He's So Wondo! The continuing chronicle of Chris Wondolowski's career

There are certain times when it's best for business to keep a player that's passing/past his prime... Quakes keeping Wondo would be one of them (unless he demands trade or something). Besides which he's still got game, looking forward to him having a great 2017.

 

Yeah, it would not surprise me if he bagged 15 goals next year, if the offense can get it into gear a bit more. How much could have game have dropped off if he is still getting call-ups to the Nats, even with Bruce there now (though that is probably now for long, depending on injuries and things).

 

One thing about playing Wondo is that you are pretty much forced to play 2 up front, preferably with a target man for Wondo to play off of. Not saying that is bad, but, it does impact your other line-up choices, expecially if Kinnear is adamant about playing Godoy and Ceren/Alashe in the middle.

 

It appears that the Quakes may be acquiring this Reyes guy from Matathon. He also appears to be a 2nd striker type. Based on the hilite video I watched he tends to score on counter-attacks. Olmes is probably also more of a 2nd striker type than #9. So still no real "target man" for Wondo to play off of. They seem to be signing "Wondo with Wheels" (TM) types instead, though of course it is unlikely that they have Wondo's poaching instincts.

 

As much as I loath the option, trading Wondo for significant value at mid-year, to a contending team that needs more goals to push through the end of year/play offs, would probably be best option at this point.

 

How about a 4-3-3?

 

Where would you play Wondo in a 4-3-3?

 

He could be the "messi" -- playing a bit deeper, showing up out of the blue and...GOOOOOOAAAAALLLLL!!!!!

 

So the front three would be something like

Dawkins--Goitom--Wondo

?

To put it diplomatically, I don't think that would work very well.

 

I don't get why people are shoehorning Wondo into a particular role, he's actually pretty versatile. The year he burst onto the scene he played at right mid several times and scored on runs into the box from that position.

I would say he doesn't win as many balls out of the air himself as he used to... I'd like to see him more aggressive in that capacity but it can lead to nasty injuries.

 

Wondo is 34 now. He was never fast but now he's slow.

 

An interesting tactical choice I saw in another thread was a 4-3-3 with a false 9. In this Wondo wouldn't be the Messi, Tommy would be the Messi. Wondo would start on the left in an inverted David Villa type role and could ghost into the space Tommy leaves. Whoever we put on the right might be more of a field stretcher/speed guy or good dribbler that would make defenders take notice.

Wondo------------------------TT---------Dawkins/Quintero/NewDPWinger
----------------------------------Dawkins/NewDPPlaymaker----
---------------------Godoy--------------------------------------
------------------------------Alashe/Ceren-------------------------------
Colvey---Imperiale/Wynne/Cummings--Bernardez---Lima
------------------------------Bingham-----------------------------

I want to let the young fullbacks who have attacking ability play. Figure out the strongest center back pairing. For defensive mid my first instinct is to have Alashe since he seems like the natural destroyer, but Ceren is better at distributing from deep. Let Godoy cover the field and do his thing, he is a solid all around player. For the #10 it is hard to say who would play there since we got rid of MPG. Dawkins is the closest thing we currently have on the roster but who knows maybe we get a great iniesta type of guy.

Obviously Dom wouldn't try this, but this is a creative way to change up tactics while still having Wondo on the field

 

An interesting tactical choice I saw in another thread was a 4-3-3 with a false 9. In this Wondo wouldn't be the Messi, Tommy would be the Messi. Wondo would start on the left in an inverted David Villa type role and could ghost into the space Tommy leaves. Whoever we put on the right might be more of a field stretcher/speed guy or good dribbler that would make defenders take notice.

Wondo------------------------TT---------Dawkins/Quintero/NewDPWinger
----------------------------------Dawkins/NewDPPlaymaker----
---------------------Godoy--------------------------------------
------------------------------Alashe/Ceren-------------------------------
Colvey---Imperiale/Wynne/Cummings--Bernardez---Lima
------------------------------Bingham-----------------------------

I want to let the young fullbacks who have attacking ability play. Figure out the strongest center back pairing. For defensive mid my first instinct is to have Alashe since he seems like the natural destroyer, but Ceren is better at distributing from deep. Let Godoy cover the field and do his thing, he is a solid all around player. For the #10 it is hard to say who would play there since we got rid of MPG. Dawkins is the closest thing we currently have on the roster but who knows maybe we get a great iniesta type of guy.

Obviously Dom wouldn't try this, but this is a creative way to change up tactics while still having Wondo on the field

 

Hes a poor posession player. Doesnt get a lot of touches, doesnt complete an especially high % of passes. Isnt especially strong on the ball under pressure. Those things eliminate him from being a full time midfielder or target forward. He lacks speed, so that hurts his ability to play on the wing.

 

That is the formation I would have advocated for late in the 2016 season. Dawkins was doing nothing in the midfield, so it would have made ore sense to move him closer to goal where he could have just fed balls in to Goitom and Wondolowski. Goitom was a decent ball winner, had decent mobility and a good ability to combine with teammates (something that the team seriously lacked for the majority of the season).

Of course, to pull that off, the midfield would have needed Thompson in the middle to sit behind the forwards.

With Goitom not returning and Amerikwa out until the summer, it's anyone's guess what they'll do. Obviously newly signed players might give us more insight, but little concrete at this point.

 

Basically he scores goals, and isn't great at much else. That makes it incredibly difficult to build a team around him or to use him in multiple roles, he pretty much has to play as the second forward to be successful.

 

Happy 34th BD Wondo!

 

Kinda sad Wondo was cut from the USMNT.

 

Welp, that may be about it for Wondo's nats career, but wouldn't surprise me if he bangs in 20 this year for the Quakes.

 

I think Wondo is a pretty smart player on the ball tho. Doesn't make many mistakes. I rarely see him lose it. That said he is certainly slow and does not beat anyone for any distance with the ball at his feet, though he is good for a little step here and there to buy some space.

In short I think the characterization of Wondo as "only good at scoring goals" that I sometimes see is a little unfair. He's smart, reads the game really well, doesn't make many mistakes, has a tireless work rate, and plays a lot of defense.

 

It would be ineresting to see some stats on Wondo's pre-call up goal per minutes, to when he returns from Nats duty. Anectdotally, it seems likee he has a fall off when returning to the Quakes, after having a fast start to the season.

 

Getting cut is kind of a sad way to spend a birthday.

 

It would be interesting to know why Bruce called wondo into camp the first place.

 

Maybe he is trying to not show favoritism. Either way when needing to qualify for a World Cup , there won't be much room for many over 34/35 year old forwards on the national team.