I hope you're right about Chicharito vs Vela. As I said, my opinion is formed with pretty limited experience. But in watching them both play, Vela seemed to be the better player to me. About Alessandrini, yes I was sort of venting, and would rather have a better forward than either him or Chicharito. I don't see Chicharito as much of an upgrade (if any), and we are way over-paying. Not that I should really care about that. Just seems like spending a small fortune to get a good player where I would rather see them spend a huge fortune and get a great player. Or get more value at least. But I'll give Chicharito a chance.
Hispanic community is already a fan of either the Galaxy or LAFC. No one is going to change sides. Will more than a few more join? Doubt it.
Agree. I'm looking forward to having a balanced, well-constructed team for the first time since 2015 probably. This team is gonna play some nice ball.
I was one that thought signing Gio was a pretty big deal, and got a lot of push back on that. That was 5 years ago. MLS has gotten much better and signed many more DPs since then. This Chicharito signing seems a bit ho hum today (though decent). Seems like we're not progressing with the rest of the League.
So did Vela and Bradley Wright Phillips, two of the leagues top scorers in recent years. I don't want to jinx anything and as I've said, I haven't see much of Hernandez in a few years but people seem to be really underestimating his ability in his prime. I keep seeing people online claiming that Vela is by far the better player, which in their prime's at least isn't close to being true. It all seems to be based on the fact that because Vela has a measure of dribbling ability, he makes for flashier highlight reels, whereas Chicharito is a pure finisher. But by that logic, Vela is better than Alan Shearer at his best.
Am I just out of the loop on Hernandez's hype? People saying this is a massive signing, but I don't see it.
I'm okay with the money as it seems to be an investment in this case. I wouldn't pay that for him as a player, especially compared to other options but it seems like we're going to be pulling in huge revenues based on his presence. The fee and salary aren't so much to buy his level of play (though if he's close to his prime, he'll hopefully be a great addition) as it is to buy his marketability. That in turn should fill the coffers to keep AEG investing in the team.
Agree. Vela is more of an all-around playmaking forward who can also score goals, whereas Chicharito is an out-and-out striker. People don't realize that Chichartio is not an answer to Vela; Pavon is. But I'm happy to let Pavon slip under the radar.
While we're waiting for the official announcement about Chicharito,... The rumor is that Fanendo Adi may become available: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sp...-fanendo-adi-waived-fc-cincinnati/4497569002/ 29 years old. Six years of MLS experience. At 6' 4", he's a true #9. DUI behind him. Played well for a good team in Portland, but struggled for a lousy team in Cincinnati. Knowing that all the pressure will be on Chicharito to produce and score goals instead of him, I believe Adi would flourish with us. I say he's worth taking a flier on. Change my mind.
Adi would be a nice addition. He'd be a good back-up and compliment to Chicharito. Too bad GBS doesn't hire black people , otherwise I'd say let's make it happen.
Hopefully that’s not true. Not sure where that’s coming from. However if we sign Dunbar, your theory won’t hold much water.
He's also going to get the ACB and Riot Squad to merge, personally copy edit all of our chamipon Galaxy online content, serve beers at halftime that will cut the wait time 30%, and let the Galaxy concessions use his abuela's vegan zero-fat nacho cheese recipe that tastes better than the original full fat.
As the resident black guy on this forum(As far as I know anyway) I think MP was making a joke and I found it funny so it's okay.
OMG. We need a black player (or more) asap, I don't want to put my head in the sand! Ema, who's gone...anyone else?
Against top level competition Chicharito in his prime was a much better scorer than Vela. Not sure about the current version but am hopeful. Also in MLS Vela does a lot more than score. He is a workhorse all over the field, helps pressure the ball, win 50-50 balls, draw fouls and free kicks, drops back to help advance the ball and generates a lot of assists as well (15 last season). However for me this is not Chicharito vs Vela, it's Galaxy vs LAFC. And the rest of the league. How we stack up will depend on how our top 13 or 14 players perform and our team health, not how one player performs. If everyone stays healthy and Chichirito is anything close to his old prime then our offense should be fine and possibly really good. With the addition of Chicharito, Kitai, Kljestan and a full season of Pavon we have a good chance of being a top 5 offense in the league. So for me the real question will be "please god, have we improved defensively?" Part of the answer to this will depend on individual defenders. Are we done with the defensive roster building? How good is Insua? How much will the loss of Polenta hurt us? If we don't add Zambrano (or similar) will Gonzalez/Steres actually work at cb? (For that matter can Gonzalez actually stay healthy for a season?) Will GBS stick with Feltscher (who he seems to like) or will he play the more defensive minded Araujo more? If the latter then then how will the 18yo do with extended minutes? Will our lack of defensive depth bite us at some point? What about Bingham? Will he improve his decision making and execution when coming out for balls and breakaways or will that continue to be weakness? Equally important for the defense is will our midfield again be a sieve like it was last season? Getting rid of Ibra won't solve a lot of the problems it had in this area. Will the players continue to employ naive naive tactics like pushing 8 players into the box at once? Will GBS continue to allow/encourage it? How much mental and physical energy will new additions Katai and Kljestan put into winning 50-50 balls and dropping back to help defend when needed? Will DTK/GBS find a physical DM to add to the mix? Will GBS make the mistake of playing a healthy Kitchen there? So many questions. Offensively I would like to see a second forward but otherwise I'm very confident. As everyone knows I have doubts about the defense. But my three countervailing hopes are 1) I'm wrong and this group gets shutouts like some of you think it will, 2) DTK/GBS aren't done, and bring in more defensive help before the start of the season and 3) if it isn't working GBS will finally get the message and make either make tactical adjustments and/or bring in significant defensive reinforcements in the summer. But with Chicharito on board I'm officially excited for the season to start!
I know, I know bad joke. It's a running joke me and a buddy have going. It culminated yesterday with my buddy joking "Pfft, you should've known Vermeer wasn't coming to the Galaxy".
Not to derail this thread, but for those of you with a Twitter account, there was an interesting exchange between a presumed fan and some of SGs. Galaxy account tweeted out “y’all sleepin on da boy” with a picture of Lleget and this person accused the Galaxy social media team of cultural appropriation. Don’t agree with that point. I think he brought up the lack of people of color in the FO. That is harder to dispute. Anyway, just another week on Galaxy Twitter!!
The conceit I took is that GBS only likes dudes from Boca or the Argentina national team. It's not true but it's a joke I have heard in the past about this team.