The Official Ian Russell Thread

I think he says more or less what he's thinking, when he says anything of substance, but maybe I'm wrong (it's happened ).

 

So he thinks in calculated ambiguity?

 

I feel your pain... luckily the price at Costco hasn't changed in 25 years it seems.
But maybe the chickens are a little smaller? Hmmm....

 

I’m guessing the defensive approach will be similar to Frank/Dom/Watty ball…prioritizing a well coordinated dovetailed midfield and back line…conservative…I think he’ll play a diamond 4-4-2 with the attacking aspects he showed at Reno…it will be more direct with less slow build…which hopefully cuts down on the bad turnovers that have plagued this team….and I absolutely think the existing players can do well with this approach…it’s basic fundamentally sound soccer, which is where we need to start…it might look boring to some, but will stop us hemorrhaging goals and keep us in games…this team could have played a more conservative direct 4-4-2 and probably played .500 ball…Glad to see we finally moved on from Luchi ball.

 

Yup, much like the USMNT. Where he supposedly learned and grew a lot between Dallas and here. Smdh

 

I actually don’t think we were all that much “possession without purpose” under Luchi. Our possession #’s are fairly low I think or maybe average at best. Covelo was a lot more of a possession guy.

Just checked. We are 2nd to last in MLS in possession this year, just above NYRB. Columbus is 1st. We were about 10th from bottom in possession last year and 3rd in the league in 2022! If Covelo coached the whole year we’d have probably been 1st. That shows you how much the philosophy changed from Covelo to Luchi. Also you’re going to generally have higher possession with Monteiro running the midfield, for better or worse.

 

Some thoughts on how Russell used current Quake players while at Reno:

Tommy Thompson didn’t get loaned down a lot, but was a real Ian favorite. He was a hundred percent attacking player under Russell. He was given free rein to take on defenders and create chaos in the defense. I recall him playing striker and center mid.

Paul Marie was an interesting player in Reno. Even though he came out of college as a right back, Ian would often times play him higher at right mid. Paul was a key part of Reno’s offensive production and was encouraged to dribble in 1v1 situations.

JT Marcinkowski was also a Russell favorite in goal. Reno’s record with JT was impressive. I think Ian encouraged JT to communicate and organize his defenders because I recall JT talking a lot in the televised games I watched.

Jackson Yuiell. It seemed like he didn’t develop much in Reno. Ian played him at outside midfield but Yuiell was not given a lot of minutes and he didn’t look impressive. Will be interesting to see the dynamic between Russell and Yuiell.

 

Marie has been so poor in defense lately but he's got such a banger, I'd be tempted to give him some time at left side attacker. Just tell him to shoot that 20-25 yarder every time he has a chance. I think earlier this year there was a game where he had 2 goals but one called back?

So who plays RB? I would definitely consider giving Verhoeven some minutes, especially since we are not in any serious running for the playoffs.

I remember Yueill looking pretty average at Reno and not making much of an impact, while players like Chris Wehan were racking up assists.

 

The timeline of the coaching search just gave me vibes there were two factions with differing opinions. The Ian Russell hire as assistant was a concession to either Leitch or the Soccer Board. In my opinion, if Leitch was pushing Luchi over Ian he should get fired for a disastrous hire. If he was telling them “hire Russell as head coach” then the Soccer Board has to own the failure and they need to give Russell and Leitch the rest of this year and all of next to prove they are the solution to a long term problem of fielding a truly excellent team.

 

Musovski for Judd, straight up! Whatya say, Schmetz.

 

Yeah especially since Judd is not even looking like Cam Weaver 2.0. At this point a bit more like Mark Sherrod 2.0.

 

Of course. I call it corporate speak. You NEVER talk about negatives. You ONLY talk postive and spin accordingly.

The most preposterous phrase of corporate speak I ever heard was from the CEO of a large company I once worked for (and now bankrupt after being in business for 100+ years) when reporting on a disastrous failure. He referred to it as "a deferred success".

 

Maybe an oversimplification but I'm super old school and don't understand why we couldn't play some Route One with young Cade Cowell as a striker, and the speed of a younger Espinoza, among other players when we had a bunch that could make that happen a few years ago. Instead it's been so much ticky-tacky-ticky-oops-we-lost-the-ball-or-did-nothing-with-it-we-will-never-be-Barca-with-this-kind-of-money.

Like 15/16 Leicester with Vardy or Fernando Torres at his best... people talk about the counter attack like it's boring and barbaric but what's more exciting than watching an electric striker bear down on an exposed keeper?

 

We have played many thru balls to Pellegrino, and he's actually pretty fast and has gotten to many of them. He's scored twice on them, but really should have more. We should have been doing that much earlier in the season. I was calling for it. But finally they're trying it more often.

 

I don't know. Sherrod had the about the worst touch I've ever seen from a pro soccer player. Judd's is not great either, but I used to call Sherrod "titanium feet". At least he could jump I guess. Will never forget the time Sherrod subbed in at Stanford and was running around the box throwing head fakes like he was trying to get open in the lane for a bucket .

 

IMO the key is to not say anything to others publicly about your friend that you would not say to your friend's face. You should be able to publicly disagree if you have also done so privately. However, as other BS posters have noted, it isn't always what a person says, it is how the person says it. So whatever you honestly say to your friend can probably be honestly said to others. It is a question of figuring out if you should use words like "lies' or if you can express public disagreement in a more tactful way. Criticism isn't hard. On the other hand, pursuing and framing constructive criticism can take a lot of effort and time. That may not be easy or fun, but if you don't, it is easy to be misunderstood and also end friendships.

 

Who is this person, and what has she done with the real Kaitlyn we've come to know and love?!?!?!!?

 

It's not Kaitlyn, its a Replikait!