A free kick off the crossbar, a shot stopped by a one handed Bouna Condoul save, and a volley off the post, all in about 20 minutes. He was DC's man of the match that game.
Thank you for looking it up (or did you actually remember which game). This game, as well as the Rev's Open Cup game got me excited about Boskovic's potential. I still can't figure out why he isn't getting more playing time. My best case hope is that they think they have somebody better lined up for the summer transfer window. asitis
So you get multiple facts wrong, I correct you, challenge your opinion, and this is all you've got to say? Lame.
Nope, I remembered which game (I had to look at the highlights for the specifics of Bouna's save and the shot that went off the post, though!). I remember walking out of the stadium that night wondering what could have been if Boskovic had scored any (all!) of those and was excited for the future. Until that fateful Tuesday night, that is....
Facts? Here are some facts: 2 years. 0 goals. 0 assists. Is he the worst DP in MLS? Probably not. But when a DP is routinely beaten to the field by the likes of Morsink, Wolff and King; when a DPs best position is second or third offensive substitute; or when a DP's best game, according to you, was a 0-4 loss, yeah, he's in the discussion. Say what you want about Rafa Marquez, but at least he gets on the field.
Please remember that I've been critical of our pickup of Boskovic -- I'm not trying to defend Boskovic in this post. Nevertheless, I have to take exception to your post (or the part I've quoted) above, because it seems to me like you're begging the question. With the quote above, it seems to me like your argument is "Boskovic doesn't get playing time because he isn't very good; and the evidence that he isn't very good is that he doesn't get playing time."
Agreed, that's faulty logic on my part. What I was thinking was more along the lines of: "Boskovic doesn't get playing time because he isn't very good; and the evidence that he isn't very good is that Ben Olsen thinks he's less likely to help the team win than Louis Neal."
OK. But it's bound to be hard for an argument like that to seem persuasive to anyone who doesn't already agree with you, because it only works if someone's impression of Boskovic' play in the limited minutes they've seen is already negative. Otherwise, if their opinion of what they've seen of his play is positive, they can simply respond "well, Benny's got this one wrong"; and that's not a crazy thing to suggest, or even that insulting of Benny, since he's a fairly new coach who's bound to get some things wrong. I guess my point is that I don't think it's possible for anyone to convince someone who disagrees with them on this. It comes down to people's impressions of his play under the limited examples we've seen: people who haven't been impressed by what they've seen are going to see Benny as doing the right thing, and people who have liked what they've seen are going to think Benny's got it wrong here. And it's already common on this forum for folks to differ strongly about the quality of play from players that we see a lot more often than we have Boskovic, so it's hardly surprising to see people differ strongly about the quality of his play.
My view of Boskovic is far simpler...he isn't Benny's kind of player (for the same reason that Cruz is), therefore he's the wrong DP for DC United so long as Benny is the coach.
If that's true, then there aren't many of the right kind of DP's. I am assuming you are meaning some hard working cover the field type of midfielder, who if a DP, probably isn't going to play in MLS anyway. Maybe a CB might work. And any forward with so much obvious talent for scoring to override Ben's style preference, would cost more than United is in a position to pay for. And finally, any forward with that style wouldn't have the obvious abundance of talent, but would have a DP salary, and we'd look like fools for having them as a DP. So in short, as much as I'd like to see Bosko work out here, I even more hope you're wrong about that.
The funny part? I hope I'm wrong too. Moreover, I didn't mean for my comment about Cruz to be taken so literally. I do think there are plenty of players that suit Ben's mentality, so I'm not sure we're as limited in our choice of DP's as you note, even if I am right. But I do think Bosko has all the wrong attributes for Ben's current plans for this team.
