I think when he has the whole field in front of him, and is just moving the ball, he's fine. If you ask him to make plays in midfield though, he can't. Having him and Bangoura in midfield would mean having two CMs that provide zero offense. That's just not acceptable.
That is my worry. I feel like if he was given the CM role last year, he might have developed the skill a little more or at least became accustomed to the pace of play
Our back line also suffered quite a few injuries last year, Zawadski included. Poor guy missed multiple national team call ups. Still think we need another CB, but I’m a little hesitant to judge the quality of what we have based on last year.
Personally, I think he'd be in contention for a WC spot if he hadn't gad to pull out of 2 camps with injury. But he isn't a dominant player at CB. Personally, I think he projects best at LCB/RCB. Though he is not as good going forward as Moreira.
I also feel like Sean is extremely confident at CB for a guy who hasn't played CB all that much in his career. Love to see it. He reminds me of someone who will end up with a Dax McCarty-esque career. Long-time MLS vet, fringe national team player with a handful of callups. Which is perfectly good.
I'm an unabashed Sean Zawadzki fanboi and see him as being the best overall athlete on the roster. A year ago, I assume he was gearing up to play alongside Nagbe at CM. Suddenly, he ended up becoming our starting CB. The guy's had almost no consistency in where he's been asked to lay. And when he has (last season), he was tossed into a situation without much advanced prep or mentoring. For both his and our own sakes, I just hope he's given the opportunity to settle in and learn a position. Maybe that's CB. Maybe it's CM. He just seems like too talented an athlete to be relegated to Swiss Army Knife status.
I never watched him, but back when we signed him to the team i had looked into his college career. I believe he was the captain of his team at Georgetown and primarily played CB....so im guessing hes probably always been comfortable there.
I think Sean gets beaten down physically at CB all the time. As do the others when he is locked in at CB.
Interesting player. 6'4" center back. Only 23. Trouble is, we could only add him at a TAM-level rate. He's too old for our last U22 slot. And we're full-up on DPs. If we can get him as a TAM acquisition, perhaps. That said, he's certainly a player that Rydström would know intimately. And the player would know Rydström having played against him in Sweden. His current club's biggest transfer out was only for 2M Euro, and they just acquired this player a year ago for 225K, so it certainly seems possible.
What a season for Mjällby. they win the Swedish league relying heavily on a data and analytics driven approach due to their small budget, in a city with 1,500 inhabitants. FC Dallas already signed their wing-back Herman Johansson a month ago. I would be cautiously optimistic with this signing
No issue with TAM. In my view we still have some unspent Cucho/Morris $$$, and you get some TAM every year. Yes, I know we have tonuse some to buy guys down. I'd just like to get some height back there. Though I did see we were one of the better teams in the league in terms of not conceding on set pieces. That was surprising to me. Must have been a lot of *almosts* last year.
FWIW: Looks to be left-footed. Certainly a bigger physical presence than any defender we've had on the roster since Mensah. Despite his height, he's never scored a goal in over 100 matches played in first division football or for his national team. You'd think he'd be pushed up on set pieces.
This guy has only played 27 top-flight matches. Last year was his first season playing in a top flight league. Before that, he was playing in the Danish second division, which isn't much better than playing in USL-C.
Well, I seriously doubt if it's just coincidental that a coach comes from Sweden to a team in need of a center back and 10 seconds later, they're apparently in for a center back from Sweden.
23 is fairly young for a CB. If he has been getting playing time at any level of football, that is good. Can probably work out an installment payment plan, which only hit the cap when payments are made, and his salary probably isnt too bad.
Here's my assumption. Tall is on record saying they've scouted Scandinavia pretty extensively, which is how they identified Rydstrom as an option. As a result, Iqbal was most likely on our shortlist of CB options. Rydstrom is hired and Tall hands him our current shortlist of players for each position. Rydstrom immediately recognizes Iqbal and says he'll take him if they can strike a deal.
He's also Danish, as is Abou Ali. Maybe they have a scout that's really plugged-in to Danish soccer or something.
Which is exactly how it should work. I've said this a few times and I'll say it again, it will be interesting to see if Issa can do more/different stuff now that Nancy isn't here to micromanage everything.
Well, he plays for Pakistan who are currently ranked 199 out of 210 nations. In their last 20 matches (all against Asian competition which is by far the lowest competition globally), they have one draw, three losses, have conceded 52 goals, and only scored 4 goals. He is by far their most prominent player, and likely their most prominent player ever. I'm no Pakistani national team expert, but I'm fairly confident that if he comes here this would be the highest level a Pakistani national team player has played by quite a bit. So I wouldn't be paying any attention to his caps or how many games he's captained.