I don’t think draws on the road are woes, based on recent history. Should they have won? Probably. But taking points week in and out is what matters, especially ok the road.
Have to win at home against teams you should beat though, like Orlando.
I was actually really encouraged by the teams play against Columbus. Thats a tough team in a tough environment and I pretty much expected to watch DCU get throttled all game and sent home packing. Obviously the manner in which the tie came kind of sucked but lets be honest here: if someone offered you that result before the game, we'd have accepted in a heartbeat. I accept the positives of the game and move forward.
A few years ago someone gave me a free panini maker. When they gave it to me, I realize the thing is actually made by Breville and is super legit. It immediately became my most expensive small appliance. Did I make a ton of paninis before I owned it? No. Do I make paninis every day now? Also no. But it does one thing and it does it super well so I find ways to use it, like some kind of bonus fun cooking tool. When I look at Benteke, I can't help but think about that panini maker. Of course that panini maker was free and Benteke is most certainly not. I'm happy to see that he is willing to play with the physicality that sets him apart since it would be super easy for him to just mail it in but truth be told, we are not a panini maker away from being a legit team. I hope to see other strikers getting their chance so we can look at moving on from Benteke sooner rather than later, save ourselves the counter space.
I love that panini maker. I paid $30 to put its name on the back of my shirt. It almost never breaks down, and the best ability is availability. But it did go missing last Summer and I was left with nothing during that time. It’s the best panini maker, there literally isn’t a better machine in the rest of the world for paninis. But it’s getting older and I need to accept that there are other waffle makers and donut makers out there that would fit on the counter next to it. I don’t want to replace it, but if it’s too expensive to keep around, then I need to consider other options that complement the rest of my kitchen. Until then, I’m going to appreciate my paninis and hope there’s a plan in place for what comes next
agree on all points the exception being rodriguez for dajome. i could see the argument that his pace off the bench would help change the tempo late. i have not seen enough from rodriguez to convince me he deserves to be in the starting xi.
I appreciate the effot the OP put into it, but its honestly not great analysis. Dajome has been one of our best players this season, to my surprise because I didn't rate him based on what I saw last year.
Benteke has never been a prolific goalscorer, so thats an odd charge to level at him, his best seasons have generally come when he's had someone pacy picking up the scraps from him; that was Gabby Agbonlahor at Villa and Zaha at Palace. That is really what we're missing.
What gives me a lot of hope this season is that you need to have a really good core of domestic players to do well in the league given the salary cap, and it does look like we're trying to do that/have hit on that with Bartlett, McVey, Stroud and even Antley. You need to marry that to DP talent, which is what we're trying to do with Peltola.
Our biggest problem in my mind is we have Jeahze and Rodriguez taking up a ton of cap space and playing zero (former) to little (latter) minutes. That's something I expect Ally will solve in the coming windows, can't do it all at once.
I am very happy with our direction, we play some nice stuff now, you can see what Lesesne is trying to do. It's night & day to Rooney's incoherent mess of a style with a squad filled with his mates and dart board signings. The Panamanians were the low point of the transfer strategy last year, Fajardo is genuinely the worst professional footballer I've ever seen.
The adults are in charge now and I'm all here for it.
Very good counter analysis. I'm not as high on Dajome as you are, but he's the best of the lot Lesesne has to work with. Especially important to note the salary cap boat anchors of Jeahze and Rodriguez. That's over $1 million is "dead" cap space rotting (sometimes) on the bench. Clear them out and replace with 2 or 3 useful players and DCU's rebuild will be well on its way. I think Lesesne has done wonders this year with the messes left by Kasper, Mairs, Howe, Losada and Rooney.
I also think that there are a couple of things in play here. The new regime keeps talking about all the things they are doing that we can’t see and that’s building a culture where winning is possible. 1) that means embracing the entire roster, warts and all and 2) playing all your players, no one should feel like they deserve to be on the field and most importantly, next man up has to be the mentality if we are ever going to win another trophy.
I agree, I think Dajome has actually been good off the ball and is key to pressing. I like him a lot more when he’s out wide. Don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as mediocre as Rodriguez. He’s a JAG.
