2015 In-season Player Rumors & Movement

Maidana is almost surely gone.

 

was hoping casey and carroll got in as late subs to indicate they aren't returning

 

Why do you say that?

 

I thought it said a lot that Maidana did not play last night.

 

I think Maidana is gone. I'd say Maidana, Vitoria and Nando are all done.

 

What was his contract situation? I thought he was locked in for one more season for some reason...

 

It's far from cold hard evidence, but I did see this:

Started the season on the bench, ended the season on the bench, makes sense https://t.co/Rcwz16VFVc

— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) October 26, 2015

I like Chaco a lot, but his inconsistency is killer. At his best, he takes the game by the neck and pulls out some beautiful combination play. At his worst, he dwells on the ball too long and ends up losing it or he disappears. He really vanished in the Open Cup match.

I think Barnetta will be a great fit centrally. He may not have the creativity of Maidana, but he makes far quicker decisions which keeps the ball moving, gets himself into better positions, and provides more defensive work rate. Personally, I'd like to keep Chaco as a back up at that spot if given an opportunity.

On the plus side, moving Barnetta centrally opens up the left wing. Hopefully it gives us the incentive to sign an actual natural winger, one with speed and the ability to dribble past his man. I think we will end up with Seba still starting on the right flank, but at least we will have one upgrade.

 

He has one more season, but it's a team option. I get the feeling that they won't pick it up, because really they brought Barnetta in to play centrally.

 

I did a bit of looking at numbers this morning and compared games that it was just Barnetta playing, Barnetta playing with Chaco, and no Barnetta in the line-up and the team averaged slightly more goals (about .1 per game), more shots on goal per game (1), and an even number of shots (roughly 11). Now, this means very little since the sample size is three games but I don't think you'll see a huge drop-off if you substitute Barnetta for Chaco. Barnetta runs at the defense with the ball and forces defenders to make some decisions and open space up for other players. Chaco is great at finding a pass but he doesn't take players on and he can't shoot, so that leaves the opposing defenses to just shut down his passing lanes and they can effectively kill off his influence. If you are going to play a 4-2-3-1 (which is just a variant of the 4-3-3) then Chaco really doesn't fit since he is one dimensional and plays no defense. If this was 10 to 15 years ago when the pure #10 was still a thing he'd be fine. The problem for him is that the game has really changed in the last decade or so and the pure #10 is a luxury player that most teams can't afford. Ultimately I think that without him the Union can be more dynamic and better offensively without him in the line-up. I can see why people will be mad when they see people advocating not keeping a player with 26 or so assists in the past 2 years though.

 

Honestly I think the only system Maidana would work in would be a 4-4-2 diamond with two strikers in front of him. The problem with Maidana is that he doesn't threaten to scores goals at all so if you only play with one striker, then the defenders can just tee off on the striker.

 

Yes. Barnetta was promised the CAM role and Maidana is not effective enough as a winger. It's a shame that the team is not going to get anything for him and will just let him go. I think Maidana will be successful in this league with another team. But, if the Union uses the funds that it gains from Maidana's departure on a good winger, everyone wins.

 

They could option and trade, no?

 

So here's the thing about Chaco Maidana. As I see it, he's a very good MLS role player. Here, we were asking/expecting him to be "the guy" that can carry the team week in and week out. And as we've seen this year, he can't be "the guy" when he goes as anonymous as he does for long stretches of play. If you put him on a team like Seattle, or Dallas, or hell, even NYRB, that already has proven contributors (and people who can actually finish his passes), I think those teams would be glad to take his up-and-down production to supplement the players they already have.

tl;dr: Chaco's not a put-the-game-on-his-back-every-week kind of player in the way that a Feilhaber or a Nguyen can be

 

Or he said that five years ago and might have changed his mind. I know it a crazy theory

 

But that is exactly the type of player you need in a 4-2-3-1 system. I don't know if Maidana would really work anywhere in MLS now that RSL has gone to a 4-3-3. Go look at other players that fill the central or wide role in that 3 in the 4-2-3-1 in this league and look at what they do versus what Maidan does. He is probably a better passer than most, but he isn't mobile enough or good enough with a long shot or able to do any of the other things those players do. Look at Sacha in NY, look at Valeri in Portland, or look at Diaz in Dallas. They all bring an extra dimension that Maidana doesn't. He is probably one of the best, if not the best, technical soccer players on this team. I just don't know if he fits this team or even this league.

 

Carroll retire at Columbus? Why would anyone willingly go back to Ohio, let alone the third rate city of the state?

 

You, sir, seem to have never been to Cleveland or Cincinnati.

 

And I thank God for that every day.