2013-2014 Off-season rumors, news, opinions and hijinks

The only thing I can disagree with is "feat" rather than "feet."
Another worry: DeLeon just got married. What will this mean for his conditioning? How good a cook is she? (Last year he looked to have been a frequent fast-food consumer.)

 

You understand that "Espy" is the player's nickname, yes?

 

Good lord. I didn't make that kind of mistake when I was younger.

 

In a 433, we have the potential to have positive midfield play with a number of other players - Silva, Espindola, Jeffrey and Arnaud (I know you don't rate Arnaud). Jeffrey isn't good in tight spaces, but he actually holds well and turns positively with his first touch. Silva and Espindola are better if this is what we need, even if the positions aren't their usual. Munoz looks to be good in tight spaces, but probably won't see the field for some time.

I prefer the 433 precisely because we have lots of "flexible forwards" and we will have trouble running the empty bucket or a diamond efficiently because of our midfield options. I don't know if that's part of the intent in signing the players we did, but we could have signed some decent midfield wingers if we'd wanted to. We didn't. That almost makes me think the 433 may be the go-to formation this year.

Do you think that's likely? Do you think it matters?

 

Your entire post is on point, but I see it differently. If there is a facilitator, all those other pieces are much, much more potent. You're asking for all of the midfielders to have that aspect to their game, and I think that's unrealistic.
At best, Kitchen is the destroyer, Pontius/DeLeon are wide players who attack/defend. If they perform their roles, that's what you want. Where it falls apart is in the middle, with either one or two players to facilitate. As it stands, it's either sacrifice combinations higher up the field and go with Arnaud sort of next to Kitchen, or sacrifice the heart of the midfield in hopes that something can be gained offensively with Silva, or play both Arnaud(Jeffrey) and Silva with only one forward. What United needs, imo, is a player, one player, who can bridge that gap by himself, and therefore allow the role players, whatever level they may be at (an above average level, imo), to perform their roles.

 

You're preaching to the choir, but no, I don't think it will ever happen with Olsen in charge.
Compact and moving in unison centrally, with creative players free to create yet pressed to be in constant motion. I could sink or swim with that dynamic.

 

Not really, because I don't get the impression that Olsen would go that route.

It's not clear to me who the outside attacking players would be. There might be an argument for putting EJ there since Klinsmann has been known to start him outside; but given how hard we found it to score last year, and thus the problem he was brought in to solve, I think there'll be a lot of (understandable) desire to put him as close to the goal as possible. I question whether Pontiuis and DeLeon will have the jets to play that role. Does Espindola? TBH, I didn't pay a lot of attention to how Jersey used him last year.

 

I certainly understand the frustration, but I hope things aren't that dire.

1. Part of the problem here is that Jeffrey, Martin and Silva are so young and inexperienced, there is little to no body of work to project a whole season's production on. All three have talent, they are just big question marks. If one of them steps up, things change markedly in midfield, otherwise DCU has the problems you identified.

2. I largely agree. However, for an almost DP salary, he better be practicing and refining multiple attacking moves. If not, time to move him.

3. Do you have any evidence Nick has been filling up with Sara Lee during the offseason? He had a bad second year, but that isn't unusual in this league. I'm not willing to be that hard on him at the moment. I always have to remind myself that most of these players are the same age as my son. There are times he does incomprehensible things, it's called being young.

4. Kitchen regressed last year, but the entire team sucked. It's just very hard to figure what his potential upside is. He had lousy defenders behind him and lousy forwards in front of him. He now has two solid centerbacks behind him and in EJ and Espindola, two proven forwards in front. Let's see how he works with that. In late 2012, I thought he was on the threshold of becoming a real beast but part of that must have been the confidence he had in his teammates. Last year, another story.

Anyway, my two cents.

 

I don't think so; you might be parsing me incorrectly here. These are skills that everyone has to some degree, even you and me, rather than has/does-not-have kind of things. I tried to explicitly say that I don't think everyone needs to be great at all these skills (I agree that that would be unrealistic); rather, my argument is that everyone needs to be a lot better at these aspects of their game than they are right now, because most other starting midfields in MLS *are*. To put it another way, I'm simply saying that on these qualities, Perry Kitchen suffers in comparison to most starting dmids in MLS, Pontius/DeLeon suffer in comparison to most starting outside midfielders in MLS, etc. I'm not making an absolute statement about how good anyone is, or should be, but rather a relative one.

Putting aside the question of whether these three players can even do the above well . . .in MLS today, I claim that if that's all you get out of them, that's not sufficient. The league is better than that now. You have to be able to expect a little more out of your DM than that, because other teams are getting it. Teams are good at trapping wide midfielders against the touchline and pressing them now; ours need to be able to consistently make better decisions on what to do with the ball. And so on.

I agree with everything here; but it's just one part of the story, to me.

 

Since DeRo and Pajoy were not only unable to produce, but net negatives on the field, the burden of production fell on Pontius, DeLeon and Kitchen. They couldn't handle it, for whatever reason. To me, they seem like strong complementary players, but once again they will be asked to do it all for that midfield. There is a silver lining in the cloud because EJ/Espy and the new and improved backline will help them out tremendously, more than I expect probably, but in the end for this team to be a real challenge to the throne, they are still missing that A-One player in the midfield.
It was probably too much to ask for all the problems to be solved in one offseason, I just hope the team realizes they can still get much, much better with better talent in such a crucial position as center mid.

