I do agree that the 16-goal season is probably an outlier for Zardes, but I think that's mostly because he's not really an out-and-out striker or CF; I think his best position is probably attacking mid. I also think he's probably already better than Mike Magee. Last year missing half a season Zardes put up numbers marginally better than Magee's best ever for LA (6G, 5A in 19 games). I think if you never really rated Zardes, you look at his struggles now and go "See, he was never that good and he's just been found out." But -- he was (IMO) our most dynamic attacker before his injury last year. Scored a great individual goal vs RSL. Came off the bench and played a beautiful pass to Gio that resulted in a PK. He also had a goal and assist for the US in the Copa America last year. Going back to 2015 -- Zardes had a goal and assist in the ill-fated playoff match versus Seattle. He was playing very well, IMO, despite not scoring at his 2014 level.
Zardes was having a great year for club and country before his injury. He was improving by leaps and bounds before our eyes. Timing couldn't have been worse for the injury and it seems it's gonna take some time for him to get back to that level--if ever I fear the same will be true for Lletget...
So here's a funny stat that came up from CoG, that coincides with something you may have noticed about our attack (and is also relevant to the discussion of Zardes' best role in the other thread): LA have the lowest number of offside calls in the league. We don't really have a 9 that plays off the shoulder and makes those darting / smart runs behind to test the backline and keep them honest. It's not really Zardes' or Gio's game, but it was something Keane did pretty well. So it makes sense to go for a guy like Gignac or Ibra.
Well, I didn't think it was fair to compare him to Godmode Magee. Legend has it he played most games with 3-ton shackles on each ankle to make it fair to the other teams. Then he takes them off in the playoffs.
It does need tweaking and if done right can be a very useful tool. And it would help greatly if ARs keep their flags down knowing they have the technology to help and if the offside rule was more black and white. At worst I hope the system leads to erring more on the side of the offense. Because as much as I love soccer and always will, it wouldn't hurt to have an average of just 1 more goal a game, or even just half a goal more a game.
We looked pretty good. Maybe Jones and Gio were the problem. I'm only half serious, but I am half serious. Villarreal pressing from the forward position generated the first goal. Pedro driving up from the middle generated the second goal. Allessandrini running around in the forward position set up Jamieson's run into the box. I'm not sure any of these things happen if Gio is in there. Gio isn't going to press like Villarreal did. Gio isn't going to run around and create havoc like Allessandrini does. Pedro might well have looked for Gio rather than trying to create something on his own. I know it's just one game (and against Colorado) and so I'm not going to make too much of it. But all three goals were the results of active, attacking soccer. It's what we want to see.