Putting a lineup together is like baking, the order and combination of ingredients (players) will affect the final product, and it seems that Caleb Porter is not as cognizant of the chemistry this year. If you think of the lineup as the recipe the Timbers are trying to make a 4-2-3-1. This might be the ideal outcome for the ingredients that we have, but I will also show some alternative recipes that we are capable of baking with our current ingredients.

Our current recipe consists of the following ingredients:

---------------------------------Ricketts-------------------------------------

O’Rourke---------Paparatto---------Ridgewell---------Harrington

----------------------Chara----------------Johnson-----------------------

Nagbe-------------------------Fernandez-------------------------Valeri

---------------------------------Urruti/Adi------------------------------------

There are a multitude of defensive issues with this recipe, but there are two main problems that cause them. First, the midfield triumvirate of Valeri, Fernandez and Nagbe are a great attacking trio, but they are horrendous as a unit defensively. Valeri is the best of the three defensively, followed by Nagbe, and Gaston does not even factor in. Caleb states that he wants to play a high pressure system, but he has a CAM that does not play any defense. Second, O’Rourke is basically the same ingredient that Jewsbury was, experienced and slow, but with a penchant for accumulating cards.

A third issue that is not directly caused by the first two is the decline of Will Johnson. He is still a fiery leader but his decision making and field awareness have been poor this season. He is also constantly yelling at his teammates when they make mistakes (or miss an opportunity to pass to him), but then he will proceed to make a similar mistake right afterwards. He needs to start leading by example and upping his work rate.

The auxiliary issues that are caused by the first two start in defense; Paparatto is a strong aerial defender but lacks quickness. This causes him to struggle covering runs to near post and closing down wingers that have beat the fullback. This issue is magnified by pairing him with O’Rourke (or Jewsbury) who is constantly getting beat by speed. O’Rourke, and Harrington to a lesser extent, is then stretched thin by the lack of defensive intensity from the wingers. When Valeri, Nagbe, or Fernandez fail to track back this leaves the fullbacks having to cover two men. Chara does an amazing job of helping on both sides, and is a major reason that we do not give up more goals.

Here is a slightly different recipe:

---------------------------------Ricketts-------------------------------------

Harrington-------Paparatto---------Ridgewell------------Villafana

----------------------Chara----------------Johnson-----------------------

Nagbe-------------------------Valeri----------------------------Wallace

---------------------------------Urruti/Adi------------------------------------

How do these ingredients improve our defense? By replacing O’Rourke with Villafana, and moving Harrington back to his natural position of RB, you are improving coverage at the fullback positions. The inclusion of Wallace into this recipe has a lot of effects, both offensively and defensively. Offensively, he provides width as a natural winger; which in turn creates more space for the other attacking players to operate in. Defensively, he plays both directions and helps give Villafana the freedom to move forward and implement his amazing crosses. It also, limits the amount of time that Chara needs to spend on the left side of the field. This allows Chara to focus on helping cover Nagbe’s lapses on the right side of the field.

But does this dampen our offense? I would argue that it improves it. I have already stated the positive effects that Wallace has on our offense and briefly mentioned Villafana’s crossing abilities, but another weapon that this unleashes is Harrington’s ability to send crosses from the right side. When Harrington plays as the LB, he continually pushes forward but then pulls the ball back so he can send it across the field with his right foot. By placing him on the right side, he can use his natural foot to send in quicker crosses that will lead to more goal scoring opportunities.

There are also some other variations on this recipe that we can also try. When Kah is back, we can swap him out with Paparatto to give better coverage of runners through the middle. An even more extreme variation would be to replace Villafana with Kah and move Ridgewell to LB. We tried this during the Seattle game and it led to some dangerous crosses, but we put O’Rourke back at CB (a position he should never play) and we were pushing too far forward to try to catch the match. Gaston makes an excellent substitute for either Valeri or Nagbe, but should never be on the field the same time as the other two. Our only substitute for Wallace right now is Alhassan, but we end up with similar defensive issues. Another solution might be to move Valeri to the left and Nagbe to the center, and have Powell play some right wing, but this is not something we should try out in a league game as we make a playoff push.

Here is another recipe that we could try:

---------------------------------Ricketts-------------------------------------

Harrington-------Paparatto-----------Kah----------------Ridgewell

----------------------Chara----------------Johnson-----------------------

Nagbe----------------------------------------------------------------Valeri

------------------------------------Urruti--------------------------------------

--------------------------------------Adi---------------------------------------

It is a modified 4-4-2 that becomes a 4-2-2-1-1. It requires Valeri and Nagbe to be more present defensively, but it creates a dangerous pairing up top between Urutti and Adi. I have not talked about our forwards yet, but I have placed them as equals on the two previous recipes because they are interchangeable depending on the opponent’s weaknesses. Urutti provides high pressure and Adi provides a true target. Playing them together would give them a chance to use these two weapons in synergy. I placed Urutti behind Adi on the lineup, but in function he would orbit Adi causing chaos and creating chances for himself, Adi, or even Nagbe and Valeri. Similarly, Adi would draw the defense with his hold up play and be able to feed his teammates, or flick on headers to a cutting Urutti.

A couple of other notes