Ok ... well I basically agree with that, so not much else to say. Only that they don't have to play him now, even with key players out. Nothing says he has to play ...
i would like to hear some suggestions as to whom might play in his role??? samuel as the lone striker? he hasn't scored a goal yet!!! the lack of goals is partially due to the service - not only the strikers being snake bitten. strikers should be in position and they should be getting great service which they are not. this is due to no ronnie or robinson in the last match and not having canizalez or melo in for any long periods of time. this is what i think they should do: --------------------------stamatopoulos-------------------------- wynne-----------boyens-----------marshall-----------dunivant gala--------pozniak---------melo------robinson-------canizalez --------------------------------edu------------------------------------ besides dichio, who has the most goals on the team? edu right? so push him forward from his current mid position as the lone striker. he can attack as we have seen him do on occasion, is also pretty quick on the ball and he has some creativity... melo and canizalez in along with gabe gala who we saw earlier in eth season and has some speed down the wing. all three of these midfielders will add lots of pace and melo has a great shot so put him in the middle. canizalez looks to have some good crosses from his left side. need pozniak and robinson for the holding roles bu can add a little to the offence as well. take dunivant and wynne back to the backline to their natural positions and let them run with the ball if they can but it will certaiinly bolster the back line and wynne will be there for boyens if he is caught out of position. what do you guys think? mo, you see this happening?
I like this but don't take Brennan out - make any one of gala, pozniak, melo or canizalez come off the bench.
oops! i knew i forgot someone! or brennan in for boyens! and that would be a pretty solid back line!!! i would be VERY comfortable with that... the mids would be a little crazy but it might send a message to lombardo and especially samuel to get ther act together!
I agree. This guy has done nothing for TFC or the U-20. The only upside is that he's only 20 years old and it can still turn around. I don't think Mo will give him up yet. He'll probably keep him another year and then dump him if he has another poor season.
If he was 30 that would make sense - but plenty of 20 year olds blossom into bona fide stars in time - why would you give that away especially considering he doesn't count much against the salary cap at ~30k?
Lombardo is still just a kid, being thrown into the fire. He's learning on the job. The blame here has to go to Mo, for over-spending on average British players, choking the team of any chance to have squad depth. Lombardo isn't ready, and it shows. The kid should be coming on at the half or with 25 minutes left. Instead, he is being forced to do more than he can at the moment. I'd still take two Lombardos upfront instead of Lombardo and Fat Bastard (Samuel).
Lets be sure to let you run nothing. No forsight. Not fair to put him in a position he is not ready for. Thiery Henry was so crap he was booted from Italy.
Thanks, that was very well done, laughed out loud on that one. I think it is quite telling that when Lombardo & Samuel both start, Lombardo actually ends up getting a lot more chances to score....and he's supposed to be more of the target/set-up player! This should be a thread about dumping the "should be in his prime" import player, not the Canadian kid with his minimum-wage salary. We need Canadian clubs to develop Canadian players, just like clubs all over the world develop players for the countries they are situated in (Arsenal excepted ). If Canadian clubs don't show some patience with Canadian kids, then what clubs will? Dichio needs to teach him out to head the ball in the net goal, as his finishing on header's is brutal. He's actually not got a bad strike with his foot - scored a couple of nice ones against Brazil (no less) with his right root at the U20 level.
the kid is 20 give him a chance and let him do his job to the best of his abilities. sure he isnt scoring but i dont see the rest of the guys stepping up to score us one either, especially not samuel who can barely run past half! i think we need to start worrying about him rather than about gettting rid of lombardo.
Some talk like the kid just got off the house league program and is just starting to play competitive soccer. give him a chance he's young, he's trying! c'mon, he's a forward, forwards need to put the ball in the back of the net, no matter how old they are. he's been a pro since 2004 and has not yet scored a goal in his career.(here or in his time in italy, where he played 10 games in 2 years, maybe the italians saw the obvious) I doubt that the defenders in the mls are of higher calibre than those in the italian leagues, i'd like to know what he learned in his time there. not to mix his armani with his versace? Playing with kids in u20 doesn't count, speacialy when brazil brought a team of subs, because their players were still tied up in their local league. i like the kid's work rate, but a forward who hasn't scored a goal in 3 years must have a pretty good agent.
Lombardo is 20. He has not played enough top level soccer. He needs to spend next season watching the 1st team more, playing on the 1st team less. He needs to dominate in reserve fixtures. He needs to figure out what he's really good at and work on his weaknesses. If he's not better than he is right now when he's 23, then I'm worried. For now, let's be patient. I am not convinced he has pure center forward style skills. However, he might just be badly lacking in confidence. However, I think he might be a decent wing player and I'd put him on the right side as an experiment if we had more forward depth. Give him time. He shouldn't even be playing this much so don't be so impatient.
he had an AMAZING game yesterday...set people up, awesome footwork and almost scored himself, just unlucky like TFC
this experience will do wonders for Lombardo. Without injuries he wouldn't be getting this much time but it can only benefit him in the long-run, we're basically out of the playoffs anyways so we should be playing "the kids" as much as possible
I might be biased because I see the upside of young Lombardo, but he was my MOTM v RSL. Mo should have subbed Cunny for Samuel, not Andrea.
he was my MOTM too but i am bias because i have loved this kid since day 1 so.... but still i hope the first goal comes form him because i really think he deserves it. i wish samuel came of not andrea!! stupid mo...
I like the kid not sure about MOTM though - it seems he's muscled off the ball a bit - his hustle is good, though sometimes he seems to be running with his feel in cement (tho not as bad as Braz is). Give him a couple of years to put on some muscle and imporve his positioning and tactics and he's a starter in this league.
The true is he is not a good player... and already old to developing more.... if until 16 years old you are not a good player, THAT'S IT!!! That's the reality in the soccer world today! Nothing against the kid... but he won't help TFC to be better unfortunally!
wow some one forgot their happy pills this morning! some one is a little to pesimistic as well....geez its not over at 16 i mean if that were the case DeRo wouldnt be where he is same with Henry so whatever you wanna think go ahead but there are players on TFC that are worse
My take on Lombardo is is he playing the wrong position. The kid has a lot of hustle and could be a good playmaker, but doesnt have any real talent in true finishing. I think he would have much greater promise as and offensive central midfielder.
his first touch is not very good, and he can't really turn with the ball at his feet. this would cause him to give up alot of the ball in the midfield.