If it were just one game, I could see your point. But he's been doing this as soon as he starting getting regular time, beginning with the SuperLiga games. Let other teams close him down. That only opens up the middle more. Let's see his strengths for what they are. His weaknesses are still there, too. Not as fast as I would like, and still learning positioning and defensive decision-making. I thought he looked like Erpen a few games ago; he even had a bicycle-kick clearance!
And I think the point that others have been making is - we havent' had anybody even attempting these kinds of balls for the last couple years. We haven't had our defenders springing attacks like Burch and Vanney have shown an ability to do the last several games, either. Sure, he had time, and sure, teams will recognize this and sill take strides to shut him down. And when they do, Fred, Gomez and the forwards will have a little more space to work with to do their thing. It's a weapon, and a weapon that we haven't had in quite some time, no matter how you look at it. And just for the record, it's about more than just 2 crosses. He's shown excellent ball-striking ability since he started getting playing time.
I think that's different point then what was made by the starter of the thread. And with that I agree, we've got some guys who add another dimension to the attack, never said otherwise.
That was my point entirely. Get the ball out of the frigging back and move it upfield (at least some of the time). " I have been hoping and praying for United to finally start sending some decent long balls out of the back and stop waiting for (days) the defense to get set before sending in crosses. We had begun to get so congested in the middle of the field (less so recently) playing this annoying tap, tap, tap stuff that defenses seem to love."
Serious this time: Bringing up Gros is good here since it seems to me that Burch just has a lot more field awareness than Gros has. That field awareness translates to him being open as compared to Gros who's always at a dead run trying to get open. I guess I'm saying Burch's positioning is superior and since Agoos was brought up above, its similar to Goos' who was also not a terribly fast player but who seemed to be in the right place almost all of the time. This is why I'm not terribly worried about Burch getting caught upfield. He knows when to get back and he already has a better understanding with Fred than Gros ever had.
Not sure where these stories about Burch being slow are coming from. And if anything he's not oafish with his steps, the way other converted fullbacks seem to be. I agree strongly with the main point - Burch has great field awareness - but think that the Gros comparisons aren't helpful. Gros is always trying to hit a moving ball because he can't serve in a decent ball from an open position, so he's taking the low-probability route to serve in a ball from a more dangerous position. Left unsaid was that Gros crossing has been horrid this year. Burch just puts in a very good ball if he's open to do it. In his first few games I think he was popping them in well on the run too, but we haven't seen that lately. Burch does have a good understanding - not just with Fred, but also with Simms, Moreno, Gomez who aren't giving away possession cheaply when Burch makes one of those runs to the 18 (even becoming the deepest forward briefly). And then he's back as the last man at the six on the other end. It's total football and I'm very impressed. He's DC United's version of Andrea Pirlo. The deep-lying playmaker who opens up space for everyone else.
Well if you want to compare Gros as a left back and Burch as a left back then I would agree positioning wise. It seems that Burch has grasped the concepts of defending much quicker then Gros ever did, but to be honest I don't think it's that surprising. I've always thought that converting a forward to a defender is much easier than any other type of position conversion. I think it helps in positioning and in reading a game. Midfielders often spend much of their time living in a tennis match with the ball pinging back and forth back and forth sometimes so much that you can see their heads more from side to side and the player not move at all. I don't think Burch is a slow player, but he's not super fast either. He's got good speed for his position, I think the problem is we don't have any real burners on the back line, they all have good speed, but not incredible speed that you typically find in forwards, like a Findley or Galindo.