As much as I hate to admit it, you guys should be contending for the title again this year. -------------------------------------------------------- LB: Prideaux CB: Petke CB: Ivanov RB: Reyes LW: Convey RW: Olsen CM: Etcheverrey AM: Stewart LF: Stoichkov RF: Quaranta -------------------------------------------------------- Plenty of depth on the bench to fill in. Looks good for you guys. James
Thanks james, One problem is that look who some of the other teams have aquired during the offseason. The Galaxy's bench and starting XI are easily the best in the league.. but can they live up the hype?
Thanks for the love James, but that lineup isn't even close to what we will see full strength.. For one thing, you don't even have a defensive midfielder listed and you ommit United's best pure defender Ryan Nelsen.. Also, you have Stoichkov listed as a starter.. I'd be shocked if he started 10 matches for United this season.. Too many fit players ahead of him (Stewart, Quaranta, Eskandarian)... Additionally, United is now suited perfectly to play a 3-5-2 formation... This is how it will probably look.. Goal: Rimando Left back: Petke or Prideaux, most probably Petke due to his high salary Center back: Ivanov Right back: Reyes Defensive midfield: Ryan Nelsen Holding mid: Marco Etcheverry Attacking mid: Dema Kovalenko Right mid: Ben Olsen Left mid: Bobby Convey Forward: Earnie Stewart Forward: Santino Quaranta
I think if Jaime Moreno hadn't been such a scumbag last year, DC would have been contending for the title. In all honesty, they had a super defense, and a midfield that could competently hold the ball. All they needed was a striker, and Jaime didn't pan out.
Thanks JamesF24. We have high hopes and expectations this season, but the league has gotten tougher as almost every club except Chicago and San Jose improved. Hopefully DC United improved the most. I think Cweedchop has the lineup that Hudson will probably use except we might see Etch and Dema switching roles a lot in Hudson's free flowing midfield and forward lines. But with injuries, Nat's callups, disciplinary actions, successive games in a week, Open Cup, rotations and substitutions, we could see each of the players play in the spot you have assigned them, albeit probably not all at the same time. Thanks for the thread! -Tron
Re: Re: You Guys Are Back! Didnt Hudson run a 4-4-2 in his best days in Miami? I know you guys will be missing key personal for whatever reason, Quaranta for World Youth, Petke possibly for USMNT, Reyes for Honduran games, etc. I think when Stoickkov is available, he should start, no questions asked. I think he is still good enough to warrant that. I'm sure that Stewart can move up to forward, and Dema will step into midfield as you indicate. To me, you have Nelson a bit over-rated, but I would agree that he is certainly good enough to be in the first 11. Either way, you have a lot of talent and depth. James
Re: Re: Re: You Guys Are Back! You obviously didn't watch him play last season then.. Nelsen, by far, was the best pure defender for United by a mile.. Better than Pope and Prideaux.. Ryan was unbeatable in the air and was a first rate man marker and was defensive organizer that we all wish Eddie could have been.. Eddie was solid as well but his only one true weakness is a lack of organizing his defenders.... Plus Ryan also got forward to score 4 goals as well.. I discount Reyes in this equation for the simple fact that Milton was given basic freedom to roam all over the field and was often (especially late in the season) used to man mark the oppositions most dangerous attackers.. Reyes's speed is so overwhelming that he can afford to be out of position due to marking responsibilities and still have enough time to regroup and make plays.. As for Stoichkov, he has given no indication over the past few seasons that he is healthy or productive enough to go 90 minutes consistently.. I just think United has enough young energetic talent that could better handle going 90 minutes at this point.. Having Hristo come off the bench for 20-30 minutes a game right now is the way to go.. As for you Malcom, I guess we see Marco's role a bit differently. I see Marco as now a much more effective holding midfielder than an attacking one.. No doubt though that with the talent available to United in midfield, not every player will be married to thier set positions.. There will be a lot of free flowing movement amongst the midfielders.. Lets just hope it is more successful than last season where they were given similar chances and failed miserably..
To add on to what Chris said about Nelsen, none of his goals were 'cheap' ones either. He actually nailed a 22 yard half-volley to the far post side net against someone for one of them.
I'm glad to see the apparent improvement of a team with such good supporters (though we can all get better) and look forward to seeing DC it action! Bounce away!
It`s all looking very good right now and Hudson has done an outstanding job of re-constructing and re-energizing the squad not just the team.We all have every right to be pretty optimistic thanks to some much needed house-cleaning and ballsey moves.Ryan was certainly our best defender last year and I see him having another great season but maybe playing in front of the back 3 as a tough,energetic link-type player,helping plug the gaps between the 3 behind when needed. This will all just get more and more interesting as the next 8 weeks slip by as Ray configures the best side which will be a challenge in itself.
Re: Re: Re: Re: You Guys Are Back! True enough. I do subscribe to the shootout package, and saw United a handful of times. Most of United's performances last year (that I saw) were poor, and no one player stood out at all (for good reasons), except for Rimando. Quaranta's goal against Dallas, and a couple of good header goals by Convey withstanding. I'll have to keep my on Nelson this year. James
Re: Re: Re: Re: You Guys Are Back! Actually, it's spelled Malcolm. I'm sure you meant no disrespect, but it's kinda like spelling your name Kris. Without getting into linguistics, etc., I just wanted to point it out. I'm far less touchy with my BS name, Digital, Tron, DigitalTron, whatever. I think we agree on the roles and I'm willing to call it semantics. Dema will do more defending than Etch, and will come from deeper positions and play through on offense, essentially making him run more. Etch will control flow and look for the killer pass once the defense is set. FWIW, I didn't consider Nelsen our best defender. I thought there were 4 great defenders along the back line and one in midfield (Richie). But I thought Reyes was the most skilled and effective, Pope the best marker, and Prideaux the most important because of his dependability. Nelsen's lack of speed was exposed at least once every game, and while Rimando, Prideaux, Pope and Reyes usually covered it up, those lapses lowered my rating of his defensive ability. I love his organizing ability though. I like him moving into midfield because he has more cover for his lack of speed, he provides nice bite in midfield, and he's closer to the opponent's goal giving us a viable aerial threat in the run of play. -Tron
I have to agree with Tron, it was our back line as a unit that made our defense as good as they were last year. Nelly is a total package though. He defended and, when the opportunity presented itself, scored some goals for us. When some thugs not to be mentioned tried to rough up our guys, Nelly made them think twice about doing it again. IMHO Ryan had one heck of a season last year, and hopefully will be back just as good if not better this year. In My Man Ray's words, he has the heart of a lion, and the skills to back it up.
Mario....Arisrules isn`t exactly being too far out of line in his estimation of Morenos performances last year,is he?When we really needed him he was basically a no-show.That`s not to forget what he did for us several seasons ago but c`mon...the last three?At over max salary?We deserved more.His team deserved much more especially when you consider DC United desperatly needed a leader up front last year and Jaimie looked no where near that in any way,shape or form.He cost us the playoffs,single-handidly in my opinion.