The Whitecaps haven't gotten a clean sheet in almost 3 months

Intro

The Vancouver Whitecaps have not had a clean sheet since May 24, that's nearly 3 months ago. If we're only including MLS the last clean sheet the Caps had was on May 20 versus their Cascadia rivals Seattle. This is shocking as at the beginning of the season, Vancouver recorded their longest shutout streak in Whitecaps MLS era history, recording 443 minutes without conceding a goal in the MLS to the opposition, also breaking the Whitecaps shutout streak at home, in MLS era history, when playing in which tallied at 388 minutes without conceding. Now it seems like the defence of the Caps is unstable, as they have failed to get a shutout in 13 matches, including all competitions. Now I will give my personal thoughts on this topic.

Takaoka

Is this streak of non shutouts Takaoka's fault? Well he has not produced the level he did earlier in the season, his saves are now expected by Caps fans, especially the standard he showed earlier this season. Some of Vancouver fans was talking about him being sneakily one of the best goalies in Major League Soccer, but now he has kinda shown that the beginning of the season, may have been the best version of Yohei Takaoka. As he has now played 11 games in a row without a shutout or a clean sheet, including a shocking game against Seattle which I thought was his worst game of the season. The errors that Takaoka commits is invisible, but there were shots at certain times that were savable but he failed to kept it out. I believe Takaoka will not be as effective as the beginning of the season, but he'll slowly find his groove again and become a good keeper for the Caps at the end of the season.

Or is it the outfield?

Even if we see Takaoka regress during the duration of the season, the same applies to the overall defence. It has felt like the Caps defence was always shaky, even in the beginning of the season, it felt like a lot of time Takaoka saved the defence from looking terrible. I think the Caps struggle with tackles, and I believe a factor of this is the gap between the Caps defender and the opposition attacker is too loose, I believe that Javain Brown struggles on this a lot, they should try to mark tighter to make a tackle. I think the clearances isn't really there, as sometimes they get pressured as they play from the back a lot. The midfield has been solid all season on the defence, especially Andres Cubas who has off games here and there, but he has been great and reliable when trying to tackle, but he does make mistakes here and there but everyone does. While the rest of the midfield feels like too attacking-minded especially if it's a combination of Schopf and Ahmed it sometimes lack the defensive coverage. If Vanni plays the 3 at the back, then the wing-backs used to be really attacking players where Vanni attempts to play them. I don't think that will be a problem anymore, since Adekugbe and Laryea is joining. I'm content with the pressing in the recent games, even though I believe that at the beginning of the season was slightly better.

3 at the back or 4 at the back?

The formation that Vanni Sartini chooses is crucial in my opinion, a 3 at the back makes it easier to attack the wide areas, it feels like recently Sartini decided to play his preferred 3 at the back. The first time Vanni played 3 at the back this season, I believe was May 20, against Seattle, where the Caps kept the clean sheet and won 2-0 and that was the last time they got a shutout. Now the defence is heading in the right direction only conceding 1 goal in each of the last two games. While Vanni liked to use the 4-3-2-1 at the beginning of the season, which was when the defence was better. I believe that Vanni is using the wing-backs incorrectly as the players that he plays there love to attack. But with Adekugbe and Laryea coming that'll be problem being solved. In my opinion, a 4 at the back is better for this club since it's more defensive and it might solve a part of the defensive issues.

Can it go back to it's old way?

I believe the goalkeeping and defending has potential to be great in Major League Soccer. But the results recently has just been disappointing, as 13 games without a shutout is a lot, especially when at the beginning of the season, you didn't concede a goal in 443 minutes in MLS play. I believe the acquisitions of Richie Laryea and Sam Adekugbe will help a lot, since we will have two defensive reliable full-backs or wing-backs. So the answer is yes, I believe that this defence will improve slowly and will somehow get back to their groove in the beginning of the season.