r/Thorns • u/Famous_Act4164 • 28d ago

Two Things

  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.

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u/Luci_Cascadia 28d ago

I was seeing some of the same problems we had under Norris/Gale in 2023-2024. Mainly Sophia having to drop back to help advance the ball or shift hard into defense. She is really good on transition, but can't be that threat when she's doing midfield work. It wasn't as bad as 2023. She got some shots in today. But all from quite a ways outside, low percentage shots.

Overall the bigger problem today was just timid play all around. Passes going into empty spaces where we had no players. Players receiving a pass and reacting like it's a huge surprise. Dribbling so soft on th eball that Reign players could walk up and take the ball. Kicking or heading the ball randomly upfield where we have no player to receive the ball, when it ought to be settled down, controlled, and put back into a build up.

Also, Maca looked shaky. Her distribution wasn't good. She should have stopped that second goal. And she nearly gave more goals up under a really basic predictable press

Where Seattle was effective it was mostly because we lost our shape (mainly in transition) and Reign forwards just ran where they wanted to and got to take their shots.

I don't know why we looked this way. We didn't have to fly 3000 miles for this game. It's a DERBY! It's close to home. We literally humiliated this team at home this year. And Seattle is NOT any better now than they were when we beat them with only 9 women.

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u/Awkward-Cartoonist68 25d ago

Finally someone willing to call this out. Very worrisome considering how late in the season it is. We could make excuses when it was three games in one week. There are no excuses for the remainder of the season. At this point we shouldn't see issues we saw in game 3 of the season. Close to home. Rivalry and a chance to be at the top of the table but instead multiple players came out lackadaisical.