And I like seeing all 11 players on the field putting out maximum effort. Amazing what that does for a team.
That's good to see, but 11 players might be generous - don't get me wrong, I think Zlatan is critical component to our attack, but "maximum effort" to me implies 90 minutes of offense and defense.
I get what you are saying - Zlatan doesn't run around a lot on defense. But that's not his job - his job is to score goals and no one works harder or more effectively to get that done. In fact his effort in this game created all three of our goals - and almost created two more. The most impressive play by him was one he didn't score - check out the highlights starting a 1:31 below. He beats one player, makes a great pass to the outside and continues his run to the box and then dives his 6'5" body headfirst toward a ball that is two feet off the ground in an attempt to flick the ball around the defender and into the corner of the goal. Heck, watch everything from 0:13 to 3:25 to see how much work Zlatan expends when we are attacking. https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/m...s-vancouver-whitecaps-fc/details/video/174339
I think people mistake a 37 year old post-ACL injury Zlatan conserving stamina, with laziness. As @skydog says, he's always working hard, analyzing the field and picking the right runs and positions. Honestly, if Gerrard had been able to adapt his game to this type of approach, rather than the "blood and thunder workhorse" approach that the British public so horribly overrates, he may have been a success here.
I get what you guys are saying, but "maximum effort" isn't the same as 37 year old conserving energy, or "maximum effort on offense except right after an attack fizzles". Next I'm going to tell you that Perry Kitchen was giving maximum effort. It's just not his job to do stuff like complete passes or run fast.
I see your point. He does switch into "not my job" mode as soon as we turn over possession. If Perry Kitchen has been deployed as a deep-lying still-life model, then I've grossly misunderstood his role and offer him my deepest apologies.
I wish we still had Danny Peña on this team. He would have made a bone-crunching tackle on the opposing team's playmaker, then taken out the loafing Kitchen just for good measure....
I'll grant you are right - Ibra doesn't expend maximum physical energy at every moment. But I do think he gives us everything he has to help us win. Messi and Keane were similar, both walk around more than they run. But I don't knock any of these guys for lack of effort - I just think they are smart about when they spend and when they conserve that energy.
Donovan also the last year or two started to pick his spots. He seemed to be more injured that anyone (Bruce) ever let on.
Yessir. In his prime Donovan ran almost the entire game and that dropped way down after his un-retirement. As we all know Donovan's game was very different than that of Keane, Ibra and Messi - LD was more of a facilitator than an out and out goal scorer. But his speed, vision and technical abilities were so off the charts that he naturally found himself getting scoring opportunities - and he finished those more often than not.
Nice moment from this match that didn't necessarily get a lot of attention: Ibra passing up on a hat trick to give his penalty to Romain.
Ibra seems way too nice for his bad boy reputation. I don't know if he was really a dick earlier in his life or if most of that was just for show. But he's been nothing but class since coming to the Galaxy. Sure he'll blow up at a ref during a game but that's what real competitors do. We are lucky to have him this year.