We have definitely had a bunch of players, academy or other signings, that just didn't live up to the hopes and expectations at the time they were signed. I believe Peruzza is one of those like you said. Coaches see these players in training all week. Have to trust their judgement since that is their jobs to figure out who is ready to play.
More than anything, it just bugs me that the TFC CMNT players will be sitting around for 6 weeks.
95%+ of the players in Qatar will have played competitive league games within 14 days of their first game.
I wonder if there is a loan option for them somehow. I seriously doubt it.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
Just saw a Michael Singh video short where he was asked about Bono and whether Ranjitsingh should be given a shot as keeper. He responded saying Ranjitsingh was nowhere near as good as Bono in training.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
Asking Bradley about Bono is pretty much a pointless exercise don’t you think? Bono was Bradley’s keeper from day one this season, Bradley won’t be throwing Bono under the bus, season will end and Bono will begin a new career, I see him on television as a soccer analyst, good looking intelligent guy, just overrated by TFC management .
Guys who know they are not staying work their butts off to get a contract somewhere else.
Bono is working hard in training - he's just not all that good.
He is a pro and doesn't want to let down his teammates.
And he also knows each gaff costs him. That one last week likely cost him any hope of an MLS starter offer.
I will obviously defer to JLoome on this with his background in media, but I feel like your readers questions should be the questions you ask as a journalist. I hope Bono goes on and has a good season next year in San Jose or wherever, but the time has come for both parties to move on.
Waking the Red did an analysis of Bono's stats:
https://www.wakingthered.com/2022/8/...bout-alex-bono
Strength in shot stopping, weakness in decision making and accurate passing.
Interesting
That article has a fundamental misunderstanding of what long ball % means in terms of keeper capability - it suggests low long ball % is a bad thing. Could have been written by Sean Dyche.
A low long ball % in an of itself is not bad - all that means is a team plays from the back. A high % means teams are going long ball more often.
A low long ball % with a bad pass accuracy % means a keeper is in essence giving the ball up almost every time he kicks long. THAT'S where Bono is so bad for this team defensively. He gives the opposing team access to start an attack & stifles his own team's ball control - given TFC has been a ball control focused team since 2014, you'd think this would have been pointed out somewhere.
Which is why I go back to Conway - he HAS to be ignoring the analytics teams because there is no way they are not telling him how bad the long ball % completion rate is.
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I'd be interested to hear what "working hard in training" means for a keeper in terms of distribution & decision making. Distribution at training is all an eye test & its not like the B team is going to go extremely hard in to contest balls out whereas decision making for a keeper in training is more along the lines of "we want to work on getting the ball forward in x way so start with that please Mr. Keeper". It would be very different for a sweeper keeper where they are an integrated part of the decision tree for attacks - Bono's job when he gets the ball is to see what is "on" long and if its not, play it short & if that doesn't work, just wait & hoof it to a zone.
Last edited by OgtheDim; 08-25-2022 at 06:34 AM.
In terms of keeper stats, is there one for "backbreaking goals" allowed? By backbreaking goals, I mean, blunders? The New England second goal and the first Miami goal should be 100% saved. Total demoralization for the team afterwards and I'd say we lost 3 points directly as a result. Who knows, maybe even 5 as we might have beat Miami but would have at least drew. I don't care how hard he works in training, those mistakes are unforgiveable.
I will give Bono a bit of slack on the clean sheets stat. He isn't solely to blame as we have been amongst the leaders for goals against for a number of years, and its a team effort there, Westburgh also doesnt get many clean sheets. Its the blunders though that hurt bad. And I do think he lacks on organizing the team on set pieces. And more preventable goals result.
On Bono's salary, is that $557k US? If CDN, that is still great for him...but if in US, at today's exchange rate, that over $720K CDN, wow! Great for him. But surely we can get better for cheaper?
And I have seen lots of talk about Conway. How much does he make? Is this like a part time gig?
The Conway gig always baffled me. He was a mediocre MLS goalkeeper. He then became a GK coach. So it would be safe to assume he is teaching how to be mediocre as well? Not his fault if that is all he knows but amazing he got the job in the first place and then survived the turnovers in staff. Unless he is just running the drills that the other coaches come up with and collects the balls then I can see it.
Giving up a goal like Bono did the other night has nothing to do with coaching, it’s all about concentration and all of Bono’s blunders are a result of his lack of focus. A few of the guys here now want to hang Conway, I’ll tell you what Conway was a much better goalkeeper then Scotty Bowman was at playing hockey and Wayne Gretzky was the greatest ever but couldn’t coach a lick. Bono was simply never that good , ok yes , just another misstep in this organization’s assessment of talent.
Bono was outstanding early on in his career. He made many key saves in 2017, memorable ones include one against NYRB in the 2017 playoffs that saved the season, and in 2018 CCL away against America.
He has really never recovered from the floater Chivas scored in the first leg of the final at BMO that year. It cost us the CCL. His confidence has just never been the same since that moment.
I thought Bono was going to cry before PKs in Vancouver in June. Everybody could see it then. That's when I knew he was done, here. Bradley's decision to play him after that game, regardless of the options, is one of the most mystifying of his stint here so far. You canalways find a keeper somewhere in the window.
(I feel bad for Alex. I hope he finds it again elsewhere.)
Last edited by ensco; 08-25-2022 at 09:22 AM.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
This is not meant as an endorsement of Conway (quite the opposite) but Mediocre players sometimes make great coaches. Especially those who stick around the league for a long time because they depend on improving and continuous training to keep their careers alive.
Guys who are overly blessed with talent are often the opposite. They don’t understand why it doesn’t come east to everyone and lack the patience to teach people.
Yeah I don't pretend to know the intricacies of what it takes to coach at a pro level and maybe he knows what to do day to day to keep his job. Just saying from a very general outlook, he was an ok goalkeeper in his career but now he is coaching our GK's. Maybe we could do better, maybe not. I know our current problems in that area are down to actual players and not necessarily coaching. You always hear players talk about how much they learn and improve from playing with great players so was thinking along those lines...
Bono admitted in his Molinaro interview he just lost concentration for a split second.
I'm pretty sure that's beyond coaching To fix. They can help but they can't be the ones who Fix it. That's on Bono.
He always has good save stat but he's the worst distributor in the league and just error prone. The best they can offer him is a backup deal.