Definitely an incredible player, but my god Soteldo can be frustrating to watch after the 20th cut back.
Definitely an incredible player, but my god Soteldo can be frustrating to watch after the 20th cut back.
Yeah, but is it worth trying striker, given that we're not a team looking to ping in crosses constantly? It seems in this league that unless you have two powerful strikers, wide players spend most of their time coming inside anyway. He's being used almost exclusively as the forward man on the overlap, with no overlap, as he runs the field before anyone can catchup. So he's always caught deep in the corner with Lawrence thirty yards behind him.Originally Posted by ag futbol
Maybe as Ultra said we use him like Gio as a false nine/secondary striker. That's sort of what Poz is doing now, but Poz can legitimately play across the midfield and isn't a poacher inside the box, he's a setup/shooter type.
Our two DPs don't really complement each other.
Agreed on all accounts. What do we have to lose by trying him out as a support striker for the balance of the season? Not much
Molinaro has made similar comments, mentioning his potential holdup play in the box as something he does well that could benefit the team. Could be a good mix with Jozy, if he ever plays for TFC again.
Last edited by Kamp Berg; 09-02-2021 at 04:26 PM.
Zavaleta played 90 mins tonight in a zero zero draw... made no tackles, won none of his five duels, won no headers.
Literally the only stat he recorded was a shot on target, I'm guessing a header from a corner. It's like he managed to avoid the ball for just about the entire game.
Sounds like their coach has him playing to his strengths 😂
And yet, the US and its vaunted youth attack B team didn't score. A scoreless draw at home against the US or Mexico is a win for El Salvador. I get people don't like him but fecesing on a NT for stats in a good result is kinda mean.
Why? I didn't shit on a national team, I mocked his lack of involvement. Everyone else in their defense actually contributed something. Their DM had four tackles. Their defense played well.
On the upside, he almost scored a goal off a set-piece header which, given that he's actually a striker, shouldn't be that surprising.
It's a statement of fact involving one of our players.
Here, let me put it into gentler terms for you: The US avoided Zavs ALL night. He must have been terrifying.
There you go.
Last edited by jloome; 09-03-2021 at 10:52 AM.
For fans of heady optimism, Soteldo scored a panenka against Argentina in a 3-1 loss. Venezuelans were doing well early on but lost a man to a red.
Before the game, Venezuela's manager compared Soteldo to Messi, apparently. EDIT: Nope, it's a Venezuelan journalist.
The level at which the media down there picks these games apart is extraordinary. Type 'Soteldo' into Google News today and you'll get about twenty different stories mentioning his performance, some nice, some not so much.
Last edited by jloome; 09-03-2021 at 10:19 AM.
I'd like to see a Christmas tree formation, with Soltedo and Pozuelo closer together and to goal. Perhaps they and Achara could interchange in a buildup that isn't so vomit-inducing. This team sucks on the whole, so the best way to get the two DPs going is to put them in positions to play off each other. Laryea and Lawrence would provide suitable width in a 4-3-2-1.
If we played a 5-2-3 with two anchor mids, it could work really well. Can't really switch field as much due to one winger being back to defend and the play being effectively narrower, but maybe that's what we need to actually generate some chances.
I like this but barring personel changes I think the "2" should be Priso & Osorio.
Bradley permanently a bench option.
Generally agree but let’s remember our run last year was with Osorio and Delgado as the midfield 2. Why we haven’t tried to bring that back sooner, I’ll never know.
Shaff loaned to tfc2 for the rest of the season,Curtis making moves.i like it for shaff,going to a better team and more mullins time on the big team win win
Last edited by reggie; 09-03-2021 at 03:53 PM.
Osorio and Delgado are two years overdue to start together as a midfield two.
Do we get a roster spot for that? I wonder what the point is.
One of the only prospects we have who can keep up at the MLS level and we put him down in USL-1. I love this team and youth development
I don't get it (why for rest of season). Every other Homegrown who went down was just a temporary loan in the press releases and they've gone up and down over and over and the press releases just said "XYZ has been loaned to TFC2. TFC reserves right to recall at any time." Maybe (hopefully) it was just a typo by an inexperienced staff member, since they did include "Toronto FC retains the right to recall the player at any time during the MLS regular season" which has been on every tfc2 loan press release so far. If it was the "Full Season loan" that frees up a roster spot we wouldn't be allowed to be recalled. No reason to send a young guy down for the rest of the year in a meaningless season where they can get some minutes.
