I'm not a tactical genius or head coach of any team or anything, but I watch a whole lot of soccer and I play a whole lot of soccer and something i noticed about United this season is that they seem to transition poorly. When we lost the ball we didn't seem to compact well enough and sometimes a couple of forwards were guilty of applying very little pressure (cough cough Jaime cough cough). I think Ben Olsen is one of the best transitional players United has. When we played with Petter Villegas out on the right for much of the season, he didn't do things he needed to do when his skills make him a very capable player. He's not a bad dribbler and he has good speed. When we had the ball, he like to come into the middle all the time and hang out with Ritchie and Marco and that's not always bad. But he did that the majority of the time when he could have really opened the field up for United. If he made some of the runs that Bobby makes then I think United's play would have been a bit better. That's not promising more goals but it would've helped. I think he would run at defenders much better out wide when it's one v one than when he came in the middle and tried to force it through lots of traffic. The other problem with United and many other teams in MLS is the ridiculous amount of job security. Name one other league that Valderama could get away with coming late to practice and leaving early sometimes and still start 179 games in a row or whatever it is. Marco knows he'd going to start if he's healthy even if his form isn't very good. The same goes with Jaime. The only way they don't start is injury or a lot of fatigue. If MLS rosters get increased again by a couple of spots again like they did in the past offseason, it would help. Now I doubt that will happen in the next couple years because of money and other issues, but it would certainly help competition. When you look at successful teams in Europe like Manchester United, not a single one of their players is GUARANTEED their place in the first 11. When the competition for places is higher, you will see the level of play dramatically increase. I realize this is not an easy task, but it is possible in the near future. One thing for sure is that I can't wait until MLS gets done with it's stupid aquisitions for players solely because of their reputation as a world class player even thought they're way past their prime and solely to put more seats in the stadium. (Gazza and Hernandez) Many of you will disagree with me on Gazza but I just don't think it would have worked.
How about the Brazilian league. Romario who plays for Fluminense doesn't have to show up for training if he calls first. He travels seperately to away games and has other special privileges. Of course he scores boat loads of goals. It's going to take possibly decades before MLS is financial stable enough to afford to expand the roster to a large enough size in order to create that competition. However I'm going to disagree about guaranteed spots at other teams. Look at ManU. They have a large squad, arguably the largest in Europe but are you telling me that a fit Roy Keane would ever be dropped? Highly unlikely. Yes, Beckham was dropped for a bunch of games in the past, mainly because fatigue was afecting his play, but there isn't too much competition for his spot. ManU has been so successful becuase they are capable of putting the same 11 players on the field game in game out and when they have to go to their bench, those players are as capable as the starters so there is no drop off in talent. There is competition but only for a very few spots. I think you will find on every team that there are some players that if they are healthy, they play, sometimes despite their current form.
Have to agree with Owendylan regarding the job security. It turns my stomach to think that Moreno is practicing harder b/c he's got competition. The fact that we weren't winning wasn't enough? Of course, he may have been playing harder b/c he's excited about Henry Z, I dunno - but healthy competition is important, as soon as MLC can afford more roster space, the level of playing will get better.