Yes... but No(wak)...

ESKY BACK, AND NOWAK MORE ADAPTABLE THAN SOME MIGHT SAY

A few interesting things out there for DC United reading: First, Steve Goff indicates that Piotr Nowak thinks that Alecko Eskandarian may be ready to start (did you follow that? Of course you did.)

More interesting is Bill Urban's look at the playoff series as a bellweather for the career of one person in particular over at MASN:

Nowak clearly rates his abilities at getting the best out of his players above all else and ahead of more mundane personal concerns like tactics and his system of play. His characteristic stubborn refusal to change the system or his tactics as United's season ended with an extended run of poor results, the implicit assumption that he and his players could "turn it on" when necessary, has morphed the conference semifinal tie against the Red Bulls into a sort of referendum on the reign of Peter as a result.

Read the entire thing. You may disagree here and there, but I'll bet you also nod your head knowingly on more than one occasion.

Here's my feeling. Yes, I would have liked to see more from the four man backline over the last five months. I thought it showed promised in the first few games. However, injuries to people like John Wilson made that more difficult to sustain. I certainly would not advocate it now since there's enough confusion in the back line that changing the system seems like it would hurt more than help.

Urban is right: Nowak is stubborn. We've written about it here, others have written about it -- It is a source of strength and weakness. But I don't think Nowak has been as inflexible as either of the two previous seasons. In my mind, he's shown much more adaptability over the course of this year than any previous. Urban, in proposing a 4-5-1, asks "Why not play Moreno by himself?" He then promptly answers the question himself a paragraph later: "It must be noted that Moreno's creaking joints and waning stamina have had an adverse effect on United's attack." The days of Jamie holding a ball while the wingers moved up are past... right now he's not fast or strong enough to keep posession in order to buy time for a 4-5-1 to be effective.

The other issue is that Jamie just won't shoot the damn ball, and to have your one forward be a player that won't try and put the ball in the net is ridiculous (although mitigated slightly by the recently more adventerous Christian Gomez.) No, Jamie will be best when defenders have another attacking threat to worry about, and that means United needs two effective forwards. Adu and Dyachenko have not managed to show that yet (although Adu helps on counters). The fact is we need Esky back... if only because he gives opposing backlines something to take seriously in their marking schemes. Which brings us full circle to the first link posted here. This could be the spark DC needs, even if Esky doesn't tally a goal or an assist, he may create more space for others. And he'll take shots, which means defenses have to close him down quickly, allowing others more opportunity.

As for Urban... I think he's too quick to ignore the fact that Nowak has experimented with multiple forms a 3-5-2, a 4-4-3, and a 3-5-2/4-4-2 hyrbrid. He's been willing to try different players this year (McTavish, Metcalf, Wilson, Mediate, and others who have all battled injuries but saw some starting time.) In other words, I think Urban's column was more appropriate exactly one year ago today than now. It still has a place, but I think he's ignored the progress that has been made. Nowak understands that he was somewhat to blame for the 2005 debacle, and as a result has adjusted. Has he adjusted enough? Well, I don't know. But give him some credit.