Saborio has been an absolute poacher this year. To the tee every goal he's scored has been one touch from inside the box, usually inside the 6 yard box. Nothing pretty, and usually resulting from broken plays or hopeful lobs into the box. Just saying ... The two most prolific strikers in MLS this year have been poaching their goals.
Absolutely. But I think it's also fair to say that both San Jose and RSL are much more dangerous teams than we are. Those players are in situations in which it's easier for them to thrive.
I'm not sure that you're giving The United's offense enough credit. Earlier in the season, this team was seemingly scoring at will. The potential is there.
I generally agree, but let me add a nuance -- the 2007 team was good, but I'm not sure a lot better than this team on offense (defense, a different story). What they were was well coordinated and appropriate for the league. My sense is that with DeRo and Bosko we have two of the better ball handlers of all time for United. Bosko especially should be able to provide great service, but I still don't think Ben has any idea how to play him/surround him with players to make it work. As you said in an earlier post, Salihi is exactly as advertised. We chose him. The fact that we didn't have a clear plan to use his obvious strengths -- regardless of what weaknesses he may have -- is a testament to how much our FO/coaching needs to be improved.
“We are thrilled to have completed a deal to bring Hamdi to MLS and D.C. United,” said D.C. United General Manager Dave Kasper. “He has one of the most impressive strike rates you’ll find and has shown he’s capable of scoring goals at every level in which he’s played. We believe strongly he will become another important piece for our team and we look forward to seeing him on the field in March.”
Can anyone explain to me how you can sustain a hamstring injury when you are slower than an old lady in a Hoveround? How is that possible? Talk about a p****! He should be gone by the end of the season.
It isn't Salihi's fault. They don't play him. You don't play you don't stay game fit, you don't stay game fit and the word gets around that you don't have a high work rate - you then try too hard in practice and injure yourself. This is all on Olsen. I believe that at the beginning of the season when we were scoring and winning that you leave the group that is working well on the field. That changed. At that point you put Bosko/Salihi into the game (they are your DPs after all) and give them some time to get going. That didn't happen. Now we are in this situation where we can't buy a goal. Pajoy has a great workrate but we don't need the hamster in the wheel. I'd much rather have a Leo Messi type of player who isn't running all over the place like a meth-head chicken that can put the ball in the net given the opportunity. I'm over the high-workrate players. This isn't MLS in the 90s or the early 2000s. There is actual talent in this league now - ours just happens to be in the dog house and not on the field. james
This is totally on Olsen. As a coach in this league, you don't give up on a player like Salihi ... unless he gives up on you first. As far as I can tell Salihi had not given up ... he was scoring off the bench after all. As a coach it's your responsibility to mold the team in ways to get the most out of the weapons you have. You can't expect all the players to fit your preconceptions all the time. Anyways all the evidence points to the fact that Olsen doesn't know what he's doing. We're entering the last month of the season and we still don't have any clue what our preferred center back pairing is. We don't really know what's going on at the fullback positions ... it's basically a revolving door. We're still trying to figure out who plays next to Kitchen, and we're still not sure who is our 1st choice center forward.
a lot of the lineup changes have been down to injuries and suspensions, to be fair. when all three cbs are healthy and available, mcdonald and dudar get the start. woolard is the first choice lb. najar has taken over rb, and i'm comfortable with those two. saragosa plays next to kitchen, has for the last 4 games. first choice center forward is pajoy by default because salihi has a hamstring, santos is recovering, and long tan is long tan. give this linuep two months to gel and they may surprise us. or not.
Are you sure about the center backs? It was just against New York that it was McDonald/Jakovic. In fact Dudar and Jakovic have been swapping starts for months. And just for a little curveball, last night it was Dudar/Jakovic. This is a partnership that is constantly in flux. I'll give you Woolard, but not so sure about Najar at RB. Najar has only had 3 games there ... Ben has gone back on these short experiments before. Especially because of our lack of depth at winger, I'd expect Najar to be needed there in the future so I expect more appearances from Russell and Korb at RB. Last night McDonald was the 5th player this year to play RB ... very random decision. I'd say that we'll see changes here before the end of the year. As far as Saragosa being the permanent pairing for Kitchen ... I'd hesitate to jump to that conclusion too. Ben has a track record of changing things on a regular basis. I'd suspect that Boskovic and De Ro will still see starts there before the end of the year. As far as our center forwards ... if you look at Pajoy, Santos and Salihi I don't think we know who is the automatic 1st choice. There's no way to know ... Presumably it's Santos but how many times was Santos benched earlier this year when he was healthy? The bottom line is that Olsen has no clear plan. He experiments. When the experiment pays off in the short term he sticks with it until it stops working and then he changes again. This is very different from a team like Salt Lake who has had the same preferred starting 11 pretty much all year.
Not sure what is going on with Salihi and his hammy but he has been called up for the NT's game next Friday and there was no mention of his injury. As it pertains to his experience with DCU, here's my take on the problems. 1. Ben Olsen - What makes you great as a player doesn't necessarily mean that it will lead you to be a good coach. To win games you have to score goals not run more than the other team. As many of you have said, Salihi didn't join your team based on Usain Bolt speed but because of his strike rate. He scores his goals close to the goal and he can score a lot as he's done throughout his career. So as a coach you need to figure out a way to give your team the best chance to win the game by figuring out a way to get your DP the opportunity to score and make you look good. I think Ben Olsen has failed in this aspect. Salihi was never given a fighting chance and Ben Olsen has never shown any consistency with his lineup. Salihi didn't have a chance to get familiar with the team or the other players. For the games he started or came in from the bench he either scored or created opportunities to score, by his vertical runs and pulling the defenders creating openings for DeRo or Santos or getting free kicks. I know I'm biased a little bit but I don't see how Long Tan gets the start over Salihi. Not sure what the basis for Olsen's choosing of the line-up is but it is inconsistent at best which is reflected in the lack of consistency in DCU's results. 2. DeRo - from early on I noticed how DeRo never embraced Salihi's play on the team. DeRo has great skills to create some through balls and take advantage of Salihi's knack for scoring goals from inside the box. Never seen any passes from DeRo. As a matter of fact, at times it looked like DeRo was purposefully trying to sabotage the play by trying to dribble and lose the ball rather than pass. I was convinced that DeRo was the main reason for some of DCU's inconsistencies when in one game the commentator showed a graphic with DCU's record when DeRo scored. If I am not mistaken it was around 10% winning record when DeRo scored for DCU. Then why is Ben playing DeRo most of the time as a striker and not a midfielder? I didn't want bring it up before Bcause I know how most of you are really high on Ben and DeRo so I hope you won't get offended but I think this was the right topic. It is unfortunate that you all didn't get to see Salihi's brilliance in front of the goal. And to some of you he will come across as the biggest bust but I think that would be unfair. At best, it was a wrong accuisition from your GM/Coach if there was no plan on playing the type of game to highlight his skills.