Well he doesn't tackle much, and he his speed is below average. As a pure d-mid, on the "d" side I think he is lacking a bit, but his distribution is good, and his work rate is good. I just think that if the Quakes are ever going to really get a CAM, they'd need a d-mid who is stronger on the "d" part. If they are going to pair Cronin with someone who is more 2-way like Baca, it works OK. I'd just like to see Baca start to press forward more next year.
I agree that Cronin would probably have to shift his focus considerably if the Quakes are interested in getting a more traditional attacking mid. Due to this year's success and Baca's age, I'm not sure that's something they will do short term. In general, I liked the way Cronin paired with Baca. It worked best when they would take turns going forward, which tended to pull their opponents out of position to good effect. Hopefully we'll see more of that. I would bet some of that would incorporate Baca being the one who initiates going forward more often, though, which could lead to Cronin being in more ball winning situations.
there are plenty of positions id upgrade before Cronin, hes one of our good ones. hell of a player and i still think he is very underrated. big reason for our midfield success.
Yeah, I've seen Baca make some good runs, and he has a few goals and a few assists to show for it. But I haven't seen him take people on with the dribble much at all. He receives the pass, makes a does his spin thing and finds a pass. So I think he's going to need to bring some more running with the ball into his repertoire to balance out his game and make him more effective in an attacking role.
Agree - and he also needs to incorporate making runs more as well. He mostly likes to stay in the middle and find open space near Cronin, rather than pushing forward or out wide. Particularly with Dawkins (if he comes back) cutting into the middle so much, it would be good for Baca to go out wide more. Baca did so with great success in the last game at Colorado, which led to a great cross he made to Wondo for Wondo's first goal of that game. The good thing is that Baca has shown that he has the ability to do more offensively, he just needs to get more comfortable with it. Cronin has significantly improved his passing and offensive skills in the past year, hopefully Baca can do the same. As for Cronin, if he could just get a long range shot that is more under control and on target, he would be very dangerous.
One of the things that hopefully Frank and his staff figure out also is how to rest Cronin. By the end of the season it seemed he was just worn out, and by the end of their final game the guy just didn't have anything left to give. While he's definitely a solid performer, there aren't many guys who can play every single minute. Given Cronin's responsibilities in the midfield and how much ground he covers, I'm amazed he stayed fit and basically injury free. With the option on Stephenson not taken, I wonder how that situation is going to be worked out. I was holding out hope Alexandre would be an option to rotate in but he didn't get much of a chance to contribute to the first team this year.
You may not be the one I'm thinking of, but there are folks here who thinks he shouldn't be on the field because he's doing what Frank wants him to do...
Ring or Jean-Marc could be solid backups for Croninja. Baca does need to develop the offensive side of his game more. Sam had one goal and six assists in '12. Baca had one goal and four assists in '12. Yeah, we need more production out of Baca. When we first got him, Sam played d-mid behind Khari in a 4-4-2 diamond (more or less). So he can do that if that's the way we go. But it's Frank coaching, so we won't. Frank will almost certainly go with Rafael and Sam at the starting CM spots all next year. Hopefully, Baca plays more like his early season self, and hopefully Frank finds some acceptable subs for them, like Ring and Jean-Marc, or even Medhi. GO QUAKES!!! - Mark
Part of Baca's late season slump may also be related to minutes logged. I'll have to check his minutes played last season. I think the midfield is far more dynamic with Cronin and Barca because they become somewhat interchangeable and therefore less predictable. Cronin has plaid a more traditional defensive mode role, but I would argue he performed less successfully there.
Definitely. Baca is supposed to be more of the attacking player of the two, but, Cronin put up the (slightly) better numbers in nearly identical minutes.
You talked to Frank about what Baca is supposed to be doing? His successfull CMs have always been about possession, not attack, If you get some goal production out of them then that is just extra gravy. Baca and Cronin play like Mulrooney and Ekelund, defend and possess first, attack second.
When did the ability to possess the ball and attack with the ball become mutually exclusive? Even Frank understands the limitations of the "empty bucket" philosophy. He brought in Moreno knowing we needed to add some variation to our attack, but, unfortunately Moreno didn't stay around long enough to make it work. Once we had injuries to our fast wide players our play became much more predictable, pound it up to the Bash Bros. and hope for success through their sheer perseverance. With Baca we don't have the threat of a shot from outside the box, or any willingness to make an unexpected run at the center of the defense to put them on their heels.
