5'9" and 160lbs yeah, that ain't striking fear into players with size. But 32 goals in all competitions last year is ********ing ridiculous
According to Transfer Markt, he has a value of 2.5mil Euros....however accurate that is. Plus, as a bonus......HE ALSO PLAYS WINGER! YAY!!!!
This is a blast from the past. A player that was scouted by Lagerwey back in the day. I think during the search that landed Saborio, but don't quote me on that. He's a bit older now.
I will hazard a guess that it was the search in Colombia for a striker from which Lagerway decided on Olmes Garcia. Cano really broke out in Colombia in 2012 and we were there looking at players older than Olmes in that offseason; when we signed Saborio, Cano was still at an obscure Argentine side and had yet to tally ten goals in his career.
Pros: Goals, speed, nice touch, goals Cons: Age, cost, journeyman The cost factor, to me, makes or breaks this as a "good" (potential) deal. That's kind of a no-duh, but this is an interesting move.
If we'd signed a Croatian striker last offseason who had 15 goals and 9 assists and was named team MVP this season, would we be looking to replace him this offseason? In my mind, this move doesn't make sense because we already have our striker. Is there opposition to Kreilach playing there, other than it not being his "natural position"?
I think that we need more speed up there to go along with Damir and the other wingers that rotate through. I also think that experience was also lacking and sorely needed. Baird did great for an afterthought at $54,000 but his lack of experience was telling at times. Maybe this is a move that's on the expensive side but what this team needs is a journeyman striker that plays well with others. We saw it at the end of 2017 and a few times in 2018 that when this team plays together and for each other they are nearly unbeatable. Sadly though, when they don't make the unselfish pass, or timely run they are who we thought they are, a bunch of old guys playing with a bunch of young SELFISH guys and it looks like a bag of flaming porch poo out there.
I totally agree and along these lines, Marco Urena's option was just declined by LAFC. He strikes me as the perfect Petke striker - a false nine who is creative, sets up his teammates, and can impact a game even if he doesn't score. Basically, Urena is like a younger, more mobile Luis Silva. I won't complain about signing Cano, but if we have limited international slots and DP/TAM slots, I don't get why we'd use our precious big-money roster spots on a striker that would push Kreilach out of that spot. I think the money is much more needed on a midfielder to complement/replace Beckerman. If we need experience and depth, there are cheaper options.
That's a pretty easy question to answer, Kreilach isn't a forward. Plain and simple we need to stop playing players out of position, save for Lennon. If I asked "would you rather have an actual forward, who scored 32 goals, play forward or a converted midfielder, who scored 14 goals?" No brainer, get the forward who can play the forward and move the midfielder back to the midfield where he can succeed the most. Ideal world: Beckerman becomes a seldom used backup, you start Kreilach in the holding midfield area where he has the freedom to move forward up into the attacking third, you sign another midfielder who can work well as a defensive midfielder who can clean up and be a destroyer behind Kreilach. Savarino out wide with Rusnak as the orchestrater who can float around, then you replace Plata on the left with a wing who can put in some damn defensive effort and not leave our left back out to dry all the time. Oh and get rid of ********ing Besler.
What about Mike Grella? Only 31 and unless it injuries seems like a blue collar RSL type guy. Would he be a Midfielder that could replace Luke Mulholland type? Just curious. His contract wasn’t picked up either.
Picking him up may not be the worst thing, but the age worries me. I'd be far less worried if he was 27/28. Kreilach as a forward except for emergencies needs to die off. IMO what we need, is a true replacement for KB that can play the lone DM role. Kreilach could go back to being a roaming 8 who can get into the attack. Having a proper forward with Rusnak pulling the strings behind and Kreilach making late runs could be a thing of beauty.
Soapbox had some stats the other day. When Kreilach was a striker or attacking mid, we played at a 57 point pace. When he played in central midfield, it was a 45 point pace. That's the difference between 3rd and 9th in the conference. Petke said in his post season press conference that he sees Kreilach as an attacking player, so I would guess the days of him in midfield are mostly over.