I agree with sending him down to play during the international break, that makes perfect sense...Demoting him for the rest of the year makes no sense.
I was thinking about the other thread where we're discussing TFCII -- maybe they're sending him down to show the others what's required. Shaff is still several years short of being the finished product, but the tools are there, the physical ability is there he has ACTUAL DESIRE.
Perhaps Perez told them the best use he could have right now is showing them how far off the pace they are.
I dunno. I might be grasping at straws.
You are attributing a level of rationality and insight to management that they have not earned.
Speculation
Shaff is down there permanently because Perez thinks he is not going to show enough in training to garner game time with the main squad but is worth keeping around getting time to look at again next season. Its a decision based on who is doing what in training.
After seeing what Tyler Pasher has developed into landing in Houston (after some USL time), I have to wonder if we are missing the boat here.
Shaff is much better than Pasher was at an early age. League has changed but we should really be getting him minutes. He has the exact profile of someone who could be a very valuable career MLS player, much like an Osorio or Delgado.
Not sure that I would have passed on Soltedlo because of Shaff alone but add it to the list of reasons why it maybe wasn’t the best thought out signing (in terms of the position we filled)
Man, I thought Pasher was a beast, an unmissable prospect. I still don't know why they didn't see it. He appeared in all of two exhibition games for the first team but was the best player for us in both.
I truly believe institutional bias can be extremely blinding.
When Vancouver waxed RSL the other night, Ashton Morgan was one of the only decent players on the pitch. He got beat for speed twice in the corner but neither resulted in anything, and the rest of the way, he was their only tenacious defender. Again, I realize he's not a star, or the best anyone can get, but he's a serviceable occasional starter in MLS, and letting him go when he made $150K a year was ridiculous.
Man, we are so like Arsenal right now. The lack of vision or judgment from front office down to coach is in the realm of the blind.
All of the loans to TFC2 can be cancelled at anytime. I imagine there will be a lot of back and forth between teams to make sure young players get minutes.
What we're basing this off is that TFC's press release for Shaffelburg specifically said "loan for the rest of the season". The press releases for the other nine: Nelson/MarshallRutty/Priso/Dunn/Singh/Perruzza/Gallardo/Okello/Silva when they went down did not have those words and they've gone back and forth all year. Shaff's specifically said for the season though
https://www.torontofc.ca/news/toront...-toronto-fc-ii
It literally says TFC retains the right to recall him at anytime though.
The big question is what the hell is wrong with the academy? Key CMNT players that grew up in the GTA like Alistair Johnston, Tajon Buchanan and Kamal Miller were never brought in. There are more successful GTA players that avoided TFC Academy than were developed by them.
I mentioned that in a previous post, but
but as I said the press releases for the other nine ALL had no mention of "for the rest of the season" while Shaff's specifically did. All the other players included the "Toronto FC retains the right to recall the players at any time during the MLS regular season" line as well. So why did Shaff's specifically include the "for the rest of the season" line?
Luke Singh press release
Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty press release
Kevin Silva/Ralph Priso/Jayden Nelson press release
Noble Okello press release
Erickson Gallardo press release
Julian Dunn and Jordan Perruzza press release
We have a management team that is biased towards the USA and against Canada. They likely don’t realize it, but they are. Read DeRo’s book and you will see - he basically got told early on that he would never be good enough BECAUSE he was Canadian. This is why they miss talent in the draft. Why they aren’t building the academy properly is more complicated, but a) it’s hard and b) deep down, they probably aren’t convinced it is worth it.
We hire ex jock dopes as GM. Bez was the sole exception.
Mo thought DeGuzman deserved a bigger deal than DeRo, that Reggie Lambe could play at this level, that Andy Walsh could. Curtis thinks he can build a team out of youth prospects and “cagey veterans”.
it’s excruciating. It comes down to whomever at MLSe is hiring these people. There’s obviously no depth to the process just gut instinct, which assures too much risk to not eventually cause a disaster.
Last edited by jloome; 09-05-2021 at 05:05 PM.
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