The Official Luka Jovanović thread

Had to look him up. Young Australian player who played in their domestic league. Good news is that we may have a backup for Judd, but the bad news is whether he will be able to move the needle much for the Earthquakes this year.

 

Just having a backup for Judd moves the needle in a way for us, because we didnt have a good option otherwise. But probably doesn’t move the starting lineup needle unless Judd gets injured.

 

Would you look at that...

 

Nice depth piece I suppose. Let's see how he does.

 

Any news on if he's arrived and training with the squad?

 

There are photos with him at the stadium but I don't know if he has to go back and take care of his visa, etc. But we've had a long time to get this together with the WC break, so maybe he'll be ready for the next game.

 

Did they have a welcome dinner at Outback?

 

Are there any still left?

 

Great Mall and Dublin (not that Dublin)

 

I know of at least 2 further south that went bye-bye.

 

We need to get him integrated into the squad so he can some impact in the second half, even if it's off the bench. We don't have enough firepower coming off the bench, he could help solve that.

 

This is true. Also, thumping Orlando should help our guys get back in the swing of things. Hopefully Luka and Darius give us a bit more speed and flexibility. I imagine that this will mean fewer minutes for Skahan. Also, subs for both Preston and Ousseni. Ouse I had been off his game for the last several weeks before the break. We need for him to get back on track.

And is Timo ready to go? I don’t want him coming back before he’s ready, but I also want him back asap.

Go Quakes!!
Go Quakesfans!!

 

I don't think Luka is a speed guy, unlikely as fast as Skahan, but should have more quality around the goal. Skahan as the #9 against Xolos was sad. Don't want to see that again.

 

Skahan is very much a midfielder. He’s not that fast, but has a good workrate. He’s OK on the left, about the same on the right. He ought to be a CAM if only he played in a different league.

So getting a back up striker or two is good. We need a backup for Judd — who has been a monster for us this year! But, we play with three strikers — allegedly. So if we signed two strikers, and Darius, we’re going to see either Luka or Darius stepping in for either Skahan or Bouda at least some of the time.

We signed Luka, Darius before the break, and Angus as GK. Am I missing someone? I thought we signed another striker? Am I hallucinating?

In any case, with Timo back, and shiny new options on the bench, I expect to see less of Jack. As long as the team gets better, that’s fine by me.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

No, it's Angus and Luka, and then Darius before the break. That's it. There was a rumor about interest in Argentinian forward David Romero but pretty sure that's not gonna happen now.

I don't feel like the team has any major holes to fill at this point. You can pretty comfortably put 2 guys at every position.

----------------------------------------Judd / Jovanovic---------------------------------
Timo / Darius--------------------------Niko / Nick------------------Bouda / Marie / Skahan
------------------------------Vieira / Jona---------Beau / Harkes------------------
Ricketts / Costa----Roberts / Romney----Munie / Floriani----Benji / Jasinski
--------------------------------------------Angus / Earl----------------------------------------

I'd say the 2 weakest backups are Earl and Floriani, relative to the starters. Maybe Jona to Vieira also, but Harkes can fill in there as well. And if Munie is out we can also reconfigure a bit and have Romney pair with Roberts as another option.

 

Harkes and Jona are very weak. Romney is serviceable. I'm also still not super positive on Skahan but he certainly has earned some trust... I'd like to see an upgrade there regardless.

 

Yeah, main remaining areas for improvement IMO would be depth at d-mid and GK. I'm not as concerned about winger because Bouda and DJ can play either side, and guys like Ricketts, NIck, and Marie can play winger. Actually I forgot about Marie. I think I prefer him to Skahan as RW depth. I will update my depth chart.

 

Any word on when Luka is going to be available...

 

So, we have looked ... piss poor the last two games.

Hopefully, Angus will round into form and the defenders will get more comfortable with him back there. We've been really off.

We'll have Judd back for the next game. That's good. But I want to see Luka as soon as possible. Judd needs a backup to spare him some wear and tear. Also, in the event of yellow card accumulation.

I want more depth at left back. Ricketts is good, but we need a backup. Costa is serviceable, but we need an upgrade there. Hopefully, Dejuan comes back, probably next season. But then we can play Ricketts as a backup left mid. That gives us some flexibility.

Is Bouda good enough as a starter? I mean, I like Bouda, but he's been out of form most of the season. And we don't have a good back up for him, maybe Darius? Skahan is serviceable, but not great. Jack might even be better on the left.

And, most glaring!! We need a backup #10. We can't just decide that Niko goes down and we'll make do with Nick. I like Nick, but he's not up to par yet.

And we need to either upgrade Earl Jr., or hope like hell that Montali is good to go.

And yeah, when will Luka be available?

Go Quakesfans!!

 

We definitely looked piss poor against Orlando but played pretty well against LAG and we a little unlucky not to win. And this was with 2 key players out.

Not too confident in Angus yet, but maybe he won't be terrible?

Ricketts is really good - his speed bails us so many times. I don't even think DeJuan should start over him on the left. Maybe move DeJuan back to the right.

I thought Bouda was better in this game just in terms of not losing the ball as much. But yeah he hasn't been great recently. I think he'd be better on the left because then he can line up his shot - and he has a cannon. He doesn't get the angles on the right so he's pretty much left with crossing all the time.

The game in Cincinnati will be very tough - on the road against a very good team, whose offense has been clicking. Wouldn't be the least suprised if that's an L. I'm not going have a conniption over that. Then, 2 week break and Niko is scheduled to come back on the 15th.

Nick is doing fine at the #10. Niko will be back in a few weeks and I feel confident that Nick can fill in for him when needed.

I hope Earl is back soon because we may need him if Angus looks really bad.

I think we'll be OK but we're definitely gonna take a tumble from our torrid 1st half. We will probably be a kind of average 1.4 PPG team and that will be good enough for playoffs, but not a top team. If we go 1.4 PPG from here out, we wind up with around 57 points, which would probably put us around 5th. I think that's what we're looking at.

 

Angus needs to step up his game. I think that he can, but we need more from him. Also, I think as the defenders get more used to him and him to them, that our defense will tighten up.

Timo wasn't very good. Hopefully he gets better in the next weeks.

Nick is OK. He's not great; this game against the filth was better, but not great.

Bouda was better in this game, and even in the last game. I think we'll see better from Bouda when Judd is back. Possibly he'll combine well with Luka too. This is, after all, Luka's thread.

I'm worried about Earl Jr. How long is he out? How long will it take for him to get back to game shape? If Angus doesn't adjust to our league well, we're in a world of hurt.

I'm concerned.

GO Quakesfans!!