I agree with you, but let me add to your comments. BC is a solid player. With few turnovers and is the kind of low/midrange budget player that every MLS team needs, with our salary cap. His two biggest faults: 1) He is captain. So Yes, he is under a microscope. By being captain you are held to a higher standard. 2) His turnover numbers are low. However, his turn overs have cost us significant goals this year. In fact if you go back to the highlights is was a bad pass from Carrol that almost put us down 2-0 in the opening minutes if it were not for a spectacular foot save from McMath. My personal opinion is that Carrol is Captain out of wanting some team consistency. If it wasn't for that, I would personally want Edu as Captain.
As for lack of turnovers, the only thing that tells me is that you're probably playing too many safe little square passes. That looks great on a stat sheet but doesn't do sh!t for anybody out on the field. Edu has been making some outstanding passes out there this year. He had one yesterday where he switched fields and put it right at the feet of the LB coming up the field, pretty awsome.
The only way to give a DFK there instead of the PK, which Berry earned, would be to completely ignore where the foul took place and throw the laws of the game out the window. There's nothing even close to factually accurate in your post.
Well, one of them definitely is. The other one needs to work a bit on passing accuracy and hitting dead ball set-pieces.
Honestly I have no idea why LeToux is doing corner kicks and dead balls. He can't possibly be the most accurate player on the team.
we've been asking this question for 5 years now. It would seen like he'd be a decent header of the ball if he ever put himself in that position.
He also split two defenders with a through ball to Wenger (I think) that lead him into the area. It didn't turn into a goal, but it generated a basic opportunity that we would not have seen last year.
i am optimistic after that match. RSL is a very tough opponent, and we handled them most of the match. To use a soccer cliche, it was a bit of an "unlucky result" with an extremely flimsy penalty call early. But, im encouraged at how they fought the come back. poor defending was to blame for the 2 goals, and casey has to put 1 of his 2 late chances at least on frame. maidana looked good again, and noguiera is the man. im expecting some positive results soon.
Before using stats, you must understand it. Of course Carroll loose the ball a lot less than other players: he's always passing the ball laterally, or to the defenders. He never take any risk on that regard. When you're in the opposing side, trying to create offence for your forwards (like Edu, Le Toux or Nogueira often do), it is not the same thing, the passes you attempt are more difficult, and if it's not successfull, you have time to go back and defend. However, when Carroll lose the ball in his side, with one of his easy lateral pass, the whole team is in danger. His turnovers were obvious not because everyone is looking for them, just because it is not the same thing to turn the ball over with an easy pass on the defensive side, than to turn it over in the opposing side when you're trying to create offence. I like Carroll a lot because of his toughness, his menatlity (you can call it "veteran presence" I guess), but with Edu and Nogueira, he's not as important as he was before. PS: sorry for my poor english.
I'm not about to give the match an asterisk, because they were still a tough opponent and the point was more than I expected. I might be mistaken, but that was far from their preferred starting XI.
Well said. The issue isn't whether Carroll is valuable, its whether he's valuable in the current setup. For whatever reason, Carroll was playing in between our centerbacks for much of the match. With the backs pushed up as high as they were, it was a very odd formation to watch. I get the whole 4-3-3 thing but it looked more like a 3-4-3 to me at times. Still, I was encouraged by the match. Give me a few moments of Nog and Edu brilliance and I'm happy. We need to take some pressure off of Big Orange somehow. Good enough for me, Bart.
With the outside backs pushing up it left a lot of space for RSL to work with at times, someone had to help cover for that (Carroll). I'm okay with Hackworth keeping Carroll deep given Edu and Nogueira in front of him and in light of the defensive lapses our guys are prone to. What I think needs to be considered, though, is finding a different way to provide width. Le Toux has been irrelevant acting essentially as right wing, and the outside backs struggle with service when they push up.
Forgot about Gil. Attinella is a very good backup so I'm not sure Rimando's absence made a difference.
Wenger has played RM/RW in his career, in fact he played it on Saturday when Casey came in. While I liked Wenger up top, a Maidana-Casey-Wenger top 3 should be something to try.
thats my prefered front line if Hack insists on 4-3-3. put Nogs, Edu and Leo in the midfield. and yes, I know carroll has to play somewhere. i'm just dreaming