True, but equally true is league position at the end of the season historically doesn't seem much of a predictor of post-season performance.
You know that what you reproach to Rogers (and I agree with your criticism though Rogers is far from being our number 1 problem), you can say the same about Boateng? He's active but his cross is always a little bit high or deflected by a defender, his shots look dangerous but he never scores... Fun player to watch but almost never decisive in the end. And I say it again : Gio is out best DP this year (or at least the more useful).
I was referring to the CLB's first dangerous shot on goal, not the first one shown in the Instant Replay. Below is a vid of Duka's strike and Rowes very good save about a minute and a half into the game. The shot comes from the player Rogers was marking at the beginning of the play. In fairness Rogers was put in a position where he did have to shade to the middle to slow down a free runner but the shape of Rogers run on the help defense and subsequent recovery to try to shut down his man left a lot to be desired. In isolation it wasn't that bad but I've watched him lose track of the man running over his shoulder so many times I'm sensitized to it. Also my comments regarding Rogers generally being unsuccessful in the final third is backed by several seasons of data: over four seasons and 60 games started he has averaged 0.5 goals and 1.75 assists per season. This despite being on a top team and having Robbie Keane and Gyasi Zardes as available finishers and despite Rogers being extremely successful at getting into the final third. Note I'm not saying I don't like the guy - I can mixed feelings about a player. Nor am I saying he never does a good play in the final third - I'm just saying they are much rarer than you would expect from a guy of his talent. http://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/ma...alaxy-vs-columbus-crew-sc/details/video/87983
I agree, but don't see this as being likely. The Galaxy have 2 more games (home and away) against the class of the league in FC Dallas and play RSL at Rio Tinto.
100% true of Boateng as well. Both players tend to get in the box and then either a) hit and hope or b) pick out their target and then miss them a bit, or c) telegraph their pass and it gets picked off. That being said they create a hell of a lot more hope and excitement than most of the other players on the team.
Keane is one of the millionnaires and he I've seen many a game where he was playing harder than anyone else on the field. Becks was a millionaire and after the first season or so he played as hard as anyone on the field. Same for Donovan. We just happened to get a couple millionaires who either don't have the legs anymore (Gerrard) or don't like to play defense (Gio).
After seeing UCLA lose and USC getting blown away yesterday my family needed a lift Rogers would have had two assists yesterday instead of one if Seb had finished an easy chance. If I recall earlier in the game there was also one or two other crosses that just needed a decent head on the ball. I know what you are saying though. Rogers is good but would be great if his cross was better and he would finish regularly. But he has been a key part of Cups with two teams so I feel that Arena was brilliant in putting Rogers in a position where his pluses outweigh his minuses by a lot. He certainly has returned from injury looking very sharp which I did not expect. If Da boy and Rogers had not played dangerously last weekend (he had 115 touches) that could have easily been a loss. Comparatively speaking-Cole has been very inconsistent for a former Premier league player. I expected more from him. A lot more. AJD is a fine center back and it troubles me greatly that he is not permanently planted in that spot because he settles the team down but he is not effective as a back.
Robbie Keane is a greater finisher but running out of gas. Hopefully he comes back from his vacation feeling inspired and ready to push this team to the Cup (but he usually comes back injured). I agree with Pastor that none of these guys make his teammates better except possibly Gerrard. Its too bad Gerrard isn't about 5 years younger. Gio is a big expensive disappointment for me so far. To Gio's credit though he scored a really critical goal last night. The biggest losses for me in the last two years is Donovan, Sarvas and Juni.
While I definitely agree that the criticism that Rogers gives up possession at times and more often than not his possession in the attacking third doesn't lead to dangerous chances, I think pastor's response was warranted given ragbone's overreaching extrapolation to "seldom has any positive impact on the game" and "money could be much better spent on another option next season" I'm not going to go into too much detail to support this, because I think it is pretty self-evident, but here's the short version. Our defense is something like 2nd best in the league, so defensively he can't be that spotty. He doesn't make the mental errors that Leo and Steres sometimes makes. He doesn't go walkabout like Cole or Van Damme on occasion. As far as offensive production, I think the real problem is a team problem - we don't get a lot of involvement from the rest of the team with our wide players. There are seldom multiple runners into the box. We tend to stand around off the ball with maybe one guy guarded by 3 defenders in the box. I feel like all of our wide attackers like Rogers, Boateng, Cole could use some better movement from our forwards but we just don't have guys big enough or explosive enough to get free in the box. True, Rogers right footed crossing can be terrible, but look at this comparison. Boateng F 1080M 1G 3A 4SOG Rogers D 1025M 1G 1A 3SOG Cole D 1687M 1G 0A 2SOG Rogers does all right. At $200K 29years old he's worth hanging on too more than Cole at 35yo and $300K. and it's clear the Galaxy can spend that money way worse. More of a concern is Rogers's health than his production on the field.
Yes like I said I have no problem with Rogers starting at a fullback position. He's a good but frustrating player and people must recognize his weaknesses, despite being "spectacular". What I like a lot about Rogers this year is that he looked as good at RB as he was at LB, and I didn't take this for granted at the beginning of the season. On the switch of position from Rogers : I think Bruce was a little bit lucky on this one. When we traded Magee for RoRo in 2013, it was clearly with the idea to play Robbie as a winger, where Magee mostly played. At the time I think Bruce had absolutely no plan to play him as a fullback. It's in 2014 (Rogers was often injured in 2013), after Dunivant's injury, that Robbie was moved to LB. Kudos to Bruce for having the idea because it worked (and I didn't take it for granted too), I can't imagine if we had traded Magee for nothing...
Yay!!!! Just glad to see some goals and get the win. Lletget got more and more comfortable as the game wore on. Hopefully we see him here again on Wednesday. Also liked what I saw from Mediola, Boateng and Rogers. They played with purpose as other have said. That's been nice after major snoozers.
I don't think that you are assessing Boating accurately. He is 6th on the team in terms of assists, 1 behind Magee. I have seen significant improvement in his game since the beginning of the season.
The other thing is Boateng's speed brings corner kick opportunities. I think he single handedly earned three last night, maybe two but I think three. The fact that we are inept and don't convert corners is a whole other story.
Take away that RSL game where Boateng was absolutely on fire (1 goal and 2 assists, POTW honor), and you've got 1 assist for the whole season. 19 games, 12 starts, 1080 minutes, but decisive in only 2 games. That said, I agree with your last sentence, and I agree with Cadaver on the corner kicks too. My point is not that Boateng is a lame, he has some qualities and he's getting better, but to me it's not justified to give him that much minutes. It's not normal that Villarreal (after being good when healthy in 2015) just played 17 minutes in MLS this year, and Mendiola 0 before Saturday's game.
Watched the slow-mo replay of Gio's goal on the LA Galaxy page and you can see a beer can thrown his way as he races to the corner to celebrate. Sad...
Sorry, but Ema provides pace and plays defense, something you want in a winger. Jose is not pacy and his defense rivals that of Dos Santos and Gerrard. In my view, Villareal is not a winger. his best position is as a withdrawn forward, and with that being both Dos Santos and Keane's best position, I don't think it is surprising at all that Villareal can't crack the 18.
Something you want from a winger is to break defense on the dribble and be clinical too. And this is not like Jose is slow and doesn't play defense... Villarreal played LW a few times last year (and this year in USL if I'm not mistaken) and that was a good idea given the congestion up top. He had a nice assist at Portland : Would have been logic to see more of him this year. Not saying he's a better winger than Boateng (it remains to be seen), but he has arguments to present.