It’s not so much about minutes as it is years in the league. At age 28 and 6 years in the league he’s not a mystery player anymore and he’s not gonna suddenly get a lot better.
Re:Skahan...just like Judd, the sample size should reset from the time under Bruce. Just me, but everybody who buys in to Bruce's approach is going to look better going forward.
Playing time will be spare for him. He's not gonna be a starter like Judd, and we haven't had a tough game yet this year. He had a rough game against SKC, but at least he was in position to score those goals. But those kinds of games - 3-0 late at home, 2-0, that's very downhill stuff. Everyone's gonna look good. The real test comes when you're down 2-0 against Philly in the 75th minute, they're feeling good and they dispossess you, counter, and it's 3.0.
I will remind everyone about the trajectory of one Chris Wondolowski, who certainly didn't set the world on fire for his first (what) six years in the league.
I'm not saying he is, I am only saying that there are players for whom six years is not the entire measuring stick.
Fair enough, but I think Wondo was a rare bird. Also, Wondo was a beast in reserve / 2nd team minutes. That can be a sign. I've seen Skahan play with the Quakes 2nd team a number of times, and he looks fairly ordinary. Doesn't really stand out.
Completely concede your first point, the second point is more challenging, there are a lot of athlete's who play to the level of competition. I've seen sparks of creativity from Jack and some WTF moments as well. Let's just hold off and see how he does in Bruce's system before we starting making complete judgements.
He played in Bruce's system last year, though very limited minutes. He'll get more this year, but one or two more attacking players signed and he's gonna have a hard time making the game day roster again. IMO, even Bouda to Jack is a pretty significant drop-off at this point.
I recall a late goal that he scored on the road that maybe earned us a draw but don't remember where. It might have been St. Louis because I had some recollection that he might have some people watching him there. Might have been 2 years ago. Edit: OK, I looked it up. It was Nashville, in early 2024 - about 2 years ago. He is from that area somewhere I think. That's his last MLS goal. Maybe if Espinoza had remembered that game he wouldn't have thought that he needed to go to Nashville to be on a better team.