Roldan and are you watching the game? 2021 Thread bump

People complain about Roldan because he's a known quantity, and the quantity of his talent just isn't very good.

 

And that blinds people to his actual performances (which have been mixed, to be fair).

We call this section "news and analysis," not "wishes and prejudices."

 

I just don't understand how it is so hard to say that Roldan had a fine game -- frankly did some things better than I expected -- and yet I still don't think he should be playing midfield for a full strength team.

Instead of, you know, just spouting crap. The latter does have one benefit, though, as it helps identify the people whose opinion I should probably just ignore.

 

I agree it makes people catastrophize his performances. An average/non-eventful performance is interpreted as very bad/disasterous. That said, he shouldn't have a place on the A squad absent a string of injuries.

 

I'd also add that Roldan should in theory be dominating out there against B&H if he truly is good enough to be a first-team player, right? He should be escalating himself above both the opposition and his teammates with his play. By failing to do that, it raises questions about his status as a first team player.

 

What do you mean by a first team player?

Roldan doesn't make my best 23 if everyone is healthy, but I'm also pretty sure not everyone on that best 23 "dominates" against B&H.

The standard to make a roster is to be better for the team than other options. There's no theoretical line where someone is good enough or not. You simply need to be better than the other options. And in some of these places the other options aren't that great. I like Busio and de la Torre, for example, and I doubt they "dominate" against B&H. I still think Pepi is my starting striker, and he came nowhere near dominating.

 

I didn't recall him doing much of note and watching the all touches video I may give him slightly more credit for staying involved, but I didn't see much where he particularly created danger. He made several decent passes to the right side where the winger still had a lot of work to do to create anything. I saw several decent enough passes to keep the ball moving, but I really saw very little that stood out or that lead to any chances. He didn't have a horrible game but he wasn't a difference maker out there either. For me, that basically sums him up at this level. He can be a decent enough role player but he's not going to really give you a lot. And, with the other two midfielders being defensive specialists, we needed him to create things a bit. So yeah, he wasn't the specific problem in the midfield trio, but he wasn't much of a solution either. How many passes did he make that led to a shot? Getting the ball to a winger on the outside of the defense isn't tragic but it isn't particularly notable either. He also gave the ball away a couple times in bad spots in that video clip and was never a defensive presence. I have no problem with his playing when we are depleted and none of our regular options are available, but I saw nothing in that video that made me think he looks like a guy we need to get on the field when we have anything close to a full selection available.

 

Roldan has regularly featured for Gregg. He wore the "10" yesterday which still means something. He should at least look a cut above the competition and hims teammates. Those were USL level players on B&H. You would expect to him to look better than the opponents here as a player Gregg has routinely featured. You would expect him to look better than his green teammates. I agree that there's no "theoretical line where someone is good enough or not." But Roldan did not look better than anyone on the field. He's just average.

Pepi had a poor game. I would have expected better. Same with Roldan. Or Busio if he played.

Funny that you mention De La Torre. Gregg clearly prefers Roldan over DLT. That's a questionable decision.

 

The combo with Reynolds was nice enough but it only led to a blocked cross. The dummy for Cowell was decent (for me, that was probably his most effective play) but again it led to nothing. I said he had an OK game but especially with 74% of possession I would expect our most forward midfielder to actually create a shot at some point to give him more than an average grade. Like I said, he wasn't horrible but he didn't do anything that should strike fear into the guys who are ahead of him in the pecking order. A couple nice enough combos that fizzled out doesn't change that for me. Naturally opinions can differ but if the biggest highlights you can find are a decent pass slipped into a crowded area that was subsequently blocked out of bounds and a dummy to a guy too tightly marked to do anything with it, well for me that tells the story.

 

Why do people critique Roldan harsher than others... particularly youngsters?

Because, despite the fact that Roldan is still considerably young, he has enough experience to have the expectation of setting a higher standard.

If people ask me, do I judge different players differently? I absolutely do. For example, do you think I’m going to judge Christian Pulisic and Konrad de la Fuente differently? Absolutely. If de la Fuente plays next game, I just want him to offer some youthful energy, do some good things, and make an impact. Whereas, I’m expecting Pulisic to be a leader.

Simply, at 30 caps, and 201 professional games, even at 26 years old, you want more.

 

Depends on your standard. If playing a weaken BIH team with one man advantage, and needs a last minute with a goalkeeper error to barely get a win, I would say let’s starting Roldan and Co. all the way to WC.

 

I think people are somewhat missing the point here, which is that in the wake of the game, there were a whole lot of people (less so here) claiming Roldan was terrible and awful. On Twitter, on reddit, a couple here.

He wasn't. I think evaluating players in context makes sense in terms of what you want out of someone, or whether someone continues to stay in the pool (potential for future growth is important), but I don't really think it is relevant to judge Cristian Roldan harsher on a match rating because he wore the 10 in Camp Greggnog.

Claiming he played terrible is just people who don't like Roldan making shit up to make him look worse.

It's totally okay to say, "He wasn't bad, but not good enough to impress to move up my depth chart" or whatever. I see no point in distorting the actual performance, though.

 

FWIW he didn't move up my depth chart at all, but I nevertheless felt that he had a fairly good game. "Fairly good" against a domestic side in a winter camp friendly is hardly a ringing endorsement, but it is what it is, which is not what so many of his detractors claimed it was.

The (only) two guys who stood out were Zimmerman, who had exactly the kind of match you'd expect from an A-team regular and veteran leader, and Jordan Morris, who had a very encouraging comeback performance after a long layoff, at least in the first half. The rest simply treaded water or worse.

But the main purposes for this match were fitness and cohesion-building, over the usual priority of talent intake and evaluation.

 

For reference, put me down in the group that is not saying Roldan was horrible. But I was not impressed ~ based on the fact that I want more from someone with as much experience he has.

 

Jordan did have some nice movement, but I think he may have lost a step.

 

this match doesnt matter! fitness! but also let me go to the tape to show that roldan wasnt as bad as people say!

 

The two aren't mutually exclusive.

 

mattering and not mattering? but that would mean roldan could have had no positive effect against a weak team a man down while technically not misplaying every pass!

 

Yet, there is still no news and analysis of his performance. The thread was started with outrage and a video with no analysis, and then commenting how there’s no news and analysis.

I have no emotional opinion of his performance. He was there; nothing exciting, nothing horrendous. On the same level of Arriola and Lletget. He’s on the fringe of the WC 23 and has value as an injury replacement.