If Gruezo can really be the destroyer (ala Alanso), it affords us the ability to play both Monteiro and Nico. However, I don't think our CBs are good enough to play with just one destroyer. We still need an empty bucket.
Cut me a break will ya? I was waiting in the ER for 3 hours last night with that stupid covid, God this sucks.
Sorry, my crystal ball was malfunctioning, couldn't see that you were in the ER. Hope you feel better soon!
Ha! yeah, but why would you ever want Montiero's dead end ball hogging taking touches away from Nico...minimizing his effectiveness. I also think Luchi will value Yueill's game at the 8 and have him in the starting mix more often than not. My question is how long will it take Luchi to realize Niko at ACM makes the team function so much better than Montiero at ACM...and how long before we see the actual change... What's the over/under on that...mid-season?
Probably June. I do warn everyone who will probably turn on Gruezo eventually. He is a very physical player. Card machine. He will miss games because of it.
Get better soon, @Beerking! My fully vaxed son got it a couple of weeks ago, and it hit him hard for 5 days. And apparently with this variant, you stay positive for typically 10 days (son was 7 days pos)
My kids were both sick a few months ago; they had not been eligible for the booster I got last spring and I didn't get sick, nor did my husband -- who also got the spring booster. Both took ten days for a negative test. My mother got covid in November; I'd insisted on her getting the bivalent booster a month earlier (her doctor hadn't even mentioned it!) and when she came back from a conference (where I'm sure she didn't wear a mask) she was sick. She refused to test for days "just a cold" and when she finally agreed to do a home test, she got the paxlovid but it was really too late -- you're supposed to start it within five days of testing positive and she'd probably been positive for over a week at that point. Anyway, for people who take paxlovid the way you're supposed to, ie early, it's very effective.
Me too. I like a very physical team. I loved the days when we had Mulrooney and Ekelund smashing everyone in the midfield and a backline with guys like Robinson, Califf, Dayak, Agoos and Waibel. To be really honest and optimistic, I think we're very close to that level of physicality right now with Akapo, Gruezo, Tracuo and Rodrigues. Nathan is the pussiest of them physically. We're close I feel. I'm very very inspired by the back. Defense wins championships, and we're building a very good one with. I'm optimistic Nathan will be a lot better with Gruezo, Rodrigues and Daniel around. We need good depth though. Gruezo, Rodrigues and Akapo will miss games for yellow cards or reds. Nathan is always due for one too.
According to whoscored Gruezo is not that bad in terms of getting yellow cards. He had 26 in around 100 games, and only 1 red. Nathan has a higher yellow rate in MLS so far than Gruezo had in MLS. But a lot of it is knowing how to make a challenge, timing, etc. Remedi's was our highest rate yellow guy by a good margin the last 2 years.
“MEDIA ASSETS: Earthquakes Introduce Designated Player Carlos Gruezo” (SJEarthquakes.com - Thursday, 2/2/23) GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
My unvaccinated QAnon nephew recently had all the symptoms, but he refused to get tested, because he said COVID was a hoax.
Its more or less a yellow card wait to happen. Ding Dong Hello. Step away from your math book for a minute and watch a soccer game.
Most of Remedi's were grab ass dumb yellows, stupid shirt tugs or clipping heels in low risk nothing situations...imo, the worst, because they're totally avoidable...but count the same in the disciplinary suspension total.
Thanks. Both Leitch and Luchi mentioned that Gruezo should help securing the midfield and the backline and free up our attacking players. That is spot on diagnosis. Besides the ineffective backline, often our games were lost because our midfield (Remedi, Judson, Gregus, Yueill) could not defend and could not attack. That midfield could be easily played through or stopped.
Other than that it was fine!! I've been trying to figure out how the heck we scored 52 goals, tied for 5th in the west, when 1) we played lots of possession w/o purpose (tiki taka), 2) we were often behind, playing against a packed defense, 3) we generally lacked movement in the final 3rd, and 4) our midfield was not strong on the attack. Seriously, how were we even that competent? I guess the play from our front 4 was generally actually not bad (Jebo, 2 wide attackers, and Monteiro).
Yeah, all goals are equal on the stat sheet but in reality, you would need to look at game situation to really tell the story. How many goals were meaningful in tight games versus how many were scored when we were significantly down in garbage time...with the other team just playing it out with their foot off the gas. I think we had more than a few of those...and I'd say it was normally Jebo getting the late consolation goal. The stat sheet shows we were 5th in the west in scoring...but the eyeball field test was... Wow, how will ever put the ball in the net with this lack of attacking continuity.
I think in some ways it's harder to score when you're behind, and the other team is just hanging back. It's easier to score more when you're ahead. We came back to tie late I think twice in the 1st 7 games under Matias. Those weren't garbage goals really because they converted a win into a tie. Most of Jebo's goals were quality I think and not garbage goals I think, including the one or two braces he had, which were wins IIRC. I think somehow our attack just wasn't as bad as we thought, and I attribute that to good play by Jebo, Espinoza, Benji and Cade, and (sorry), but also Monteiro.