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That was a great question fewmit. *Hat tip*

Yes but Poland playing a SF vs Italy was the reason they lost that game. Again blank lineup cares about offense and only offense. We all know that defense is what wins games. Now if we are planning on running LI vs a team we are 100% sure they're running LI, than it's not as big a problem but it is very risky, more so than other positions, to blank the SF. There was much discussion on the offsite forum about R@G the championship game to take advantage of the big at SF like Italy did, so even though we may not have directly thought and said "Let's R@G and take advantage of the blank lineup" our reasoning behind that discussion was we knew Poland would play a big at SF.

Last edited by oriolekid at 11/4/2011 11:55:38 AM

Playing a big isn't always bad though like magiker said and as you have said now about playing one in a LI. Thats why when making the decision on the lineups and tactic, whether it is myself, or you, or magiker, or someone else, needs to think about all the options and make a decision from there. There may be times when playing a big at SF is the best option which means blanking the lineup may be the best option too. Even at SF. That's what makes the question tricky because we have all seen what blanking does and while we can say our opinions now on what we may want to do or think about doing we cant officially decide till the time comes.

If you look at the results and back at the debate thread, you'll notice two things: 1. They voted for a homegrown manager. (Makes sense. Would you want someone from another country running your team for two seasons?) and 2. No one asked me any questions. (I have no explanation for this, maybe because they were settled on a candidate since they barely had enough managers to put together a vote. I'm still unsure.) Anyways, it was an NT too. Not to take the U21 lightly (it most definitely is not), but the NT is kinda a big deal, ya know?

Damn you

nyah

Now let me ask you a question. Do Doctors know the name of every single patient admitted in the hospital without looking at their charts?

Of course not. But the numbers of names he can remember may be an indication of his involvement and dedication to his patients' welfare, and by extention the quality of his practice.

Yes but Poland playing a SF vs Italy was the reason they lost that game.

A combination of a lack of offense, combined with no defense at SF. So yes, I'd mostly agree with that. But they made the finals blanking SF all season with no real great SF option.

Again blank lineup cares about offense and only offense.

Not sure I agree with that, but I don't have any evidence otherwise. If we had a 13/9/2/13/13/9 - 12/8/8/7 player, does he start at SF over B-Rod in a blank? I'm not sure...


If we have a unique player like B-Rod, then we can start him at SF in a LI offense. Agree there. But we won't have players like that next every season. There might be times when it's better to blank SF, than start a guard there. We've seen some of the best SG's with low IS don't perform that well in LI, no matter how good the DR is. If we don't have a good SF option, then blanking SF might be a good way to go.

Related two part question for all of you...

1. Experience is one of those things that's typically gotten ignored by the u21 (and NT) squads, but there's some pretty good reasons to believe it can have a big effect. It also seems like we have a pretty good idea who a couple of our Season 19 stars (current 20yo's) will be already.

Given that there seems to only be a couple really close games during each America's run, do you think we're in a position where we can play some of these guys this season to build up some experience in order to help our season 19 efforts? Is this something you'd consider (not just carrying the guys, but playing them)?

2. When it comes time to pick the roster, do you look at experience? For 21yo's, exp can range anywhere from 1-4... while I imagine small differences might not matter, how many skills would you be willing to compromise for 4 exp over 1-2 exp?

I am a believer in experience. My SG with 10 experience single handedly won me a game in the final 2 minutes last year after being horrible before that point. However you can't value experience highly if range of experiences is very small, like in the case of other U21'ers. The deviation would have to be much higher for me to ignore core skills for experience.

Last season our starting 5 vs Poland had 3 Exp, 3 Exp, 2 Exp, 4 Exp, 3 Exp. The one guy with 4 Exp, Brent Selby had some late FT's, but he was also the PG and he also missed two of them in the final minute and he has 8 FT. He didn't show experience there but he played well all game. Experience related? Can't be sure of that. The guy with 2 Exp, B-Rod, jacked shots up all game and was VERY streaky all season. Was the streakiness due to experience? We can't be sure. This is a complicated topic to argue, but the fact that it is complicated and hard to find clear examples of experience, shows that it can't be relied on in any U21 game.

Edit: Corrected grammar mistake. Sorry about that.

Last edited by oriolekid at 11/4/2011 1:21:30 PM

First off, I am a believer in experience as I, along with many others will say, have been able to see different players be able to take over games a single handily win games. However, I feel that doesnt happen to be the case until you getting into the higher experience levels...strong +.

As far as the team, experience will not be the deciding factor in who I choose to be on the team. I will pick the best players I feel will help the team win games.Reason being is say this is because why give up some abilities for a little extra experience? Lets say you choose a player to play that has 4 experience but 2/3 less in both JS and Passing. Do you think that guy with better experience will do better? No. The experience is helpful in late game situations but my goal is to have the best team out there every game and not have many of those "clutch" situations.

For the question of playing some 20yo players on the team, yes I may do that but not for experience. If I feel a 20yo is better then some 21yos then I would be willing to play him if it means it would put the team in a better position to win. I will not be doing that just for a little bit of an experience boost though. If a player does pop in experience because of it then it is just a bonus.

-Oggagala-

Err, hey, so, this is awkward. Unfortunately the election was cut down to the top 5 vote getters last night and you didn't make the cut. Thanks for the response though!