Come off of it. Just how many defensive plays has Pedro made all season? Per whoscored, per 90 minutes played. Garcia is a better tackler in terms of actually making the tackle and is dribbled by less (Pedro plays like a parking attendant waving at attackers as they go by). Garcia also intercepts more passes
We can clearly see the knee is not ready. Look at the wobble. Best to keep JJ out of the DC match and give him the bye week of additional R&R. https://www.lagalaxy.com/post/2017/05/30/curt-onalfo-provides-update-jermaine-jones-insider
Well, stats are one thing, and they have some use, but at some point you have to realize who is killing your team. Pedro has certainly had his poor moments, but he has actually played pretty well the last few games and seems to have decent potential as he adjusts to MLS and his teammates. Why on earth are you picking on his play now? You really think Garcia is more valuable to the team than Pedro? Personally, I'm tired of seeing Garcia re-enact the Ronaldo - Bryan Jordan match-up game after game.
Garcia is our 5th choice center-midfielder. I get that you don't like his play, but in this league with the salary cap the way it is, your 5th choice CDM needs to be a minimum salary guy, which means you either play Garcia or roll the dice with a young guy who's never played first division ball before. Frankly, I don't see any true CDM's coming up the pipeline from GII or the academy who would do better than Garcia at this point in time, so he's doing exactly what he's meant to do -- be there when we have 3 guys out injured and step up and play. And we've won all the games that he's played in his natural position, so I'd say he's doing enough. Soon enough he will be back on the bench as better players get healthy again....
Maybe the rest of the regular season to be sure he's healthy for the Sept qualifiers. Country over Club is vital in this case!
I'm normally a club over country guy. But I would be willing to make an exception for the most important Nat player here.
First, I agree that Garcia is not a right back. Starting him there was all on Curt. However, Pedro's poor play at the DMid position was all on him and not Curt or Jones's fault. Pedro was for all intents and purposes a Dmid for his club in Portugal. Yes he did play a substantial number of games as part of a center mid pairing but when he did so he was the defensive oriented partner. I don't think its a coincidence that the Galaxy's play started improving when Pedro was moved forward and stopped playing a welcome home mat in front of the Galaxy's back four. I pick on his play because he doesn't hustle on defense, doesn't tackle well and either can't or won't advance the ball past pressure to start the attack. As for Garcia, I don't think he is close to NIgel de Jong but he did show against Kaka last year that he can play a more than passable defensive game. His offensive skills are another matter.
Well, we agree on Garcia's offensive skills, but I still think his defensive ability is a substantial liability. I guess if he can do his work in the midfield and not get stranded as a last defender, then perhaps his hustle and effort can overcome his shortcomings. But that is a situation I will definitely be watching for in the upcoming games.
^i don't know if I can agree with that @73Bruin. Pedro has improved, and I do think some of that has to do with Jones' positional lack of discipline. After all, that problem has plagued Jones on the national team as well. You start to wonder if Jones is the common denominator. Pedro's hustle and defensive prowess has improved as the weeks have rolled by. He's better at knowing where to be to intercept passes as well. His passing game has been decent over the last two weeks. I was one of his critics to start, but he has put together a decent string of games and contributed on offense.
Like most things, it's likely some combinations of issues. Micahel Bradley looked lost and out of sorts a lot when he was paired with Jones in the midfield for the USMNT, as did Pedro when paired with Jones. A huge part of playing that role is knowing where you're supposed to be to provide cover, when you're able to step up to try and shut down an attack vs. drop and defend, etc. When your counterpart isn't consistently where he should be, it makes it incredibly difficult to be in the right place at the right time, which oddly enough makes you look like you don't know what the hell you're supposed to be doing. Add to that that he is on a new team, in a new league (which has a long, sordid history of players taking a significant amount of time to adjust to), and potentially even language issues (not sure honestly how much English he speaks), and again you've got a recipe for medicority at best. When you then add on the fact that JVD was getting antsy in the back and making wild forays up the field, leaving the team again, out of sorts and exposed, and it's another issue a holding/defending mid has to try and sort out. You then put in Diop in goal, who doesn't seem to have the best organizational/communication skills, and you've pretty much set up Pedro for failure. The fact that he's been able to get things under control, and provide some quality both in his defensive duties (though these are clearly lessened with Garcia back there) and in the attack, actually says a lot about who he is as a player. I'll admit I was getting pretty skeptical for a while, and am thankful he seems to have turned a corner of sorts. So let's hope he continues to improve, and whether or not Curt throws JJ back into the mix the team can figure out something that works.
