From watching a good bit of Atlanta over the years (where my family lives), I think Gressel is there less for creativity and more for providing good final balls into the box. I have seen elements of that so far, but our lack of ability to move forward and the lack of anybody capable of coming close to Martinez may limit his effectiveness. Hopefully Ole heals up, because otherwise between the lack of movement up top and the lack of finishing, he will be wasted on us. I still think our biggest issue is lack of movement in the central midfield (Higuain understands this but I recall him looking for outlets and nobody moved to open space... very frustrating).
Gressel was very good in Atlanta feeding balls into Martinez. He's not a creator, but a distributor of well struck balls to players who run into space. That is not part of Ben's tactical playbook. Flores is being played out of position. He's not a "10" he's an outside MF player who uses speed and movement to disrupt defenses. Putting him in the middle is a waste of his skillset. In a perfect world, Higuain wold be 28 playing with Flores, Gressel and Arriola up front and Kamara playing the classic "9". However, that would require a best XI DM and more speed in the CB's than Brillant or Birnbaum offer. As it is, DCU is, like always, a team of mismatched parts that create a sum less than the individual pieces.
I’d say were the Ipswich Town of MLS. Let’s stop kidding ourselves. D.C. United is not really a national first division side.