It's Timbers Time! This week Chris and Matt break down the eventful 1-1 tie with the LA Galaxy discussing the bright start, early red card, and tactical adjustments, one of which Phil pretended never happened…. Plus a deep dive on Phil’s coaching ability, assessing his performance (or lack thereof) in eight different categories from motivational ability to tactical identity and situational coaching
This episode's talking points include:
How sustainable was our fast and exciting start for future games?
Breaking down Kamal’s red card and was taking Kelsy off a bad decision?
Phil’s positional shift that cost us the goal, that he later pretends he didn’t do!
How a deep 4 back bunker then secured a point quite comfortably
Velde’s wild and shady bilingual press conference tells a lot of blunt truths
Coaching Special - Is Phil a Good Coach?
Do the Team Look Fit, Organized and Motivated?
Does Phil Have a Clear Tactical Identity or is he Chasing Tactical Trends?
Quantifying differences between MLS and the EPL that should influence tactical identity
Is a lack of tactical structure one of Phil’s biggest coaching failures?
How evident the Timbers’ poor offensive rotations are compared to other teams
An alarming statistic about the team’s defense
How the team’s poor secondary press is leading to counter attacks
Is the reward of the high press worth the risk?
Vancouver (A) Preview
Content Warning: Moderate swears
Timestamps:
(0:00) Introduction
(2:07) LA Galaxy (H) - Starting XI & Formation Analysis
(4:48) LA Galaxy (H) - First Half Analysis
(22:13) LA Galaxy (H) - Second Half Analysis
(28:24) LA Galaxy (H) - Post Game - Moment and Man of the Match
(31:07) LA Galaxy (H) - Phil’s Press Conference
(33:10) LA Galaxy (H) - Velde’’s Press Conference
(36:22) Phil Neville and a Coaching Special - Introduction
(39:09) Assessing Phil Neville - Performance vs Roster Spend and Player Assessment
(42:53) Assessing Phil Neville - Is the Team Motivated, Fit, Focused and Playing Hard?
(46:09) Assessing Phil Neville - Offensive and Defensive Set Pieces
(49:29) Assessing Phil Neville - Substitution Patterns, Situational Coaching and Tactical Flexibility
(55:28) Assessing Phil Neville - Tactical Identity, Meta Tactics and Following Trends
(59:48) Assessing Phil Neville - Quantifying Why MLS Needs Different Tactics to the EPL
(1:02:49) Assessing Phil Neville - Structural vs Organic Styles of Play and Soccer IQ
(1:05:59) Assessing Phil Neville - Are the Timbers a Well Organized and Well Drilled Team?
(1:07:26) Assessing Phil Neville - How Wing Turnovers are Emblematic of Poor Offensive Coaching
(1:11:17) Assessing Phil Neville - The Team’s Long Term xG Conceded is Alarming
(1:13:59) Assessing Phil Neville - The Ideal Press Vs The Timbers’ Press
(1:20:12) Assessing Phil Neville - The Mess That Is The Secondary Press
(1:22:23) Assessing Phil Neville - Is The Press Worth The Risk? Is it Working?
(1:25:25) Assessing Phil Neville - Conclusion - Is Phil A Good Coach?
(1:28:26) Call for Listener Topic Suggestions!
(1:28:50) Timbers News! New Signings! MLS News
(1:33:18) Vancouver (A) Preview
Content Links:
Timbers pressing data from 2025: https://soccerment.com/mls-2025-data-driven-insights-from-the-first-5-rounds/
The physical demands of Major League Soccer (including EPL comparison) : https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12551844/
Velde for Olympiacos vs PAOK including positional rotations to support a winger in posession:
https://youtu.be/tHxl-JNxM6Y
What a highly structured and organized press looks like in MLS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAOawmYLOIY
Listener Topics and Questions:
Thanks for listening and please do send us your questions or topics for analysis for the next episode :[email protected]
