Quakes earned a clean sheet in the playoffs at Kansas City last season, and exited on penalties. Since, they have allowed at least two goals in every game this season. In all of Quakes history, they have never lost a game in regulation in which they held the opponent scoreless. It's uncanny. Yet they managed to lose seven games this season while conceding two or more goals. Espinoza is the least of the team's concerns.
Look you can't expect a first division soccer team's well paid professional coaching staff to get it just because random fans chatting in some lounge do...
He’s not a “concern” and certainly not “the problem”, but it’s a clear difference from last year when he had a red hot start. When you score goals it helps your defense also, for multiple reasons. More goals for also helps you win games, even when your defense is not playing great. Last year, at least early in the year when we had the best results, we had Super Espinoza. This year so far, just Regular Espinoza..
I have seen 10 year old's go into challenges harder than Pellegrino. It's like he is afraid of getting his spindly legs snapped.
This should come as no surprise to anyone who watched him play for even 3 minutes of one of his condensed games at Bødo, and I'm sure it's no surprise to the Quakes. He's not going to play the position like Cade Cowell and he's not going get "stuck in". He's a goal scorer. So you play to his strengths or you don't bother playing him.
I think they're trying. Luchi even mentioned it in the postgame. Something like he's getting used to fitting in in a new league and we have to help him. Getting a little better over the last few games in terms of getting him involved. He just got back from missing a couple of games. Played something like 20 min in one and 70 in another. Scored a goal and had a couple of decent chances in the last game.
He's got at least 10-12 yards of space there... as soon as you put a defender anywhere near him in midfield buildup play he panics and doesn't know what to do. It's always either backpass or cement feet and dumb turnover.
"Cade has never" is the lowest of bars unless you're talking about repeatedly lifting heavy objects lol
He brought down a 20 yard pass and played it perfectly with his first touch, so that his next touch was his shot. If he'd taken a few touches the opportunity probably would have shut down. Class touch. Class finish. On this one (2:30 minutes in), he beats two defenders, including the 2nd guy (on his right), when he lifts the ball over the guy's foot. https://www.mlssoccer.com/video/hig...-earthquakes-vs-colorado-rapids-april-13-2024 Again, I'm not saying he always gets it right. And it goes w/o saying that he's not going to try to take players on with the dribble isolated out on the wing. As I said, anyone who's watched 3 minutes of one of his Bødo games can tell you that. Or just look at his fbref. He's not that kind of player. So once again, you either play to his strengths or you don't play him. He can help the team if you play to his strengths. The Quakes really need a CAM who drives the ball into the box with his feet and can unbalance the defense and distribute. That's why I've been calling for our "k-mart Puig" for a long time.
Who said it wasn’t allowed? By all means, do your thing, I’m pulling for his success bigtime as well. I just don’t know if he’s a 7 key passes in 1 half type player, know what I mean?
FWIW I got laughed at by some prestigious colleagues when I said 'Key Passes' when learning how to analyze video footage. They told me to not talk like a fan, and talk like a professional Direct, Fluent, Lobbed, Linier, Long, Hospital, 1-2-1, 1, 2, Ground, Divert, Lofted, Through, Flutter, and Dump are the actual terms.
It’s just an indicator (one of many) of how much a player is involved in the offense. Nothing more nothing less. Of course there are many more fine grained, more useful metrics.
We could listen to all your reports about what Pelle did on the other side of the world, or… We could believe our eyes. I think the eyes have it. Sorry Jazzy.
Then use your eyes to watch some of the highlight videos of his goal scoring in Norway. This is just last year.
But I’m showing clips of plays he’s made with us, that we’ve seen with our own eyes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ As I’ve said he doesn’t always get it right and he has his weaknesses, but he at times shows class around goal that we don’t often see from our players. Question is can we leverage his strengths.
Food for thought-here’s a list of golden boot winners in Norway https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Eliteserien_top_scorers How many move the needle? Outside of Bendtner who was in the twilight of his career, not many in the last few decades.
Yeah and the thing about highlight videos is of course you only see the good plays, not the bad plays. I think we’ve seen some of that highlight video form from Pellegrino. Not a lot but some flashes. And then of course the not so good plays, which should surprise nobody. So then the question becomes - good play vs. bad play distribution. I think we need to see more some to get a better sense of that before we make grand conclusions. That’s where I’m at anyway.