 

Poor Perry Kitchen, he really suffers by comparison to others because of the team he plays on and the teammates he plays with. Beckermann, while better than Kitchen, isn't much without Morales. Rosell, while a nice young player, has Nats crawling out of the woodwork to combine with. If you look at all the good teams, it's the same, there is one (or two) central midfielder that can make it all happen.
Give Perry Kitchen one of those and then we would be able to judge his level a little better, I think.

 

Back to the 4-3-3, Pareja is going with that in Dallas:

“There are some variations in a 4-3-3 depending on the three in the middle,” Pareja told MLSsoccer.com on Tuesday at his official club unveiling. “If you want to do it with the triangle inverted, if you want to do 2-1 or 1-2. I like the wingers, I like that way. Probably the majority of my time in Colorado, it was like that. We will be looking at the personnel, but that would definitely be a formation I would be very [keen] to develop here.”

Later in the article, these players are mentioned as making up the middle portion of the midfield: Mauro Diaz, Adam Moffat, Peter Luccin, Andrew Jacobsen and Kelyn Acosta.

We'll see how it goes with that, but I can't believe United couldn't come up with at least as convincing a triangle out of Silva, Kitchen, Arnaud, Jeffrey, Neal, DeLeon, Pontius and Martin. Wings could be settled between Espindola, Pontius, DeLeon, Porter, Francois, Doyle, Seaton, with EJ, Doyle or Seaton as the spearhead.

Actually, looking at it personnel wise, it doesn't look terrific, but there would be more flexibility and better understanding of roles. I don't know, I may have just typed myself out of the idea.

 

I'll be happy if they get back to scoring goals. I won't sweat the small stuff then.

 

I agree given our roster, whoever you put outside will be hard pressed to be a field-spreading winger. I wouldn't put EJ there unless there was an overwhelming tactical reason - like we need him there to exploit a weakness. It's not going to look traditional, and we'd depend heavily on the overlapping play of our wingbacks.

Frankly, we should be lights out on set plays this year. We just need to make sure we have someone on the field at all times that can deliver the ball on a dime in the box. From a goal-scoring perspective, that's going to be even more likely to net us wins than having a done-and-dusted midfield lineup. I don't know who that guy is, but we'd better make sure he's already on our team when the season starts.

 

Could not agree more...

 

Welcome to the onset of middle age. I never confused they're, there and their when I was young, either, but now my fingers seem to have a mind of their own...or is it they're own?

 

I went digging for more video of Francois than the one goal against Duke. Check out goal #7 on this video. Pretty sweet. I hate to say this but he reminds me of Adu. The real lesson from this video: We're going to regret not having taken Mullins!

 

Yeah. I don't know who that guy is either. Might could've been Pappa.

I'm hoping for a midfield, because it's more fun to watch.

But I'm betting Kasper provides us with neither.

 

Two things came to mind when reading this thread lately. Did this team improve enough (no question they improved!) and are all the holes filled to the level of current MLS competition ( as obviously they are filled better than last year).

I would say yes and yes. Will this team win MLS Cup? Um, no. Will they be a decent team and/or make the playoffs? Yes, if given the chance.

The team improved enough to be decent when they became able to start EJ (Doyle), Pontius(Seaton), Espindola (Deleon), Silva (Martin), Arnaud (Jefferey), Kitchen(Neal), Attakora(Korb or Kemp), Parke(Shanosky), Boswell(Birnbaum), Franklin(Korb), and Hamid (Willis). Play any kind of 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 hybrid and that team can compete in MLS. Not great, but not horrific either. Subs listed in parentheses after first choice players.

So, where are their biggest weaknesses? Leaving aside erratic things like will EJ tank the locker-room or will Pontius be injured and Deleon will clean out the buffet budget, which are incalculable variables, The biggest weaknesses seem to be at left back - No clear starter there. And in what formation they play as this team could easily play a 4-3-3 and be reasonably deep in every position. Mid level MLS deep anyway, assuming they play with a decent amount of heart and determination, something Ben should be able to provide. But that s another discussion.

I think if Ben sticks to his guns and says we are a straight up 4-4-2 and I don't care what anyone thinks, well then we might well struggle (no clear wingers, no clear orchestrating force in midfield, only one attacking back on the roster, etc. ). If he looks at the players he has and plays them to their strengths in positions that suits them, well then we can get somewhere with this team. And certainly build for the future.

This is a decent collection of players. This team should make the playoffs and get out of the CCL at the same time. If they don't, I would have a very hard time not blaming the coaching staff unless there are horrific injuries or something beyond normal operations.

My .02

 

Good points. Now I'm more depressed than I was with this team. Thanks.

 

I really hope that Olsen doesn't play EJ or Espindoal on the outside. EJ doesn't know how to play wing midfield and Espindola's talents are wasted out there. Both of them are flat out forwards and should be used as such.

 

Growing old starts to get old. It's easier to laugh off when it's purely physical things like not being able to run any sort of distance anymore.

 

That was actually my first thought when viewing the video yesterday. I'm not at all interested in visiting that place and they didn't sell it at all. I looked forward to the Auto Show a few years ago for the third... At least that felt like an event.