In a night of worthless bullshit garbage performances Santos stood out as a huge stinking turd amongst...well....somewhat smaller turds.
One (extremely fair) criticism of Berhalter early in the season was that he seemed to be starting Jonathan Mensah just because he was a DP when we had other better options available. Now Mensah has improved throughout the season. He's still far from a TOP CB in this league. But one could argue that MAYBE Berhalter's faith in Mensah has been rewarded with improved play. Regardless, virtually any and all analysis of our team views our CB's and defense as inconsistent at best and a weakness at worse. So with that in mind, let's talk about our new shiny DP Pedro Santos and his "production" since joining Columbus. Pedro Santos - 995 minutes (inluding playoffs), 0 goals, 2 assists, 25 shots, 9 shots on goal. Hmmm. That doesn't look great. What about Kekuta Manneh? Kekuta Manneh - 947 minutes (including playoffs), 4 goals, 3 assists, 26 shots, 12 shots on goal. Huh, that seems a little better than Santos. What about Ethan Finlay since he was traded and we were blessed with visions of Pedro Santos throwing himself at the perfectly maintained Crew Stadium turf. Ethan Finlay - 978 minutes, 3 goals, 3 assists, 17 shots, 7 shots on goal. ******** this shit. I'm getting a drink.
Frankly, I want to see him when he has a full preseason under his belt. We've had mid-season acquisitions get off to a slow start before.
I think Santos has dramatically increased Pipa’s game. He’s able to take the pressure off Higuain. Santos is able to dribble on the run or cut inside. That opens up the defense and leaves room for other passes. It’s noticable since he got here. He’s not all bad.
I agree. Santos's ability to cut inside and fall over has won us a few free kicks. When Santos hasn't taken those free kicks and drilled them straight into the wall, or over the net, this has given Pipa the opportunity to take some free kicks. He's hasn't been all bad. He's been worse. He's been mostly shit.
I hope we start Manneh next gm and Jimenez or Francis at LB. GB went with a conservative line up and unless Jimenez had a knock he should have started as he has been in good form. I still like Abubakar better than Mensah and i fear A Mensah moment will cost us a playoff loss and I hope it doesn’t happen but if I’m Toronto I’m attacking him
Through the lens of Precourt being a complete piece of carp, the Mensah and Santos DP signing feel like a "See I bought you 3 DP's, I'm a good owner."
I will not criticize him for that. Not all DP's are instantly successful. In fact, many DP's don't work out. That's for good and bad owners.
How bout criticizing him for being the 19th or 20th owner (out of 22) to have 3 DP's on the payroll at the same time?
Well, he did do some 2017-style falling over, but that was a beautiful pass to set up Zardes. Trending upward!
Yes because his passing was horrible last year. Hopefully having a preseason and some time to gain chemistry will payoff because we need Meram like production.
I said flat-out last year that Pedro Santos wasn't good enough. But when you look at it, MLS has had more than a handful of DP's that came in and struggled in their first season, and then turned it on in year 2. A lot of our expectations for where the Crew will finish probably involved Santos as an afterthought. If the full off-season can lead to him becoming a legit star, this team is going to be dangerous.
The TFC announcers on the MLS Live feed for the game were giving high praise for Santos the whole game.
Except for the wonderful assist? He was pretty good I thought. He should have had a PK too. He got absolutely leveled with that extend forearm.
The poop emoji was from last year. The assist was great. But, Pedro is never gonna get that PK because he already has a reputation of throwing himself to ground, repeatedly, at the slightest of contact. It's infuriating to watch, and will cost us more opportunities than it wins us pks.
yep, sorry. I didn't realize it was last year. I do agree that his reputation likely prevented that from being called. Not even a VAR look though? Speaking of VAR, the refs missed a 100% obvious PK in the LAFC Seattle game. VAR had time to review it and not given. Slide tackle in the box, missed the ball, totally took the attacker down (he got all legs - major contact sliding straight through the guys legs.). The attacker had made a controlled touch as well so its not like he ploughed the ball out of bounds and wasn't going to catch up to it. I was baffled. I'd love to hear the explanation on that one.
Sure but the slide tackle left no doubt except for two people, one of whom had the benefit of instant reply. The ref did not even call a foul.