Re: Re: Re: Re: Stewart voices his frustration I agree with Nancy, except I could imagine Olsen having a go.
Earnie First of all I would like to clarify that Earnie is one of my favorite players of all time and a total class act, but he has not produced for us period. He can sit there and blame whatever he wants. The bottom line is that he hasn't produced enough to be making these kind of comments. He has missed several easy opportunities that could have given us some much needed wins. I have alot of love for Earnie, but coming out now and making these sort of comments makes him look a little like Charles Woodson for the Raiders. I have lost a little respect for him at this point. He could of at least saved it until the end of the season to voice his frustrations or kept it internal.
Re: Earnie Maybe true, except for one very relevent point, and one we all would do well to acknowledge- He's right. His comments ring true. And NO ONE else is saying it from the team. As to when would be a good time, think the argument has already been decided that earlier actually would have been better, but now is entirely better than late, certainly better than never. I agree with the personality vs strategy of Hudson has failed us this year, namely due to our churn. You simply cannot build familiarity into a system where your "personalitites" are inconsistent. Let's remember folks- our goals this season were three-fold. 1) Advance to the playoffs. Check. 2) Improve our road record. Check. 3) Create a reliable offensive threat. Still waiting. Hang Hudson? Too harsh a conclusion in my opinion, with one exception- give us a gameplan of consistency that gives us offense like we saw on the road at NY. Earnie's got every right to complain, given the number of positions he and several others have had to occupy. I'd be curious to compare our number of combinations at forward on the season vs every other team in MLS. And for crying out loud, learn the lesson of not developing the youth on your squad to contribute now. Injuries become less of a problem during the season if like Warren, you bring them on and they perform. Failing that, he's gotta go, especially in light of what talent resides with this team. If consistancy can't be bought with him, then find someone who will breed it readily. That team would beat what we came up with this season, if for only the difference in preparation between games as well for as the season progressed. Otherwise, trim a little fat and I see a healthier DC easily improving on this season next year, since our biggest yet recently absent assett has transformed from one of the bigger questions entering this season-could Ben return to form? A resounding yes.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Stewart voices his frustration Could be right there, ursula. I would also like to chime in that for the first several games of the season, it seemed that Earnie would get himself open in great postions, but our man in the middle with great vision seemed to choose not to see him. There were many times when I could see looks of absolute frustration/irritation on Earnie's face after he'd positioned himself beautifully, only to have the ball passed to someone less well positioned or passed back in an offense killing move.
another last quick thought... And having seen his comments, I have to wonder...I left the RFD party Saturday night, and looked back to ponder the subject of a certain discussion taking place- who, you may ask, were the parties involved, and their relevance? Earnie Stewart, Dema Kovalenko, and Ryan Nelson. Would have loved to be a fly under that table. Easily could have been a gab about personal stuff, weekend plans, etc., but just as easily could have been team issues. Food for thought folks.
I found the whole article rather appealing, as Stewart pointed out our biggest problem: We are a team of individuals, not a team. We don't have a consistent lineup and players are constantly trying to get in sync with each other every single game. The one time where we had a consistent lineup was our most successful. That ain't a coincidence, folks. Yes, injuries, call-ups, and other problems, have been the main cause of this, but a part of the problem must lie with the coach. He can't throw random players into the lineup and expect the team to play well. All too often, our players get exposed because they have no idea what they're teammates are going to do. That's been the case since the beginning of the season, but it sure as hell shouldn't be going on by this point in the season. There needs to be some degree of rigidness, either in lineup, formation, or playing style. That can't be addressed in one week (although one can hope), but it should be the focal point for the offseason. Stewart said what needed to be said and said the obvious: our team can't succeed if they're never on the same page. I think the majority of the blame has to fall on the coach. Stewart alluded to this, but never said it outright. At some point, Hudson has to realize that our team's woes are not the result of injuries, call-ups, etc., but the result of frequent lineup changes, bad player management, and a "what have you done for me lately" mentality. I desparately want our team to succeed, as does everyone else, especially Stewart. His frustration has been our's for the entire season. Things need to be done differently, whether it's players, the coach, or some other factor. Stewart hit a raw nerve that needed to be touched upon, even if it is at this late juncture. I just hope his words didn't fall on deaf ears.