And who's to say the point pace wouldn't have been even higher had we played a true forward in the position? Again, shoehorning a player into a position isn't a solution to a problem that has existed for so long, even if that shoehorning had moderate success over a limited period of time. Theoretical points based upon ppg from when a player played a specific position mean nothing. What makes the biggest difference is bringing the best players in that can play to their and the team's strengths. Bring in a forward who can score 32 goals a year, that's better than a midfielder who can score 14 goals a year playing forward.
His exact words were "I don’t consider Damir to step into that holding midfield role." He explicitly said they're looking for a new midfielder to upgrade that spot. This was in the context of a reporter asking him about the declined options for Sunny and Mulholland, who had both played next to Beckerman as a central midfielder (in case someone wanted to be hung up on the difference between "holding mid" and "box to box mid").
Maybe they want to play a 4-1-2-2-1. Back 4. DM Rusnak/Kreilach in joint middle roles. 2 Wingers A real #9. (what would you call Cano?) ???
That's the setup I'd prefer. Maybe Kreilach just slightly deeper than Rusnak but free to make runs into the box. I just wasn't a fan of 2 dm's
I call that a 4-1-4-1 and I want it. While Kreilach is good in an attacking role, what he's really good at is delayed runs into the box. Rarely was he pushing the line like I would want a striker to (think Yura/Findley in 2009). If Petke admits (finally) that Kreilach isn't a central midfield/box-to-box type player, then we have a MASSIVE hole there. We just dumped Sunny and Luke. We have our aging captain that MUST be phased out last year. Next player, on the roster, is... Besler? We need legs. We need bite. We need a player like Ille Sanchez from KC to just boss the midfield behind our attacking players. Further, the best move for Rusnak is to push Kreilach up next to him with another forward in front of him. It'll take defenders off of him and give him a chance to operate more freely again. This assumes we don't play the stupid "avoid the middle of the field" tactics we did for much of last year, but that's a whole other point. The starting XI, in my book, should look something like this next year: New FW Plata Rusnak Kreilach Savarino New DM Herrera Glad Onuhoa Lennon Putna/Rimando What I love about this is that you can put KB on the bench and bring in a ton of bite as either a replacement to the other DM in a game we need like for like, or you can go conservative and take off any of the front 5 and drop into a 4-2-3-1 again. Every few games you can start KB, too, should he prove to still somehow have the legs. You just HAVE to put him down as a 45-60 min sub. Running him as much as we did this year was moronic.
Also, one of the biggest failures of Lagerway as a GM here and now Waibel is the inability to get the league to correct this moronic decision to not renew our traded youth international slots. It doesn't get coverage much at all, but it's seriously hampering this team to not be able to explore more options with those slots (that were VERY different at the time).
I completely agree with him there. He didn't work in that role, and added so much more when put into an advanced role. I agree with 15to32, he seems like so much more of a 2nd forward than anything. You could argue a CAM role, but that role requires someone a little more comfortable spending time on the ball - not Damir's forte IMO. I don't see him being interchangeable with Rusnak - I think they are very different players and should fill different roles. Rusnak should be more focused on using his vision to distribute, find open space and take opportunistic shots. Kreilach should be putting his killer instinct, and excellent finishing to use and should play much more advanced than Rusnak when RSL is in the final 3rd. Lagerwey mentioned when they re-vamped the player acquisition rules when the Canadian teams joined that he was flabbergasted that the league wouldn't consider resetting that. He also said the league told him they'd need to get support of all of the owners to make that change, which Garth felt would likely never happen.
We clearly need a holding midfielder type. Someone who connects that backline into the attack. Also, Beckrrman needs to take a smaller role. Love him but its apparent if we are going to play more than kick ball. There were a lot of rumors about a tigres midfielder in June/July. Is he back in play? I would think so. But we will need to use Tam to buy down a DP player if we sign Cano. That is if Rusnak resigns of course...