I would take Roldan over Mihailovic but writing a long dissertation isn't something that interests me at this point. Suffice it to say, Mihailovic vs. big league defenders would be llke watching Pee Wee Herman vs. Tyson. Roldan otoh will stand up to anybody.
Shea is a guy who can't defend who manufactures goals. He shouldn't play in that kind of weather. Saw a little of the game, not all of it, but it's hard to get accurate long crosses off in weather like that. I'd be going at Shea all day long if I were playing Atlanta and I think you'll see that going forward. How Atlanta compensate for that is open to question.
You're right about the Copa team. I thought John Thorrington was right back during that Barbados away leg. I could be wrong about that. I forgot about the assist, but defensively he was awful in that match.
Based on the play of each in MLS and based on Yedlin's lack of improvement in the area--whether at international or EPL level--Lima looks to be the better 1v1 defender. One game at the beginning of the MLS season doesn't count for much against the years of play each has accrued. Would still prefer to start Yedlin as a nominal attacking right back in a 4231. Tactically, he'd play as a deep-lying winger; the d-mids would cover for him.
With our current glut of young-to-youngish CBs in the pool there's clearly no need for a Marshall or a Moor at this stage. (I mean even a guy like Hedges is probably too much of a surplus to needs now to even be really considered unless we have a serious injury crisis.) There are times when one might've debated the merits of either, though both were a bit on the slow side to help the national team significantly IMO.
Says a lot about our left back pool that Hollingshead was rated this highly. He's not a USMNT caliber left back. He's good going forward, but a liability at the back. He won't be starting for FCD when Pedroso returns from his injury.
What? That's Whoscored's rating system. They rated him highly, as they usually do (when he's started at fb the last several years they've had him as one of the highest rated players in the league, period). It wasn't relative to other Americans, it was in general. The objective rating system Whoscored and my eye test (a few others who regularly post here also sing his praises) doesn't concur with your assessment at all. He's very sound defensively. Sniffs out attacks before they start with his reads and blocks a high % of crosses coming in. There's nothing to suggest a guy in his mid 20's who last played in Hungary and previously Brazil's 2nd division is as good. Some in FCD are giving him the Geoff Cameron treatment he got at Stoke. He's perceived as surplus because he was previously used as a utility player for his versatility and evaluated in lesser positions. That perception carries over. Cameron was a very good d-mid and Hollingshead has always been a good fb. If FCD has that prejudice, Hollingshead should put in a transfer request.
So NYRB starts mostly back ups and gets a tie on the road while Atlanta and KC play mostly starters and lose. I don't get it. If both KC and AU get overrun in their CCL game this week finger pointing should start because it's not like there isn't data on this over the last few years.
Hollingshead make a couple of very sloppy plays in this game. headed a clearance about 10 yards right to the other team who immediately had a good scoring chance. A few iffy passes near the back and he is a player who scares me at times. Now, perhaps if he was able to get a real string of games he could develop into a good player there but he's nowhere near national team quality at the moment. I'm actually wondering if draft pick John Nelson is the starter at left back by the end of the year.
2018: 2.14 ppg with Hollingshead starting (7 games), 1.68 average 2017: 1.56 with Hollinghsead starting (9 games), 1.35 average 2016: 1.74 ppg with Hollingshead starting (23 games), 1.76 average So you had 2 teams who were considerably better with him on the field, and one roughly the same when Dallas had an excellent season when he started a lot (Dallas was also really good w/ him on the field this preseason fwiw). While the individual objective ratings also score him REALLY high when he plays fb specifically. I'm not going to scrounge those out too, but they've viewed him as one of the best players in the league in recent seasons when he plays that spot. There you'd see Dallas with an even better record with him on the field than in a random spot. So I think this is confirmation bias. If you want to isolate the bad and ignore the good that may outweigh it, you could make almost anybody look poor.
Don't get the conceit of making wide-ranging judgement on a player based on the first game of the season.
HUGE test for Kyle Duncan tomorrow against Santos Laguna. Murillo is out due to yellow card accumulation, so presumably he'll get as much time as he can handle.
MLS week 1: Canouse was the best US DM. His ability to contest and stop the ball in the middle of the pitch was a huge factor in helping DC neutralize ATL's attacking prowess.
I’m officially on the Chris Mueller train. Everything good that Orlando did went through Chris. He doesn’t appear to be dominate in any one category, just solid all around. Good ball skills, decent speed, has some ideas and not afraid to try things. To me, he passes the eye test more than Corey Baird. Wouldn’t mind seeing him at future camps as a backup wing/attacking option
I wonder why Shea got a higher WS than Nagbe. I only saw the first half. Did Nagbe suck as well? They said Martinez hardly touched the ball. Probably it was Canouse who had a lot to do with it. He had the highest WS rating after goal scorers Acosta and Arriola and a bushelful of stats. I'll be forced to drop the "Wild Paul :moniker with the kind of poise we see in Arriola these days. He's earning himself a guaranteed call up in March and Gold Cup.
Nagbe was alright but was expected to do too much. Actually, for Atlanta, he seemed the only player interested in the match. I’m very disappointed in Remedi who I consider the true 6 on this team. He just fell apart like a deck of cards. Ambrose and Shea have zero skill and are just not good enough at this level... it’s like watching Real Madrid play Barcelona except Barcelona playing with a handicap of having both their center backs be Segunda level bench players. DC United sniff that advantage out and realized that Atlanta was basically a team playing inside the cones while DC United could spray the ball around at will and continue time after time to find the gaps. It was seriously like playing with 9 men against 11 without making the necessary tactical adjustments. A horribly coached game by DeBoer.
I like both Mihailovic and Roldan. They are different types of players and they are at different stages in their careers. It's not a perfect analogy but I think of Roldan as a glue player. Without the glue, fancy furniture can look just like a pile of firewood.
Nagbe was ball watching a lot, including on 1 goal, and a near miss. And he didn't make any key passes. 8 in a 343 on the road against a quality side where you're going to have to sit deeper isn't conducive to success to success for him. Not sure if he has a role in that situation. In a 433 with 2 d-mids protecting him but sitting higher than an extra cb, he might help you then. Or a 343 8 against an overmatched opponent. Like EB said, it was a poorly managed game by De Boer, down to the sub choices down 2 goals as well.
DeBoer is tasked with managing 3 huge games in a week. One can only speculate what MLS is thinking with the scheduling. p.s. edit: remember the regular season record will decide if Atlanta gets to fill that 70k stadium for playoffs. There's no home/away series in playoffs anymore.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/03/04/warshaw-24-observations-24-teams-after-week-1 Agree with Bobby Warshaw on Lletget in his week end wrap up: LA Galaxy Sebastian Lletget is to Zlatan as Russell Canouse is to Wayne Rooney. The Galaxy won, but they didn’t look great doing it. Simply, the Galaxy have rarely looked great without Lletget on the field in the last couple years, even when Zlatan’s been in the team. Zlatan will always get his, but Lletget might be more important to the Galaxy’s functionality as a whole. I’m holding all reservations on the Galaxy until Lletget returns to the lineup.