The Joys of Pre-Season

Via Goff:
"We're going to look at this group," General Manager Dave Kasper said, referring to players in camp, including Santino Quaranta, Danny Szetela and Floribert N'Galula.

Coach Curt Onalfo added: "First and foremost, we feel very comfortable with the players we have in this squad. ... We will continue to evaluate players, whether they are in the league or outside, to continue to help our team. We have had some significant signings and we feel very good about our team as we go into the season."
Which the "we need a #10!" crowd will read as: Counterattacks 'R Us; let's get physical! I have some sympathy, but I've also long been in favor of doing away with the lynchpin and spreading the playmaking love. A 4-2-2-2 with two holders playing behind two nominally wide players cutting inside to feed a pair of mobile forwards would have me very intrigued, though I fear Onalfo's implementation and the current lack of quality finishing on the roster to carry it out.

Perhaps Pontius will put it all together. Perhaps Allsopp will make a more impressive splash than I anticipate. Perhaps there's a super-secret mystery international attacker waiting in the wings.

Isn't pre-season fun?

4 comments:

  1. The following things have led me to agree with you (excuse me for channelling Casey from Sports Night):
    -Marcelo Gallardo
    -Christian Gomez v.2.0
    -reading Inverting the Pyramid (See? Expertise, I has it.)

    MLS defenses seem to have finally figured out that dropping a destroyer (or two) in front of the back four is a good counter to a #10. And when you over-invest in a single enigmatic playmaker, you can become too reliant on him for the offense.

    I'm all for upgrading the talent level on this United side. But let's spread it around - get another center back, another destroyer or box-to-box type, a time machine to pull Namoff from the Sounders game before he's concussed. Let's not blow our dough on another Gallardo fiasco - that's still a big part of why United are in this situation to begin with.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Can't say that the acquisition of Cristman does much to dispel the impression that DCU is being re-modeled after the Revolution, even though that's not an impression I would have subscribed to.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, you can't beat the cap-hit (under $50k, I think), but it's the international spot we gave up that's the killer. That says to me, considering how many internationals we already have, that the overseas shopping spree is over.

    Veteran defensive help? Wither the MIVDUN? Not likely now.

    ReplyDelete