Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht There has been no announcement from US media either. That first link doesn't count.
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht From what I've seen of him, they have very different skill sets. Clint is also more driven, more physical, while Sacha is much better in dead ball situations than Clint ever was. I could see Sacha actually playing in the center of the park, because he has great vision.
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht Our coach is pretty good at man management. I don't think the team spirit has been this good in a long time. I do think he needs to make an instant impact if we decide to sign him because we have quite a lot of midfielders ourselves (Biglia,Polak,Legear,Marecek,Kouyate,Badibanga) and (Boussoufa,Iakovenko,Chattele) who are probably going to leave because otherwise he's likely to end up on the bench. Is he just an attacking midfielder of can he play on the wing too?
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht I might be wrong but I believe from watching Keith Costigan on FSC that he is fairly tight with the MLS teams in LA and I think I've heard him speak of Sacha before. If he's reporting that I would think he got it from either Sacha or a reliable club source.
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht Hi from Belgium! First of all, I sincerely apologise for every grammatical mistake or error of conjugation I'll definitely make in this message. I hope you'll understand nevertheless! As every Anderlecht fan, I was very surprised by this unexpected announcement. Indeed, we were expecting for Shikabala -an Egyptian midfielder- and/or Chavarria -an Argentine forward- so the arrival of Kljestan seems to come out of the blue! Not a single belgian newspaper or website mentionned it and in all honesty, we didn't even knew him before today. Plus, this info seems to appear only on american website so we're still expecting for the officialization. It was very interesting to read a bit about Kljestan on this thread, thanks a million for your clarifications. If I got it right, he has a huge potential but ruined it a bit after the Olympic Games -in which he was pretty good, right?-. Seems he doesn't have unanimous support 'cause of this. Actually, we have central mifielders in abundance with Lucas Biglia -irremovable-, Cheikhou Kouyate -pretty good Ivorian youngster with huge potential-, Jan Polak -just came back from a long time injury- and even Lukas Marecek -Czech youngster- or Guillaume Gillet. And of course, no need to mention Mbark Boussoufa -voted Belgium's Footballer of the Year for the second time-. We'll probably lose the latter this summer after the loss of Jelle Van Damme so maybe Kljestan will replace one of them? Can you tell us what kind of midfielder he is exactly? We used to play with Biglia and Kouyate at the base of a trident with Boussoufa at its summit. Plus mates, I have to say that I read a lot of foreign fan forums in my whole "Anderlecht supporter carreer" but I rarely read a forum so pleasant to glance through. Recently, I read a forum of Argentine fans in which people were very disrespectful towards Anderlecht without even knowing the club. Here, it's not the case and I feel through every message a huge respect for my club and its great history. I was just about to support -amongst others- USA during the World Cup ('cause Belgian Red Devils are not qualified ) and know, I'll do it with even more determination. Hope you'll do well!
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht Yeah, I wasn't being completely serious (didn't you see the smiley face?). But Kljestan is a creative central midfielder. How much success he can have at Anderlecht remains to be seen.
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht I'm not saying it isn't true. I am just pointing out there has been no official confirmation over here and therefore the lack of Euro press is not so strange, IMO.
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht Oh no the smiley didn't appear here Yeah I have my doubts to be honest. Ofcourse youtube clips don't say much at all but I can't say I'm impressed with what i've seen so far..
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht If you're not impressed by the youtube clips then you won't be impressed by him as that is pretty much the best of Sacha. Anyway he has a lot of potential to be honest...he just hasn't realized that potential yet but who knows, he is a good player so I'm sure he'll figure something out.
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht To be honest the article that arsenalfc08 linked to wasn't exactly encouraging. Seems like Sacha sometimes lacks motivation, and needs a great situation to blossom in. Those are two issues that can cripple a career in Europe.
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht Kljestan is an interesting player Benjitronic. He's a central midfielder, than can also play on the wings at times. He's more creative than most US central midfielders. He's willing to "try shit" as Bruce Arena said about Clint Dempsey. And sometimes that gets him in trouble. He also can be combative when he needs to be, but you wouldn't call him a "defensive midfielder." Yes............Kljestan did have a good Olympics. He scored that nice goal against Holland in the group stages And at times, he's looked good for the US national team. For instance he scored a hat-trick against Sweden (not Sweden's best team, but he was still impressive that day). In our most important game of the World Cup qualifying cycle against Mexico, he started in the center of midfield with Michael Bradley (Gladbach). They did a very good job against Mexico's veteran central midfielders. But he's been inconsistent for both his club team and the USMNT. Some games he'll play really well, and some he'll disappear. If he goes to Anderlecht, and he gets the right coaching, I think he could be very good for you. He's not yet a "finished product," but has a lot of potential. Personally, I like the central midfielders you already have, and you have some good depth. We'll see...........
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht The clips I've seen don't show his best quality which is creative combination play and vision. But the golazos are cool too!
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht I was thinking more that they both "try shit" (to steal Bruce Arena's phrase.) Actually, Sacha usually plays as a wide midfielder with Chivas, in a 4-4-2, but he's not really a "winger." If you've followed Fellaini at Fulham, you've seen Clint Dempsey play for them. That's how you should try to get Sacha to play; cover the wide area defensively, but in the attack, have him cut inside and try to make that dangerous play to unlock the defense.
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht A nice free kick, a penalty, and a good finish after a holy shit!!! assist from Ching. It was certainly a good game for Sacha, but not quite as good as "hat trick against Sweden" might lead one to believe.
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht My grades on Sacha. Touch - 7 Shot - 7 Dribbling - 6 Speed - 6 Passing - 6 (but he makes his share of top passes) Decision making - 6 Defense - 6 Concentration - 5 Gangliness - 10 Name spelling - 2
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht So if I get it right it would be something like this? Lukaku Suarez____________Legear ___Kljestan___ _Biglia_Kouyate_ Deschacht_Juhasz_Mazuch_Gillet Proto Wich means we will have to leave Polak,Badibanga and Marecek sit on the bench in order for him to play. With Badibanga and Marecek that's not a problem because they're still young but there's no way Polak is going to be happy with a back up role. So it would be a really weird transfer for us (wich wouldn't be our first so it's still possible) since we're more in need of a left winger is Boussoufa decides to leave..
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht It really depends how you utilize your outside midfielders. He is capable of playing in Suarez' role depending on if Suarez isn't just utilized for speed. But I think in that formation, the position you have him in is pretty accurate. I don't think he's a better player than Polak but its probably pretty close. I guess we'll see, if this rumor is even legitimate.
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht Read his girlfriend is a lingerie model. After Olivier Deschacht's ex-Miss Belgium girlfriend and Victor Bernardez's ex-Miss Venezuela wife, I guess it's a criteria to satisfy to be part of our team Well, we won't complain
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht The problem is that Suarez isn't really a left winger either Normally Boussoufa plays there but since he is going to leave we don't have that much options. I'd rather use this formation Lukaku Suarez___Legear Polak_Biglia_Kouyate Deschacht_Juhasz_Mazuch_Gillet Proto Wich is more like a 4-3-3 but I don't know if he would be any good in Legear/Suarez's position? Anyway it would still be Suarez>Legear>Kljestan so he would probably become a backup. Although he would probably play a lot because Legear is injured almost all the time.
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht I've seen Fellaini at Fulham, but only when Everton was visiting Craven Cottage.
Re: Sacha Kljestan to Anderlecht Probably true, I think he had a quality game all around (obviously some of that was due to the competition). But his free kick was flat-out spectacular.