I'm not choosing sides or saying either one is right or wrong. I will say that Gerrard played quality football in spite of the horrendous conditions. Was he magical? No not by a long shot, but he did put in a good performance. I give him a high rating because this was his first taste of intense heat and humidity that no matter what anyone says does effect the quality of football. That being said he will have to adjust because that is what you have to deal with until late November. But he looks like he's finding his place on the pitch and only time and minutes will continue to maximize his quality for us.
Look. I offered a TON of praise for Gerrard in the post that you quoted. I simply disputed your factually inaccurate characterization of his play with actual events in the match where Gerrard made bad mistakes. Yet for some reason you feel the need to bring down Gerrard's teamates in order to talk up your guy. In addition, you seem to want to talk shit about the Galaxy as a team: I'm glad that you are here to share your experiences with Gerrard with this forum. However I would really really appreciate it if you could try to hold off on the condescending bullshit. Especially when it is factually inacurate. We can agree to disagree about lots of things, but when you repeatedly go off about how LA isn't good enough for your boy, and you talk about how he "has not misplaced a pass" when I can go back and find five midfield give-aways, two of which were unpressured and could have easily lead to counter-attacks, it doesn't a) endear you to long-term fans of the team, and b) inhance your credibility. I understand that you are a Gerrard superfan, and glad that you found a player that you love so much. However, please please please don't let that lead you to taking unwarranted pot shots at LA and Gerrard's teammates just because things aren't going well.
This could hold equally true for Lletget, and if you look at both Juninho and Gerrard's touches in the chalkboard you will see that they were switching sides throughout the match, with Gerrard playing a slightly more attacking position. While I agree with the basic ratings from who scored for this match, the player rating graphic is rather meaningless as far as positioning goes.
No doubt I think your points are consistent and very well pointed. I don't have any problems with them and respect your assessment. My opinion coincides with his on gerrard's game stats. The other stuff is between you gentlemen and I will stay clear from that debate.
We pretty much owned the whole state of Texas today. FT: #LosDos come from behind to beat @AustinAztex 3-2 on the road.http://t.co/O6ziCUo7hC #ATXvLA pic.twitter.com/woXGqj35EX— LA Galaxy II (@LAGalaxyII) August 16, 2015 Wow! Carlos Arriaza with a brace to give the #LAGalaxy Special Olympics Unified Team a late 3-2 lead on FC Dallas. #JustLikeTheFirstTeam— Adam Serrano (@AdamSerrano) August 16, 2015
I stick firmly by everything I said. That 'rise to his level' comment was in reference to this game alone and posted at halftime having seen Gerrard's two class tackles that cemented the fact he was playing with more commitment than everyone else. Note, I said in all other matches that it was a fairly level playing field and it's only in this game that you can see a gulf. And, as I said, I stick by that. What your post fails to also mention is that EVERYONE in an LA shirt was giving the ball away in that first half and I'm willing to bet that Gerrard's five turnovers you mention was considerably less than any other player in white. Also, every comment of mine you bolded clearly applies to this game alone. Read them back if you don't believe me. Gerrard was far and away the pick of a bad bunch in that first half. As to 'Let alone LA', that's all relative. In this case, I clearly meant in relation to teams like Barca or Real Madrid (hence the Zidane reference). I love Liverpool, but I'd refer to them in the same context. 'Gerrard would be an asset to any team in La Liga, let alone Liverpool'. Does that mean I dislike Liverpool? Or am I just speaking in relative terms? The only way you can take offense to the context of that comment is if you believe LA have the best players in the world... if not, then it's an accurate, non-derogatory statement. 'Gerrard would improve [insert best team in the world], let alone LA Galaxy.'
They do indeed switch sides, but the majority of the match Gerrard spent on the left of central midfield and the reason it doesn't apply so much is that Lletget is less inclined to look for or need that outlet ball, preferring instead to run at the defender. Zardes not so much so he needed that outlet ball to the area where, for the most part, Juni should have been.
I thought this was Gerrard's worst match but I had to watch with half an eye. Seemed many of his good plays were to make up for bad ones.
Probably worth watching the match again with the other half. Gerrard made some great plays to make up for a few mistakes by him. But the interceptions, tackling back on the run and crunching tackles were not from his mistakes and were some of the highlights by the Galaxy (along with the lead up to the first goal, Zardes cross to Gordon, Lletget's two runs to the by-line and Gerrard's crotch-shot-block).
Here's my post-match write-up: http://www.lagconfidential.com/2015/8/15/9160943/positives-and-negatives-la-galaxy-at-fc-dallas Summary: Good: Road win. Good effort by Gerrard in the heat. Keane is awesome. Good tactical match. Bad: Defensive lapses. Ricketts scares me. Lletget needs to get his head up. Not sure where Gio should play.
