Lots of (deserved) credit for Pulisic, Pepi, and Wes against Grenada but Luca deserves some love as well. Two assists and very tidy work in the midfield.
Luca does a lot of the important work in the midfield and does it in a non flashy way. He goes unnoticed for most of the game but vital to the team.
We can and should use a lot more people in the midfield (rotation, different formations) than MMA all the time in tournament play.
Well, it‘s nice that Luca isn‘t hurt, and actually now playing for Celta. I have a feeling that the time travelers here will forget all of that or change that and it was different before the cup. Wait, he did play him in the last couple of windows. WTF is wrong with you people. Serious.
I suppose. That patience was a change of manager. The prior one who he was acquired under certainly didn't have any interest. Good thing he got fired after a half season. Cousin La Torre didn't get off the bench until that guy left. He's performing adequately in his opportunity under the new guy & they're winning more than they were. Not much changes in the other direction if that happens. But 19th of 24 players on their team on Sofascore suggests if team results go south, he'd be 1 of the first to go back to the bench. For a winger, he needs to be more useful in the final 3rd, like Brenden, only w/ 1/15th of the price-tag for them to have investment in him. 2 goals+assists, one which appeared to be passed a player who was offsides but got out of the way. In the big picture, this has been a weakness too. So we'll see. But he's eventually gotten more of a chance than I thought he would. Hasn't performed much differently than I expected.
He has been getting rave reviews and has been in the La Liga team of the week.Yes, he has been preforming "adequately". His entry into the starting team has also coincided with better results for Celta.
They had a long discussion about this on Sirius yesterday. The entire MMA midfield all bring similar traits to the table. They are not identical... I.e. Musah is the best dribbler of the three, Adams is the best tackler and Wes has a nose for the goal (particularly with his head on set pieces). But none of them consistently break down opponents w/ a killer pass. LDLT does this far more consistently..... unfortunately, he lacks the physical presence the MMA guys do. In the end, it would be ideal to have a player that is a combo of all their strengths because said player would be world elite. But in lieu of that phenom we need to find the correct balance.... and that balance is likely dependent on the opponent.
I’m starting to hope they keep Hudson on as our coach permanently. I liked him when he coached our Rapids and I like his pragmatic approach. Time will tell.
Considering how smart they are, perhaps it's time to extend the protections given to chimps and dolphins to octopuses.
We need to have different looks and options in midfield. MMA won’t always be the best option especially if we are chasing a game and it’s not clicking.
Luca plays LM in a 4-4-2 for Celta and seems like a good fit for him. He isn't a speedy or touchline hugging winger but being outside-ish shields him from more physical demands of a CM. Problem with 4-4-2 is that you can get outmanned in central midfield but seems to work best with the Celta personnel..
The claims on bigsoccer of LDLT being physically disadvantaged are becoming so overblown as to be approaching absurdity. He's not an athletic freak or anything, but he's perfectly fine. He has extremely quick feet and is extremely fast with the ball, and covers an absolutely enormous amount of ground.
LDLT was dropped from the lineup today (even in spite of Veiga's unavailability) after a poor individual and team performance last match. Like I had said, I figured they'd be fickle, once team results didn't come, given the lack of investment and his mere adequacy this season. But even I didn't expect the hook to be that quick. Maybe I didn't give enough of a critique, at this point. It appears the actual manager was harsher, after showing initial faith. I was being fairer or giving more leash.