I think we'll agree on this. I was referring of most recent contents (after his injury during the opening game) who called him a failure, a similar failure as Gerrard has been. That said, to be totally fair on Gerrard, I think he had a good first month and a half with us, but he completely faded in September and October. You may be right, but I'm not sold on Magee starting in the middle, and I very want to see Lletget here. Maybe this is a too offensive lineup, our defense will be exposed a lot. That said, I just read an article from Scott French with an interview of Sarachan. Here's what he said : I think we'll have to wait before a tactical switch (and I didn't say I necessarily want a tactical switch). If I had to guess the lineup against New England, and if Gerrard returns (apparently he was back at training yesterday), I think we'll see De Jong and Gerrard in the middle, Keane and Gio up top, Zardes on the left and Magee or Lletget on the right.
I agree on Zardes. His goal against RSL and his assist against KC were plays he created almost all by himself. Gyasi has always been a guy who benefited from the players around him : good passers (like Keane, Donovan or Sarvas) who gave him a tap-in or a header were the majority of his goals. His goal against Houston is the perfect example : perfect cross by Lletget, good run by Gyasi, and he finished with the tap-in. That's not a critic on Zardes, he has his strengths and we have to use them correctly (like we did in 2014, his best year)! That said, these two plays were impressive. Can Gyasi deliver this type of goals/assists on regular basis? We'll see, that would show a big progress in Gyasi's game. But I disagree on Gio. His last four goals were not easy goals to score and he was an important part in all of them : - first one against Houston : long ball by Cole to Lletget, two Dynamo players collide, the ball comes to his feet and he calmly finishes. Not a goal created all by himself but I give him the credit to follow the ball after the defenders collided and the finish was not easy. - second goal against Houston : great ball by Gerrard but a great first touch and very good finish. He is a big part of that goal. I'm not sure Gyasi can score a goal like this one. - goal against RSL : Boateng got the assist but frankly this goal is 95% on Gio. The ball was a little bit behind him and he superbly managed to score this great chip. - goal against KC : great work by Zardes but the run by Gio who was isolated behind two defenders is superb and the goal is not easy to score. Donovan and Keane scored exactly this type of goals back in the day. You really can't say these goals were scored only because of the players around him.
I made a comparison of our seasons under Bruce after the fourth game (against Vancouver), so I decided to do the same after the eighth : 2009 : 9 points (4 home games). 2010 : 22 points (4 home games). Only two goals allowed. SS won this year. 2011 : 15 points (3 home games). SS won this year. 2012 : 10 points (5 home games). 2013 : 14 points (5 home games). 2014 : 9 points (3 home games). 2015 : 12 points (4 home games). 2016 : 15 points (4 home games). I still think we could be a Shield contender. Presumably we'll only get better.
Gio and Jelle were fined for mass confrontation http://www.lagalaxy.com/post/2016/0...me-fined-violation-leagues-mass-confrontation I think MLS needs to have their Disciplinary Committee adjudications recorded and/or broadcast. I’m 100% for punishing players for mass confrontations, it needs to stop, but I just don’t know what constitutes a mass confrontation based on what has and has not been punished as such. Either DisCo/PRO have done a very poor job communicating their interpretation of the laws to us or DisCo/PRO aren’t being consistent. Mass confrontation and dissent in particular seem incredibly easy to to legislate vs tackles, offside, penalties, etc … In the case of the former if you are not the team captain and you confront the referee you get punished no ifs ands or buts. In the case of dissent you get a warning, you get a yellow card, you get a second yellow (like Evans a fortnight ago). You push, punch, pull, grab the referee, the assistant referee, the fourth official you get a red card.
There is a supposedly objective standard: if the ref is confronted by three players, it is classified as a mass confrontation. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...02/27/mls-institutes-mass-confrontation-rule/ The problem is that it is not always applied or done so in a consistent manner.
I agree 100% with the logic of this, but it leads us to a place we can't be. ->4 in the back ->2 wide players ->1 defensive mid (not said, but we absolutely need it) which gives us Wide------------------------Wide --------------DeJong------------- ->Gyasi is the guy who stretches defenses ->Gio and Robbie underneath ----------------Gyasi------------- -------Keane---------Gio-------- Put them together and you have a Christmas tree (4-3-2-1): ----------------Gyasi------------- -------Keane---------Gio-------- Wide------------------------Wide --------------DeJong------------- Sarachan's logic is perfect but it implies that we cannot start Keane, Gio and Gerrard at the same time.
