Originally Posted by
jloome
Hyperbole alert.
C'mon dude. He's elite going forward. But even then, in most cases he's top 20th percentile elite, not TAM money elite.
He's a club legend and that's great. But he should be a rotational starter and late difference maker at this point.
And defensively he's mediocre at best. Less than two tackles a game from your ostensible holder? He has no second gear, he can't man mark to save his life. It's never been his strength, even though we bizarrely used him for his first three years as basically a number six (because he used to close down passing lanes really well, but now no longer has the speed).
He's always been a number eight. His middle zone numbers outside of progressive passing are now middling at best, and his chance creation is almost non-existent. He's become a short pass, keep the ball guy. Which is valuable, but doesn't solve our transitionary defensive issues (partly blamable on having three number eights, which I do not believe will ever work, really, in this league).
He's not an elite player anymore. That's what his numbers say.
Neither he, nor Osorio, nor Kaye is particularly strong in the tackle. Osorio is a good marker, Kaye closes well, Bradley tackles well when he gets there. But none of them is a guy who's going to rack up the disruptive four-to-seven tackles a game and multiple intercepts that you'd get from a Frankie Amaya type-wrecker.
Other than Osorio, I don't care which of Bradley or Kaye is on the field right now. Preferably, likely, Michael as he's a good number eight still, Oso can play just ahead of him, and a number six behind (and because Kaye is inconsistent, let's be frank about that).
But we need a number six or at the least a defensive-minded number eight who is very, very quick.
I would point out again that Ralph Priso's DM numbers last season were in the top two percent in the league. His offensive numbers were poor, and he must've been mucho uncoachable to get benched by Robin Fraser, given the defensive numbers he was putting up.
We really need that. It showed CONSTANTLY last year that we can't just rely on high zonal pressure. We need better central defending or we will bleed goals all year.
