MIKE GAVIN > 2008's Ty Harden??

Randolph is not a finished product, no argument there, he's a promising project. But the potential upside, combined with the fact that he's a natural left footer and can play both back and mid, is enough for me to say he's not going anywhere. We need the depth and don't have any money to get anyone better at this point.

Having said that trading young talent seems to be par for the course with the Galaxy, so who knows.

 

must agree with refn. giving up on a second year player who hasn't followed through as many expected for another rookie who's having a good season is very short-sighted.

maybe Randolph will recover his form, maybe Gavin will get injured or endure his own sophmore slump.

not to mention Randolph and Gavin are cheap, it's nice to have backup.

if anything I suspect jazic could find himself off to Toronto. he's expensive, a senior international dumping and if gavin, Randolph, or both are capable starters he's superluous.

 

I'm with Dash. I think that the only thing keeping Jazic on the roster right now is the injury - hard to move damaged goods and I don't think LAG can cut him while he is injured.

As to the Gavin/Harden comparison. Think about this: Gavin was a supplemental draft pick. I am pretty sure Harden was a relatively high pick in the super draft. Very few supplemental picks ever pan out for much. So, if Gavin has even a serviceable career, he is a testiment to our oft-maligned scouting.

Or we were flat out lucky and thought we were selecting somebody else....

 

If nothing else, doesn't this just mean Randolph could get that LM spot everyone keeps talking about?

 

I agree with shipping Jazic out. I don't think he is more valuable to the team than either Gavin or Randolph and he is a lot more expensive. But right now he is protected by his injury.

 

Whispers out of Carson?!?!?!?

Really, dude?

 

gavin > randolph ???

you are taking the piss right???

 

It's not as if Gavin's done better than Randolph, other than scoring in a scrimmage against a PDL team...

 

Actually Gavin has improved every game this preseason. The game against FCD he shut down just about every attack that came his way. I wouldn't be surprised if he won the LB spot. He needs to read the game a bit better and be a bit quicker with his passes but so far he looks promising.

 

Gavin could wear #60, just like Jeff Parke.

 

I read that Gavin earned a senior contract, which supports the idea that he's the starter.

 

I may be the only one here of this mindset, but I am of the opinion that Gavin has looked outright awful in many of the matches he has played this pre-season. He should in no way be a starter. Maybe I've missed something that Ruud hasnt.......

Regardless of Jazic being an SI and expensive, he is leaps and bounds ahead of Gavin. I would expect to have him playing as soon as he is fit given the state of our back line right now. Randolph also has to have been pretty bad so far to have lost his place.

The positive to Gavin in my opinion is that he has alot speed.

The negatives are that he is so inaccurate with his passing and distribution that I am not sure he could hit the broad side of a bright red barn if put under pressure. In addition, his positional and tactical sense is really poor. He reminds me of a labrador retriever running about after the ball with no sense as to what else is going on around him. That's scary given that directly to his right are the tactically more sound but woefully slow pairing of Vanney and Xavier. Those two are most likely not quick enough to be able to provide consistent cover for what I am sure will be the numerous times Gavin will be caught out of positition this year.

Some of these things can be corrected by good coaching, and hopefully Ruud can help this kid to improve. Even still, having him as a starting back makes me very, very uncomfortable.

 

I think you're with the majority. I was one of the few who liked what I saw from the first game he played, and I think everyone agrees he has improved. His give & go goal at the fanfest looked pretty good on the blog.

Anyhow, I kind of wish Tudela had gotten the same amount of chances in the preseason. I think he has quality & could help us out quite a bit. It's a long season & we'll need Gavin & Tudela and Jazic & all of our depth if we're going to be decent.

 

I'm one of the ones that liked Gavin as well, and still do. However, I think Randolph has much more attacking flair than Gavin does, and that's one of the major roles of a fullback in this game. You have to be strong defensively, quick, a good passer and even push up and overlap to assist in the attack. That's something that Randolph did in abundance last year, both good and bad sometimes. I always likened Randolph to a younger, poor-man's Patrica Evra in the way he moves on the field and pushes up in the attack.

So in my opinion Randolph should be out there helping the squad before Gavin, but competition for places is what we want. It breeds excellence and that's a good thing.

 

People, people, people! Let's get a hold of ourselves. I know we haven't had any meaningful games in five months but its this kind of delusional thinking that gets us in trouble. Randolph reminds who of Patrice Evra? Why, because he is short, fast and black? (talk about racial stereotypes, and no I'm not calling anyone here racist, just delusional) That's where all comparison stops. He's an proven kid, just like Gavin. Some like Gavin, some don't. What do you all say we just wait and see him play a game or ten before the Paolo Maldini comparisons come next.