I like these #'s because it shows he's getting off a half-way decent # of shots, they tend to be accurate, and his scoring rate is sustainable. Contrast that to Gio (sorry Lem-Lag) who is getting off few shots but has been scoring at an unsustainable rate: 4/6 shots on target = 66.67% 4/6 goals/shot = 66.67% 4/4 goals/sog = 100%. Six shots total in 5 games is an unacceptably low rate for a player who has played both forward and offensive midfielder. The lack of ability to get shots off has been obscured by the fact that he is - no other way to put it - on a lucky streak. No one can make 2/3 of their shots over a sustained period of the time. Recently Gio made 2 absolutely gorgeous chips shots this season. As much as I appreciate those he probably wouldn't be better than 20% on those shots in the long run, even in practice. In fact our team as a whole is getting off an average of 12.5 shots per game, 5.1 on goal, which ranks 8th in the league. In 2015 we were a little worse - 11.9 shots and 4.5 sog, 10th place. In our more successful 2014 campaign we were where we are supposed to be - top of the league (by a comfortable margin) with 16 shots/gm and 5.9 sog. On a per game basis these differences may sound small but the difference in 16 s/g and 12.5 is 120 shots over a 34 game season. Here are the numbers for every Galaxy player with a goal or assist this season: Code: Player GP GS MINS G A SHT SOG GW PK/A HG RG G/90 SC% Giovani 5 5 378 4 2 6 4 0 0/0 1 3 0.95 66.7 Zardes 8 7 659 4 2 15 10 1 0/0 3 1 0.55 26.7 Magee 8 7 586 3 3 16 7 1 0/0 3 0 0.46 18.8 Keane 3 3 270 2 0 5 3 0 2/2 2 0 0.67 40 Boateng 6 3 328 1 2 3 1 1 0/0 1 0 0.27 33.3 Gerrard 5 5 364 1 2 12 4 0 0/1 1 0 0.25 8.3 Husidic 8 5 507 1 1 6 3 1 0/0 0 1 0.18 16.7 Steres 8 8 720 1 0 5 2 0 0/0 1 0 0.13 20 Lletget 7 7 573 0 2 9 2 0 0/0 0 0 0 0 VanDamme 7 7 622 0 1 8 0 0 0/0 0 0 0 0
I dunno. Dos Santos is reeeeeeally good at chip shots. What I casually observe about Dos Santos is that he is a superbly good finisher who is deadly just about anywhere around the box. In his best season with Villareal, he had 10 goals on 56 shots; less than 2 shots per game. I don't really see anything lucky about this streak of success -- we've just been playing to his strength. As I say, he's really more of a 9.5 than a 10. He's been very effective capitalizing and finishing chances on the counter. This is why I say his success will be a matter of fit.
10/56=18% doesn't seem lucky, it seems normal (but less than Keane's rate iirc). Gio's current 67% conversion rate is what I said is unsustainable. Btw last season he was 3/22=14%. Also if Gio increased the number of quality shots he was getting off to just his Villareal rate of 2 per game that would be a 67% improvement over his current rate. Hence my concern. Not saying it isn't correctable - just saying that it needs to be improved.
There shouldn't be; especially when you consider Gerrard's age and the fact that he is retiring. A full MLS season will break his body before long. So he should either be super sub or be pulled after 60 minutes anyway. And Jose Villareal should be getting major minutes in light of this as well.
The weird thing about it is Gio & Jelle were the only two fined, but if the rule is 3 or more why didn’t a third Galaxy player get fined? The reason, I assume is, Gio & Jelle were the only two to touch the referee, which fair play that is a finable offense in my book, but isn’t that a different rule? Preaching to the choir here, but there are certain parts of the game that you can make unambiguous. For example if you said 3 or more players confronting the referee will result in a fine and you showed the video the incident I think a reasonable person would say: Larentowitz, Gio, Jelle, AJ and Sterres all confronted the official as a group and should be fined. Magee would be questionable, his involvement was minimal and he was the captain. I would have no problem with all those players being fined.
There is a difference in what is being announced. The team and the head coach are fined (or warned in this case) for violating the mass confrontation rule. The players in this case were fined for escalation, which presumably means touching the referee. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...02/27/mls-institutes-mass-confrontation-rule/ L http://www.mlssoccer.com/mls-disciplinary-summary/2016/week9/la-galaxy
I know these guys are not earning superstar money (except for the DPs) but a $250 fine? Is that supposed to have any deterrent effect? That's less than a traffic ticket in this town.
To the outside observer, the functioning of the DisCo seems arbitrary and inconsistent. There are some things they seem to do OK with, but others that seem strange and out of proportion. For instance, Chris Rolf got a one game ban for a tackle last weekend, while Grabavoy got nothing for what looked like a much worse tackle. Ben Olsen got a one match ban for removing a second ball from the pitch. It seems like the worst of mid-level bureaucracy. There's a failure to recognize what they are trying to achieve, and therefore they struggle to follow the letter of the law even if it result in stupid outcomes.
Doesn't apply in this case apparently since it's escalation not mass confrontation, but I would say that the first two guys to get to the ref get a free pass, because they are not piling on. But the third, fourth, etc player would presumably be guilty of mass confrontation.
Ah that makes sense, thanks. It would be nice if MLS, given the scrutiny they’re under, included these rules in a highly visible part of their web site and linked to the relevant rule when issuing the press release. See I’d say zero exceptions, in theory only the team captain and the player involved should be talking to referee in situations like that. If Jeff & Jelle were there, then it’s incumbent on their fellow teammates to show restraint and not get them included. Guilt by association is pretty draconian, but I’m tired of seeing a mob of worked up players confront referees, even if I happen to agree with the players. I would be in favor of fining every single Galaxy player involved and an extra fine for Jelle and Gio. It’ll take a few incidents, but eventually players will figure it out.
It's worth noting that nowhere in the Laws of the Game does it say that the captain is the only one who can speak to the ref or indeed should be speaking to the ref in a situation that doesn't involve him. It specifically says: The captain of a team has no special status or privileges under the Laws of the Game but he has a degree of responsibility for the behaviour of his team.