Forget about transcending a bad team. Magnus was so bad in 2018 that he made a bad team worse. Almost everyone played better under Almeyda than they did for Stahre. But some played better under Leitch than they did for Almeyda: Lima, Flo, TT, Hoesen, and possibly Vako, off the top of my head.
Flo has struggled at times in Almeyda's system, but was nails in 2017. Hoesen was more productive in 2017 and 2018, and has more or less fallen off the map for Almeyda, and it's not just because of injuries. People think that TT was a "revelation" at RB in 2019, but he was better as a midfielder in 2017 under Leitch. Vako was very productive in fairly limited minutes in 2017. He's been very hot and cold in Almeyda's world. To be fair we need more data on him in 2017, but that latter half of 2017 was his most productive time with the Quakes.
Hoesen nearly matched his 2017 production in 2019 even though he had less minutes. He's been dealing with injuries off and on though and I think it's been impacting him. When Vako entered the league he wasn't double teamed. His production dropped off once teams got wise to him. However under MA Vako runs a lot more and he's actually pretty good at defense (who knew?). I think it's a shame he missed so much of 2020 because I think he would have had a good year. This is a bad time to make a prediction because we'll know in days - but I think he's gone. TT matched his 2017 goals/assists in 2020 even though he moved to a defensive position. I think we got a lot out of him this year as he was able to play both left and right back. His versatility is what makes him so valuable and that has only increased. I agree that defensive positions don't seem like his best spots but I think that's where he was needed most. Florian's problem is that he's not as fast as he thinks he is. You might be right on Flo - I think he's just as good at defending as he's always been (just ask Zlatan), but anytime he has to chase down Morris it doesn't go well to say the least.
Vako was always better at defense than people made him out to be. The fact is he lost his job at one point to Shea Salinas (!) under Almeyda, and may have lost it again to Fierro. Not good. TT played really well in midfield under Leitch, made Team of the Week at least once, had some additional assists in USOC, including 2 to Wondo against LAG, etc. As a right back, or left back, he's done an impressive job at those positions but he is susceptible to getting beat with speed, and that leads to dangerous attacks from the opposition. Plus now he is very reluctant to attack. He'll really only do it if he has the ball in the final 3rd. Otherwise, he's very, very conservative with the ball. He played a lot freer and easier under Leitch as a mid. I think if you went back and watched some of those games you'd be surprised. Looks like a different player. Almeyda tried to play Hoesen at left mid to open the season and it did not go well. So he fell out of the starting lineup and has had a hard time getting minutes this year. He's regressed.
Improving from 4 wins would have happened regardless... And we are right back to where we were pre Starhe 15th and 16th place overall in the table... We haven't improved dingdong.
Even I agree with JJ about TT. He was A LOT better as a midfielder and played with more fluidity. He's regressed under Almedya which is my BIGGEST complaint to him sucking. If he was allowed to play a false 9 or even the 10 I would bet he'd have 7-10 assists and 1-3 goals. But his link play and tempo controlling in the midfield would make the team better. Almedya likes him, but has missused his talents and he's been the exiled one every time under him. Not good. He's FAR better then Rios at the position.
I think part of why TT doesn’t play as well now is the fact he has changed his style of play. He use to be a Tasmanian Devil kind of guy that went balls to the wall as long as his engine would last (which was about 50-60 minutes). Now you see him pacing himself to last 90 minutes plus and that means he turns down the volume on his performance. I think when he is rocketing around the field he can be one of the best on any given day.
I agree full. He's almost a shell of his former self. I'm a big critic of Thompson, but I think he was better pre Almedya as you said he's changed his style and it's degressed him. Thompson was very compareable to a young Dario Brose.
I liked Brose a lot, but he got physically overwhelmed. I wonder if the same will happen to Gilbert Fuentes.
I suspect Fuentes won't be on our team within the next 3 seasons. He seems like a guy they don't have much faith in, and he will be expendable if he isn't already.
There's only 11 positions on the field so the coach does need to make the difficult decision of who gets to play. It doesn't mean that someone has regressed if they miss a starting spot. It could mean the coach just wants to go in a different direction or someone else has improved enough to win the spot. Having competition for starting spots is ideal.
Well he couldn’t unseat a 38-year old or Rios for minutes, even for sub minutes most of the time. And he has looked quite bad when he’s played this year. Not good.
It's not that i want Almeyda fired necessarilly but i have no patience fot his mythical "4 year plan" whatever that is.
We'll be on year 3 of said plan so I don't think there needs to be any more waiting... there better be a HUGE return next year.
We had better be a dominant team, one of the top four in our conference. Anything less is grounds for firing. The problem with my analysis is that Fisher doesn’t give a fish whether we suck or not, so we could finish bottom of the table and he wouldn’t care. Maybe he wants us in the hunt for a playoff spot, but he’d be cool with us just missing or just making the playoffs. I am convinced that what we need to do, right now, is tell Almeyda to take the gig in Monterrey and then hire Ian Russell before some other team snatches Ian away from us. Ian will be a lot cheaper that El Pelado, and he’ll be at least as likely to do well as Matías. We suck. Go Quakesfans!! - Mark
If Jesse and Covelo were let go and Chris Leitch was given the GM job to assist Russell in reshaping the roster, I’m 100% convinced the team finishes higher than 16th in MLS (which they did this year). My worry about Jesse staying at GM is he’s likely to think he’s smarter than Russell and give him a bunch of international guys that would struggle making the adjustment to MLS. Only Espinoza looked real good his first year. Flo was okay in year one, as was Vako. Guys like Judson, Lopez and to a lessor extent, Magnus and Fierro looked good enough in year 2. That’s why I’m not really sure that Almeyda will be able to do better next season. Even if Jesse turns over a big chunk of the roster, there could be adjustment pains for the new guys.
La MLS finalmente esta comenzando a informar sobre la posible salida de Almeyda. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2020...rsuing-san-jose-earthquakes-head-coach-matias
Some article somewhere says Almeyda will take the job if Monterrey sign Pizzaro and Alan Pulido. I wonder how annoyed Almeyda is that the Quakes didn't win the bidding for Pulido.
I'm not sure that Pizzaro / Pulido thing passes the smell test. How's that going to work? These guys have contracts with other teams right? Are they going to promise that they'll acquire them while signing Almeyda, w/o knowing if they can really succeed? Promise to "try"? Or is he going to wait possibly weeks or months to see if they are signed before signing himself? I've never heard of such a thing, and I'm not sure it makes sense.
They can have him for 5 million and you're right, we'll just be tripping over ourselves to spend that money on top shelf players...Muhahaha..