I was talking to my father today as he is as avid a Galaxy fan as any other person could ever be and he seems overly optimistic about this upcoming season, and I just could not reciprocate the enthusiasm as much as I wanted to. I just see way too many potential problems to get excited. My biggest concerns are.... 1) Lack of Depth when call ups are made 2) Abundance of unproven talent (rookies like Jordan make me cringe) 3) Vagenas filling in for Becks if and when he gets hurt (cringing continues) 4) Our backline is experienced but slow in the middle and makeshift at best on the sides. 5) Left Mid-Field... 6) Insufficient talent to successfully execute the style of play Coach Gullit wants to use Am i being pessimistic or realistic? What are your concerns?
You're both pessimistic and realistic and I'm not being flippant. All those things you listed are valid concerns and I'd agree with them. One fellow fan said that Vags might actually thrive with Gullit's system because if he does play Dutch style, it includes a lot of back-passing, a tactic used to shift to another offensive route if the first one didn't pan out. At least that's what was explained to me. Anyone familiar with the Dutch style agree with this? As for unproven talent: perhaps at the MLS level, but I think they'll gel and grow.
Roberts & Vagenas still on it... the "geenhorn" left side with Randolph/Allen and the lack of usable alternatives. center midfield is a bit light with Becks on the right again (Tudela, Pires, Vagenas)
i like allen a lot. i think he'll be great on the left. he reminds me of toja the way he traps the ball and uses his body. he seems to have good vision too just no finishing ability? i think he'll work well with our forwards though.
I agree with much that's been said above. The real question is how Donovan is going to be used in this system? He's a huge player for us and he hasn't played one minute yet. Where does Ruud play him? Injuries will happen and we lack depth. We need two more players to complement this roster. A starting center back and left mid. Likely we will not get them. So really my hope in the next two weeks is getting Landon and Jazic healthy and refine our roster and tactics and continue to gel as a unit. The Dallas game will be a good litmus test. I've said in earlier posts, I'm cautiously optimistic.
as for our CB needs = If Valentin is as good as he showed in that half he played I don't worry about that position at all. Allen did well in preseason so far and Randolph was good last year - non the less I'd like to have better cover than Gavin or more value/money for Jazic (who's still out for months) on the left side and if Randolph is not going to play LM we only have Allen and no back up...
Ben7, completely agree. Would like to see Valentin get more minutes because Roberts does not inspire. MLS has past him by. You know what you gt from Jazic--He's solid but not spectacular and can play both left and central back. I like Allen as well, but I don't think he's a game changer. He's solid and I think will improve with every game. I had high hopes that Babayaro was a game changer and we would be an attacking force with him in our line up, but say-la-vee. (spelling)
1) I'm very concerned about Cronin organizing people like Vanney and Xavier, who may give him a bit of a complex. On our Asia tour, Cronin looked erratic, like he was trying way way too hard - and yet he had no command of his box. 2) I'm concerned about our depth at central defense, in general. However, I *do* believe in my heart of hearts that this is an issue that will be addressed (although possibly not fixed) before the season starts. 3) I don't like Landon on the flanks.
Man to Man We go all out offense. ruiz - gordon upfront. Becks & donovan feeding them the balls. Becks goes back out to the right and LD plays central, sometimes pulling 3 man forward line. We go all out defense. scrap gordon, go to the 4-5-1 and help out those slow central defenders with a sweeper when playing against good offensive teams. play long balls to a speedy ruiz or LD on breakaways. Let's reserve judgement than til 3/15 to see what we look like against an average MLS team.
It's really hard to tell what we have until we see some matches against MLS competition. Plus, when rookies come into the league, they can be effective for a few games and then ineffective the rest of the way due to other teams getting to know their strengths and weaknesses and playing them smarter. So with that in mind, it's tough to know how effective Allen, Franklin, Alvaro Pires, Valentine, Gavin, Jordan, even Cronin will be this year. My concern about the roster is simply that we are relying on having several if not all of the above named players with little MLS experience having good seasons. I think they will. I'm excited. But it's naive not to feel a little iffy about the above. Assuming everyone plays as well as can be expected, then the areas I'd still like to stregthen are central defense (specifically pace) and GK and probably still left mid. (although at left mid I's like to believe that Randolph/Allen will get it done.)
The most glaring issue to me is not having a decent holding midfielder. If we had someone who could check, spray balls around, and run at defenders we'd be pretty darn good. Some would argue Beckham is that man. I couldn't disagree more. I like him on the wing exchanging with Klien. The right side looks good. The left side could be better with a competent center. And any opposition that decides to attack through the center will have low hanging fruit.
These two primarily. IF we get any injuries to our veterans, it will take us at least 4-5 games to stabilize back there. Around the rest of the team I think we have enough talent/depth to be better than 9-10 other teams.
I think you are being very realistic and you left a big one out, our inexperience and weakness in goal. Cronin may have had 1 great US Open Cup match, but he has been spotty at best every time we give him the nod. I remember each start he palys, he gives up some fluke or soft goal because he leaves fat rebounds or just is scared. He hasn't done it early this season, he is doing it late in halves. I have zero confidence in him. He is a career backup at best. With the defense we are going to trot out in front of Cronin, I don't feel we can be too comfortable, in fact I also worry. We need at least 1 fast D back there, and we have 4 slow of foot backs and Mikey R will not be able to save them every time. Our replacements as you have stated are young and rookies and if they are looking to Roberts as a mentor, we are in desperate trouble. We still have gaping issues, an untested Keeper, backline and midfield. Heck, our only strength is up top, and if that gets shut down, we are in trouble! Midfield has not proven it can control the match and We need midfield help especially on the left, and if we put Randolpf there, what are we doing with the D? Jazic is definitely not the answer, and I think we will eb shipping him off once he is healthy to Canada South(SJ) or Canada North(TFC) and we also need to finally dump some dead weight, i.e. Roberts. I won't say drop Pete, but maybe we can give him a chance like so many coaches have? He may turn out to be the coal that can be turned into a diamond by Ruud! Our bench is suspect, and unless they are going to talk an assistant coach to play for less than $30,000 and structure him keeping his AC gig to fit under the cap (read: circumvent) to fill the bench, then we have to worry about the bench since the only player on ther to look to would be the trio of Gordon't, Buddle and Pete. (now I cringe) Realistically we are in for a roller coaster ride this season. I worried in preseason about the Lakers, in a similar situation, and look now, they worked through, made a deal and look at them now. Maybe AEG can take a hint from their tenants at Staples Center, one can hope!
my big worry is keeper the times ive seen cronin play this year ive had to hold back vomit. his play is terrible. a child with no amrs could do better. and whats the story on wicks have we signed him and if he have will he start will he compete for the starting job or is he just gonna ride pine.
Cancela is more of an attacking midfielder. He doesn't cover a lot of ground, and his intensity can be hit-and-miss. He's a skill guy, not a control guy.
My only real concern is the depth in the squad, like most on here. Ruud only has to look at last season, especially before the last six or seven games, to see where we had no continuity. Hopefully the training and fitness regimes are much better and more professional, and a system is developed that plays to our teams strengths (ie midfield) rather than relying on weak points like defence or attack. I worry where the goals are going to come from though, if Donovan plays midfield.
I agree and while watchng the Olympic qualifiers. The reserve keeper is Cervi is not under contract why not give this guy a look. Being on this squad already gives him some experience.