Dash 1 Racing 0 Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy ISI Photos
Racing fell to the Houston Dash last night, and that loss surely eliminated any real hopes Racing had of making the playoffs this year. I personally don't think that loss was attributed to anything more than Houston making the best of their opportunities and simply not creating enough opportunities on the Racing side. Sometimes the analysis is as simple as that. In the grand scheme of things, this will be a rather forgettable performance. It will be one of those matches for which I will struggle to recall any details after the season is over. Keeping this in mind, I think it is more interesting to start to wildly speculate about the remainder of the season.
The major thing I have noticed this month is Emily Fox's playing time. She has been subbed out of 3 of the 6 league matches in August and didn't play at all in the Women's Cup Final. I don’t think it is a stretch to think of Fox as Racing's most reliable player, if not their best one. I don't think any of these substitutions have had anything to do with performance, so I believe there are 2 possibilities for her usage this month. The first one is obvious…rotation. I believe this is part of it. August was full of matches and no player needed to or actually played all 90 minutes in each match. Fox completed 90 minutes 3 times in August, so she got plenty of work. The second possibility is that Coach Holly is trying to evaluate his other defensive options at Left Back. Julia Ashley has played at both Left and Right Back, and Erin Simon has picked up minutes there too. With nothing left to lose the remainder of the season I wonder if Coach Holly is thinking about shifting Fox to a midfield role.
I personally think Fox would be most effective in a 3-5-2 formation as the left winger, or as a left sided midfielder in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Racing doesn't have the CBs yet to play with 3 at the back, or at least enough healthy ones. I think a 4-2-3-1 formation might be a better fit for more than just Fox. Here are the players that I think would benefit from the switch:
Fox: Emily could use her passing and dribbling skills more in the middle of the field and actually flow in and out of the attack more deceptively from a midfield position. Her defensive skills could also be used just as much in the middle of the pitch as on the outside.
McCaskill: Savannah is Racing's engine. She runs the team. She often drops deep and picks up the ball in the defensive third and attacks in the final third just as effectively. The NWSL is used to seeing her in more of an attacking role and almost every time I watch the Twitch/Paramount Plus commentary someone brings this up. I think McCaskill is good enough to play anywhere on the field but some midfield help would let he play higher up the pitch where she wouldn't have to expend so much energy on defense, which I personally think sometimes makes her attacking prowess suffer. The other thing this would do is that is would not allow opponents to focus so much on Savannah and lock her down.
Nadim: To my eyes Nadim is a 10 and not a 9. She doesn't need service to be creative. She is the smoothest player on the pitch. That's what you want out of a number 10. You want equal parts passing and shooting. To me she is just at good in the middle of the pitch as the final third. She also likes to drop deep to pick up the ball. It would be nice if when she did that she had a passing option further up the pitch.
Salmon: Ebony has looked a little isolated when playing out wide and I think she is more effective when she gets the ball supplied to her vs. having to attack from out wide. She is most effective when she can get a shot off in 3 touches or less.
Here is what this formation would look like:
It would potentially weaken the wing defense, but if you picture Fox sliding over to help Simon and Olofsson sliding over to help Ashley, I think it could work.
I don’t know if Racing's staff will try a formation like this, but I think it may be time to experiment a bit with the focus toward next year. I think Racing will use the rest of the season to evaluate talent and look for the biggest areas needed for improvement in the draft.