I didn't say it was, I asked you if you knew for sure, Frank wanted attack and possession and defense from his center mids, with the same priority that you want. I would say most of the blame for that would be on Moreno's sholders. If he connected on more of his passes, instead of sending them, sometimes infuriatingly, far from their intended targets, Frank might have benched Baca for the high payoff of a competent ACM. So we want to blame the injured wide players for our back line suddenly not being able to do more than whack the ball or dump it off to Busch to whack the ball. Seemed to me, LA just pressured with their front line and we started whacking it. That's a circumstantial conclusion... Again, how do you know Frank didn't tell him to keep possession, switch the point of attack, defend and if the opportunity presents itself, get into the attack? It is just mind boggling how a key player in the line up of a team that scored the most goals in the season, and had the best season in it's history, has flaws his coach couldn't possibly see, and kept him in the line up anyway...
I am not saying Baca (or Cronin) did not have a good season, but, it's about continuously making improvements where you can. If you are happy with our center midfield, then good for you. Yes, Baca can control, or possess, or whatever you want to call it, but, imo, he has his, er...pardon the pun, share of shortcomings as a player. Imo he is at best a fair to middling defender. He is easily muscled off the ball, isn't a great tackler, and isn't going to win many balls in the air. His work rate is his best attribute, since he can get back and clog the passing lanes. Offensively he has shown little ability, or maybe the better word is willingness to shoot the ball or run at the defense. His passes are usually of the short and safe variety. He doesn't appear to have the leg to hit the long, switching ball, ala Cronin, nor possess the vision for the defense splitting ball that sends free a forward or winger. I am not hating on Baca, he played an important part in our success this year, I just think his position is one where we can upgrade. Your mileage may vary.
I guess I come somewhere in the middle of the Great Baca Debate. Well to the left of the Baca haters, with QuietType pegged to the right, and maybe a bit to the right of DotMPP in terms of Baca defenders. I like him as a player - very quick feet, very clean, great work rate, and a good feel for the game - he has a sense for what needs to be done to make his team better. He is so clean and quick that he is very hard to defend against. You can barely get a piece of him to even foul him. But of course there is room for improvement. He doesn't need to become a CAM like DeRo, but I would like to see him go on more attacking runs, and try to take someone on with the ball every now and then. He's only something like 22 years old, so think he still has a pretty good upside.
I don't think Earthshaker and I are that far apart either, I'm just not buying the notion that the percieved shortcomings (I like the pun) are actually missing from his game, rather I think he plays as directed by Frank. When he made his move to attack, which did not happen often, it just looked natural when he did, and makes me think he could do it anytime he wanted, if Frank let him.
Great season, but maybe tailed off a bit at the worst possible time. Too many minutes? What are the chances Brad Ring will be around next season and play more than 15 minutes?
It doesn't seem like Brad has much of a future here. When compared to Cronin, they are very similar players. I think the reason the Quakes went for Alexandre was to get something different from what they already have. Neither saw the field all that much this season , so it's not easy to predict, but I don't see him doing much to take time away from Cronin at all. Alexandre and Ring are roughly a year apart in age, (26 and 25) so it's not much a decision on youth at this point, either. I'm curious to see what's going to happen in terms of depth for this team for the central midfielder since it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to change up the starting midfield all that much after such a successful season (and all of those players likely to return).
It appears that the Quakes are not going to keep Alexandre - I think I read that his name was appearing in the re-entry draft, though I could be wrong. If that's the case, the team will be thin at d-mid, and Ring will definitely be needed for depth, especially with CCL and all that coming up next year. And of course Cronin had a completely injury-less season last year I think. That may not happen every year. Plus I think Ring is good enough to compete for the starting job. Sam would have the edge based on a solid season, but we have to account for guys getting better or worse, and sometimes when guys get a chance with the first team, you see that they shine, and that may lead you to make a change (hello, Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick :--)).
I hadn't read that about Alexandre. Certainly interesting if true, although him being loaned out a couple of stints his year might have been telling on their plans with him. We really didn't see much of Ring in the first team this year, so it's hard to predict how well he'd fit with all of the additions from last year. Keeping Ring would certainly make sense in this scenario, of course. I think this may sum up the situation that does exist between Cronin and Ring, in that both are good options so there might not be much difference with either of them playing. I don't know if Ring has the upside potential akin to Kaepernick, nor that people are underwhelmed with Cronin the way some are with Smith, but point taken.
Yeah, I didn't mean that to be a direct analogy to the extent that Ring would have Kaepernickian kinds of skills relative to Cronin. IOW not really that Ring is to Cronin as Kaepernick is to Smith. Just a situation where a guy got a chance due to injury, and the coaching staff liked what they saw and stayed with him. But come to think of it I could see a Cronin to Alex Smith comparison - both are solid though maybe unspectacular. (FWIW, I'm very impressed with Kaepernick. He seems to have it all - athletic skills, reasonably good decision-making considering his lack of experience, poise, competitiveness. Alex is good, this guy could be great, and usually with the great ones you see it right away).