Yet Jones made Scott Caldwell from NE look like a USMNT-caliber player and had great synergy with Sam Cronin and/or Michael Azira in Colorado. That's just in MLS, the same can be said of his partners in Europe. Pedro is a poor #6/holding midfielder, just go back and review some of the defensive angles he takes and defensive decisions he makes. He has looked better as a #8 with Husidic and now Garcia playing behind him at #6. If Jones never returns and Pedro is asked to player the #6 behind Lletget, I have seen nothing that says that pair would be successful. In fact they may have even more issues since Lletget will likely be even more offensive-minded than Jones.
No doubt this has a lot to do with the coach/environment. JK in my view never installed any sense of roles/duties/positioning into the team (across the board, so many games with players looking around unsure of where they were supposed to be, etc). Curt clearly doesn't seem to be the kind of guy who is in control of his players on the field, which clearly played into Pedros and the rest of the teams' issues. Mastroeni may be a lot of things, but he clearly had his teams drilled and disciplined on where to be and what to do. Not entirely sure about Heaps in New England. This wasn't meant as an attack on Jones, just trying to get my head around Pedros play. And yes, he clearly has made some atrocious plays in terms of both positioning and decision making (when to tackle, when to back off, when to support, etc).
Pedro plays a different position partnered with Jones, than he does partnered with Husidic/Garcia. That IMO, is the difference.
Conclusion: The FO has signed two players who can't play well together. Putting JJ in forces Pedro to do something he doesn't do well.
I'll try a different conclusion. The FO needed to sign a #6 to replace NDJ and Ginger. They had a choice between Breinburg and Pedro. They signed Pedro. Pedro is not a defensive #6. Conclusion: The FO needs to go and get a real #6. Perhaps they should revisit Breinburg? Chicago Fire's Michael de Leeuw on Gregor Breinberg, who he played w/in Holland: "He’s like a younger Nigel De Jong. He looks like him."— Kevin Baxter 🇺🇦🏳️🌈 (@kbaxter11) January 17, 2017
I tend to agree with this. I don't know how Pedro played before he got to LA, but everything about him seems to indicate he's an 8, including his stated preference on the matter. Furthermore, his coach has decided to play him as the 8 on several occasions, including the time Onalfo pushed Jones into the CAM role. He wears the 8 shirt and is listed as a CM on transfermarkt, with DM being his secondary position. I don't think he's even a "finesse" 6 like Busquets. As far as I'm concerned, Jones and Pedro are basically competing for the 8 position, I guess. Which means for some reason we didn't hire a real 6 during the window.
Really. lets review JK somehow decided that Bradley (who wanted to play DMid like he did for his club teams) and Jones a box to box mid virtually his entire criteria should play Attacking Mid and DMid respectively and you are blaming Jones alone for a lack of discipline. Are your really defending JK's clueless coaching? Again his "decent" set of games have occurred when he became was not playing defensive mid. I don't think that's a coincidence. Can you please give a single example of either his defensive hustle or his defensive "prowess". And for grins, has he made a key pass during this time? I will agree that he is pretty good at reversing the ball passes when not under pressure, but that is about it
Without disagreeing at all, perhaps there are two other possible conclusions that are not mutually exclusive. Perhaps the Galaxy didn't do that good of a job reviewing Pedro's play in Portugal especially in reviewing game film as opposed to a highlight reel. Given the Galaxy's history of poor scouting this seems to fit. Did the Galaxy actually choose Pedro over Brienburg or other candidates or were they forced to work within budgetary constraints that made Pedro seem like the only fit?
Since you seeming accept that Pedro is not a Dmid and is best utilitized as a number 8, the question becomes who do you really think is a better number box to box midfielder: Jones or Pedro?
In three years, Pedro by a lot. Which is the problem - JJ is a win-now guy. Pedro is a develop-for-the-future guy.
Whose better Box to Box now Lleget, or Pedro. (Pre-injury Lleget). Whose better in 3 years? I personally would answer Lleget to both. The FO was supposed to bring in a defensive midfielder and clearly didn't. I wonder if we still have a chance to sign Breinburg in the summer.