He's not even worth playing out there! He freakin made an own goal tonight. Take his ass of and bench it!
Someone on MN posted that Hejduk had an ankle injury as reason for his substitution... But agreed, bench Denton. Statistically you could have made a case for his being on the field but last night, contrary to what some other's might have thought, was probably his worst game ever. I cannot remember one good defensive play or single adequate cross the entire match.
I won't try to defend him against what is usually unwarrented criticism, because I did not see last night's match. You all could be right this time.
With any player, there are good results and bad results or, as Paul V illustrates numerically, good plays and bad plays or good touches and bad touches. If someone has made it far enough in the game to beat out the approximately one million kids who started out as U-6's the same time he did and is now one of maybe a dozen from that group playing in MLS, he is not completely incompetent, despite what his critics might suggest. It all becomes a matter of how often does he contribute vs. how often is he a liability. As a defender, he is the closest thing to worthless. I could barely believe that he even kept a job after last season when it looked to me like attackers with the ball were seeking him out, and offenses were quite deliberately channelling in his direction. He was a disaster. (Not coincidentally, this was when I finally gave up on Andrulis. He never changed the defensive alignment, never shaded him some help, never replaced him with somebody ((ANYBODY)) who might do better. Greg just kept sending the guy out there with the same scheme and expecting that, magically, he'd get a different result. It's the classic, surest sign of a lousy coach - good coaches change stuff that isn't working; bad coaches hope the guy does better next time) The guy is not going to get any better. He is what he is and whatever good stuff he does occasionally (and there ARE things) is grossly outweighed by the calamities. If he was not left footed, he would have been out coaching club soccer years ago. He is a Greg Andrulis favorite who only helps graphically illustrate what a colossal fool Greg Andrulis is. The day we get a new coach Eric the Dead better have his resume in shape.
I remember one, but only one, decent play he made last night...He had the cross on our top scoring chance in the 1st half (Cross into the box right in front of Cannon that Cunny just missed getting a touch on. The ball sailed through out of bounds).
I thought he played well the first 10-15 minutes, then the law of averages came into play, and he was absolutely terrible the remaining time. He must have some pretty good pictures of Greg to be seeing this much time still.
Denton=Bench! Nuf said, no explination needed! His play of late is the writing on the wall in my opinion. Can't wait for Paule to come back so we can either have him on the left or Lagos on the left with Paule and Simon holding the middle. HERDSMAN get well soon bud! Nelson is a good defender but the wheels on that bus are near flat and way too slow. Marshall will I swear score a header some day and when he does watch out because he could easily become one of our top scorers!
Bench Denton!!!??? BENCH DENTON!!!???? What the hell are you all thinking???? At this point in time we should NOT bench Denton... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. We should fcuking cut him alltogether the useless sack of shiiit.
And please let us not forget that he was a last minute signing in the offseason. Should've been let go some time ago.
Yes, I was also a little discouraged when he re-signed his contract this winter. I can't believe they couldn't find a better option.
I had always had the impression that Lagos was going to be starting out wide on the left. If not Lagos, then Testo or Wingert (depending on game situation). I just don't see why we insist on running the players and formation that we do. I just think that any other coach would be running the same players much differently than Andrulis does. I just wait and pray that things will improve soon.
Look, it's simple, really. Starting on the day after the very last day of the 2002 season, Greg and Jimbo said, over and over and over again, that their "number one priority" in the off-season was the aquisition of left-side help. They told Marz, they told their pet geeks at Crew.com, they probably told their priests and their boyfreinds: they were out for left-side help and they were damned serious about it. So they went through the whole Tampa Bay/Miami contraction and reentry draft, the SUperdraft and the waiver draft, not to mention five months of off season trade talks and they came up with: Eric Denton. Fans of the three teams he had played with before wet their pants with laughter, but Denton was the best they could come up with so Denton it was, and either Denton plays or Coach Stupid admits that out of maybe 100 MLS players who moved in 2002, he couldn't come up with ONE GODDAM PLAYER who fit the bill. Call it the winter of our discontent: the only players that they acquired from that entire off-season still with the team are Denton, Ritch and Traeger. A really stellar performance from our personnel geniuses. So he keeps sending this feeb out there, hoping that, magically, Eric Denton will become a good player. It's the mark of an ignorant, imbecilic, incompetent and unqualified coach: rather than make some kind of change, he just hopes that something will get fixed by itself. Denton is the bottom line proof of Andrulis' gross lack of coaching talent.
Denton came in after the 2001 season, Ritch and Trager came in the 2003 draft. But hey rant on, brother
Bill is right that Denton came to the Crew after the Tampa contraction. But that was after the '01 season. I wonder if Greg and Ned credited their decision to bring him in for the massive '02 season. That would make sense, since it seems that in Crewville, having one good season buys you two free years, no matter how sucky you get in the meantime.
I am still bent about Chris Leitch getting traded too. I look at Denton and we are constantly arguing that there is no other option for the left side...well there was and we traded his ass away. He could have played on either the left or the right. He played midfield in HS and as a freshman at UNC and could have easily done it for the Crew, or played in the back like he did for most of college. He is fast, can run all damn game and shows excellent leadership skills. I know he didn't impress everybody here...but he was also in his rookie season and was still learning the ropes a bit.