Waaaaaaait -- was this post about Jose Villareal or Giovani dos Santos? Because I have one objection: Jose passes to the right.
Hasn't he played at striker all year? I don't expect him to create goals and granted, he needs better service and has been out injured earlier this season but, being our starting striker and failing to score in 15 games shouldn't be allowed on this team.
We'd have to fire everyone. Gio hasn't scored in a reg season match since March. Edit: Whoops; that's May, in fairness.
The only major thing that Ema Boateng has over Zardes is speed. Zardes beats him in every other area accept maybe first touch. He is stronger, he is bigger, he had better dribbling skills, he has a better cross, he is more prone to score (sure he sucks this year at it but his record speaks for itself). I'm sorry but a healthy and in form Zardes starts over Boateng every time. He is most creative when in the midfield on a wing. He can play both sides well, but is best out right. He is more prone to score when he is second striker next to a target forward and above a dynamic number 10. As he was with LD and Keane or when he is on the Nats with Dempsey and Jordan Morris/Altidore
It was about Jose V. You are correct, like a lot of left foot passers he does pass to the right frequently. Ignore that part of my statement - I had a brain fart.
1. It remains to be seen, Gyasi barely dribbles opponents. 2. Remains to be seen too. Can't remember a lot of goals we scored after a cross from Gyasi. Not saying Ema is a lot better too. 3. Not sure about it. Gyasi's numbers on a wing might be slightly above Ema's numbers, but not that big. 4. I agree, part of Gyasi's problem is Gio sucks this year. The problems are : we won't give up on Gio anytime soon so we won't replace him by a Lodeiro/Valeri type player to make Gyasi more comfortable, and, honestly, Gio is a better player. Gyasi is the odd man out. Sorry I had problems for quoting.
All of us like the "very good Zardes" and I could see that guy starting over Ema. But we seldom even see the "pretty good Zardes" these days. I would give him until the end of the season to show improvement. Personally I love the guy but from a soccer perspective if he doesn't show more in the next couple months then I think (if his current contract permits this) LAG should offer him a choice of taking a pay cut or going elsewhere. With so much cap space tied up in our three non-striker DP's we don't have the luxury of spending almost 600k on a player who we are just hoping he will find his form again. We can't mess around. The top teams of the league are getting better - we need to keep up or resign ourselves to being has-beens.
Gyasi Zardes isn't a prospect, he's an accomplished pro: at 26 he holds the record for most goals scored by a homegrown player in an MLS season, he's scored in the MLS playoffs, an MLS Cup Final, World Cup Qualifying, a Gold Cup and a Copa America. He's an MLS Cup champion, former MLS All-Star and Gold Cup champion. Emmanual Boateng is having a good season; if he obtains 1 more goal and a couple more assists, he'll match Zardes rookie season as a younger player, which most people here thought was terrible. If Zardes doesn't return to form, Boateng is not the answer. Lletget inherits the spot on the wing; can you get an accomplished MLS striker for Zardes' current paycheck?
You may be right about his athletic limitations, but in addition to his left foot, he has a creative mind and the vision and skill to make chances happen. May not be enough in the end, but I would still like to see a bit more of him before giving up.
I think it's worth pointing out that Jose Villarreal has a G+A/90 of 0.545 in his MLS minutes while Zardes has 0.438 G+A/90. Even if you just use Zardes' 2013-2016 MLS stats he's still less than Jose at 0.491 G+A/90. Some other Galaxy comparable for G+A/90 over the course of their MLS regular season careers. Keane - 1.066 Donovan - 0.915 (Galaxy career), 0.758 (MLS career) Gerrard - 0.644 Buddle - 0.606 (Galaxy career) 0.591 (MLS career) Jose V. - 0.545 Gordon - 0.527 (Galaxy career), 0.602 (MLS career) McBean - 0.441 Zardes - 0.438 Lletget - 0.429 Jamieson - 0.426 (small sample size of 845 minutes) Magee - 0.423 (Galaxy career), 0.484 (MLS career) Boateng - 0.339 Lassiter - 0.328 (extremely small sample size of only 274 minutes) Husidic - 0.296 (Galaxy career), 0.317 (MLS career) J. Jones - 0.268 (Galaxy career), 0.344 (MLS career) Juninho - 0.236 (Galaxy career), 0.234 (MLS career) Steres - 0.109 Garcia - 0.055 Mendiola - 0.000 Obviously that's not the end-all be-all and Gerrard's a great example of why production isn't everything. I just mean to highlight that Jose has very productive in his minutes and though production doesn't always scale, I think he'd be able to produce Magee type numbers consistently given the playing time.
He's been played at winger for the majority of his time on the Nats - hence the assists. And those assist numbers aren't exactly shabby. I'd be like Bruce and shuffle him based on the opponent. He has the ability to play both spots - a luxury that shouldn't be overlooked (like another certain guy I have in my avatar). That said - he's got to show some improvement to retain his starting spot.
Zardes is not a forward. We need a true forward. Our FO has put us in a terrible position, this team will need significant rebuilding in the summer and the number one need is up top. Defenders can be found for reasonable dollar amounts, but forwards cannot. Whatever you think of Zardes ability, the only question that matters is whether he helps this Galaxy team. It can be argued that our FO has put us in a position where we have to let Zardes go to free up the money necessary to sign a decent striker. We are loaded in the midfield, Ema is cheap and reasonably effective...Zardes is a luxury that this team may not be able to afford. We are just so unbalanced.
