All due respect but if I advocate a less-used player I often literally get a "you don't see all the practices, I trust the coach" response. Ditto if if you suggest non-442, that's usually couched as, "have we not won two titles playing this way?" I'll grant there is a middle of people like Anderson but there are a lot of people whose posts read either directly or indirectly as organizational apologia, even in wilderness years on such obvious subjects as the departed LA Landin. And on players like Jermaine Taylor I've seen this process reverse itself. I liked Taylor versus Philly game 1. But it's taken about a year for the consensus to catch up because it's highly linked to who the coach plays and likes. If you've ever endured taking a lonely position and getting crap for it and then seeing people slowly come around when social forces permit it, maybe the politics of it all might feel more personal and you might be attuned to all the "status quo" games people play....."well who off this mediocre roster you didn't design and don't like would you play instead?" "Is there someone out there as cheap as Corey who's better?" etc. Loaded questions abound. But the reality is that people must be playing rhetorical games at my expense because their answers are obvious, but posture away they will. To answer a recent query: For starters, if cheap quality is the gold standard Taylor is a superior LB who plays for less, on our roster, QED. Creavalle is even cheaper, probably as "solid" as Corey. If you don't mind expense, we just watching freaking Segares make our lives difficult. Ditto Pearce. Dunivant is decent and only moderately expensive. But apparently we're permitted to overpay Boz and Hainault (and Cameron wasn't playing defense for pizza money either) but Ashe gets to scoot by as the cheap one. At which point the MLS cap rules come to Ashe's defense because a crap player is excused by being a cheaper alternative even if he is so bad his potential like-for-like replacements in-house would probably be even cheaper. So I respond to a post posing such an easy challenge from an obvious pro-Dom koolaid standpoint ("I know what team is going to the play-offs though and I also know a team who are always contenders: YOUR HOUSTON DYNAMO= Coached by Dominic Kinnear. "), suggesting I can't possibly be a Houston fan, I argue back that I am just an independent Houston fan voicing my mind, and what's the suggestion, I unfairly said many people think exactly like that, to someone who just espoused it to a T?
juvechelsea, i've seen the USMNT play some crapstatic games and i've never seen a 15 paragraph manifesto from you concerning the current state of the team. me suspects its personal with Dom Kinnear and the Houston Dynamo. did you at one time try out for the team or seek employment with FO?
So we exaggerate the 4 para. response into 15 and then based on the 15 suggest it must be personal, etc. Nice.
...and herein lies the money quote in your extremely long post. YOUR OPINION is that Taylor is a SUPERIOR LB while Creaville is probably as SOLID as Corey Ashe. What you continue to fail to realize week in and week out is that you are : A) In the minority opinion in one or both of those opinions and B) The one who makes the decision regarding our starting left back, at present, disagrees with your opinion as well. Now is it possible to see a player play so bad that the vast majority of Dynamo supporters see that a change is needed? Well I'd present Exhibit A in one Tony Caig. It didn't take long for most fair-minded and reasonable supporters to see that he wasn't going to work and a change was definitely needed. Furthermore, while it wasn't immediate. It didn't take long for Kinnear to make that change as well. I'd also present Exhibit B in one Kelly Gray (I was loathe to mention him though only because I thought he'd come good for us...got that one wrong.) So I think you should rest assured that at some point, if Kinnear thinks that one of those two (or Sarkodie) can upgrade the position, then he'll do it. We may also, at some point, get an upgrade to the position as well via a trade or draft. But until that time comes, I think you and the others who feel that Corey needs to sit just need to grin and bear it and move on to other items on the agenda.
Additionally, in terms of why I might be touchy: someone here reported me as a troll for criticizing a stadium post where someone was suggesting we'd attract foreign players with racing seat benches alone. I thought it naive and said so, eg, what foreign player comes here to sit the bench anyway, so who cares. That post got deleted as trolling. Things escalated because I thought that was censorship, ban. This all came after people were basically licensed by SG-types who are the mods to head-hunt me, eg, some people deserve ridicule have at it I think was what was said. Two sets of moderation rules, then, one for critics, one for people chirping happily about the stadium and the organization. Then, voila, stadium opens, metal benches on the sidelines. So is it trolling (for me? for others?) to post anything critical on a stadium thread, even later shown TRUE, not even saying the stadium is bad -- and interestingly now that it's open and the STH largely sold, people are free to comment the place is too hot, things need to be moved or installed, etc. So perhaps I wonder about a perceived pro-organization bias. And whether it's chicken or egg, related or not, I get the same feel when ERob can barely compliment Taylor on TV because he's not a "made man" yet. Ortiz 95% of the time writes PR pieces. Davis can barely criticize until it's obvious or a shared broadcast. Etc. So if I feel like I'm fighting a pretty widespread mentality.....?