Re: Re: Earnie First of all I would like to thank you for sticking to the issue. I like your professionalism. You did not feel the need to insult or belittle someone elses opinion in an insulting manner. Also you have sort have changed my mind about Earnie and his opinion. Personality is a very important issue that many fail to address. If a team has no chemistry then they cannot succeed. When I was a junior in high school my soccer team had the opportunity to win back to back state titles and also get some national exposure. We had all the talent in the world, but our star player had a serious inferiority complex. He thought he was bigger than the team and due to his attitude and lack of passing we lost in the semifinals of the state championship. This issue must be addressed in the off season. Players such as Etcheverry and Stoichkov are viruses and they must be released.
An interesting article from Earnie and a lot of insightful posts here. I've been thinking about the success of Chicago and San Jose this year and their coaches and it seemst that those teams have established the roles for players in a way that DC hasn't. I think there's a lot of truth in the statement that DC plays as a team of individuals. San Jose has had many injuries and call ups (think of how they've suffered injuries to De Rosario, Ching, etc.) but they've managed to win the West. Chicago hasn't had injuries, but they did have call ups and an early season suspension to Razov. The teams that have a system seem to do better. DC doesn't have that and Earnie is pointing that out.
If Hristo is such a team player, why does he argue with officials and then promptly stop playing? He constantly puts himself in danger of picking up cards, and the team in danger of being a man down. We see Earnie argue a lot of calls. He's an emotional guy, it's part of his game. However, Earnie also keeps playing at the same level. If not, he picks it up a notch. And if he's got a yellow, notice how much less heated those arguments go. Why? Earnie Stewart knows that his need or desire to argue a call is outweighed by the team's need for him to perform. That's why I take a lot of heart from these comments by Earnie, and why hearing that Stoitchkov preaches the same thing makes me skeptical. Exactly. As has been said, we have the wrong players for Ray's system. It's not the players' fault...under another coach we could be very dangerous. I've always believed that a coach has to adjust his style to the players at his disposal...that's the sign of a good coach. Ray has a great system if you give him the right players, but this club doesn't have those. Maybe in Marco's heyday, he would be much closer. As you said, the question becomes whether we can piece together a team that fits Hudson or find a coach that can make our players work. Personally, I think it's much easier to make this good group of players work than to rip the team apart...again...and hopefully restructure it correctly. There's nothing wrong with complimentary players, and I know damn well the skill level of this team is worth more than barely making the playoffs. Absolutely. Look at some of the other teams in the league. New England, for example...as far as the "parts" go, their midfield and defense are both weaker than ours by a good deal. After Twellman, their forwards are equal or lesser than ours. They're even in goal. Yet, they play almost the exact same group every week. Kamler can't go? They use Jason Moore, and we all know he sucks. No Joe-Max, no Twellman? Noonan and Fabbro play the same roles. No Joseph? Leo Cullen. The list goes on. What's the pattern? Rather than change the formation week in, week out, Nicol plugs in a lesser skilled player and leaves the system intact. The rest of the players are completely comfortable playing as per usual, so they're more likely to be able to step up and compensate for the lost starter. See my example. There aren't enough players in MLS that don't need coaching and structure in their play. This isn't Real Madrid. You're right, some players just aren't going to work together. Etcheverry, for example, doesn't work with the rest of this team. Teams playing rigid systems may not be exciting. To go back to the Revs, they're the most boring team in the league. The point, though, is that a system can overcome a certain degree of being "cross-wired" and that the whole again becomes greater than the sum of the parts. Hudson gave that same role to Lazo Alavanja and made it work when he was in Miami. The reason I say that is that the outside midfielders in Ray's system are by far the most replaceable players on the field. Not that Reyes isn't head and shoulders above most of the players on the team, but you can still put someone else in that spot (think Namoff) and succeed. The loss of Reyes hurt, but it in no way blew Hudson's system out of the water. Hudson's system was the problem, because it doesn't fit the players we have. That fact opens a whole lot of questions on his player acquisitions, but that's not quite on topic here. The only thing that changed is that now, Earnie expects to not get the ball and so is less frustrated. *** The crux of my argument here is that we have players crying out for a somewhat rigid, team-driven system, while the coach is crying out for players that fit his individual-driven system. San Jose is hardly boring, and they have a system in place. Frank Yallop could do a world of damage with our current team. Dave Sarachan could do a world of damage with our current team. Their ideal systems use a lot of complimentary players. The team defends, the team scores. Hudson's system is not flawed. A coach's system is kind of like a religious belief...you can't prove or disprove it. It's an opinion, not fact. With the right players, Hudson ended up creating what many think was the most attractive team in MLS history. However, we don't have those players. And if you're asking me whether I'd want to change coaches or disassemble the team for the 2nd consecutive season and hope it works...I'd rather change coaches.