I think that's the problem too. I think Benny is looking for a guy with a lower center of gravity who is a little stronger, a little quicker in tight spaces and a guy who is sort of a motor and takes many touches. And of course someone who is able to chase the ball on defense. That's probably what he was looking for in Dax, except Dax's technical level fell flat. I think the Benny ideal is probably someone in the mold of a Grazzini who plays the top of a diamond midfield pretty effectively in Chicago. You still get a decent amount of creativity, but also a ton of energy and fight.
The mention of Grazzini, who has been quite useful to Chicago is interesting when comparing him with Bosko. In 2007-2008 when he was 25, Grazzini was playing for Sestre in Italy's Serie D, he also played in Belgium and Venezuela and was no breakout star in Argentina before coming to the Fire. Yet he fits what Klopas wants at less than DP price. Good scouting. I don't know if Bosko fit what Onalfo wanted to do (of course it's not clear what Onalfo's plans were, or if he really had any plans), but he clearly doesn't fit in Olsen's scheme. Chicago got it right with Grazzini and DCU got it wrong with Bosko even if one could argue Bosko is a more technically skilled player than Grazzini.
If that's the case, then this is a failure on Olsen's part as a coach. Coaches shouldn't limit themselves to a certain type of player. A smart and experienced coach is able to use all the arrows in his quiver effectively.
Precisely. I have a suspicion that Benny only plays those guys who play the way he did - nonstop and frenetic. Those who play a calmer style, however skilfully, just don't seem to be trying hard, in Benny's mind. That's my HO.
Yeah, if they've had years of experience. And even then it's iffy. There are many tales of experienced coaches who flop with some top-flight players. I think our schedule congestion has severely limited Olsen's flexibility, and while some of the rotation (or lack thereof) is certainly on Olsen, who could have figured on our two top CBs getting injured, and a potential where our primary forwards are both injured, and our availability of wide players was reduced...all in the span of, what, 3 games? Admittedly, Olsen should have found a way to insert Bosko by now, if only to save on De Ro, but based on a historical perspective of Bosko's play, he's not particularly defensive minded, and in the games to which he could have ideally been inserted, our defensive capabilities were already diminished by early exits of other defensive-minded players. It may be worth a look if he gets to start along side De Ro as a wide player, slotting into De Ro's position if/when he gets subbed out for rotation.
Goff tells me that Bosko doesn't play enough defense to slot in as a wide player (although the Montenegrin NT apparently disagrees), so his only chance is to fill in for DeRo occasionally. I think DeRo looked worn down against Houston, and playing him tonight for a long shift might be a big mistake.
So far this year, he's been playing that way, with plenty of defense. Rumors of his past are varied and different, but also irrelevant.
I'll trust that's Goff's opinion. If that is the club's opinion now, then they pretty clearly botched his signing. But I can see that many times MLS play demands more defense from wide mids than a more continental style. For us to end up where we are with Boskovic, somebody would have screwed up. Agreed.
I agree only in part - I think that given the capabalities of most of the players on the team Coach Benny sees only one of type of play to be most consistent and successful - Plan A - Not necessarily frenetic, but certainly up-tempo as we've seen from DeRo, Santos, Pontius (up top), Kitchen, DeLeon, Cruz, Najar, etc Branko may be best suited to a calmer but no less effective style with more thought into runs and passes and patience - Plan B - Oddly enough a style that Dudar's passing (and possibly Jakovic's) is well suited for But if most of your players are best suited for Plan A, then thats what you go with - (And it also seems that Plan A can be quite effective against most MLS defenses) - There doesn't seem to be many players (or enough) on the team to play Plan B well enough to succeed - And certainly only a very few that could play both - So, its not that he's not worth the DP slot, its more that he's not the right player for our style of play right now It would be nice to have a team that was advanced enough to play either style on demand, but we dont' seem to have that right now - Maybe in the future
I feel like Boskovic was a missed opportunity, with his injury and seeming inability to find a way to click with the team. Things just never worked out. Seems like there's plenty of blame to go around, but I'm not sure how things could have gone differently, other than not signing him in the first place.
