What was the general impression of O'Rourke last year? I only saw him play a few times, but he looked pretty useful from what I saw. It's tough to break into this team's starting line up, but did people think that he fit into the team well and showed progress over the course of the season?
O'Rourke started pretty well - he established himself as a hard tackling kind of player, not afraid to mix it up. But he really didn't seem to improve, and when he lost his starting job he seemed to lose confidence (not surprising). He rarely created anything going forward, mostly making backpasses to the defenders. His defense was good, although he seemed to have some bad luck and two or three times he gave the ball away in the defensive end that led to goals. It was kind of surprising to hear that they were trying to trade him, because he seemed to have a good attitude, and worked hard. But Dom must have seen something in practice that made him feel Danny would not fit in as well going forward. But we saw Clark improve dramatically over the year, while O'Rourke did not. It still seems a bit early to write him off, hard to figure out what happened. Based on substitutions made late last year and in preseason, ikt looks like Dom will move Barrett to left mid and put Goldthwaite at left back while Davis is out. Or, you'd have to assume he's looking for a trade, maybe O'Rourke for a wing. (I can't see O'Rourke playing anywhere but defensive mid or maybe defender) As for formation, Dom was very consistent with a diamond midfield, Dero as attacking mid, Clark as defensive mid, and two wings. Having said that, last year the guys really mixed it up during the game, where Chung and Davis would switch sides for a while during the game. Also, Dero really hustles back on defense, and Clark will make the occasional foray to the offensive end. So while the formation itself was consistent, the actual play was pretty dynamic during any game.
It should be noted, though, at the start of the season, prior to DeRo being the solution at attacking mid (and prior to Califf's return to play, if I'm not mistaken), Dom tried what would be considered a box midfield with Clark and O'Rourke on the defensive side, Davis and Mullan on the offensive side. To be fair, it was more of a trapezoid with the d-mids pinched in and the o-mids spread wide. It was during this time that O'Rourke looked his best, but at times Clark and O'Rourke appeared to be getting in each others way.
That's sort of what I was starting to think about - a lot of successful teams play a box with two defensive mids (assuming they don't get in each other's way ). It's also not unusual for one of the defensive mids to be the better player with the other kinda deputizing. But if you go that way, then you need the outside backs to provide some of the width that would otherwise be missing with a box with two defensive mods. If the outside backs provide most of the attacking down the flanks, then having two defensive mids works very well. The 4-4-2 that predominates in Brazil, for example, is usually a box with two defensive mids and outside backs ("laterais") who maraud down the flanks. Would our available outside backs work ok in that type of scheme? Anyway, I'm not at all suggesting that Dom should attempt to fix something that ain't broken - just discussing a thought that would use two defensive mids.
I'd only see that happening if Dero gets hurt or is away with the Canadian team for some reason. He and Clark play so well together in the middle, it's hard to think of Dom breaking that up.
"EDDIE ROBINSON SIDELINED TEMPORARILY Houston Dynamo Midfielder/Defender Eddie Robinson injured himself in the game against the Charleston Battery, suffering a partial tear in a ligament in his right leg. Robinson will submit himself to MRI tests this Tuesday, March 21, to determine the severity of the tear. It is unknown at this time for how long he will be unable to play." Has anyone heard how badly Eddie Robinson is hurt?