I might be a minority on Creavalle but I think there's growing respect for Taylor's brand of defense, and we'll see if people come around. Sometimes it doesn't work out (Appiah) but all standing pat midtable will probably do is leave you same spot or worse. After his Dynamo first team appearances and U23 showing even mentioning Sarkodie credulously is a debit. That Creavalle is suspect but Sarkodie the Absent touted suggests you aren't even up on the current Kinnear Favorites. Sarkodie is now passe, and bluntly from my perspective, sucks. He's fast but not faster than Creavalle, and he has crap distribution and gets beat like a drum. I even wanted it to work so we'd be faster but it hasn't. Tony Caig was only the worst player to ever lace up Dynamo shoes, Akinbiyi, etc. included. You could see game 1 he was unsuitable. Should I buy DK a trophy for noticing along with everyone else? Kelly Gray is revisionist history he lasted here a long time in spite of his relative "quality." Are we going to talk about the long LA Landin experiment? As I said before, when they work he gets credit, when they don't, we blame the player. As I said before, the whole year of 2010 on through to the Garey/Graye-type acquisitions seems to have disappeared down a memory hole somewhere. FWIW, I've said before Kinnear is a decent coach who instills his disciplined system well. I've simply questioned Trust Dom absolutism and he has in fact presided over swoons that might get many other coaches in less comfortable situations fired, particularly because he controlled the rosters of teams like the 2010 outfit that was poorly composed.
Bro, this is BigSccr of course you can voice your opinion on everything and anything (except SG's of course they're the untouchables). With my 6 month psychology course I took mixed with my 2 years of psychology in HS I can totally evaluate you. I see that while me i'm a very postive person you good sir are not. You will see the negative of our team, brand, organization and "hate" on it to the fullest extent. I honestly do not have a cure for your illness, you should of been born in maybe Madrid or Munchen or Milan and are lucky you were not born in Southampton or Portsmouth or the such. In those cities you wouldn't have such horrible players such as Ashe to worry about or landin's or caigs, you definitely wont have any Kinnears (the horror). Your opinion is yours and nobody has the right to change it. All i'm saying is that we follow the MLS league or at least I do. It's a subpar league compared to leagues around the world (most stadiums do not have Recaro seats can you believe that?) Our SG's cannot get along to follow the same team (seems Charles Lynch infiltrated them somewhere taught them to hate each other) (ooops sorry for saying anything about them). I don't believe most of us drink the kool aid they give us, we go to cupboard and the fridge and we make it ourselves because we LOVE our team. Could it better? Sure it can. When? Who knows when, one thing is for sure.. I will be here supporting the team through thick and thin and so will most of us. We wish we could be Real Madrid or Barca and win everything every year and have the best coaching and staff and FO but brother its not going to happen. Were content with what we have because it could be worse much worse. Or we could have nothing at all. Be grateful as we are and yes criticize and show areas where we could be better but don't despise (what you sound like bro). We are the Dynamo. (that was cheesy I admit it)
Fair statement on DK noticing like everyone else but then that brings me back to my point that DK sees all in training while we see none. DK has taken stick on players before but he's going to put out what he thinks will win and then from a selfish standpoint, what will keep him in his job. As John Wooden, the great UCLA basketball coach once said, "You've got play with what you have and not with what you wish you had."
My ex-girlfriend, who bought me tickets for that fateful FCD game where Caig and Cameron exploded onto the scene in different directions -- a sort of Dynamo physics law, equal and opposite forces -- could have told you Caig needed to be cashiered just from that event, without watching practices or anything else. I've said before that there are such things as practice players and gamers. Ownby has a lot of problems but his efforts suggest he's a gamer, at least worth it on the bench. In contrast, we've got some guys on the field like Carr who've never done a darned thing in their career or through their former teams. I really don't care how they do in drills, I care how they play on first team game day. Bears noting Wooden had a college team where you recruit but you are in fact stuck with your recruiting classes plus whatever walkons exist on campus. You can't go buy USC's point guard if you failed to recruit one for UCLA or they stink. But this is pro sports and we just signed Boniek, the FO admits we have money and cap space, trades are always available (I can in fact trade a draft pick for USC's PG so to speak), and it's fair comment to question whether we made the right moves (didn't exactly hit the free agent market much) last winter for that matter. So when I hear people like, you have what you have, there's a big status quo bias. Even if I don't go back far, or don't go back at all, there is still an ongoing decision tree where it's like, do we buy a CB or LB (Nesta just got signed, better or worse, worse IMO), or maybe a CAM? We don't have to be Rockets- or Astros-radical for there to be at least some consideration to whether pieces of the roster need turnover to get from 9th to 1st.
