 2021 by SthMelbRed
pre-mature ejaculation :-0

[Obinna]

1 minute ago, SthMelbRed said:

Tajon Buchanan - 21 years-old (DOB 08/02/1991)

Yes I am aware.

[red card]

I wouldn't say Buchanan is further along in development than Corbeanu and its unclear vs Millar.

Buchanan failed playing forward positions in MLS. So, he got pushed back to the back line where he has shown more promise. So, he's in redevelopment mode. Sample size is too small to say whether he can do this consistently and sample size is non existent in terms of senior national team level.

Millar has played more quality matches but skillset so far shown has been narrow. Corbeanu is the youngest but has produced same or better results than Buchanan/Millar and made the bench at a much higher level than either of them.

[Dominic94]

12 minutes ago, red card said:

I wouldn't say Buchanan is further along in development than Corbeanu and its unclear vs Millar.

Buchanan failed playing forward positions in MLS. So, he got pushed back to the back line where he has shown more promise. So, he's in redevelopment mode. Sample size is too small to say whether he can do this consistently and sample size is non existent in terms of senior national team level.

Millar has played more quality matches but skillset so far shown has been narrow. Corbeanu is the youngest but has produced same or better results than Buchanan/Millar and made the bench at a much higher level than either of them.

there’s so much so wrong with this.

He didn’t fail ? He started as a sub and became a starter ? And played 3 games at RB because NE needed him there.

 

corbeanu’s wolves don’t have the depth that Liverpool does, and wolves isn’t 2 years removed from winning the Champions league. Also Corbeanu a year ago was behind Millar at the same age don’t kid yourself. 
 

as for Millar he’s actually very good offensively, it doesn’t take 10 viewings to see. Also, how many times can it be said that the guy is at Liverpool, it’s a top 5 club in the world.... it’s rare for kids to crack these lineups at 22 let alone 18. Is Liam going to be world class probably not, but that doesn’t mean he won’t make the team. To be fair FDJ didn’t move to Barca till he was what 24 ??

Edited January 9, 2021 by Dominic94

[Floortom]

1 minute ago, Dominic94 said:

He didn’t fail ? He started as a sub and became a starter ? And played 3 games at RB because NE needed him there.

Right - the vast majority of his season was played as a winger.

[red card]

On 1/8/2021 at 9:12 PM, Dominic94 said:

there’s so much so wrong with this.

He didn’t fail ? He started as a sub and became a starter ? And played 3 games at RB because NE needed him there.

 

corbeanu’s wolves don’t have the depth that Liverpool does, and wolves isn’t 2 years removed from winning the Champions league. Also Corbeanu a year ago was behind Millar at the same age don’t kid yourself. 
 

as for Millar he’s actually very good offensively, it doesn’t take 10 viewings to see. Also, how many times can it be said that the guy is at Liverpool, it’s a top 5 club in the world.... it’s rare for kids to crack these lineups at 22 let alone 18. Is Liam going to be world class probably not, but that doesn’t mean he won’t make the team. To be fair FDJ didn’t move to Barca till he was what 24 ??

If Buchanan was tearing it up playing up front, Arena wouldn't have moved him back. He didn't show enough to play a lot in 2019. And likewise underwhelmed in the bubble. Maybe started to train better as he gained playing time in the fall but wasn't delivering the expected end product. His career trajectory was looking more to be a MLS sub/part-time starter. It appears now he can be a difference maker with more space going forward playing from the back. So now looking like another Laryea. Usually when you get sent back, you don't come back playing too often further up the pitch again.

For Millar, analytics show he needs to be a more expansive offensive player or show enough to be allowed to play a freer role. Hugging the touchline and just crossing has limited his xG/assists, touches in the box, successful dribbling and shots taken at Kilmarnock. But he has diversified his play this season. So, now he needs to show he can carry it over when playing beyond the u23 age group.

All three are works in progress. Corbeanu is the most raw but appears to have more parts to be a total package. But given his age, maybe not enough time for a part or two be found wanting. Buchanan & Millar have shown to be explosive at times but not yet shown to be total packages. 

[Shortdutchcanuck]

9 hours ago, red card said:

If Buchanan was tearing it up playing up front, Arena wouldn't have moved him back. He didn't show enough to play a lot in 2019. And likewise underwhelmed in the bubble. Maybe started to train better as he gained playing time in the fall but wasn't delivering the expected end product. His career trajectory was looking more to be a MLS sub/part-time starter. It appears now he can be a difference maker with more space going forward playing from the back. So now looking like another Laryea. Usually when you get sent back, you don't come back playing too often further up the pitch again.

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/27/sports/tajon-buchanans-position-switch-filled-need-revolution-it-has-worked-out-quite-well/%3foutputType=amp

Multiple injuries led them to move Tajon to RB not him struggling on the wing.  I don't think anyone thought he would be as dominant at RB as he was so his position going forward is anyone's guess but I think they were reasonably happy with Brandon Bye at RB.

The team had a number of wing options and early in the season Tajon was much more inconsistent.  He was a somewhat raw prospect last year showing some good flashes of athleticism, competitive fire, and ability to attack in space.  Needed to refine his game and work on his finishing and crossing.  They also had a lot of experienced attacking options on the team.

As the year wore on he asserted himself more and more as a regular starter and became a larger part of their offense.  Like most young kids he had some very good games and some pretty mediocre ones. 

I'd argue though that those great playoff performances were in line with his overall trajectory of improving and figuring things out rather than being due to a needed positional switch.  The kid can be an excellent winger or RB in this league and we'll see where Arena plays him next year.  Might be a mix based on matchup.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bostonherald.com/2020/10/03/revolution-forward-tajon-buchanan-adds-a-jolt-to-the-attack/amp/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thebentmusket.com/platform/amp/2020/12/3/22149328/dejuan-jones-super-proud-of-tajon

 

[archer21]

10 hours ago, red card said:

If Buchanan was tearing it up playing up front, Arena wouldn't have moved him back. He didn't show enough to play a lot in 2019. And likewise underwhelmed in the bubble. Maybe started to train better as he gained playing time in the fall but wasn't delivering the expected end product. His career trajectory was looking more to be a MLS sub/part-time starter. It appears now he can be a difference maker with more space going forward playing from the back. So now looking like another Laryea. Usually when you get sent back, you don't come back playing too often further up the pitch again.

For Millar, analytics show he needs to be a more expansive offensive player or show enough to be allowed to play a freer role. Hugging the touchline and just crossing has limited his xG/assists, touches in the box, successful dribbling and shots taken at Kilmarnock. But he has diversified his play this season. So, now he needs to show he can carry it over when playing beyond the u23 age group.

All three are works in progress. Corbeanu is the most raw but appears to have more parts to be a total package. But given his age, maybe not enough time for a part or two be found wanting. Buchanan & Millar have shown to be explosive at times but not yet shown to be total packages. 

I’ve been one of the more skeptical people on this board about Buchanan’s ability to start for us right now, but I think you’re being a bit harsh. Over the last half of the MLS season, he was a regular for NE and one of their best players.

[CanadaFan123]

He was regularly their best player playing at RW. He was moved back because they couldn’t keep him off the pitch and as with most teams big money players take up those spots further up pitch.