My opinions we keep 1)Mathis(1 more year on contract) 2)Petke( stuck w/him, untradable makes to much $ 3)Faria(works hard, scores doest cost much) 4)A. Williams (best player on team) 5)Akwari,Davis,Lisi,Zaide and Moore(all young, capable reserve players that dont cost much). Who not to keep! 1)Balboa( old,injury prone and contract is up) 2)Joe Addo(obvious) 3)Ross Paule( capable , but two one dimensional and should have some trade value) 4)Diallo(definate trade value) 5)Chronopolus( done!). We should resign Steve Jolley for between 80-100K a year, bring back Dustin Sheppard(showed promise) and pursue two quality internationals. What ya think?
you forgot oz on the list of goners. also, i'd get rid of addo only if we're able to replace him....to be fair, addo was never given a chance. petke's new contract makes him untradeable....i don't think any team will take him at 120K... ziadie is young and everything....but i'm sure there are players just as young as him that have more potential.... faria works hard and all, and probably cared more than anyone on the team, but i still can't get over the amount of pure quality chances he flubbed.... i think his role is better as a sub....not as a starter... no doubt, our money should be spent on a max salary central defender (berhalter) and a max salary midfielder who can hold the ball..... then a quality forward would be nice to replace diallo.....josh wolff maybe.... with the departure of diallo, ramos and balboa...there's no reason we can't land the three....
No offense, but does anyone here watch other soccer leagues. Do you realize that the top scorer's in those leagues only score 20-30 goals per season in a lot more games? Do you people realize that according to your fuzzy math, Faria should score 50 goals a year? How many young forwards in this league can produce like him? Who are we getting to replace his output. After 2 years he is one of the most productive scorers we have ever had. Sure he misses some sitters, but he scores doesn't he. Has he not gotten better then last year when everyone was raving about him? I swear I feel that some people who rip him have no idea what is takes to be a professional striker in this league. Am I a professional striker? No, but I have seen enough soccer to know when something is worth keeping around.
I agree with Eric. One of my (perverse) joys in watching foreign leagues is seeing the strikers waste sitters. It convinces me that MLS is right up there with the best of them in blowing clear chances. FS news and highlight shows can convince you that goals are scored fast and furious. It just ain't so.
FYI: Metro all-time goal scorers (reg season only) (http://www.metrofanatic.com/mf/team/stats.jsp?YEAR=0&TYPE=1&STAT=goals) Savarese 41 (85 games) Mathis 24 (45) Valencia 21 (48) Faria 20 (49) If you add up league, cup, playoffs, and Merco (http://www.metrofanatic.com/mf/team/stats.jsp?YEAR=0&TYPE=0&STAT=goals) Savarese 44 (96) Mathis 29 (54) Valencia 29 (65) Faria 25 (56)
eric...while i agree with you,i cannot help but feel that faria should be a sub in the 60th minute or so.......based on what i've seen of him.... he has been handed clints position because of oz...and oz's self serving, self dealing role in faria's career.... if not for oz, faria would be a sub. no doubt. he's great with his head and all, but how many one on ones with the keeper, open net misses do we have to see.... do i underestimate his value, no, but i think you over estimate him based on his stats. he's decent, not great. a great striker would have have been challenging twellman and ruiz given the opportunities faria had. how many of faria's goals came from pk's? (i don't know, i'm asking). i'm more frustrated with oz as a coach then faria as a striker.....aside from a central defender and a holding midfielder, what position do we need an upgrade in? striker. diallo's too selfish and mathis is mathis, still one of the best players i've seen wear a metro shirt....
The problem with Faria is that we rely on him to be our #1. If we had another scorer then Faria can just linger and do what he does best and hussle for the rebounds and scraps. Diallo was that man for 2 weeks then it all went downhill.
As long as the team signs a quality defensive back keeping petke shouldn't be a problem. Petke needs the competition for playing time to know his line-up spot isn't chiseled in stone. Unfortunately that was far from the case this past season.