ROAD WIN!!! And in 90 degree weather! Totally would have been happy with a point, and stoked with the three points, in particular with SKC winning today as well. Great effort all around from the team. Robbie Keane with another stellar performance in the 2nd half. My MOTM for sparking the offense. Well taken goals, but beyond that I loved his movement in the 2nd half. Curious about the change with Gio and Gyasi in the 2nd half and wondering if that will be more permanent? Another good game from Gyasi as well, and Gio is looking more and more fit! Lletgett's workrate was tremendous. I thought this was one of Rogers' best games all season. I'm seriously bummed about his knee and hope he is okay. He was stellar on both sides of the ball today. Two great games back to back. I don't understand the commentary on Omar today. I thought he was solid barring going to ground early on the goal. Whoscored updated their stats, he has an 8.7 for this game. I happen to agree with them. He has 18 interceptions. EIGHTEEN! So I thought this was indeed a bounceback game for him. Leo with early in the season Leo behavior. Good. (minus the brainfart on what should have been a Perez goal earlier in the game). I thought Gerrard was pretty good, but not stellar. Had some giveaways, but his defensive workrate was tremendous. Loved his two tackles to get the ball back by going to ground. Want more from him on offense - I think this is partially because the team is still trying to figure him out. Ricketts still scares me too. Landon Donovan @landondonovan 4h4 hours ago Really important win for the @LAGalaxy Sends a strong message to the rest of the league. The champs are poised once again! #FirstToSix Also, all I hear is whining: http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...m-despite-seeing-win-slip-away-they-got-lucky Not to mention, the final line is: “I think the Galaxy feel like they stole one tonight.” Uh, no Dan Kennedy. We earned those three points. But thanks. Excited about this team (except GK).
Team is starting to round into form. Except Ricketts. I'm nervous about goalkeeping. And keeping Rogers healthy. And I think Zardes and Gio might make that switch quite often, depending on match-ups and game situations. It was definitely a good move by Arena tonight to swap them, so gotta give him credit where it is due….
That was border.ine Seattle-levels of entitlement. I thought it was an evenly contested match that was decided on our strikers being better in front of goal.
Its nice to see Keane playing inspired ball and hustling. He is rounding into a good leader. He had me worried for a while. Rogers-had an excellant match. Was challenged often but came through over and over and really sacrificed his body. I have a hunch his knee is fine. Looked like he got banged up when he and Ricketts collided. His twitter after the game was promising...he is ready for his next home game. Legett-great player. Hustled all night. Leo-did alright this game. Omar-not sure why his whoscored number is so high since the first goal was partly on him. Zardes-big strong physical play means alot in a game like this. Ricketts-still shaky but I think he is going to be alright. Give him a few more games. He had a long layoff. Gerrard-I think he was in shock with the Texas heat to start but got stronger as the match progressed. Gio-the move to Amid (?) was smart and paid dividends. I like this lad.
In some ways the game went according to plan. We knew this was going to be a tough game in the heat so sit back, absorb pressure, generate a few chances. Dallas knew this, and our habit of giving up early goals, and pressed high for the first 20 minutes. Fortunately we didn’t give up a goal and as the first half went on they had slow the game down, which opened up things for us. With Gerrard and Juninho both playing defensively we weren’t going to generate much through the middle, so more than usual, this was a game on the wings for us. You could see how it was planned with Zardes’s low, hard crosses into the top of the box, where our (short) forwards reside. Possession was significantly in favor of Dallas, which I think was not a terrible thing. Trying to play tiki-taco would have opened us up to counters and our defense was shaky enough as it was.
My two cents on Gerrard. You judge a player by the quality of plays, the quantity of plays and the impactfulness of the plays. Gerrard did have his turnovers but the quality was noticeable. How important that quality is is the question. There was a time where Gerrard had a beautiful tackle that knocked the ball out of bounds and stopped the attack. A lesser player would have had a clumsier challenge and ended up fouling. End result is still the same; the other team gets the ball at the same spot. If you look at the OPTA chalkboard for Gerrard and Juninho, they’re actually pretty similar. Juninho has more tackles but otherwise they’re not too different. Pretty much what we saw; Juninho with the higher workrate but Gerrard with more touch and style. The start of the fantasy football season reminds us that you need to judge a player by their value over a replacement player. Here are the salaries for our midfield: Juninho $350,000 Zardes $223,000 Lletget $100,500 Gerrard $6,322,500 Gerrard is literally paid an order of magnitude more that the other players combined. It’s not enough for him to be as good as the other players. He needs to be a difference maker. I think we’ll see that difference in the playoffs, when the extra pressure just won’t be an issue for him, but this was not that game.
Great win for us! I'm so proud of this team. Keep it coming, Galaxy. Gonna be peaking in the playoffs!
Baysider, good post but I think a little off the mark in that if you are going to make an assessment as a general manager based on their contribution on the field only, then you should only be using the salary cap DP hit $ for Gerrard in comparison with those others players. And only Juninho is really near his market value. Both Zardes and Lletget are at discount prices currently. And buying a known commodity (a well known proven player) is always going to be more expensive than the less known - a speculative purchase. Perhaps given the cap room Bruce could add another Zardes or Juninho or Letget but their is a limited supply of those players and they do take some work - you have to devote some roster and cap space to sift through the McBeans and Alex Cazumbas and even Zardes and Juninho are only as productive as they are today because of the work put in to develop them.
Completely agree that Zardes and Lletget are undervalued, but for Gerrard, it isn't his cap hit that's costly, it's that he uses up a DP spot, which are limited. We're missing out on another $6mil player, which can be hit and miss (see Toronto) but is also a high-information market.