Eskandarian

[owendylan]

Originally posted by Cuchulain
oh yeah, I forgot about martins...

quaranta
esky
cerritos
martins

stewart
dema

who the hell starts up front? no stats, please, just conjecture.

Well it's a complete possibility that Quaranta, cerritos and Martins will not be around next season so who knows. I think Esky sticks around and he should. He isn't a bust, but he's no Michael Owen either. He needs much more playing time, I'm just not sure he gets it with Hudson as coach. I think Martins has the best shot at staying also. It's hard to come in for a couple of games and fit in and contribute a lot. He's a big guy who also needs some time to blend in with the team so everyone can learn. Cerritos, while I like his style, hasn't produced in a while for any team he's been on. Injuries have played a part in this but I think someone else can be found, maybe for less money. Quaranta is the real conundrum. He has had a terrible year, once again marred by injury. Add to that the changes in his personal life and he is the one most in need of a scenery change. Hudson thinks he's a great talent, even if he pushes him around every now and then. Don't know if that's just more of Hudson's bluster, but I think the fuse has got to be pretty short with this kid. A lot will be determined once a decision about Hudson's future has been made.

[beineke]

Originally posted by voros
What's funny is looking at the company Eskandarian is keeping in the non-penalty goals per 90 minutes list for 2003:

McBride - .41
Serna - .41
Spencer - .40
Chung - .38
Eskandarian - .37
Magee - .37
Razov - .36
Mathis - .36
Kreis - .35


Interesting stuff; when you factor PK's back in, Mathis gets even worse (0 drawn, 1-3 made). By not drawing any PKs and shooting poorly, he effectively cost his team a goal or so.

Most of the other players on this list helped their teams from the spot, either by converting a good % of PK's, or by drawing them ... Razov made 5-6; Spencer drew 1, made 4-5; McBride drew 1, made 2-2; Kreis drew 1, made 1-2; Serna and Chung drew 1 apiece. Only Eskandarian and Magee failed to help their teams in this respect.

Quick ?:
When you say the "average" is .34, is that total forward goals divided by total minutes, or is that the average ratio for forwards?

Thx.

[Liverpool_SC]

Originally posted by voros
What's funny is looking at the company Eskandarian is keeping in the non-penalty goals per 90 minutes list for 2003:

McBride - .41
Serna - .41
Spencer - .40
Chung - .38
Eskandarian - .37
Magee - .37
Razov - .36
Mathis - .36
Kreis - .35

The league average for guys listed strictly as forwards on MLS' statistics site was .34.


So Esky was actually better than league average at scoring in the run of play, yet got only 729 minutes of playing time. He was even better than Razov, McBride, Spencer and some other double-digit goalscorers.


Originally posted by voros
Here's some career rates (non-penalty goals per 90 minutes) for some guys:

Wolff - .46
Razov - .49
McBride - .33
Mathis - .42
Kreis - .39
Preki - .25
Donovan - .41
Cunningham - .46
Twellman - .73
Ruiz - .55
Buddle - .59

This puts Esky in some pretty decent company. Granted he is not in the Twellman/Buddle range of productivity, but he is within spitting distance of Donovan, Mathis (who did play at midfield), Kreis, McBride, etc - even as a rookie. If he develops even a little bit, he looks like a player worth keeping around.

Note that Twellman's injuries didn't seem to have too huge an impact on his strike rate - he was at 0.72 for the season. Almost dead on his strike rate from last season. Edsen Buddle was at 0.60 for the season, also almost dead on his career number. Rate stats are not typically going to be influenced by injuries unless coaches make players play hurt (i.e. < 90%) for a significant period of time.

Amongst rookies, Pat Noonan was a stunning 0.55 despite playing much of his time in midfield and Damani Ralph was a very creditable 0.45 (without his one penalty kick).

Had Alecko maintained his scoring rate and played the same number of minutes as Damani Ralph, he would have scored over eight goals (8.16) and had five (5.45) assists.

Would that have been a satisfactory season?

Pat Noonan is awesome.

[ursula]

To me the major thing that Alecko Eskandarian brings to mind is one of the major decisions that Ray Hudson made. Let's all go back in time...further...further...back to Ray's decision to plug in Ali Curtis to the everyday starting lineup instead of Esky?

Now, I am NOT saying that Hudson did the wrong thing. In fact I think the purpose behind it was right: Ray was trying to get some stability at the heretofore awful forward production rate.

So Ray decided to make at least one forward position have the same starter for a bunch of games in a row, and he chose Ali. We all know what happened. But what if it was Eski who was the chosen one?

[Lowecifer]

We would have chanted "Es-ky Bomaye" ?

;)

[beineke]

Originally posted by ursula

So Ray decided to make at least one forward position have the same starter for a bunch of games in a row, and he chose Ali. We all know what happened. But what if it was Eski who was the chosen one?

Seems as if Hudson tried to choose Eskandarian, starting him for three straight games in May. The results, however, were dismal (draw w/ KC, losses to NY and Dallas). After that, he put in Curtis and the team did better.

[elconejito]

Originally posted by Lowecifer
Here are his three goals:

1. Columbus (http://www.mlsnet.com/multimedia/pepsi/video/06142003_CLBDCeskandarian.smi) 6/14/03
2. Columbus (http://www.mlsnet.com/multimedia/pepsi/video/06142003_CLBDCeskandarian2.smi) 6/14/03
3. New England (http://www.mlsnet.com/multimedia/pepsi/video/07272003_DCNEeskandarian.smi) 7/27/03 - #4 in the amazing comeback win

If I recall correctly, they were all well taken goals. Other than the missed header against the scum, I don't think i remember him missing many shots, at least not like some of our other strikers have put them over and wide.

I think he just needs more/better service from our midfield.

My memory could be bad tho...

[nancyb]

Originally posted by Liverpool_SC
I am forthwith going to refer to Beineke as Meineke for the rest of this thread, as he tends to muffle intellectually honest discussion with poor counterexamples and general curmudgeonly behavior.

I'm not going to pay a lot for this muffler.

[ursula]

Originally posted by beineke
Seems as if Hudson tried to choose Eskandarian, starting him for three straight games in May. The results, however, were dismal (draw w/ KC, losses to NY and Dallas). After that, he put in Curtis and the team did better.


True, and yet Ali scored just once, and that in a game we lost. Maybe Esky wasn't responsible for those earlier losses?

[beineke]

Originally posted by ursula
True, and yet Ali scored just once, and that in a game we lost. Maybe Esky wasn't responsible for those earlier losses?

Maybe not, but DC clearly wasn't getting anywhere with him in the line-up. Hudson did give him two more chances later in the season, and DC scored only once in those two games.