Hudson has definitely improved things this season. Last year, DCU allowed 50 goals. Unless we give up a whopping 4 goals per game for the final 5 games, we are going to improve on this defensive stat. My guess is we will give up 35 goals for the season. This is excellent. That would have put us in the top 3 last year. The problem has obviously been scoring, but with Q1 and Moreno out for half of the season, and Moreno injured and unfit for the other half, we've just had no scoring punch. Not surprisingly, our goal production is 21 so far, exactly half of last year's total. The reality is that Hudson's coaching has not kept us out of the playoffs -- injuries have. And despite a horrific 21 goals and aging veterans with bloated salaries, we still have a slim chance of making the playoffs. One can find fault with Hudson's player selection and game strategies at times, but really I think most of the time he's been a part of the solution not a part of the problem.
Yes, Hudson has improved things this year. However he's missed several great opportunities to make this team good enough to compete for the MLS Cup This Year. Injuries have slowed down this team, no question. Moreno, Q1, and Olsen especially have been difficult injuries to deal with. However I think he made poor decisions on how to deal with them. Most of those decisions involved not having enough confidence in his replacements. Last year we had several players who, while they were not the second coming of a young Moreno or LD did provide some useful offensive support. ATC, Lisi, and Namoff all made decent contributions. Most teams would love to have a third forward who could do what Conteh had regularly done in MLS. Most teams would love to have a midfielder with Lisi's promise. After all, Arena brought him into winter camp. Finally, getting a rookie 2nd round draft pick like Namoff to have seven assists was pretty good too. But instead, during the course of the year, Hudson trashed all three. He got absolutely nothing out of them. Then he discarded them for nothing. This is awful player management, especially in MLS with it's small roster. Evidently ATC didn't have the right 'tude for Hudson and so a proven goal scorer was lost for nothing in return. Lisi and Namoff also didn't practice well enough for Ray. You'd have to think that even with Ray's dislike for Lisi that we could have gotten more in trade than basically Villegas, a guy who had a proven inability to communicate with his fellow players on the field. Villegas, needless to say, did nothing on the right wing that Lisi couldn't do. But there was more. He did the same to Curtis too. He at least had the sense to sign Curtis but he had unrealistic expectations here too. Ain't it obvious that if he had stuck with Ali that Curtis would have had, of three or four more goals this year and that given those extra goals and with our defense those goals would have translated into six-seven points in the standings? But Hudson brought in Lassiter, I guess because of his leadership abilities and his past achievements. A dumb-ass move if there ever was one. Hudson also had that distracting flirtation with Gazza which again went nowhere. Yeah the defense has improved and we should be thankful for that. But the offense took a step back and so we are still in last place.
Fair enough Ursala if judging a coach is based so strongly on the success or failure of trades (and perhaps it should be I really don't know). But I think we should also consider that we've had looks at high calliber players who came to United because they want to play for Hudson. Although he didn't actually sign anyone, the potential is there that didn't exist under Rongen. Also, his comments on Diceson's show the other night about United fans and then about Moreno show that he's extremely insightful. For the fans he says our expectations are too low. We've come to accept mediocrity as being ok. He does not. I love that attitude. Next, he says first that he will never speak ill of his players (nice mandatory up front comment) then he proceeds to rip Moreno by saying that a few games ago at the half Ray layed into Moreno for not playing 100 percent. Then in the second half Moreno came out fired up. And then Hudson said what is the sign of an excellent coach "That ticked me off even more! The guy is a professional and he needs a coach to light a fire under him when his team is stalled and he's the team leader?" Ok not an exact quote but something like that. Those are the kinds of statements that make me believe in him, at least to give him a full off season after a year's experience with the players. He's going to have to make some gutsy, painful moves. I don't envy the position he's in.
The Lassiter trade was absolutely puzzling. Lassiter has been non-existent, and it's not like that was going to be a surprise. I was equally puzzled by the Lisi trade. He seemed very talented with great potential. As for ATC and Curtis, well those players were OK, but nothing special. I think I would have kept Curtis and not brought in Rocket Roy. I can't comment much on Namoff. Obviously the salary cap plays a role in all these decisions. It's not just a question of getting the best available players in the squad. The salary cap puzzle must be solved as well. So as I said, one can find some fault with Hudson over player selection and game tactics. However, the injury thing has really been out of his control and a terrible dose of bad luck. It's hard to say if the questionable trades would have made much of a difference in the end. Maybe a point here and there. We might be more in the thick of things playoff-wise, but either way it was going to be difficult to do well this season with our injury woes.
