Some good plays today and one classy finish to ice the game. Love him as a super sub and spot starter. I'm fine with him as the starter when Santos or Pontius need a rest or if we need Pontius as an outside mid for any reason. I'm not sure if Santos and Salihi would work well together though. They seem similar enough and neither has enough speed. They could be a handful for a team with weak and/or small centerbacks though.
Worked out, got 3 points, Salihi nets his second goal and liked what I am seeing from him. Liking this "problem" of three competitive goal scorers up top.
Great finish from him today. I think though we are starting to see the backslide from Santos. A very selfish match against San Jose (was more concerned with making SportsCenter on numerous 40-yard shots than in making the smart soccer play and feeding team mates who were making open runs in on goal) and pretty much a non-factor today (aside from the numerous turnovers, which he tends to do when he over thinks situations). That being said, not having an aerial presence against Houston is tantamount to suicide offensively against them. Also to consider is the Wed-Sat-Sat schedule upcoming after the match against Houston. Granted those three matches are all home games, but Ben has some tough decisions for the Houston match if he wants to take advantage of the Colorado-TFC-NE Revs trifecta upcoming at RFK.
Maybe not Santos and Salihi, but maybe Pontius and Salihi ... I could see that working situationally against some of the less mobile defenses in the league where you get more joy from finding open space than you do from posting up. Of course you need an effective midfield for that because if the strategy is the McDonald long ball, then it's Santos all day.
Talk about a poacher's goal, and he made it look so easy people aren't really responding to that shot's level of difficulty. On a team creating chances from both the run of play and set pieces, a poacher with that kind of technique can feast.
He's starting to get the chances I talked about in the original post; but those chances aren't coming from one of the two situations mentioned earlier -- dangerous service when he's in dangerous places -- but rather from the other situation, from chaos in the box where the ball falls to him and he takes his chance well. Emilio was king of stuff like that, and it's nice to see Salihi putting them away as well. If there was some way I could wave a wand and magically put him and the midfield on the same page, so that he started to get just the right passes at just the right times, I think he could score a lot of goals for us.
Thanks for getting back on topic, everyone. We have differing opinions at times. Let's leave it at that, okay?
He will replace one or the other in the lineup, depending on the situation. Where Santos' holding abilities would be very helpful, maybe he gets a start, while Pontius moves into the midfield or bench. Where the team is trying to press the attack, it will be Santos who sits.
Santos has been a very pleasant surprise, and I like his strength with his back to the goal, but I think he has become a bit too enamored of his left foot and has been taking too many ambitious shots. Salihi strikes me as being a much more sophisticated striker.
he strikes me as the kind of player who may need an occasional benching to remind him that he needs to play for the team first
It is tough to get mad at a guy who likes to shoot, though. It seemed like United players have had a phobia of taking a shot in the last couple of years.
Exactly. Plus when an opponent bunkers, you really need someone that can pull the trigger from distance. IIRC, he's hit 1 or 2 from outside the box this year, so I didn't have a problem with him trying it in this match. We wouldn't be having this discussion if he had hit one of them.
no, I recognize that it's a fine line, I've just got the impression a couple times in the last two games that when he's had the ball and the proper play has been to move and pass and move some more he's had the idea "f&*ck it, I'll just shoot." And I value the occasional shot intended to keep the defense on their toes. But on the other hand, there IS a reason he's been a journeyman MLS player and from accounts it has a lot to do with work rate and discipline...I don't expect a player like that to go a whole season without an occasional reminder of what he needs to do to ensure success. It may just be the way he is.
I'll never get down on a forward for shooting, even if a pass is the better option, it's just the right mentality to have for a forward. But if he misses the net too often, then you have try someone else.
I say if he's scoring let the man shoot. He may take a lot of wild chances but they DO go in and he's been clutch for us.
Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! As a team we have 6 goals from outside the box already. That's more than we had for entire seasons towards the end of the Moreno era. We have about 5 players who can light it up from distance (Santos, De Ro, Pontius, Najar and Bosko) I say let them shoot.
Totally. You realize with 20 goals for, only the quakes have more, and that's just one more. I'm thrilled we seem to be able to break the goal line with some confidence after the last few years. If we can get the back line solidified, we're a real threat.
What are we like 1 or 2 goals short of our 2010 total? Shoot. Shoot. Shoot. Unrelated to Santos in particular, because I don't think he and Salihi work together well (yet?), but with Salihi in the line-up I would encourage guys to shoot even more - rebounds and stuff seem to be his favorite.