Does anybody know what's going on? Is there some kind of fight that Olsen and Salihi have had that we don't know about? I've never seen a DP get treated this badly. If we're not gonna play him, let's trade him already. I don't see the point of having him sitting on the bench if he isn't even going to come on in the second half. We needed a goal tonight, and we bring on Tan, shizz just got real... Something is up.
That situation is a wrap. Period. Not even worth worrying about Salihi any longer. If he couldn't start against Montreal and then get into this game at all, Olsen doesn't rate him. It's as simple as that. If he were injured, that would be a different story. But I haven't heard that he is.
My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Hamdi passed out dead at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.
If Hamdi's contract is 500k and we sell him for 200k, wouldn't it be worth the loss of 300k to get a new player on D or someone up top that can excite the crowd? I mean, ******** tit-for-tat at this point, we're already paying for nothing. This wouldn't be the first time teams paid a dude money to play for another team basically, but benefitted greatly from doing so...
What drives me nuts is that Salihi has played exactly as advertised--he's a slow but intelligent poacher with (for MLS) a nose for goal. We got what we paid for--and then decided we didn't want it. I honestly don't know if this is on Kasper or Olsen.
It's like I wrote in the Montreal thread. Ben doesn't think playing good soccer players helps win soccer games.
My flabber has been significantly less than gasted by Salihi. I think my favorite thing about him so far were those wacky Albanians at Red Bull Arena. But can there really be any doubt that he's a better option off the bench than Long Freaking Tan? The only rationale that makes any sense, and frankly it's not a lot of sense, is that Olsen doesn't want to a)jeopardize a potential move to Everton or elsewhere or 2) Olsen knows he's going to be gone for qualifiers and wants to get Long Freaking Tan integrated beforehand. The only saving grace, and frankly it's not a lot of grace, is that I'm beginning to see why they got Pajoy, who had a passably decent game tonight, and Santos will return at some point hopefully.
The guy banged in 5 goals in a 2 month period and Ben decides it's best to stop playing him. If Ben has some brilliant master plan of clearing Salihi from the salary cap and signing some amazing player that wins us the cup ... I say fine. Good luck with that. My question then is if you have this brilliant master plan, why did you waste this season wasting our biggest cap hit on this guy? Like others have said, Salihi has lived up to his resume ... an opportunist poacher without any physical or technical brilliance, but a solid direct finisher. And it's not like he's some head case picking up red cards, talking trash in the media and getting into fights with team mates. So if we didn't want him, why did we get him?
It's a total mystery and completely frustrating as a fan, I can't imagine what the player must be feeling.
I can answer that. We got him and decided not to use him because Payne, Kasper and Olsen don't have a clue. Once this club used up the residue of players selected by Rongen, Hudson and Nowak, players like Nelsen, Namoff, Gomez, Emilio, Gros and Stewart-- we are left with what the "soccer" minds of Payne and Kasper can produce -- 4 years of no playoffs and a good bet to make it 5.
Kasper : I have a brilliant plan! RAPID VIENNA!! Chang : But the last guy we got there never plays ... Kasper : But it's fu***king RAPID VIENNA man! Chang : How much? Kasper : A sh*tload, but did I mention he's from RAPID VIENNA? Chang : Alright, alright settle down ... Is Olsen cool with this? Kasper : F**ck yeah! Olsen : Who the f**ck is Salihi?
This is not just a problem for now. Imagine trying to convince anyone we could afford to come to DC after this nonsense. If this were a real business, someone would be fired by now. They're running my team like some sort of league for seven year olds -- sorry guys. We're trying so hard... BS. If they weren't/aren't going to play Salihi, at least show some class and say why -- then let him go and use the slot to try to make the playoffs. this is literally shockingly bad and seems unprofessional on the part of coach and FO.
This may be a function of only seeing games on my laptop, but I've been very impressed with the off the ball runs he makes. He creates space for other attacking players and pressures defenders. I like what I've seen from the guy.
I know the norm here is to blame the front office for everything, but on this specific issue, it's either/or. Either you think the guy CAN play and it's Olsen's fault for not figuring out how to use him, or the guy CAN'T play and it's the FO's fault for bringing in a bad DP. Given the goals he scored, to me, it's pretty obviously the first. But it's gotta be one or the other.
He was doing all that, but there wasn't anybody on the field who was able to see that and capitalize on it. Olsen refused to play his with Boskovic for significant minutes, and as has been noted, DeRosario won't pass to the guy.
This is the crux of the problem. Y'all can blame Olsen or Kasper if you want, but if the team's talismanic linchpin and MVP doesn't like you, and refuses to acknowledge your existence, what are they supposed to do? It's quite possible that Salihi looked great on paper, looked great to the coach, but looked funny at the playmaker.