Saturday 25 Jul 2020

TSV1967 Munich
Tough Situation Vicinity

 

Trabsonpor?

 

Knew that because of one Fabian Castillo.

 

Posted this elsewhere when the Mark McKenzie rumors started but the same applies here: going to the SPL, even with Celtic, is a step down. The few games you get in Europe against teams that are better than MLS teams doesn't offset the fact that most of your games are against teams that would be wooden spoon contenders. Last year they had a couple games against Rennes and Lazio. Those two teams are better providing they cared and played a first team. They lost to FC Copenhagan, a team that is probably slight bit better than a top MLS team. That is it. The year before they got Leipzig, Valencia, and maybe you throw Salzburg in there. 17/18 they got the the UCL group stage and got trashed by PSG (5-0 at home and 7-1 away) and beat by Bayern (5-1 over two games).

Is that a worthwhile trade to go to a league that mainly shops for players in League Two or lower? Kilmarnock bought a 27 year old striker with 5 goals in 25 games in the National League (and had 0 goals in 13 games above the National League) and he immediately became a starter. 11 other players were brought in from League Two sides to mainly be starters. MLS is bad because of BWP being a League One player (despite the fact he had more minutes in the Championship than League One). Aberdeen finished 4th last year with Shay Logan (a player that had far more League One experience than any other level in England), Funso Ojo (never played above League One in England), Niall McGinn (only played in League One in England and managed 7 games in K-League 1), and Sam Cosgrove (has 44 goals for Aberdeen after scoring 1 goal in 8 games in League Two and could barely get on the field in the National League). But McKenzie would be better off defending players like that and a 37 year old Jermaine Defoe (who scored 17 goals for Rangers last year) than players who are fringe national team players or full national team players. Aaronson is better off playing basically League One or Two defenses instead of teams with defenders that play for their national teams in South America.

 

Thank you for doing the work on this. It's similar to what I have said before, though I would also add that most leagues in Europe are entirely top heavy, which means that even if you play for a Porto or Feyenoord or Liege, you'll be seeing a lot of wooden spoon contenders in any league. Robbie Keane talked some about this in MLS, how you always had to prepare because the teams were so close in quality.

 

There is no such thing as a big club in MLS.

 

Arthur Blank doesn’t mess around....

 

Somehow I think the last three games were merely the final; straw. This was a questionable hire from the start, and FDB never seemed to fit that team from the get go.

 

Its still quite a 180, going from a team where everything they did came up roses to a team which cant seem to do a single thing right.

Ive been saying all season that they just arent a good side, even with Josef, but for them to stink this badly you really have to look at the coach.

 

Particularly if the coach was one of the reasons you dumped several popular players (Gressel and LGP. Nagbe wanted to go back to Ohio so I don't throw him in there) to get players to fit his system. You've got possibly the best scorer in MLS history up top, a player that you should be able to sell for 25+ million and was leading a team as an 18 year old led his team to a Copa Sudamericana title, and a player that was recently the South American player of the year. Even if one of those pieces is out you shouldn't score 0 goals over 270 minutes in some tournament. It doesn't help that it seems like the players hated him. There are stories of players routinely storming out of practice and a whole group of them cheering within earshot of him when Tottenham beat Ajax. When the technical director (Bocanegra) is down on the sidelines talking to players DURING A GAME you have to assume everyone knows that the coach has lost the locker room.