Quakes recap and a question for the future.

I think Chiumiento may start to get a little frustrated again with where he gets played, and how much. At this point, I can’t see where you could slot him in regularly. Yes, there will be the occasional packed-schedule start, but I think he may be mostly off the bench (Unless we went to something like a 3-5-2, but I don’t see that happening at this stage).

I am happy to be in a position where I can say I have a fair amount of confidence in most of our line up as it currently exists. A back line of Rochat-Harvey-Demeritt-Leathers leaves me feeling pretty good; the only glaring weakness there is Jay’s groin (that sounds like the name of a bad punk band). Rochat and Harvey can switch up, but I like the space Alain gets on the outside, and have been impressed with how he can move down the line. If we could play every game and never see a sub on the back line, I’d be happy. But Janicki and Boxall have been competent enough. A little refinement on Boxall and I think he could turn into a regular.

Up top, Hassli and Jarju are the guys. No questioning that in my mind. I like both (given the extremely limited amount I have seen of Jarju), and there’s not much to say. Salgado is fine off the bench if it comes to it, but he’s not ready to start.

Midfield is where it gets complicated. Our current mid setup of Camillo-Vagenas-Koffie-Salinas is also starting to grow on me. I think it is really because Camillo is starting to figure out what he’s meant to be doing out there, and picking up on his opportunities to cut in. Vagenas and Koffie do look to be getting it together, and seem pretty solid in the middle. I know he’s caught flak for running into the middle of nothing, but I’ve generally liked Salinas’ play. He looks dangerous, even if he often isn’t. Appearance does count though. If he can play a couple more games like last night, where he earned that second goal, I think that’ll pull more and more defenders out wide, opening it up for the pair up top.

Where does that put our midfield subs? There are 4 who really matter: Chiumiento, Khalfan, Brovsky and mystery DP (I’ve left out Nanchoff and Thorrington because I just don’t know enough about them). Chiumiento and Khalfan, to my eye, are offensive-minded. They’ll cover for Camillo or Salinas (or a striker, likely changing our formation). Khalfan, I think, will see about the same amount of action as he has been, and I think its been about the right level for him in any case. Chiumiento has complained his way into a bit of a corner. He complained about playing out wide, so lets take that off the table. If he comes on for a central mid, we are clearly pushing for a goal, and the defense will suffer. He could cover as a withdrawn striker if we went to a 4-4-1-1. Brovsky got better, but I’d still rather not have him out there. That leaves Mystery DP. I think we have such a log-jam with our offensive mids, and a gaping hole at defensive-minded mids, that the DPs role is basically set. This doesn’t mean it has to be Owen Hargreaves, but he plays the right position.

The more I think about it, a 3-5-2 might let us make best use of what we have. I’d line up Rochat – DeMerit – Harvey / Camillo – Vagenas – Chiumiento – Koffie – Salinas / Hassli – Jarju. We’d have the numbers in mid to slow attacks against us and to help cover in defense, while having creativity in the middle (Chiumiento) and plenty of targets for him to hit.

I pretty much agree with your points NS_Cix but the problem is that Chiumiento. He is such a high maintenance player, he seems to play better when he gets lots of the ball. So the more time he spends on the field the better; and that is the problem. The most likely person to switch him with would be Vagenas but that would severely weaken our midfield and overall defensive capability. Maybe we could move Jarju to midfield in place of Vagenas and have Chiumiento as withdrawn striker behind Hassli. The problem with that is it puts all of the focus in Hassli unless we have Chiumiento and Jarju making deep runs to bolster the attack but can they do than consistently. Maybe 3-5-2 is the way to go after all?

If Chiumiento is benched for long periods I suspect that he would get very frustrated and I don’t think he would stay for next season. I suspect that Demeritt will be out for most of our remaining games – why else make all that effort to get Harvey.