2012/13 Rumors, Speculation and Roster Punditry

Goff talks to Kasper.

Kasper, in the middle of saying a good bit of nothing at all, says a great deal about Boskovic

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...11/20/few-minutes-with-united-gm-dave-kasper/

 

2 thoughts on that article.

1. It sounds like Bosko is leaving.

2. Does the "Couple days before Dec.1 " deadline get extended for the clubs in MLS Cup? If not that's extremely cruel, on both the players and the front office to make those decisions during the final run in to the championship match!

 

Hey no worries, guestimating is exactly what I was doing.

 

That whole bit about Salihi kind of annoyed me, too. "never really found his groove"?

 

Right! One can't find one's way through the maze if the lab techs never put one into it!

 

Oh, you mean like Danny Allsop?

 

Shit I'm still saying he would have been a solid forward with a team around him e.g. this year

 

BTW, I agree with you. The 2010 team was better individually than the sum of its parts.

 

No Boskovic and no Salihi- and I just moved up from a half to a full season ticket holder! I feel very, very low right now. And yes, it was hard for Salihi to find his groove while sitting on the bench. As if Pajoy found his! (actually, he did; it's just that his groove didn't include scoring goals.)

 

It would be really tough to part with Najar. Outside of Pontius, he has the most value to offer other teams in a trade (maybe Kitchen, it's debatable).
Juan Agudelo will be 20 in 3 days, so he's about the same age as Najar. He is on a terrible team. I believe on a good team playing every week, he's a 15 goal scorer next year, with an upwards trajectory. Najar gave United 4 assists in less than 2100 minutes(and other teams something to think about to be sure). Agudelo had 3 goals and 3 assists in less than 1400 minutes (it's not good, granted, but I'm willing to bet that's not who he is).

United has a built in replacement for Najar (Korb or DeLeon). Of course the depth would suffer, but they have NO DECENT FORWARDS! Their two best forwards have plied there trade as middies to this point.
You can move Pontius up and have the same depth issue. As Nobletea wrote, this puts DeRo in an awkward position b/c DeRo/Pontius play a similar game.
United needs some speed up top!

Andy Najar cap hit 180,000 - Juan Agudelo 100,000. That's 80,000 for use elsewhere.

If Wondolowski was offered up for Najar, would you do it? Maybe, maybe not, but I bet you (specifically CWeed) would before Agudelo. Yet Agudelo has 15 caps to Wondo's less than five. He was called up for the Russia friendly despite, not because of, his club season. Klinsmann and Bradley before him see something there. They see a skill set that Wondo and his ilk will never have.

So you stay in your box. Fortune favors the bold. Or you can look at it this way. It works and United is the better for it, or it tanks and the FO all get shitcanned for it. Win-win.

----------Agudelo------DeRo---------
Pontius-------------------------DeLeon
--------Saragosa-------Kitchen--------
Woolard--Jakovic-----McD-----Korb

This is a lineup worth assassinating someone? Not to mention if Bosko is gone, you better believe they'll use that money, along with the money saved from Najar and possibly Salihi/Pajoy/Santos, to get that CM in order to move Saragosa back to the bench.

 

Reading Goff's interview with Payne raised an intriguing point -- going after younger players who are on the cusp of being DPs in the league. I think this makes far more sense than paying top dollar for superannuated Euros or SA players. If the player develops you try to keep him and pay top dollar and get maybe 6 years of top flight soccer instead of 1 or 2 that most DPs give -- if they pan out.

 

By just about every measure, we're a better team without DeRo on the field. Say what you want emotionally or otherwise. We have a higher win percentage without him.
Also anyone who thinks Dudar is an outstanding CB needs to find themselves tape of our Open Cup match against Philly. He wasn't just bad. He wouldn't make the MetroStars. He was awful. His "safe" decisions are fine. but he played one ball back through the box he shouldn't have Sunday and he was ball watching on the goal. We can do better.
Salihi is a goner. There were ample chances to play him and we didn't. That's your verdict right there.

 

You can play that game with any of United's center backs.

Also anyone who thinks _____ is an outstanding CB needs to find themselves tape of our match against _______.

I don't think anyone said Dudar is 'outstanding'.

 

Maybe you could say that about anyone, but given how few games he played he has a higher percentage of howlers. And at least one poster thinks he's our best CB. Ridiculous.

 

Dudar is a better passer out of the back than McD, for sure, and possibly Jacovic. And he stripped Houston forwards at least twice Sunday. But yes, he has had some howlers.

 

This is the way it works, PP:

• The less a player plays, the better he is.
• When a benched player does play, and fails, it's because he didn't have enough experience with the first team and/or the coach played him in the wrong position.
• The coach is ALWAYS wrong.

Having said that, Dudar has the best hair on the team, and maybe the whole league, so I hope they can find a way to keep him as a backup.

 

[quote="Q*bert Jones III, post: 26810287, member: 55792
Having said that, Dudar has the best hair on the team, and maybe the whole league, so I hope they can find a way to keep him as a backup.[/quote]


That's right If Dudar goes all Mohawk a la McDonald he's gotta go.

 

IIRC, I said that he was our best skilled defender, and I still believe it. McDonald played far more games, and has the speed, but does not have the defensive skill, or passing ability that Dudar has.

As I said before, when someone rides the pine for an extended time, their timing tends to get off. It has happened to Salihi as well as Dudar. There were three under-utilized, quality players on DC United this year: Boskovic, Salihi, and Dudar. Unless they were injured most of the time, I don't understand why they didn't get more playing time.

 

Sounds like the front office is more concerned about getting a new stadium than anything else. I hope they're not willing to sacrifice a quality product on the field just to achieve this goal. and this touring in asia thing? are they seriously trying to build a fan base in asia?

 

Seriously...and what made it more baffling is that, especially for Salihi and Boskovic, they were demonstrably better than the on-field alternatives. Maybe it was because they came on as subs when they were most successful, or in the case of Boskovic maybe they performed better as those around them started to click with each other, it's hard to say. The team was always more threatening with them on the field. Has Dudar made some lapses? Of course, but who in the back four hasn't? Of the defenders, he reads the game better than any of them, but others are faster, which helps on some of the mistakes. One thing's for sure...he certainly made fewer mistakes than the ref.

 

Owners go after the stadium - Thats their job

Olsen/Kasper/Payne go after players - Thats their job

 

Probably not. Thohir just wants to take his new toy home to Indonesia and show it off. But boy, he's right about the jet lag. I've flown to/from Indonesia a few times and it is a serious a 24+hour grind.

 

I think Boskovic has the highest soccer IQ of any DCU player in recent memory. Najar is probably second. I am NOT HAPPY about the likelihood of Bosco leaving -- although it sounds like he probably wants to.

 

Branko had something to prove and to his credit he stuck around to prove it. I hope he can stay but he's earned the right to do best for himself. Class act.

No way you get rid of Najar. An outside back that can attack like Najar is the most tactically disruptive player in the modern game, outside of world class goal scorer, which Agudelo is not. Every game in which he plays next year, DCU's opponent will have to adjust their game to the presence of Najar. Plus, if he develops in his position the way I expect, he will garner DCU a huge transfer fee (my guess is north of $5 million) in the next 2 years. Najar IS potentially a world class right back...IMHO he could step on the field tomorrow in a big 4 league and not look out of place.