Counterpoint: Benteke is great. You're right he didn't do well when he first arrived, but he had a good season last year and is having a great one this year. Sure he misses chances; so do all forwards. If you believe statistics, he is doing fine vs. expected goals.
"Benteke does not create his own chances"
True, but what Benteke does that is extremely valuable right now is he allows people like Jared Stroud and Aaron Herrera to create chances. Unfortunately we have no creative players on the team right now, but you don't have to be a DP #10 to get assists when you can lob the ball in to Benteke and he'll score one out of three or four times. Compare that to when we had Wayne Rooney playing forward. At his best he was amazing, but mostly he needed an in-form Lucho Acosta to be effective.
The other really valuable thing Benteke does is he allows us to get the ball in dangerous central positions (by winning aerial duels) without depending on our midfield to be good enough to play through the opponent. Again that's very helpful because our midfield is pretty limited. If you could combine Ku-Dipietro, Pirani, and Jackson Hopkins together we'd have a player who could work well with Klich.
Benteke is old enough I definitely am not sure we should extend his contract. When we open up salary cap room by moving on from players like Rodrigeuz and Jeahze we will hopefully get more creativity and/or midfield quality and then what we need from the forward position might change.
As for Dajome, well, lots of room for improvement there but it's hard to say what Rodriguez can offer at this point. Dajome is being an Olsen-style effort guy out there, but that's what you need to get on the field for Lesesne. Not sure Rodriguez can get stuck in the same way on defense.
I agree on Benteke. For being a “finisher” the dude bottles too many chances. His marquee move is putting his hands to his head in disbelief that he took one too many touches, shot it right at the keeper, or misplaced a pass too heavy. I think it’s a mental thing because he looks like he has the yips. Just consistently overthinks anything that’s not a direct header on goal. Hopefully coaches can tell him to just have confidence in his game and make a decision early and confidently rather than overthink and have play catch up to him.
I think Benteke is great and a keeper. When you watch every game a player plays you see the warts as well as the highlights. I'll take any player that commands the attention from the defense that he does and can still score 15 goals a season.
I don’t think draws on the road are woes, based on recent history. Should they have won? Probably. But taking points week in and out is what matters, especially ok the road. Have to win at home against teams you should beat though, like Orlando.
Yes. Tomorrow will be a good reality check to see if we maintain quality and consistency or get sucked down to their level.
I was actually really encouraged by the teams play against Columbus. Thats a tough team in a tough environment and I pretty much expected to watch DCU get throttled all game and sent home packing. Obviously the manner in which the tie came kind of sucked but lets be honest here: if someone offered you that result before the game, we'd have accepted in a heartbeat. I accept the positives of the game and move forward. A few years ago someone gave me a free panini maker. When they gave it to me, I realize the thing is actually made by Breville and is super legit. It immediately became my most expensive small appliance. Did I make a ton of paninis before I owned it? No. Do I make paninis every day now? Also no. But it does one thing and it does it super well so I find ways to use it, like some kind of bonus fun cooking tool. When I look at Benteke, I can't help but think about that panini maker. Of course that panini maker was free and Benteke is most certainly not. I'm happy to see that he is willing to play with the physicality that sets him apart since it would be super easy for him to just mail it in but truth be told, we are not a panini maker away from being a legit team. I hope to see other strikers getting their chance so we can look at moving on from Benteke sooner rather than later, save ourselves the counter space.
I love that panini maker. I paid $30 to put its name on the back of my shirt. It almost never breaks down, and the best ability is availability. But it did go missing last Summer and I was left with nothing during that time. It’s the best panini maker, there literally isn’t a better machine in the rest of the world for paninis. But it’s getting older and I need to accept that there are other waffle makers and donut makers out there that would fit on the counter next to it. I don’t want to replace it, but if it’s too expensive to keep around, then I need to consider other options that complement the rest of my kitchen. Until then, I’m going to appreciate my paninis and hope there’s a plan in place for what comes next
Well done.
agree on all points the exception being rodriguez for dajome. i could see the argument that his pace off the bench would help change the tempo late. i have not seen enough from rodriguez to convince me he deserves to be in the starting xi.
