A Brief Q & A with NSC Minnesota Coach Manny Lagos After Saturday’s Scrimmage Against Marquette
A brief Q & A with NSC Stars head coach Manny Lagos after Saturday’s scrimmage against Marquette.
Lagos speaks to IMS. Photo by Jermey Olson - www.digitalgopher.com
IMS: Give me your assessment of today. The guys seemed to look pretty sharp in the first half.
Lagos: Traditionally Marquette has been a difficult team for us to play at this point in the preseason. I thought the guys looked much sharper than they did last week. Obviously the finishing was better and we had some very nice goals by creating some good chances in the first half. We also missed a few that would have made the game easier if we had made them. Still, it was an improvement from last week, but there’s some areas of our game that we still need to work on and sharpen up.
IMS: What areas need improvement?
Lagos: I mean it’s just the simple things. It’s just the good habits of when you pass the ball – wanting it again. Opening your body up, little things that still take time for the mental game to get up to the speed of our league.
IMS: You played a 4-5-1 today. You have a number of attacking midfielders on this team like Johnny Menyongar. Do you see yourself playing often in this formation or are you still not sure?
Lagos: It’s still a work in progress. We’ve played a couple of different systems this preseason and we will continue to do so. I think more importantly right now is putting some guys together who are going to mix well together in pairs and then try to combine off of that. I was pleased in how the guys handled the system (4-5-1) today.
IMS: Of the 11 starters today, all but 2 were signed contracted players, so I get the feeling you’re paring things down. Will you be making cuts after today?
Lagos: Yeah, more than likely. There will be both cuts and some other additions – some guys who aren’t here today just to fill out that roster. We are in the last legs getting ready for Vancouver so a combination of both: cuts and some people that aren’t here yet.
IMS: Are some of the guys coming in players who may have been MLS draft picks or other players that tried out but didn’t make the cuts from those MLS rosters?
Lagos: There’s some guys from MLS that we are definitely targeting. Players that we think will be a good addition to the team.
Comments are closed.