Many good points in this thread. Actually if we can use "injuries" as an excuse for Hudson, then fairly, we should use it when analyzing Rongen as well. While Moreno has been the king of injuries this season, Etch was the king last season despite playing through them. The defense improved, and I credit two major things, 1) better eye for defensive talent, and 2) better organization. Adding Richie Williams in place of Talley was HUGE for our defense. By the end of last season our back line was playing decently with Pope and the rookie Nelsen settling in as a nice tandem in the center. Our achilles heels were flank defense and, especially, no Dmid. Rongen had been attempting to acquire Reyes, which would have solved the right back spot, and Zotinca, who would have solved the Dmid spot, but the club never got it done. For Hudson, no transaction is impossible. The club got him a Dmid--Williams--and the timing became ripe to get Reyes at an affordable price. These two windfalls Rongen was denied. With those two pieces I believe Rongen would have been a fine coach. Rongen's problems were no defensive tactics and discipline, inability to maintain a good relationship with his players and inspire them, and horrible tactics for set-pieces and subs. Rongen had the offensive tactics and was/is an excellent teacher for the youth. He plays a beautiful brand of football, attacking, passing and finishing. He just couldn't stop anything. Ray also brought in Brandon Prideaux and Nick Rimando, which took our defense from decent to awesome. So obviously Ray understands defense. His organization, particularly towards the end of the season when he moved Reyes into midfield-man-marking/Dmid, was excellent. Ray cannot teach offense, and simply doesn't think he should. In his mind offense is instinctive and people are born with it. That's simply not true. After Grazziani made an incredible goal-roof shot from an impossibly tight angle, Yallop admitted with pride that he had just taught Grazziani that shot. If a goal assassin like Grazziani is still learning, and a coach like Yallop is willing to teach him, I'd think that Hudson would be willing to coach some offense. While he drooled over the beautiful off the ball runs that Dalglish made, I doubt he ever spent hours in the training room explaining to the forwards (i.e. Curtis) how and when to make them. I'm also pretty confident that he doesn't routinely stop practice to point out to his forwards when and where they should have made those runs. Our offensive tactics and spacing is laughable. Under Rongen both of those were splendid. Ray understands offense, he just needs to realize that he must teach it, and then become good at teaching it. Why someone who is totally comfortable running a 352 takes out one of his best man-markers to run a 442 is kinda puzzling. Maybe he didn't want to tempt the ref with the Prideaux-Donovan thing, because I'm sure every ref in the league realizes that Prideaux should have been red-carded. The more you guys say that the more I'm convinced that it probably was why Prideaux isn't starting. Also, Williams and Prideaux contribute least to our attack of the defenders. Nelsen and Pope are aerial threats, and Reyes is a dribbling threat. McKinley is our distributing threat. If we need to jump start the offense I guess I understand why one of Williams/Prideaux was benched. They're both good players. -Tron
Rongen had injuries issue as well and people didn't accept that as an excuse then why should they now. Chicago has had over the past 2 seasons the most injured team in the league losing the most man-games yet they aren't in the the basement of the league, as a matter of fact they will be in the playoffs. Bradley has had to rely on A-League callups just to get enough guys to practice let alone the games. Injuries play a part in every teams season, how the coach deals with it says a lot. DC and Hudson have not dealt with it well at all. His trades are part of dealing with injuries and being prepared for them. If Chicago can do it why couldn't DC? I blame Hudson and Kasper and have run out of patience with them. I didn't like it when they were originally hired and don't like it know. Injuries are not a good enough excuse to let him off the hook considering Rongen tried and we crucified him for doing it.
Just remember, and perhaps you do but just to add emphasis, Hudson did not hire Kasper nor did he design the management structure for team acquisitions. Kevin Payne did all of that. Unless I recall incorrectly.
Very true, but let's just say I've not been impressed with Kasper at all since he arrived. Local, good soccer mind, strong skills, but a weak eye for talent IMHO. I realize that it is heresy to say so on these boards, but I'd much preferred to have put Rongen in that job than Kasper. -Tron
I think there's probably psychological advantage to cleaning house and sending Rongen on entirely even though technically he may be better than Kasper. Frankly, I wonder if Hudson feels the need for either of them. That structure was set up before contraction and Payne seemed to have made a big deal about it, then Hudson inherited it. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Dave is a great guy and highly capable. He'll probably make a great head coach one day. In fact like Yallop he'll probably have a cinderella season and spank us. But it seems like these guys were forced to put round pegs in square holes and now they all have to live with it.