The Official Timo Werner thread

So - after two games with limited minutes so far to me it looks like Timo is essentially a one-for-one replacement for Espinosa except he doesn't take free/corner kicks and doesn't have the motor. Does that seem far off?

 

Perhaps, but, as Jazzy alluded to in another thread, he still needs to get match fit, so is not pushing it too hard on the defensive side yet. My guess is we will see more “motoring “ as each game goes by.

 

Also, I think he'll score more goals than Espinoza did. There were only 2 years out of Espinoza's 7 full years with the Quakes, playing essentially every game, where he scored more than 4 goals. I think Werner could be a double digit goals and assists guy.

And while Espinoza played plenty of good passes over the course of his Quakes career, I haven't seen as nice a ball as Werner played to Bouda against Philly since maybe Ronnie Ecklund's pass to Donovan to score the golden goal in the MLS Cup semis against KC. And I don't think even that pass was as good because it took Donovan's individual effort and speed to beat the defenders to the ball.

 

After 2 games and 75 minutes, I’m thinking Timo is more a discount Messi than a modified Espinoza.

Timo roams the field, walks back, doesn’t defend (he may have been told not to), has a short stride, good vision, and tries stuff.

It looks like the players have been told to look for Timo and pass him the ball, That pinpoint pass to Bouda last night was terrific. If he could do that regularly, he’d be worth every penny. But i guess we’ll see how repeatable that is. But so far, I like seeing a discount Messi.

 

And when i say “discount” it’s because media just reported Mas Bros are paying Messi $70-80M per year.

 

Don't know when. Werner's assist last night was world class.

 

That was a phenomenal ball, and you could tell he knew what he was doing when he did it, it was no accident or luck.
I’m enjoying how Timo tries things…

 

Historically, one of Timo’s big attributes has been his work rate and his willingness to put in a shift on the defensive side of the ball.
I am hoping it is Bruce telling him to not push it until he is match fit, and not the fact that he is 30 now, and not 24.

 

Funny - I've been reading in various subreddits relating his two assists in limited minutes first two games: "MLS is a retirement league..."

 

F#$& those guys!

 

And if Timo wasn’t getting on the scoresheet yet he’d be “washed”. Can’t win with these guys.

 

I was very skeptical at first and I will tell you I am now sold on Timo. He makes a (positive) difference.

More please!

 

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Bring in big-name Europeans? Retirement league.

Bring in Europeans when they have plenty of juice left? Those players were washed.

Buy lots of South American talent, and produce some of your own for sale? MLS has no talent whatsoever, because nobody knows who Miguel Almiron or Alphonso Davies are.

They'll just move the goal posts forever, no matter what. The US could transplant the top 20 European clubs here, and the response would be that European fan pressure would turn their players into diamonds, while MLS atmospheres would make players like Mbappe turn into pumpkins overnight.

 

The thing is, if Bouda doesn't convert Timo's brilliant pass, Timo's not on MLS team of the week.

Almiron looks lost in his second stint in Atlanta, at least at PPP a week ago.

It's a team game.

 

Bouda scored a beautiful goal.

 

"They call him Stormy Werner . . . "

 

Just curious, given their history as former teammates on the German national team, does anyone know if Timo Werner exchanged jerseys with Thomas Müller after the Vancouver game last night?