The perfect example of this is something I've said all year. When we made the trade for Petke, I wasn't too upset because it was done with the assumption that we would be playing a 3-5-2, and Petke played better as a marking back in a 3-5-2 than a central defender in a 4-4-2. Now, in the first game, we played a 4-4-2 with Namoff and Chino on the wings and our offense played well, notably Ben, who abused the crap out of Burciaga. Namoff and Chino, though, didn't have good games, with Namoff getting burned on Klein's equalizer. So, for the next few games, we played a 3-5-2 (Petke, Nelsen, Prideaux) and, while our defense played better, our offense stalled, with Ben in particular looking lost. We switched back to the 4-4-2 in our 2-0 victory against Chicago, and here is where Ben, and by extension the team, started to play better. The glaring exception being the 3-0 loss in Columbus (hey, let's try Earnie at left back instead of Prideaux - Ray thinking "He's Dutch, he must know how to play every position."). So here was the dilemma: We had a defense best suited for a 3-5-2 and an offense best suited for a 4-4-2. When Ben went down, Ray should've used the opportunity to revert back to the 3-5-2, and only did it for one half - the second half against KC. The inability to understand the team's collective strengths and weaknesses is the biggest problem with the current coaching staff.
This guy Stewart is a mediocrity of a player and an idiot as a soccer commentator. Let's remember why we got him in the first place !!! As a striker !! He got $ 275000 to play striker !! It was only Ray's fault, as I have said before, in this business one should't buy a horse without seeing his mouth first !! In other words, Ray had countless trials for strikers but he both Stewart blindly !!! What the f... is Stewart talking about ?? Remember, in the begining, as a striker he did squat, we were 7 games in and no winning games !! What should the coach do with such a log ?? He moved him aroud to get some acction out of him. Well, it did not work out either !! Later, the coaching team brought him another striker as a mach. This one didn't work either !! So, what the f.... is he talking about ?? One goal a season is a dam shame, no matter what he says !! I cannot believe you guys forgot so many chances the dummie missed in front of the goal !! Now, he is talking about sefishness ! B S is his talk about the passing game in the front. What the f... did he do with the ball he had in the penality areas ??? This is becoming outrageous !! A 40 years old Preki and a rookie can score more than 10 goals in MLS and his "high class " duch experienced player only one. How about a ton of midfielders in MLS who scored goals in MLS, how about Dema or Olsen they are midfielders in the same team ??! How comme they manage to score and the mf.. Stewart did not ?? I cannot believe the degree of arrogance this guy has !! He played all season long a submediocre game, more like a new A league player and now he is criticizing the league and the coach !! This audacity sucks !! Either he knows Houston is done or he knows he is on his way out ?? Otherwise how comme a high paid player with such a sh...record can have the guts to open his mouth before the season is over ?? I tell you guys the fact that there are some generally true statesments in his talk doesn't mean he is right all the way !! There is no justification for his performance, unless we are taking into account that Willem and Breda are not the exactlly the glories of the eredivisie and he is 34. Long time ago I had an argument with Red&Black about Stewart, unfortunately I was right !! It was a stupid and unprofessional ideea from the MLS to bring back the nats who want to end their career in the MLS. His performance in MLS was big time crap, he better have the decency to shut the f.... up !!!! I hope we do not have to see this clown playing again for DCU !! It was much better if he would go to Dallas !!