People always knee jerk from the name that I want a European-quality team now. No. The 2006 and 2007 versions of this team would probably kick its tail up one end of the street and back down the other. Even if I come to this from a Eurofan's perspective (had no choice til 2006, and my name was created when this organization was still in the nascent, moving stages), I do not have to want Barca West or Chelsea Houston, I can simply be frustrated that it's not even what we used to have in the title years, when I believe we were still in MLS, cap and roster rules and everything else. Among other things, as I pointed out, Ashe can be replaced in-house, we don't have to necessarily buy Segares much less Evra. I deposit Kinnear in a second tier beneath coaches like Arena because Arena has literally won everywhere he's gone. Arena won at UVA, DC, LA, and to some extent the USA. Kinnear has some titles but they were all in one spurt with one basic cast of characters. He has to convince me he can build better than an also-ran at his second go. I think Kinnear is solid though frustratingly dependent on his 442 most of the time, forces players into the formation, not necessarily a good game manager who can adjust on the fly, and of late a defensive caricature of the old SJ/ Houston teams. It's better than Backe or many coaches around, but not quite Arena or Bradley, who I see as better coaches. Again, I don't have to be a Europhile to see us as pretty good but not ideal, and not even the best coached in MLS. I mean, Arena had a dog of a team in the spring and look where they are, within 4 points of us and now with Gonzo back.
ah, there's your problem right there. yeah, but you want to replace him with a very raw rookie right back (Crevalle) or play 4 centerbacks. i opine that's not ideal. now Recio you could make an argument for...
I basically explained that the issue is in significant part that we aren't even what we used to be, as a MLS side, explained I had no choice other than to be a Eurofan pre-2006, hence the name, and you pick out the Eurofan quote. Real fair. That's someone else's "problem," and my supposed problem is being quoted out of context. Re the supposed "4 centerbacks" argument, I don't think it's apt re Cameron in the slightest (so we're going to dismiss Cameron who has played CAM, CDM, RM, CB, and could probably play RB under a creative coach.....as mere CB?), and Kinnear has often used Taylor wide. Creavalle's been moved all over the place, including CDM, so it's odd that you similarly typecast him as a RB. If he sooooo has to play right, bump Hainault in and go wide left with Taylor. From my perspective, Corey is a half-cooked wing mid masquerading as a back. So to act like I'm moving him out of position? Like he's a true wing back? Like he of anyone in the back has something like "tenure?" The guy ain't worth half a Barrett and Kinnear should have a daily reminder of that from the composition of his coaching staff. And put up or shut up would be, go look who we started for MLS Cup 2011.
And let me make my position clear since the convoluted convo is not quite fair to me. I wouldn't sell Geoff Cameron. Whamo, one athletic back. I would sign one more athletic back to play a wing. Whamo, two athletic backs. At which point I am freer to pick remaining spots based on talent rather than speed. It would be Taylor and then the better form of Boz or Hainault. Remaining CB of those two on the bench, Corey becomes an Ownby-style energy sub or gets traded/cashiered. As I have said over and over, the problem with the slower backs is the cumulative number, not their talent so much. Corey's problem is outright talent. So if we made a move, then Kinnear is "freed" to ditch Corey like he should. If we are going to make no trades or transfers, and Cameron is gone, reality check dude, some slow CBs are going to start because we have no choice. Taylor will be starting by default. Those backs are all internationally capped except Corey. So since I'd say we might want to look at "internal transfers" since we all know the defense is one foot on a banana peel, the first spot I start is the one senior player generally not confused with an international, Corey. I am pretty sure at least one back on the roster has to be better than him, my likely candidate, Creavalle. If Creavalle is a RB, Taylor goes left. If you have a problem with speed, Creavalle is no slower, and you don't avoid the speed issue by pretending like we have tons of choice within the camp. Or we can pretend Corey is some serious all star LB by anything other than Backe's crazed mind. I mean, he has that NY lineup for years, DeRo in town, etc. and can't win? Not sure I'd be trusting that judgment.
OK, so you made room for Crevalle on the right. I like it. But didn't you create another problem in the center with a Bobbyboswell.com and Andre pairing?
Juvechelsea: Dude, you know I'm a big Juve supporter. I usually don't even agree with you, but I honestly think that you bring the best out of other people here, challenging their views and forcing them to present their thoughts clearly. I actually learn a lot about the beautiful game from y'alls discussions. All is good until you go a bit nuts and overpost, or until the other posters start attacking you personally... So, take it from a friend: Maybe if you didn't spend too much time posting on BS and other places, maybe you'd still have that (or any) girlfriend? I believe it was Anderson who posted this awfully funny (and true) cartoon. Don't let this be you.
Now I remember why it was possible for me to visit BigSoccer for so many years until I finally decided to create an account. I used to just surf to read Rikker and then later Juve. I haven't even gotten the time to post since I keep on being entertained by Juve. How I missed him.