It is certain that the Jazic injury and Harden 'retirement' has effed up our back line. We might have effectively made a trade with Jazic to Toronto when they actually needed him. Now our hands are tied. Harden leaving hurt the most. This kid could have been a player but we threw him to the wolves last year, traded his central defensive partner away and then rode him into the ground. Paying him shite wages didn't help our cause either. Imagine a back line of:
Burciaga, Harden, Xavier and Klein with Franklin, Roberts, Randolph Valentin as your backups. maybe Franklin starting by mid-season. With the uncertainty at CB we had to go get Vanney instead and put an unproven Gavin at LB.

The way the salary cap dictates things in this league we will ALWAYS have to rely on young college kids with no experience or cheap Latin American imports. Its just what's so. We don't need our left back to win games for us, just don't lose them. We've got plenty of match winners in LD, Ruiz and Beckham. Guys like Gordon, Buddle and Allen will play cameo roles, and if the goalkeeping holds up we'll be just fine. We're not as deep as Houston but after that who else in the West is truly more talented than we are?

Now come on people, back to the Smurf hating threads, fire Sigi!, I mean fire Ruud! threads and how many games will DB miss this year due to England call ups threads.

 

Gavin's got the cool hair thing going on. That alone should make him a starter.

 

Well then I'm in the minority. I think our defense has looked much better so far this year than last. Vanney is a big upgrade over Harden, for starters. And I'll take the inexperienced hustling Gavin over the experienced slow Jazic.

Last year our defenders let the opposition get headers or shots off from corner kicks and free kicks with disturbing regularity. In several years of watching MLS I've never seen so many balls bouncing around on the ground in the box. But so far this preseason our defense is clearing corners 90+% of the time. Seldom is the ball bouncing around loose in the box and we are better at quickly closing down opposing forwards on the wings. Maybe it's the competition being softer, but I don't think so. Dallas got almost no dangerous shots off against us and that was with Gavin in the back line.

My prediction for this year - barring injury to Pires, X, or Vanney- is that against all except the top teams, we will give up - on average - maybe 2 or 3 good shots on goal until the final 15 minutes of the game instead of the 8 to 10 we seemed to give up last year. So the opposition will have to be efficient with their shots to beat us early.

But the last 15-20 minutes may be tough because Pires and X will be a bit winded by that time. Hopefully our improved possession game will take some of the pressure off the back line and smart subs and Donovans ability to run all day will be make us dangerous as well in the waning moments of the game.

 

I expect Allen to impress more than Gavin, but both seem to improve every game... lets hope that continues into the season.

It would be pretty impressive to have two rookies find success down the left together.

 

Actually no, not because he's short, fast and black but because he pushes up into the attack and does fairly well when doing that. I said I think he reminds me of a poor man's Evra for that reason, and not for the stupid ass reasons you stated.

Did you really even need to bring something like that up? That's kind of foolish and narrow-minded to even broach that subject, if you ask me.

 

A poor man's Evra. Come on! Why not an Eddie Lewis comparison? I'll tell you why. Because his defending is poorer that Lewis' and his contribution to the attack is non-existent. Randolph played in nearly 20 games last year and took one (1) shot and registered one (1) assist. His passing is poor, he gets caught upfield too often on the counter-attack and he is not a threat to score goals (except maybe on Playstation). He is fast and many folks here consider him an "exciting" player. There is long way to go from "exciting" to actually talented.

And what subject did I broach that was too holy or un-PC to discuss? That I dismissed your comparison to Evra because he might resemble Evra physically but his play doesn't come close is an affront to you? Get over yourself. Its a Goddamn message board. There are a million different opinions here, many of which think I'm an idiot. That's OK junior. I can handle popular rejection, I taught middle school for many years, coached HS girls (who are as fickle as the human species gets) and I am hugely unpopular with my own family on many an occasion. TequilaJoal thinks I'm a mindless myopic, uclacarlos doesn't think I have enough post-graduate education to understand any of his points and now you are offended because I might have overlooked the fact that you are undoubtedly the king of your MLS fantasy league two years running, and you know when guy reminds you of Patrice Evra or not. Good for you. Can we just agree to disagree without somebody crying?

This is why the off-season is too long.

 

I think Gavin may be the best choice at LB right now because we need a slighly more "stay at home LB" with Vanney in the middle. Randolph is just a little too adventurous going forward and I am scared silly by Greg, footspeed-wise.