Since there seems to be a need for this please refer to the site below and look into the item at the top of the left hand collum. http://www.soccer-books.co.uk/acatalog/acatalog.html
I think it's because some folks actually agreed with one of his posts about the game,so he felt he was in danger of becoming "moderate" and "accepted" No offense, sormun, but I think you're totally, totally wrong in your evaluation of Earnie.
What's the point of that..... Can you use your soccer book knowledge to tell us specifically why sormun's post is so wrong? And what is it that Earnie's done this year that's so great? And please stay away from: -defending Earnie by blaming the knowledge or reputation of other posters -blaming other players (ex-Hudson, Etcheverry, Stoitchkov, etc) I'd also like to know, if Earnie helps us win, then explain why: -He has 1 goal in about 2000 minutes -When he's played the full game, we're 4 wins-9 losses-6 ties, when he hasn't played at all we're 4 wins-3 losses-2 ties -He bitches about other players not playing the game HE obviously thinks it should be played, and REFUSES to play any other way. Sounds like an arrogant ahole I wouldn't want to play with. If I was playing on DC United I wouldn't like to hear my teammate bitch about his lack of production being due to OTHER people -He doesn't take shots, despite the fact that he plays forward and midfield, we all complain about our lack of shot taking -He has one of the worst production rates as a so-called offensive player in MLS. There are very few, if any, you can say produce less than him -etc, etc Your feedback would be appreciated. On an unrelated note, just so you know, columm is spelled column. And tell my Stewart should be coach when: -He hasn't coached one g d soccer game in his LIFE, as far as I know -He played in Holland, he doesn't know the American players in MLS, and he talks about how the DC United players should be playing like his team did in Holland -etc, etc
.....and as sormun said, this guy Earnie Stewart, BigSoccer hero for so many of you despite doing j s, is being paid what-I'm guessing a QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS for what overall has been absolutely pathetic play on the field this year This guy Earnie Stewart gets $250,000 to go out there and score 1 goal in 22 full matches, then when the season's almost over bitch about everyone else not doing their job the way he knows they should.
I'll tell you another Earnie Stewart fact. Our first 7 games we didn't win one. Guess who played full-time in all of them. Earnie Stewart. Game 8 we won on June 7 2-0 over Chicago at RFK, when Earnie Stewart didn't play. When Earnie Stewart came back on June 28, we lost to Columbus 3-0.
Since I don't feel like retyping all that again, I'll just post the link. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?postid=1769198#post1769198
I can't believe its taken him this long. its looked to me all year like Earnie would make nice runs, and never ever get the ball. It was apparent he was playing a different game than the rest of the team. I don't know if his game can become the game DC United seeks to play, but it would be more fun to watch than the Hudson-Trask system. Best I can tell that system is, pick some guys, give em a ball, and yell a bit. Chicago is different. In one of his columns, Wynalda talked about Chicago not really getting coached that much. Yet, they clearly understand their tasks.. As opposed to DC, where the players seem to worry about how their teammates are not doing the right things....
- You are right in one sense it was a cheap shot on my part, so I am sorry for that. - Spelling was also not my strong suit so thanks for the correction. I was unsure when I typed it and did not feel ike cutting and pasting into MS Word to use spell check. - I however get tired of hearing the same old "Earnie does not score goals so he sucks" rants from around here. It is the same point he brings up in the article about individual stats. Where in this article ( http://www.mlsnet.com/content/03/dc0115stewart.html ) is there a quote from Ray, Trask or Kaspar that Earnie was coming here to score 10-15 goals? No where! Those are expectations from people who did not know what Earnie's style of play was. The Earnie sucks, Marco has more points crowd. - Hudson, Kaspar and Earnie have to share blame for his not being able to integrate himself into the team as well as he should have been. - His game is about team goals. Runs off the ball to create chances for others. Are you suggesting he should come all the way back to the six yard box, demand the ball and then dribble through the ten opposing players? No thanks we already have those players on this team that is what he is saying. - Try to talk to Earnie sometime and then come tell me he is arrogant. He is suggest they change because United has been doing things the way they are now since 2000. That equates to 1 playoff appearance, no titles and 25 wins in 3 years. Who is being more arrogant about neededing to change the way things are done here???? - True he does not take as many shots as he could, fair critique there - How is this for a production rate without Earnie the last 3 years no playoffs, with Earnie playoffs?? - Who said Stewart should be coach??? - Should the American players be given a free ride because " well we have always don it that way". Many a business has gone under with that attitude.
