FRISCO - Lots of great questions in the Mailbag this week and just choosing three was difficult. Obviously Cristian Colman is the dominating storylines, but some good thoughts on formations, transfer window moves and, a personal favorite, the incredible rant from Mike Petke.
“Colman has broken the curse! Is there anyway you adapt to a 2 striker formation such as a 4-1-3-2 or is the 4-2-3-1 always your go to.” - Grant Stone
This a question that falls way above my pay grade, Grant, but I’ll give it a shot. In short, this is what Oscar Pareja and his staff will have to figure out this week. Obviously with Mauro Diaz in the mix, he’s got to have room to operate in the middle. With the 4-4-2 look we’ve seen, Maxi Urruti tucks under Colman even so slightly, which would encroach on Diaz’s space. You can’t have too many cooks in the kitchen up top or it gets crowded.
Similarly on the back end, you don’t want to expose yourself by not having two players in the defensive midfield. Surely Carlos Gruezo is capable of covering the ground and playing backstop to the attack, but you’ve got someone named Kellyn Acosta coming back from a strong showing at the Gold Cup and with a team that plays better losing the possession battle like Dallas, you need to keep the defensive shape strong.
I think you have to either go 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 and that’s a tough decision to make. The team is built to play with a No. 10 and that means it’s decision time in who to start as your lone striker. Given his track record this season, Maxi Urruti is my choice, with Colman coming off the bench - at least for now..
“With the loan of Maurer, I'm wondering what happened to Avilez and Lissek. Were they not available for the game either or did they just want an experienced backup goalkeeper?” - Hugo Salazar
The Maurer loan was all about brining in experience to back up Chris Seitz this weekend. Jacob Lissek, still under contract, is a young goalkeeper and not the ideal scenario to make a debut on the road in Quebec. Carlos Avilez is not eligible to play MLS minutes because, as you’ll recall, he’s on a USL contract. In order to play, FCD would need to sign him to a fully-guaranteed MLS contract and then you’re still faced with the youngster debut should it come to that.
With Jesse Gonzalez coming back in time for this weekend’s match, I’d expect Maurer to head back to New York this week in time for the second half of their season and your normal tandem in goal on Saturday.
“With the missed goal by the refs and the Real Salt Lake coach’s reaction, do you feel refs should be held accountable or explain their decisions after the game?” - FCD Fangirl
This is my favorite question of the year because I get to discuss what is likely my favorite press conference of all time.
First to answer your question, yes referees should absolutely be held accountable for their decisions. In MLS play, they’re required to answer any controversial calls to a pool reporter (one representative member of the media that asks questions distributed to the press en masse), but often times you get a very short and blunt “I saw it like this,” response. If players are going to be retroactively fined and suspended for conduct on the field, referees should be as well. PRO is well-known for protecting it’s officials (and for good reason mostly), but it needs to be a two-way street (i.e. Colman’s goal not called as such Saturday night).
And now, why Petke is now in the running for MLS Coach of the Year based on three minutes from Saturday night (the full video below is a must-watch if you have not seen it):
- He makes sure everyone is recording and ready to capture the pure gold he’s about to dish out (a little media-side bias from me here)
- Handouts. I’ve never seen a coach come so prepared to a press conference, and again well done. I guess he did have some extra time to prepare though.. (“Trey, hand these out” should be his signature catch phrase from here on out in Salt Lake).
- Backstory. Setting up his initial frustrations on Beckerman’s suspension and the inconsistencies in MLS DisCo punishment.
- “In a FREAKING HEADLOCK.” Pretty self-explanatory here.
- A player’s coach. Petke has to defend his players or he says he wouldn’t sleep for a month. Gotta love the emotional dedication from the head man and he’s undoubtedly going to get buy-in from his players on this one.
- Technical issues! Who hasn’t dealt with printer issues at the office? We can all relate to the struggle and the fact that he has two more print outs that we couldn’t get explanation deserves it’s own breakdown video on RealSaltLake.com. That and an Office Space spoof with Petke and said printer.
Never change, Mike. Never change.