Petke didnt play bad at all IMO. Did he get beat a couple of times? YES. But his "bad" play had more to do with the scheme. Both RB and LB were crap this year and midfield defence was pretty much non-existent, so excuse Jolley and Petke for not being able to cover half the opposing team and getting caught off guard.
so of faria's 12 goals, considering he played in all 28 games, and started 25 of them....2 of them were penalties.... which, no doubt, oz appointed him to take....so if you take those away, he scored 10 goals in the run of play.... WOW! he's friggin awesome. i expect more from a starting forward with that much playing time...especially with the chances he got. faria is a sub. no more, no less. if we play with 3 strikers, fine...play him...but he should not be given mathis' position because the coach is his friggin agent. diallo, who is a pure striker too, has played just about half as much as faria (minutes) and has the same amount of goals.
rumor has it that oz is faria's agent...maybe even ziadie's.... as his agent, the better faria does, the more salary he makes, the more oz makes. oz putting himself before the team, starts faria every game, gives him the pk's (stats are better)...and hopes faria makes more money...so, what do you do with clint, the star? let him play midfield, like arena did in a game or two... you almost wonder if the pre season standoff between faria and metro had anything to do with oz.
Nonsense. A penalty is still a goal. Does Ruiz or Twellman have their penalities reduced from their total? So put Faria on as a sub in the 60th. Who's the starting forward and who are you taking off. Who picks up the 12 goal (or 10) that he gave us. I really don't remember any of his goals being grabage time ones either. I would love to see of the 12 how many were when we were down, tied, or leading by more than 1.
I gotta agree, there's not that many starting forwards in MLS who get 10(12) goals. Heck some EPL starters dont even get that many. But again I dont think we should rely on him on being our #1 guy, he's just not that type of player. We should really be getting rid of Diallo and putting Mathis up top with him and draft a forward and train(make him sub) him just in case Mathis leaves after next year.
I will agree with you Serg. Don't want him to be #1, that's fine. I personally believe he will be a #1 in 2 more years. To run him out of town at this point is moronic and counterproductive.
I agree that his strike rate ain't bad. But the question is: does he bring anything else to this side. Does he create chances with quality runs off the ball? Does he hold? Does he track back? I think the answer to those questions are more determinative of his value. On balance, I think we keep him, but a close call.
don't know if its clear or not, but i don't want him run out of town.. but i agree with serg here...he shouldn't be our #1 guy, and that's probably the simpler way to say it.... our #1 guy should have been clint...and what bugs me, is even if he wasnt injured or away, oz would've played him in midfield b/c of faria... so faria is best as a #2 or #2 1/2 guy...possibly 3.
I think OZ played him in midfield because that's where OZ thought he should play. When OZ thought he was a forward and he and Faria where in the lineup last year, he had Faria playing the wing or coming off the bench. PS I wasn't directing all this at you Stinker.
Bring Mathis and Faria back next year. They are the starting forwards. Mathis is your # 1, Faria your # 2. I admit I hesitate for a second, because it seems that Faria was at his best without Mathis, though I don't have the stats to back that up. If you want to get Faria, you're going to have to make sure you have someone who can score a dozen goals or so. I don't see that happening. Of course, if the Wolff for Faria trade is in fact offered again, that would be one to jump on, particularly since Mathis and Wolff work very well together. But otherwise, despite Faria's flaws, actual or perceived, he was one of the few players that over the course of the season did what the Metros needed him to do.
Mathis, Serna, Faria- The Magic Triangle circa May '02 Let's see, Mathis 4 goals, Serna out of the league, Faria 12 goals. Let's get rid of Faria!
Faria's work rate gives him more chances than most. His finishing, especially with his right foot is lacking. Since he winds up with more chances than others might due to his work rate, it almost balances out. And the bottom line is that for $60G a year, he is a steal. The problem is the #1 striker position. Diallo is not the answer, he's a cancer. If clint is back in form, he's the answer, but he'll be leaving. If he's not back in form, we'll need another striker. The only answer I have is to trade Diallo, Chrono and Ross Paule to Dallas for Ed Johnson.