The Official Magnus Eriksson thread

welcome!

 

I would not get overly bamboozled by the 14 goals / Golden Boot. 5 of the 14 were PKs. If you watch him play, he is a player who would generally have more assists than goals. He has more of a playmaker mentality than a scorer mentality. Vako is the more of the scorer mentality type. It's ok though - you want that kind of variety.

I think in a full season of MLS he'd have about 6 non-PK goals and 10 or so assists.

All this time and he's barely gotten a sniff from the Swedish senior nats, although called into camp in Jan. So kind of a fringe nats player who is apparently considered to be in good form right now.

If one of Magnus and Vako is going to play forward I think it should be Vako. He's got the killer shot and the ability to dribble into position to shoot. Magnus looks to pass more. He gets it on the outside, cuts in a bit and then looks the killer pass. I didn't really see him take on and try to beat defenders so much in the game that I watched. It was more about the quick pass. Almost always trying to play someone thru. Granted that may have been about the specific tactics of that match but that is something that really jumped out at me.

 

And don't forget the other side of his game, he is willing and capable of defending.

Kind of curious what kind of formation Stahre is looking at playing. I can see using some variation of a 4-4-2. ( I am assuming we get back Hoesen)

-------------------Hoesen-----Wondo-------------------
Vako-----------Godoy----------Ceren-----------Magnus
Qwiberg-----Jungwirth----------?---------------Lima


----------------------------Wondo------------------------
-----------------------Vako--------------------------------
Hoesen--------Godoy---------Ceren-------Magnus
Qwiberg--------Jungwirth-------?-------------Lima


--------------------------Wondo---------------------------
-------------------------------Magnus--------------------
Vako--------------Godoy-----------Ceren-------Hoesen
Qwiberg-------Jungwirth------------?-------------Lima


Kind of think we need Hoesen's pace up top, and Magnus on the right lets us take advantage of his work ethic and two-way play.

 

Yeah, he is a much more engaged defender than Vako IMO. Another reason to play him at outside mid rather than forward. If we have Hoesen I would expect to see the first option. I like Hoesen, but at this point if it comes down to Hoesen or a really good CB, I think I'd have to go CB. Then play Vako at that withdrawn forward spot and Hyka / TT at the other outside mid spot. No one for Magnus to play thru though. Wondo is way too slow, and Vako is eh, average speed. Actually I think Vako could get on the end of a few. But Magnus would have to adjust his game a bit. Can't try too many thru balls.

 

Not saying it WILL happen, but I hope that Cummings could turn that question mark into an exclamation point. I'd love to see him step in and become as much of a force as Muma was.

 

Even if he does, that is not enough. One, what happens if he gets injured. Two, we still don't have another good CB to enable Flo to play CDM. Affolter is pretty "meh".

 

I don't know how this is going to shake out. I keep looking at the guys we have and thinking that we've got some serious duplication of skills, which means that someone (or more than one) has to go. I'm never going to see the lineup that I want, but maybe we're just going to be really deep at every position?

- - - - - - - Hoesen - - - - - - - Magnus
- - Hyka - - - - - - - - - Vako - - - - - - - TT
- - - - - - - - - Flo - - - - - - - - - Godoy
- - - - - Qwiberg - - Cummings - - Lima
- - - - - - - - - - - - - Andrew

That leaves a lot of "starters" on the bench.

I still think that we need another pure striker or two. Wondo to play supersub. Ceren to do I don't know what.

Oh and Ockford can fit into the backline too. Maybe we see Qwiberg, Cummings, and Ockford as the back three and Lima at outside mid?

Or we play four in the back with Qwiberg, Cummings, Ockford, and Lima. Maybe like this?

- - - - - Vako - - - Wondo - - - Magnus
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - TT
- - - - - - Godoy - - - - - - - Flo
Qwiberg - - Cumminngs - Ock - Lima
- - - - - - - - - - Andrew

Stahre likes to play a 4-3-3, yes?

More good players is always a good thing though!

Go Quakes!!

- Mark

 

It will be interesting to see him in MLS. If you ask me he was one of the best players in allsvenskan last year but had a bit varying performances and when im talking to my friends in Djurgården they don't see it as a catastrophy to lose him. Also I think had a big advantage of having some of the best players in the league around him in the midfield.

Some postive things is that he has a great mentality, good on the second-balls that might be a advantage in the MLS where its (what ive heard) alot of longballs? Also a really nice and funny guy, but with a terrible haircut even though there was a "striker-crisis" in Djurgården this year he was never used as one and proabably will play in the central midfield, right midfield or as a number 10 in San Jose.

 

@gevalia90, thanks much for your insight.

Our league (MLS) has been getting away from long-ball play for years. Some of our clubs still suck of course, but in general the level of play improves year by year.

I'll hoist a glass of aquavit in your general direction.

Go Quakes!!

- Mark

 

Regardless of if he plays forward or attacking mid, I'll be keeping track of goals and assists of Eriksson vs Ureña next season just for curiosity's sake...

 

My prediction:

He will score at about the same rate (for Urena last year, about 8 goals pro-rated to a full season's worth of minutes - that is actually about how many non-PK goals Magnus scored as "Golden Boot winner" last year), but more assists (Urena had 3 projecting out to about 5 on a full season of minutes).

 

Forward speed is preferred, but not a requirement for a good through ball. What you NEED is both players to be on the same page. So Magnus makes the pass into the path of the run that he knows Vako will make and Vako starts the run and jumps the defender knowing the pass is coming.

Of course, we have no idea if Magnus/Vako or Magnus/Wondo or whoever will ever get to that level of understanding.

Without that, yes, you need speed.

 

We could use a reliable PK taker! Those goals count just a much.

 

Well, we know Wondo is taking those if he is in the game. Quakes FO wants him to be the all-time MLS scorer so they can market the hell out of it.

 

There is a whole continuum from yeah you really jumped the defender beautifully and timed it perfectly to OK the attacker and the forward got the same jump or the defender actually got the jump. You're going to get everything in that continuum. You can't expect to get the timing perfect every time. So you want a forward with some speed that can win some of the less than perfect ones. I think Wondo can only win the perfect timing ones where the defender is half asleep. Seriously how many times has he been put thru in the last couple of years?

With Vako it's a little better, and he can also fend off defenders with strength and comtrol.

 

Looking forward to seeing Magnus and Qwiberg play, and Stahre coach, at IKEA Stadium. I mean if we're going Swedish, might as well go all out.

 

That's actually a great idea. Isn't Avaya in financial trouble?

 

I got your Ikea Stadium right here: