Dero, Guevara, Dichio, Cronin, Robinson and in retrospect Dunivant.
Dero, Guevara, Dichio, Cronin, Robinson and in retrospect Dunivant.
i'll give carl the edge for his tackling and pressing, but they were pretty even otherwise. It's just amusing/annoying that one is praised and one is completely villified.
Not surprising though and quite accurate. Robbo was a 'just made the grade' two-way midfielder, with a good work rate, much better marking than Dunivant. Robbo's problem was his speed and his inconsistency passing.
Dunivant's problems are his lack of range, his inconsistency passing, his speed, his vision. About the only thing he does reasonably well is tackle, and he's rarely in the right place to do it. He's vilified as a player, not a person. He seems like a very nice man. But he covers a tiny area of the pitch, he always takes the safe route, he never moves into overlap space even when it makes sense. He has a good work rate .... within a 15-foot radius.
Robbo started at Wolves and Norwich and was a team captain; Dunivant was cut from Bury. There are a reasons for these things and it's not always "he just had the wrong coach." One is a passable player, the other isn't.
Loss to the team - Cronin, De Ro, Amado
Emotionally - Dichio (because of the lies), Robbo (season 1 hero traded to the shite bulls and we paid his wages), Sutton (gutted when I heard that)
EDIT - good thread Jezza!
Last edited by Hitcho; 02-05-2013 at 01:59 PM.
We are the Angry Mob, we read the papers every day
We like who we like, we hate who we hate
But we're also easily swayed
Pain TFC Loss
Those are the words that stand out in this thread title.
Based on all relevant factors including age, potential impact, return on investment, and of course, hindsight, I would have to say Sam Cronin.
Preki gave Cronin away for virtually nothing when had his entire career ahead of him, and he has developed into one of the most effective midfield generals in the league.
what surprises you about Robbo and Dunfield. One player was a very good MLS player and the other is not, pretty simple really.
Robbo was not a flashy player and maybe that is why you under-rate him, but it terms of organising, leadership and influence his input was huge, plus he was a decent footballer as well. Although Dunfield runs around a lot looking busy, he makes the wrong choices a lot more than say Robbo. The reason he runs around a lot is he compensating somewhat for his lack of ability. When You watch good defensive midfielders like Robbo, they know when to make that run, when to play that pass, Dunfield doesn't hence the fact he is always running but not really getting anywhere. There is a reason Dunfield doesn't have many caps for his country and Robbo does.
Dunfield not a good player? Really? Seems a fine, basic MLS-type midfield to me. Sure, not EPL quality ... but no one expects that.
I haven't run the numbers, but I bet you Dunfield has had more caps for his country during his 3 years in MLS, than Carl Robinson had in 5 years in MLS!
Sure, Carl Robinson was a good player - and probably better than Dunfield at his peak. But by the time he left TFC, he was past his peak. He should have retired after 2010, instead of trying to play 2 more seasons, where he only had 13 starts. He wasn't our most painful loss!
^
Yeah I agree - IMO Dunfield is alot better than many of the midfielders we've had over the years.
His dip in career had more to do with his attitude than ability (coupled with severe injury). You aren't the captain of Man City reserves and on the brink of an England call-up if you are a complete scrub.
Ability aside- his presence/influence I believe is important to remind the younger players that no matter when they think they've made it, no matter how good they think they are - it can all be taken away.
That is a move that puzzled me, Preki was going to go to a more defensive system, and then he gets rid of a very, very young solid CDM type, who is also versatile. Again it may be the relative lack of physicality. But I always liked Cronin as a player. Attakora, I kind of understand what happend, but for a while I trully felt he would become a very good CB. I quess "good CB" and TFC are just not ment to be together.
Tyrone Marshall was an established MLS CB. Olivier Tebily was good for the 5-6 games he played for TFC. Serioux was good before his injury killed his career. But yeah. Very sad about list of CBs that played for TFC, very few are considered 'good'. Though we will see about O'Dea and Califf.
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
^ Tyrone Marshall, Olivier Tebily and Serioux are the three that come to mind as well. Cann for a while. But CB in general has been a problem from day one, we never had a two decent ones at the same time, or at least not for long. Cann/Attakora was a good pairing for a while, and if my memory does not fail me Marshall and Brennan played together well for a while.
I think Henry will be good as well.
Last edited by trane; 02-05-2013 at 07:51 PM.
First off, neither player was EPL quality. Robbo enjoyed his success at Championship level, he was a very good player at that level as well as MLS. You seem surprised that I don't rate Dunfield yet go on to say he is a basic MLS type midfielder. You're hardly giving him a ringing endorsement with that description. Personally I think he is a step below basic, and I don't think he will play much if at all this season. Robbo probably left us a season too early, there was a lot of talk at one point about him dropping back to play centre back, and he could have been that type of defender we have been crying out for yrs. Also the fact he moved into coaching so effortlessly with both NY and Vancouver we lost that chance to promote from within.
Hey, I don't post much anymore. I'm too busy with things, but I still lurk for news and rumours.
They all hurt for me, cause I believe in them all until they don't work out. I got excited when all of them come to the team. I googled them all. I read all of there wikipedia pages. And watched their youtube highlights. I still google some of them from time to time to see where they're playing or if they've retired. Loving TFC is all about being hurt.
Dero, Serioux and Guevara
Guevara
Cronin for sure.he was given away for nothing so TFC. Could sign Mista for 4 months. At this present time Cronin is better than both DeGuzman and Frings, and earns less than 5 percent of what those guys make. Soccer America rated him# 3 DM, behind Beckerman and Olonzo for 2012. He's still getting better.
Jacob Peterson
I say Dero and then Wynne.........Both of them are still in the MLS and if they stayed with TFC our team would be a lot better off......The turn over of players is one of the reasons that TFC is the worst run franchise in the MLS.
Laurent Robert