Other than youth and maybe some potential, I'm not sure what Djordje gives that Alvarez or DeLeeuw doesn't. Even Daniel Johnson, although now injured, appears to be a better option. I haven't seen anything out of Djordje Mihailovic.
Who's at fault with that? Pauno....... Who's at fault with that? Nrod Who's at fault with that? Andi We have to tear this team down from the top down. Looking at you Andi......
As we so briefly discussed on the concourse, I thought Djordje was far from the worst of the Fire XI the first half. It was logical to take him off for DeLeeuw. DeLeeuw is a first XI player starting on the bench so there's some firepower there. The guy who really should have come off, but for salary and star power was Basti. However, football/soccer is always going to be a players' & owners' game. Coaches are expendable and recyclable. Regardless of form, a fit Basti will always be on the field and a poor form Basti is still better than most MLS players. But has Basti checked out? Moreso, has Niko checked out? One guy that hasn't checked out is Dax. His fault may be he's trying to do too much and may be operating outside his skill set. The other guy who hasn't checked out, who has been the lone bright spot in this bad spell and is the one most frequently accused of dogging it has been Accam. His decision making can be questionable, but his desire and talent stick out on a team where he should be a complimentary player.
Accam was terrible, selfish, and single-handedly snuffed out more of our attacks yesterday than the 10 men MNU kept behind the ball all night. Basti had a rough game for him, but was still twice the player Accam was. Accam's single minded refusal to make runs off the ball, take the space that was available on the wing, stop dribbling into triple-teams, or pass the ball to wide-open teammates was infuriating. If anyone should have come off at halftime for performance, it was him. Pawno hamstrung himself by starting Dean and Mihailovic, neither of whom is good enough right now to play 90 minutes against fit opponents. Of course, given his history with subs, I'm not sure it matters that he essentially burned two subs at the opening whistle.
You may believe he's the reason the Fire have stopped scoring, but until someone else starts scoring I'll stick with Accam.
I don't believe Accam is the sole reason we've stopped scoring, but last night he was a serious problem. Accam can rack up the all the consolation goals he wants, but until he starts running off the ball and seeing his teammates like he did in May and June, he's not helping the team.
I disagree about Schweinsteiger. The problem is that our central defense is so fragile that he has had drop back as a third central defender, to attempt to cover for the weakness in the back. As a result, he has 1 assist (last night) in the past 8 games, after having 5 in his first 17. When he drops back that far and neither Juninho nor Alvarez are starting, there is no one to get link between the back line and the midfield. Dax is playing his heart out, but, as you point out, he is taking on too much and trying to do what Bastian was doing earlier on in the season. That is not his skill set.
It's not just that. It's the decision making that goes into the choice and the collateral damage it does to the rest of the professionals on the team. Nepotism can be incredibly cancerous.
This is why I left. I think Calistri can challenge Solignac for that starting spot at the Right Wing (he's been incredible in Tulsa). DJ should also be playing a lot more than before once he comes back from injury. I also think Cleveland deserves a shot in goal after such sh*t from Lampson. And I've heard rumors that Bronico is actually much better than Djordje. Also, it'd be great to have Vincent back and Campbell is much better than Dean.
It was a joke (although it is true) Simmer down, young jiggly! As for Calistri v. Solignac, maybe we should have signed a right-sided midfielder? Agree with the rest. I just don't want to see any of them starting over our regular starters (although I don't know what to do about goalkeeper).
That would be preferable; but working with what we've got, Calistri would be a much better choice at the moment.
I prefer DJ's skill set to Djordie however he probably played the best 45 minutes of his Fire career against Minnesota. Not that he looked like a World beater mind you but he covered some ground and got into some dangerous areas but went down a bit too easy ( however the kid can't weigh more than 145 pounds). Maybe on another day with a much less shitty ref he gets some free kicks in those areas but not Saturday. Perhaps Pauno thought this match was a gimme but it clearly was not. What happened to Juninho? Was he injured too?