Two posts, among many here, that make sense to me. Looking back at his Miami team, it seems to me that Ray benefited from probably the most lopsided trade of all time, the Preki and Henderson for Lassiter and even smaller change trade. If that trade doesn't happen, Miami's offense becomes only average and they don't win the supporter's shield and Ray doesn't get offered the DCU job when Miami is contracted. Contrast that move (and the other good trades and foreign acquisitions Miami made that off-season) with the difficulties Ray has had here in building an offense: -Ray has consistently fallen splat in trying to build a decent forward line. When he started here two years ago he had 1) a certifiable MLS star forward in Moreno who was injury prone, 2) a potentially good foil in Conteh who was a proven goal scorer in this league, and 3) a rising star in that kid, Quaranta. Folks, on paper this is a nice foundation. Really nice. Potentially as good as any team in the league. Plus they should have plugged into Hudson's free-form system quite well. What happened? Eventually all three of them tuned out Hudson: Conteh right away, Moreno by midway through the season, and Quaranta by this year. I won't blame Hudson for this but any way you take it, these three non-performances were a huge blow to the team and Ray. So this past off-season, Ray looks in S America, in Europe, everywhere for a decent priced yet effective forward. I guess hindsight says that Ray was looking for a needle in a haystack. The closest we got to a "Ray" type forward was Tyson Nunez probably but he too was too rich for our salary cap. Then Stewart and possibly JMM were available. We got Stewart. Some posters here (Cweedchop? You there? Tron?) had a bad feeling about this acquisition since it was pretty clear that Stewart wasn't that "tip of the spear" type that Hudson needed to make his offense go. Probably all of us could have seen this dilemma as we all saw how Bruce Arena used Stewart many times and before him Sampson (and Bora..) even if some of hadn't seen how Stewart played at NAC-Breda on FSW. we should have know that Stewart is more of a midfielder than forward... Stewart just simply isn't that Serna-type forward that Hudson needed and to blame Earnie for not being something other than what he was (and is) is just silly. Expecting Earnie Stewart to be what Jamie Moreno used to be for us going into the season was and became a recipe for problems. Stewart can be used effectively, just not how Ray is using him. So unlike Miami, Ray has not gotten the personnel he needs for what he prefers to do. I think he caught lightning in a bottle that off-season with Miami and he (and we) can't expect to have the right a-mid and the right forward to be offered in trade or be cheap enough on the international market for his system. Leaving aside the gratuitous jab, I agree that Earnie has absolutely not produced at the level that any MLS club needs for a max salary guy. But I think if we look back at Earnie's career we see that he's had a machine-like consistent success for both club and country until he gets to our beloved club. His lack of production this year seems to scream "fish out of water" more than anything else. That's not his fault, not is not his fault that MLS (and DCU and Hudson) decided that he was worth a max salary slot. Even this year he still performed decently for Arena. That he did so reminds me of our 2000 season where our defense totally fell apart (Pope, Agoos, Llamosa, Talley, Williams) yet those guys (not Talley) played well for Arena that same summer. And they've consistently played well ever since, under different coaches.
No problem. I just wanted to see ANY info from you backing your claim, other than ONLY a shot at sormun's soccer knowledge I however get tired of hearing the same old "Earnie does not score goals so he sucks" rants from around here That's why I listed more info. Earnie says it's more than about scoring goals for him-it's about getting the 3 points. He's a team player. Well then, based on that, to be a team player he should sit on the bench. Because the team wins at a much highter rate when Earnie's not playing. And if the team's winning w/out Earnie playing, then why come back next year. If he's a team player, he gives up his $250,000 or whatever his salary is, and we can spend it on another max salary guy that will help us win. He says he's a team player, but then he talks about his individual problem-that he isn't playing well because the other people on the team aren't playing his type of game. Maybe it's the other way around. Ever think of that Mr. Stewart? Who said Stewart should be coach??? From this thread, CrazyDCFan, BarbDett, Cuchulain, Claymore, Knave, ...