We've been linked to a lot of guys that'd basically be replacements for Gio. Wonder how Gio feels about that.
#MLS has resumed its pursuit of Carlos Vela. #LAFC among the teams interested: https://t.co/LkzSQ4x3w4 #ElTri— Jeff Carlisle (@JeffreyCarlisle) May 2, 2017 US and LAFC have interest
Who would replace Gio that we have been linked with? Gio plays the second striker or #10 role, but so far we have been linked with Ibra (striker), Gignac (striker), and Vela (winger). None of those 3 play the same role Gio does.
I'd argue that Ibra, Gignac and Gio are all 9.5s, like Keane was, or effectively would be for us in this league. You're right, Vela's most likely to be deployed as a winger, I guess, but he's played that role too.
I’m sensing a theme Feb 25 - “In the case of Rafael [Garcia], I thought he had another really solid game at right back” Apr 11 - LA Galaxy Full of Praise for Rookie Defender Nathan Smith Apr 29 - Diallo Puts in Strong Performance Following Second Start
Agree with Doyle as well. And it's just disheartening for Gyasi who can't play his preferred position. Waste to move him out to the wing....again.
The Galaxy ads running on the web have “Buy Now” as the CTA. For the briefest of moments when I see it out the corner of my eye, my brain does a funny thing processing it as “Bye Now”.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: We need to sign a top central defender and move JvD to left fullback. That's a more natural position for him and he has proven to be very dangerous going forward. Cole can play the right for the rest of the year, then bye bye.
https://soundcloud.com/cornerofthegalaxy/tracks From this podcast, its suggested the Galaxy are the ones delaying a release of Rogers. wtf? Are they just waiting so they don't put the public pressure on themselves to sign a new player instead of promoting from within?
Van Damme was voted the 2nd best center back in the league last season. I don't think the issue is where he should be playing, but rather who he is playing with...
Robbie Rogers made a comment on one of his posts on instagram saying he was out for the season. It's probably buried somewhere now, but I came across it a week and he respond to someone asking how he was doing. He himself said he was out for the season. Maybe the club is debating on moving on from Rogers as he can't be relied upon to stay healthy. All I know is SKC benched one of the best right backs in the league when they moved Zusi to right back. I think that's a trade we should be looking into.
I've read that if we released him in time, we could have recovered a portion of his salary to get someone else, though. Anyone know the specifics?
Here's today's article on Pedro https://www.lagalaxy.com/post/2017/...ace-la-galaxy-and-ready-expanded-role-insider It's Serano with the "Primarily an offensive-minded central midfielder" and "Pedro, who played predominantly as a two-way midfielder in Portugal" but the narrative sure has changed. We get get rid of our DM (DeJong) and bring in a #8 (Jones) so naturally everyone assumes that we're getting another DM. But now it turns out that he was either a #10 or #8 in Portugal so he fills positions that are already taken and we still don't have a starting DM. This is on Pete.
Agree. Or going after any of other available decent outside backs who tend to be relatively cheap and plentiful. Bruce had no problem finding them whether they were unappreciated veterans* are talented draft picks. * Speaking of underappreciated veterans - Gargan. What a great find by Bruce. Less talented than Rogers (obviously) but Gargan read the game better and was better at picking his spots to push forward. Gargan also knew all the defender tricks for handling faster forwards- when to foul, how to attackers so they were less dangerous. While his final third passes were seldom spectacular he did have 5 assists** in two seasons and often made the pass that preceded the assist. He also was less likely than Rogers to launch blind crosses to no one that ended up being automatic turnovers and often put us under pressure due to quick counter-attacks. I'm not saying Gargan was a "fantastic defender" - he obviously made some mistakes. But he was solid, smart, dependable, and one hella bargain -- 45k in '14 raise to 125k in '15. ** For comparison - 377k Ashley Cole has 0 assists after 34 games.*** *** 34 games is 30 games plus 4 more games.**** ****I just wrote that because I'm caught up in an asterisk cycle.
I don't see his play as an issue, per se, but doing this would improve the defense, add flexibility, and improve the offense, too. There's no downside and potentially a huge amount of upside.
Calling Pedro an attacking minded midfielder is a it funny. He is a CM and we knew that when he was coming in. He played CM in a 442 and registered one goal and no assists. Pedro, a product of Vermil, Portugal, has been a part of Portuguese side Vitória Guimarães since 2005, when he joined the club’s youth academy. Since then, he has risen up the ranks to earn a starting position in central midfield on the first team in the Primeira Liga, Portugal’s top division. The Portuguese midfielder has helped his side to fifth place in the Liga Primeira standings this season, starting in each of his team’s 17 matches this year while scoring a goal. https://www.lagalaxy.com/post/2017/01/19/la-galaxy-sign-portuguese-midfielder-jo-o-pedro -From Jan when we signed him This is a spin to take the heat off of Pedro who has been getting cremed by fans
Thank goodness the transfer window is closed until summer - otherwise we might find out that Onalfo traded Van Damme away for 50k allocation money.
Dr. Phill beat me, while I was researching Joao on Transfermarkt. It sure is on Pete with Serano playing the role of Baghdad Bob. From what I can find in Transfermarkt, Pedro was hardly an offensive minded player. He had 1 goal and 1 assist total from his time at Guimaraes SC (10 starts out of 12 games over parts of 3 seasons). His time with the B team was less productive with 1 goal and 2 assists (72 starts out of 73 games). I don't know what formation his old club ran, but Transfermarkt had him playing 32 games as a Dmid, 43 as a Cmid, 2 as an Amid and 24 without a position. Since I can't get away without being snarky, I see that Joao is leading the Galaxy in yellow cards and accumulated 18 more with Guimaraes - almost all on the B team. So we probably have a yellow card suspension to look forward to
Here's some analysis of his former team http://www.portugoal.net/club-news/572-in-depth-team-analysis-vitoria-de-guimaraes He was part of a CM/DM tandem in a 4-5-1. They emphasize how closely he worked with the other CM which I guess is why he would be more comfortable with Husidic and be a bad pairing with Jones.
Abso-friggin'-lutley. If he really was an offensive midfielder, he was a terrible one for only having one goal and no assists. Transfermarkt has him playing CM in all games with us and Guimarães this season and 46 games at CM, 33 games at DM and 3 games at AM all time and WhoScored shows something similar (16 games at DM and 10 games at CM between us and Guimarães and I'm too lazy to try to separate the two). He's not an offensive midfielder. This is some total spin.
I guess the Galaxy could run a 4-5-1 but the question becomes who plays the Attacking mid role. But wait, the Galaxy did that the last 2 weeks with Jones as the Amid and he was roundly criticized for being an out of control "me" player because he played forward (kind of like an Amid is supposed to). And again for the record, I don't view Jones as being a good Amid candidate, he is totally a box to box mid. The Galaxy don't have a true Amid yet, although Lletget may become one. I guess with Jones out, the Galaxy could do what they did in the 2nd half of last week and go with Gio in that role and Zardes up top. Alternatively they could use Ema or Allesandrini. I wonder if the people who pillaged Jones for playing forward the last 2 weeks would also piillage one of these players? Somehow I doubt it.