Each MLS all-star team is selected from a five-team conference. Selecting from so few teams should make it easy for teams to have several players selected. The Revos have had only two players selected: Dempsey and Noonan, neither of them starters. Dempsey is very deserving. Noonan is marginal this season but would have been very deserving based on his second half last season. How many potential MLS Eastern Conference all-stars do the Revos really possess? Twellman would be an all-star if he wasn't injured and had produced at a similar rate to the past two years. Ralston is usually an all-star, but has not been productive. Brown and Jospeh could be an all-stars, but haven't been healthy enough. Cancela could be, but not based on anything this season. Kamler, if fit, has an outside chance. That's about it. Llamosa, if able to play, is too old and slow. Franchino, Heaps, Pierce and Leonard are marginal as starters, let alone potential all-stars. Joe-Max Moore? Is he still on the team? Just two all-star reserves is pretty reflective of how the first half has gone.
So BFrank, if you agree that Dempsey and Noonan (albeit based on last season) are deserving, then adding Brown, Kamler, Joseph, Ralston, Cancela and Twellman to the list of players who could/should perform at that level are you then saying that in our starting 11 eight of the players are of All-Star caliber, at least potentially? That is a pretty positive evaluation of our level of talent and a quite good arguement for continuing to support this lot. Things should get better as the wounded heal and those playing under wraps (like Ralston and Cancela) get liberated by positional shifts, different tactics and formation changes. JIM DOW
Jim, I would say of potential MLS all-star calibre based on being selected from a five-team conference. Some of the other teams in the East may have 10 or more players in that "potential" catagory. So having eight potential all-stars is not as big a thing as how many are playing to their potential. It shouldn't be too difficult to have multiple players selected when the team is chosen from only five teams. The secret is getting as many of your potential all-stars playing like all-stars (or healthy enough to play like all-stars). If you look at our list, we can field potential all-stars in goal, plus every midfield and striker position. So I guess we know where out weakness is.
Even if we had everyone fit, there are no all-stars or potential all-stars this season in the back four. That is worrying both short and long term. But if everyone gets fit, there could be some real fireworks and shootouts, and that would at least make things interesting.
If and when everyone gets back (w or w/o Joe Max) and, for the sake of arguement, we land Steve Howey and he turns out to be as useful as a fit Llamosa then we have a very interesting situation. At this point, other than the games where we had no subs and simply tired out, our defense has been respectable, no, pretty good. Around a goal a game, give or take. So the question is, has that been a result of team defense, or good play by the back three or four and the keeper? If the front six or seven go off in search of goals, will the lack of All-Star caliber players at the back be an Achilles Heel? JIM DOW
The back four - whatever combination - is average at best and in need of help. But I do not believe that Howey is the answer.
Fair enough. I have questions myself if he will be the cure-all, but as I said in another thread, if he's as useful as Llamosa, or even Avery John, that will help tremendously and allow Ralston and Kamler to go back into the midfield where they have proven to be a lot more effective, and thereby give us more options off the bench, like Brillant and Baker. That alone will make the Revs a much better team. So who or what is the answer? What would you suggest the Revs do right now, within the confines of the salary cap and other MLS regulations, that would significantly improve the team in the short run or in the long run? Tom
Yea Big Frank, anyone with 1/2 a brain would know it is time to panic. Another expensive, aging, slowing, injury prone veteran who can't make it elsewhere is just what the Doc ordered. Look at how astutely we've picked these guys in the past. Leave those young American defenders for those other teams. Why should we bother teaching them to play? Everyone knows Stevie-boy has the best eye for talent in the league. With such good eyes who needs to be bothered teaching ?????? Llamossa, sheeit, he is too old, slow, and injury prone. Why waste money on him if we can pay someone else more to do the same thing. If you weren't so negative you'd know that team chemistry is what counts.........and we're #1 in that department so screw the standings. Once we get Harksie and Rooney back here as well, and get rid of that ************** fancy-dancy floppie-whoppie long haired ************ Cancela, then we'll have a team to show 'em, yessirree. If you don't like it go home. There'll be more room for us real fan's, all three of us.........so bug off!!!!!!!!
The first thing they can do is stay away from someone with the negatives and baggage of a Howey, even if he might represent a short term game. Not compounding errors is the first thing they can do right. The second thing, finding a suitable player, is not so easy under MLS rules. If Nicol is supposed to be such an eagle-eye for talent, particularly those that play in the back like he did, then now would be a good time to prove it. And what is Sunil, our pimp (errr, procurer of talent), doing on the personnel front these days? Do they want just a short term fit, or someone that can help beyond this season? They need to answer that first. If Howey had anything left, other Premier or First Division teams would be lining up for him. If he had that option, would he seriously be looking to move to MLS? If he was still running on fumes, the lower divisions and Scottish League clubs would be after him. Are there any queues for his services? Or is he just looking for a payday in a foreign land? Getting more players back and fit to play is the first answer. Finding a diamond in the rough is the second. Picking up an old cubic zircon and passing it off as the real thing is not the answer. Now if I told ya exactly who the answer was, I'd have to kill ya.
"If Howey had anything left, other Premier or First Division teams would be lining up for him. If he had that option, would he seriously be looking to move to MLS?" BigFrank, Since Howey was released from Bolton he's garnered interest from Crystal Palace (Premiership), and Stoke City (Championship League). Now, that's all well in good, with Palace recently having been promoted, and with Stoke having a pretty solid set-up and nice ground in the First Division. However, considering his age, and yes, the "baggage" he carries, what are the odds he'll see significant playing time? He could go to Palace or Stoke, make a fair amount of money, but most likely would be relegated to the bench in favor of younger, quicker players (as the trend seems to be in England at present), leaving him in a position similar to that at Bolton, Leicester City, and at Manchester City towards the end of his stint there. Then again, he could come to MLS and the Revs, likely make a pretty good salary by league standards, stand a good shot of playing regularly and in a country where he won't have to play under a microscope of criticism, press scrutiny, etc., and where the standard of living is pretty good. Hell, he could work camps durng the off-season, and his status as a former England National Team and Premiership veteran would have soccer moms lining up to drop their kids off with him for instruction. MLS would be an excellent option for Howey. The Magpie
Of course the MLS would be an excellent option for Howey..........but who cares about him? Is Howey an excellent option for the Revs? Like Semedo or Vazquez perhaps?