[Hieronymus]

Finally, I hope to see Aikey play 0 minutes at CB this year. Read last year’s thread for why.

Awesome preview Hieronymus! I agree, we don't want Aikey at CB. I didn't revisit last year's thread to see if you already mentioned it, but with Emri healed and Evans not off doing USWYNT things, there shouldn't be any need to play her there. The question for me is whether Aikey should play mid or forward. She's a player that changes the game no matter where you play her, so there's no bad answer. And obviously she has had a lot of success for Stanford at CF. But I like her more at mid because she is better than anyone else on the team at scoring from deep and that threat stretches the defense. Maybe we see Klinger up top and Aikey at mid? Either way, can't wait for the season to start!

So my view is we need Aikey at CF and she is a luxury in MF. That could end up being incorrect this year based on Thomas and Klinger, but we will see.

Just in general, the drop from Aikey to the next CF - say Thomas - is large while the drop from Aikey to the next MF - say Klinger or Harvey - is fairly small.

A specific team issue in addition is Kitihata is of average speed and Montoya is flat-out slow. Aikey is fast and forces a defense to worry about her getting behind them. Watch the Duke game last year where Duke parked the LB as a LF on offense and we couldn’t make them pay for it on the counter, and you see the problems with no speed up front. Maybe fast Frosh paired with Klinger would work as well, but Aikey is the simplest solution to the speed up top issue. As a side note Williams injuries really hurt the B unit as well; she used to be the speed spark when Aikey was in the MF or out of the game.

Overall then at CF:
- Thomas never got comfortable last year but she was a top 10 recruit.
- Wolf looks ok, but she doesn’t actually make much happen.
- Klinger was solid but more of a false 9. It isn’t totally natural for her, but she did good things and she is an excellent player overall. She would be better with faster wings to play off of and maybe the Frosh can add that.

[Hieronymus]

Finally, I hope to see Aikey play 0 minutes at CB this year. Read last year’s thread for why.

Awesome preview Hieronymus! I agree, we don't want Aikey at CB. I didn't revisit last year's thread to see if you already mentioned it, but with Emri healed and Evans not off doing USWYNT things, there shouldn't be any need to play her there. The question for me is whether Aikey should play mid or forward. She's a player that changes the game no matter where you play her, so there's no bad answer. And obviously she has had a lot of success for Stanford at CF. But I like her more at mid because she is better than anyone else on the team at scoring from deep and that threat stretches the defense. Maybe we see Klinger up top and Aikey at mid? Either way, can't wait for the season to start!

So my view is we need Aikey at CF and she is a luxury in MF. That could end up being incorrect this year based on Thomas and Klinger, but we will see.

Just in general, the drop from Aikey to the next CF - say Thomas - is large while the drop from Aikey to the next MF - say Klinger or Harvey - is fairly small.

A specific team issue in addition is Kitihata is of average speed and Montoya is flat-out slow. Aikey is fast and forces a defense to worry about her getting behind them. Watch the Duke game last year where Duke parked the LB as a LF on offense and we couldn’t make them pay for it on the counter, and you see the problems with no speed up front. Maybe fast Frosh paired with Klinger would work as well, but Aikey is the simplest solution to the speed up top issue. As a side note Williams injuries really hurt the B unit as well; she used to be the speed spark when Aikey was in the MF or out of the game.

Overall then at CF:
- Thomas never got comfortable last year but she was a top 10 recruit.
- Wolf looks ok, but she doesn’t actually make much happen.
- Klinger was solid but more of a false 9. It isn’t totally natural for her, but she did good things and she is an excellent player overall. She would be better with faster wings to play off of and maybe the Frosh can add that.