Review: Best and Worst all time Chicago Fire DP Player

They are not false or lies, they are Opta/FBref stats that do not include generous hockey assists. I’m not going to bother looking to see if Katai had different MLS assist numbers, they are not how the rest of the world looks at it.

PKs are goals that count as goals and the person *selected* to take the score 79% of the time. The point of differentiation is the impact in free play is more meaningful…stop pretending you don’t understand this.

 

Stuff like that mostly runs in pairs, and he then chose a team with a pretty racist/homophobic fan base after getting run out of MLS due to his "wife's" views.

 

People might recall that The Hammer threatened to sit Blanco because he was out of shape.

 

Based on performance while in a Fire shirt, Shaqiri is probably already #4 or #5 on the list which admittedly is a low bar, but that is on the FO and ownership.

I definitely do not want this to be about Shaqiri, but after his stint with the Fire ends, he will likely end up in the conversation with the top 3 unless he is gone this summer or at the end of the season. The coaching shake up definitely changed the way the players are playing and fighting for every goal, point, and clean sheet they can get. The stats will pick up as well.

 

A lesson for those of you that weren’t around during the Hauptman Years. Andrew wouldn’t pay for DPs so instead, the GM/TD was essentially forced to save all GAM and TAM for two seasons and then in the third year blow it all on a few low tier DPs. It gave us one almost OK season every three years. It was harsh.

Shaqiri is our third best DP.

 

Blanco,nikolic, Bastian

 

See previous post. I didn't see Nikolic on my quick perusal of options and clicked Katai because he had some bangers and played my former position as attacking winger so I definitely enjoyed watching him play/dribble/create/score and admired how he played the position exactly like I think it SHOULD be played (although I'd invest more time on defense in my day). Of course who knew his wife was a Nazi? I didn't know but that doesn't take away from what he did. That being said he was capable and not an abject failure. It should be noted I was not a STH in the Freddy Ljungberg years but only following press from that era so I didn't see him play and therefore have no expertise on FL to be able to say.

Regarding Schweinsteiger he's definitely 2 behind Blanco for me because before him the Fire were a bunker/counter/Route 1 losing team and when Basti arrived (with help from Dax) they became a possession based team and turned things around (with help from Nikolic and Accam obviously). Additionally Basti didn't just show up and collect a paycheck and phone it in, he was a leader on and off the field and had the exact type of non selfish team mentality and professional example you want from a DP while putting his ego on a back burner for the club. That to me is more exemplary than whether his assist or goal total was very large. He singularly RAISED the on field level of the squad because he bought into the TEAM and by proxy the younger players did too.

Who was arguing for Shaun Maloney? He lasted like 6 games and spent most of that time traveling to Ireland for International games. To me he was a total bust.

I didn't vote for Shaqiri because the jury's still out on that experiment.

 

This is the sparkling image his handlers worked hard to promote and people keep repeating it, but off the field he was not exactly the best member of the club we've ever seen. I voted for him as our second best DP, but off the field he was a bit of a turd. He was more interested in photo ops wearing a Bears jersey at a Bears game or throwing out the first pitch at a Cubs game than doing anything for the club.

He steadfastly refused to have any involvement with supporters at any level. No one expects players to be available 24/7, but if a DP comes and refuses to even acknowledge a charity drive? We're not talking show up at the Food Depository for the hands on food drive event or even donate yourself. Just a tweet? No? Couldn't get him to acknowledge the 20th Anniversary party either. In the words of a former teammate of his: "Ben, he won't even return my calls."

There was more, and ultimately of course it is an individual's choice to not engage. But I'm not going to pretend he was ever present and lived up to the Mr. Wonderful image his handlers promoted.

I know, a lot of you loved him before he arrived (he was certainly a fantastic player over there and here) so have this spit polished image of him so I apologize that I don't believe he lived up to it. He wasn't that knight in shining armor.

All that said, I still enjoyed it when he tweeted good luck to the Fire before the season kicked off. I know he would have been paid to do it, but it is still nice that he acknowledged us. I was also literally shocked he did that podcast with Dax. Maybe he's softened up in his old age?

 

FWIW, I only voted for Blanco and Nikolic because Stoichkov and Nowak weren't on the list.

 

No he would not.

 

My reaction wasn't just that he was a terrible person, but also that I just believe that he was a reason the attack stopped working as a whole. The ball would always go to him and he would find some way to end the attack. A few times, that meant he'd score or he'd make the final pass, but most of the time he'd find some way to give up the ball. On a roster that had quite a few guys still there who were on that 2017 team, that just felt stupid. It felt that while he had talent, he made the team worse. This is just something I believe and I kinda have to argue every time someone brings up Katai before it just ends with us agreeing his wife is a Nazi.

 

both Katai and Nico Gaitan were often the two most skilled guys on the field in any given game, but it never produced wins

don't know enough to pin it on coaching or tactics or selfishness or what, but it was weird

they were really fun to watch though

 

Campos' being away for national team duty, and such, made Zach's rise and cementing of the position possible.
Never have I been so grateful for national team call ups.

 

I remember being at a game in 1998, (it might have been against the Galaxy), where right at the end, the Fire subbed Zach in and moved Campos to forward. I was really excited to see what happened, but then like immediately the other team scored and the game was over. I don’t think Camps even touched the ball. *sad trombone*

 

I remember that as well. It was kinda embarrassing.

 

Discussions about 3 greatest DPs and comments about other great Fire players make for an interesting read. Who on the current Fire and Fire II rosters will we be talking about as a great Fire player 10 years from now?