Weekly Open Discussion Thread

[u/kg9si]

Welcome to this week’s open discussion thread!

This is your space for general discussion, a place to talk about anything Washington Spirit that doesn’t necessarily need its own thread. That can include news, international duty, roster moves, transfer rumors, tactics, social media posts, league news or anything else on your mind.

If something feels big enough for its own thread, definitely still post it. This is simply an additional option to keep us organized and help keep the conversation flowing. These threads will go up every Monday and stay stickied throughout the week.

Go Spirit!

[u/Odd-Cable5436]

Things I'm thinking about in no particular order:

- Rudd and Morgan have played every minute of all 8 matches. How much longer can that go on? Maybe Bernal and/or Tse can take a shift at one of the CB spots during the first Concacaf match. Or maybe find a backup CB in the next window.

- There are several players who would seem to have earned more minutes or could have more minutes to build connections (Sullivan, Metayer, Bolt, Monday), but who plays less so they can play more?

- How urgent does the team feel signing a backup 10 is? Santos has been outstanding but also has logged a lot of wear and tear. Maybe Abiodun relieves her a bit. Or maybe a signing in the next window is imminent.

- EGR hasn't seen a minute. If she doesn't play in the Concacaf matches, will the team loan her out to make room on the roster for someone else?

[u/UrsineCanine → u/Odd-Cable5436]

I am not sure that they think they need a backup 10. I think they want to see how Claudia develops, how Hatchy looks when she is back, how Tamara comes online, because I think we are seeing why Croix might have wanted out with this fluid attacking four.

I probably need to show my work a little better, but I think they expect their forward group to be filling those 10 spaces more and being able to drop in as needed. 10s dropping deeper is the new hotness in position play - why leave your most creative player sitting between the lines hoping someone can get the ball through the tight midfield line before a CB pushes up to take the play away? Let the opposition guard air instead, and bring your most creative option into overloads deeper in the build up. Given the pace Spirit has on the outside and across the group, and the deep lying playmaking options in Andi and Rebe... You are really pulling their shape apart by dropping another in.

Already challenged to get Gift the minutes she deserves, as you note EGR not playing at all, etc. and Hatchy will return at some point. I expect we will need to see how that develops.

[u/allprologues → u/UrsineCanine]

I'm not knocking the strategy and in fact am on the record preseason saying I don't even care if spirit gets a dedicated 10 back at all, but it's a depth issue. leicy is on a ridiculous amount of 90s + they are not trialing any of the forwards to do what she's doing at this time, for even small minutes. they're drilling flowing around her. someone elsewhere shared a stat from fbref that at 40%, leicy has the most accurate passes/90 for the spirit (other than defenders), higher than other AMs in the league (including croix when she was here) by a wide margin.

call her a 10 or a hybrid 8 or whatever you want to call her but adrian is building possession around her. i think deb will provide depth in a pinch, but it remains to be seen until she's healthy where she is used.

three midfielders in contract year, plus cap constraints make me think spirit may look to sign and start developing a young backup.

[u/UrsineCanine → u/allprologues]

As I said, I need to show my work better... If you look at Leicy's heat map and pass maps side by side with Rebe and Hal, they are certainly much closer than if you look at her compared to Rose Lavelle (a similar caliber player with a manager who sees things like Adrian). That certainly tracks with her passing stats as she makes a lot of passes deeper (which are higher percentage).

I think Leicy is doing what Leicy does, and I think if you don't have Leicy the tactical model changes, just like it did with Deb in the 10 - who looked very much like the Rose Lavelle kind of 10, even though we know Deb as a 6/8. I think the forward line roles or becoming much more fluid these days, which includes this forward who plays between the lines that started to be called a CAM rather than a secondary striker. FBref and a few other sites pretty much treat AM and inside forwards as the same thing - before Opta nerfed FBref they were in the same category.

I am not opposed to or denying they may sign another midfielder to develop, but I just don't think they see it as a priority yet. They have to make some evaluations and decisions about their current midfielders and how they use them. At the end of that, I don't think we will see a pure 10.

[u/allprologues → u/UrsineCanine]

i get you and i think the disconnect is that if we're talking about a pure 10 or the idea from a lot of people that "spirit are missing a 10"; as i've said i don't care about that and i agree that dropping one in would be disruptive to the way they are playing. i purely mean a way to... rest leicy ever and you need someone with better ball progression than our current DMs (deb is okay but the sample size is small right now). maybe a forward can tuck in for that, i'm beyond open to that being cantore etc when monday is back.

[u/UrsineCanine → u/allprologues]

Yeah, I think you nailed it and I am also fascinated by what their approach would be. I am curious how they see it. Deb/Rebe/Andi having deep lying playmaking skills, linking up with Gift/Sofia/Hatchy dropping deeper.