Photo credit: ISI Photos
It was a lot of fun at times, but there really weren’t any tactical takeaways from Saturday’s 3-3 home draw against Columbus Crew. Kind of like the Coach Beard or Christmas episodes of Ted Lasso, the match was entertaining and might bring the team closer together…but it did not really advance the plot in any way.
San Jose has yet to score a goal in the run of play through two matches, but at least in the beginning of the Columbus match – before Jamiro Monteiro’s 33rd-minute straight red – you could see how they want to start doing so: pressing, switching fields to wingers, and playing off of Jeremy Ebobisse. This is their bread and butter.
First off, you can see that San Jose is back in the 4-2-3-1, with Cristian Espinoza, Monteiro, and Chofis in that “3” line left to right.
This is, I think, how I would line the Quakes up — quibbles about Eric Remedi vs Judson aside. (Remedi played much better against Zelarayan, consistently frustrating the guy. Judson’s willingness to leave his man to put out fires elsewhere allowed Zelarayan much more space).
Columbus is primarily concerned with balls on the ground, confident that their mountainish captain, Jonathan Mensah, can win duels in the air. San Jose did something that they’ve had success with in the past – turn the 5’7, 140 lb. Espinoza into a target man.
The point is less to have Espinoza win the duel, and more like an American Football punt, putting Columbus on their back foot at their endline and keying a press. Espinoza cuts off the easy pass to Mensah as Marcos Lopez and Monteiro shut down vertical options, forcing Steven Moreira to send the ball long.
The discomfitingly long legs of Jan Gregus – our very own Slender Man – knock down the ball. This is how a press is supposed to work. Not like the failed mess of last week, but getting numbers around a ball that the opponents have in a bad position, in order to win it back.
Thought of another way: with Columbus in that stock 4-4-2 in the first picture, it would have taken minutes of technically clean passing to get San Jose in a position where Gregus had the ball in space against a disorganized Crew. Instead, thanks to Espinoza, Monteiro, and Lopez pressing well, they were able to do it in two incomplete passes (Calvo long for SJ, then Moreira long for Columbus).
Unfortunately, Gregus’ knockdown gets away from him. Columbus counter-presses on him and Monteiro, and right midfielder Yaw Yeboah is able to knock the ball away – where it rolls to Jeremy Ebobisse.
Someone asked me in the Quakes Epicenter group Slack (available to $5/mo subscribers, and totally worth it IMO) if Jebo is playing timidly due to his injury history. I replied that I don’t think he is, but I also don’t think he’s fully integrated into the attacking patterns yet. Here’s what I mean:
The 25-year-old has been playing professionally since 2017, but of his 146 professional matches (not including international duty), only 90 (or 62%) are as a pure center forward. He seems to relish winning the ball and getting his teammates in good positions, then finishing the play in the box. But he doesn’t always seem to know where his teammates are going to be. That’s extremely forgivable in game 2, but it’s something to watch going forward.
Here, Jebo has (1) Espinoza making an extremely good run splitting the right back and centerback in a dash for the endline. It’s not the easiest pass in the world, but that is absolutely the pass to make: neither Moreira or Mensah are in any position to stop Espinoza from hitting the endline and then finding one of Jebo, Gregus, or Chofis on the cutback.
Barring that, he has two other options against the disorganized Crew defense: (2) Monteiro out wide or (3) Gregus inside. Monteiro’s probably the easier option, and it allows him to serve as a wall to find Espinoza 1v1 with Mensah in the box (if Espinoza can stay onside). It’s not as good a pass as finding Espinoza directly.
Ebobisse opts for (3) Gregus.
Note that this is still a really good option! This easy lay-off cuts out five of the seven active Columbus defenders and gets Chofis 1v1 against a scrambling left back, converted winger Pedro Santos.
San Jose clearly came into the game with the idea that attacking Santos was a good idea. It is! Maybe Marcos Lopez could’ve taken it a bit less literally on that equalizing corner, but hey. Santos is 33 years old and I don’t think ever played left back, and Chofis is one of the best dribblers in MLS. Ending a possession with Chofis 1v1 against someone who wants to be anywhere else on the pitch is good.
I suppose you could argue that Chofis should have gotten the ball back to Gregus in Zone 14 or something, but Chofis is always going to shoot from there. If you don’t want Chofis to shoot from there, don’t play him. In this instance, the ball is deflected and goes for a corner. I suppose you could also mention that this is where the play was headed 20 seconds ago, when this whole thing started, and this whole analysis was irrelevant. Eat at Arby’s and all of that.
The connectivity of this sequence, and its chaotic nature, show how San Jose is trying to play. The strategy is to get it out on the wings. There are five guys to do that: Francisco Calvo and Jackson Yueill in the back, Monteiro and Gregus in the center, and Ebobisse up top.
In previous seasons with Matias Almeyda at the helm of the Earthquakes, when they didn’t have a center forward, it would be Andy Rios’ job to make that back-to-goal pivot. And it wasn’t that Rios was bad at it – it was that he wasn’t particularly good at anything else. Jebo has to learn where his teammates are running from and how to get them the ball in dangerous positions. The better he gets at that, the better positions he’ll get himself in the box and the more goals he’ll score.
Photo credit: ISI Photos
It’s the job of Gregus to make those dangerous runs possible. In the current setup, Gregus is the keystone of the team. He has to serve as the last man before San Jose goes into scramble defense: if Moreira’s ball gets by him, it’s 3-v-3 the other way. He also has to keep his teammates in front of him in order to switch the points of attack. If anything, he needed to get that final ball to Chofis quicker, or find Monteiro sooner.
If you squint, you can see why Almeyda put Yueill on the backline and set Gregus up in his spot. Yueill is much more hyperactive than the older and far less-mobile Gregus. The 31-year-old Czech is much more comfortable letting the game come to him and stepping back, whereas Yueill will search for the ball. It’s a good trait for the younger man to have, but it can lead him into bad spots. Gregus might never be in the best spot, but he’s rarely in the wrong one.
With Monteiro’s red card leaving him out for the away fixture at Philadelphia, it will be interesting to see how Almeyda sets the team up. A lot more worked last week than you might expect if you saw San Jose trailing 3-1 into the 84th minute. Putting Judson in the backline and bringing Yueill into that kinetic Monteiro role might be the best approach, even if it leaves San Jose thin at midfield. Another option would likely be bringing Tommy Thompson up there to start the game, who knows?
This team looked much more natural in a 4-2-3-1. They will start looking much more deadly if Jebo can continue to grow and Gregus can continue to help him. The sooner these two gel into the core of this team, the better the odds for San Jose to overcome these early-season doldrums.
Thanks Asher for the article…