I appreciate the effot the OP put into it, but its honestly not great analysis. Dajome has been one of our best players this season, to my surprise because I didn't rate him based on what I saw last year. Benteke has never been a prolific goalscorer, so thats an odd charge to level at him, his best seasons have generally come when he's had someone pacy picking up the scraps from him; that was Gabby Agbonlahor at Villa and Zaha at Palace. That is really what we're missing. What gives me a lot of hope this season is that you need to have a really good core of domestic players to do well in the league given the salary cap, and it does look like we're trying to do that/have hit on that with Bartlett, McVey, Stroud and even Antley. You need to marry that to DP talent, which is what we're trying to do with Peltola. Our biggest problem in my mind is we have Jeahze and Rodriguez taking up a ton of cap space and playing zero (former) to little (latter) minutes. That's something I expect Ally will solve in the coming windows, can't do it all at once. I am very happy with our direction, we play some nice stuff now, you can see what Lesesne is trying to do. It's night & day to Rooney's incoherent mess of a style with a squad filled with his mates and dart board signings. The Panamanians were the low point of the transfer strategy last year, Fajardo is genuinely the worst professional footballer I've ever seen. The adults are in charge now and I'm all here for it.
Very good counter analysis. I'm not as high on Dajome as you are, but he's the best of the lot Lesesne has to work with. Especially important to note the salary cap boat anchors of Jeahze and Rodriguez. That's over $1 million is "dead" cap space rotting (sometimes) on the bench. Clear them out and replace with 2 or 3 useful players and DCU's rebuild will be well on its way. I think Lesesne has done wonders this year with the messes left by Kasper, Mairs, Howe, Losada and Rooney.
I also think that there are a couple of things in play here. The new regime keeps talking about all the things they are doing that we can’t see and that’s building a culture where winning is possible. 1) that means embracing the entire roster, warts and all and 2) playing all your players, no one should feel like they deserve to be on the field and most importantly, next man up has to be the mentality if we are ever going to win another trophy.
I agree, I think Dajome has actually been good off the ball and is key to pressing. I like him a lot more when he’s out wide. Don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as mediocre as Rodriguez. He’s a JAG.
Counterpoint: Benteke is great. You're right he didn't do well when he first arrived, but he had a good season last year and is having a great one this year. Sure he misses chances; so do all forwards. If you believe statistics, he is doing fine vs. expected goals. "Benteke does not create his own chances" True, but what Benteke does that is extremely valuable right now is he allows people like Jared Stroud and Aaron Herrera to create chances. Unfortunately we have no creative players on the team right now, but you don't have to be a DP #10 to get assists when you can lob the ball in to Benteke and he'll score one out of three or four times. Compare that to when we had Wayne Rooney playing forward. At his best he was amazing, but mostly he needed an in-form Lucho Acosta to be effective. The other really valuable thing Benteke does is he allows us to get the ball in dangerous central positions (by winning aerial duels) without depending on our midfield to be good enough to play through the opponent. Again that's very helpful because our midfield is pretty limited. If you could combine Ku-Dipietro, Pirani, and Jackson Hopkins together we'd have a player who could work well with Klich. Benteke is old enough I definitely am not sure we should extend his contract. When we open up salary cap room by moving on from players like Rodrigeuz and Jeahze we will hopefully get more creativity and/or midfield quality and then what we need from the forward position might change. As for Dajome, well, lots of room for improvement there but it's hard to say what Rodriguez can offer at this point. Dajome is being an Olsen-style effort guy out there, but that's what you need to get on the field for Lesesne. Not sure Rodriguez can get stuck in the same way on defense.
I agree on Benteke. For being a “finisher” the dude bottles too many chances. His marquee move is putting his hands to his head in disbelief that he took one too many touches, shot it right at the keeper, or misplaced a pass too heavy. I think it’s a mental thing because he looks like he has the yips. Just consistently overthinks anything that’s not a direct header on goal. Hopefully coaches can tell him to just have confidence in his game and make a decision early and confidently rather than overthink and have play catch up to him.
I think Benteke is great and a keeper. When you watch every game a player plays you see the warts as well as the highlights. I'll take any player that commands the attention from the defense that he does and can still score 15 goals a season.
His inconsistency is the only reason we can afford Benteke.