1. Fortunately there is plenty of tape out there with Gyasi using step-overs or cutbacks to get pass a defender. So far Ema has had this season and some of last year and there is more footage of his breakout speed than of him using some dribble skill to get by a guy. 2. Again plenty of footage of this available. I went back and watched all the goals he scored and assisted on since he has been here. Assists from Crosses In 2013 3 of his 4 assists In 2014 1 of his 2 assists In 2015 2 of his 4 assists the rest were beautiful through balls In 2016 3 of his 5 assists 9 out of 15 total assists created from a cross 3. Slightly above? You really are selling the guy's history short if you think that the 5 total goals that Boateng has scored in his career are just a few goals less than the ones Gyasi has done while advancing forward out from a wing position during the run of play. 4. We are in agreement that Gio needs to be the more dangerous of the 2 and hasn't been thus putting more pressure on Gyasi. Coming off that injury that lingered into 2017 didn't help matters either for him. I am just not ready to write him off altogether for one bad season though. Especially when he has been stellar before that and just had a good run with the USMNT as recently as a month ago. But of course, I am not in the front office so I don't get to make this decision. I am all for saving money on roster fees but you just don't throw away proven utility players. We don't need another DelaGarza/Robbie Keane type move that we end up b!tching about next year because we let him go to save money to ride with people who are just adequate.
If i had to choose between Ema and Gyasi, then Ema stays. Gyasi needs to start showing something, anything even remotely resembling what he's provided to the team in the past. Whether he plays on the wing or forward spot, he needs to be aggressive to at least make the other team think the potential is there. That's what Ema provides. He my not have the best cross, but he at least provides a potential threat that opposing teams have to consider. Also, while he does use his speed to his advantage as he should, he's shown great touch, skill on the ball, and the ability to take a bump while maintaining possesion. He also has shown willingness to play defense as well. Unfortunately, this league is a salary cap league, and Zardes has become a luxury as this team needs a scorer/scoring threat badly. Whether it's Gyasi, or the FO putting him in this situation to not succeed, the situation is what it is. Personally, I'd rather the team gets rid of Gio, but that's never going to happen.
1. Don't disagree, he does a lot of stepovers and cutbacks but does he really pass defenders with these? I'm not sure, but his speed and his athleticism have helped him more to get rid of opposite players IMO. I agree on Ema not being good either, just saying the difference between the two is very slim. 2. I was very surprised to see your numbers so I rewatched all his assists in MLS (honestly thank you for all the good memories, 2014 was a superb year). 2013 : 3 crosses from his 4 assists, I agree (thank you Chivas, 1 goal and 2 assists in a 5-0 win). 2014 : sorry I can't count the pass to Keane as a "cross". Lateral pass 25 years away from goal is not a cross. You judge : So, 0/2. 2015 : honestly I count more than you : 3/4. 2016 : I agree, 3/5. 2017 : 0/1. In the end, I have the same number as you (counting 2017) : 9/17. Honestly, you were right, it was more than I thought, but not great either. 9 goals from crosses in 9854 minutes (one every 1094 minutes) compared to 6 in 3186 from Ema (one every 531). I know Zardes has played more at a forward position so he naturally crosses less often, once again I just say that the difference may be slim. 3. OK, I think the solution is to count the goals scored from Gyasi in a wing position, right? 4. Gyasi has been stellar for what? A 2014 season when he played in one of the best team of MLS history and in a very few games in 2015 and (mostly) 2016. Rookie year : terribly disappointing. 2015 : average. 2016 : solid with Gio but went down injured. 2017 : maybe more terrible than he was in his rookie season. Gyasi has just shown inconstancy with worrying signs for the Galaxy (his first touch being the biggest), it's not like he has been great since signing with us and suffering a bad year like every striker has. It's completly dishonest to compare him with a player who was a rock in our defense for 8 years and the best DP in MLS history. I think his departure wouldn't hurt us as much a Donovan, Keane, Omar, AJ or Juni. My point with Gyasi on a wing is he's just OK, and we can do better. Right now Ema is a better solution because Gyasi is in a terrible slump, Gyasi at his best must be a little bit better than the actual Ema, but Boateng has more upside. And remember we'll have Lletget next year. Maybe it's time to move on and hope Gyasi will never be the player we thought he will be.
1. Yes he does. The footage speaks for itself. He has done it every year he has played so I'm not sure why you aren't seeing it. 2. The point is, for a forward, more than half his assists came in that manner when compared to a midfielder who makes that pass in that manner at a higher rate. And as for whether that was a cross or lateral pass that's up for debate, but most importantly, I can wholeheartedly agree that Chivas sucks lol. 3. Attempted to do this last night at 1am but fail asleep in front of my computer. Woke up at 5am and said screw it let me finish what I wrote and go to bed. Point 2 encompasses why he almost certainly has a higher than slim rate from the wing and would almost certainly be head and shoulders higher if played in that spot fulltime. 4. In 2016 (not counting the playoffs) he got one assist more and had the same amount of goals as he did in 2015 and he did this with just a little bit more than half the minutes played. So barring that injury, he was well on the way to another 2014 type season while splitting time between the midfield and forward spots. That is anything but mediocre. It's disingenuous to say he has not been great since signing on this team. You don't play with the likes of Landon and Keane and get to be dubbed a legit standout by sucking. This 2017 season has made him look ungodly bad to you I'm sure but that in no way means that he has forgotten how to play the game all of a sudden. If he goes to a more balanced team and suddenly looks like the Zardes of old, then it would just go to prove that he wasn't a washout. I can understand the team cutting him in the name of money, but to do so because they have zero confidence that he will be back to form because of 2017 would just be a sad shame.
NT form this year was definitely better than for us, but still not near the level he was reaching pre-injury last year for both