I think Lesesne has Santos penciled in as the "Ilsinho" role for DCU and I'm fine with that. Dajome is a problem but who else is there? Fletcher doesn't know how to play defense and gets lost a times. Murrell is a rookie and appears to be the sub from Stroud when Stroud's legs go in about minute 70. All that you have left are Pirani and Ku. Now you could make an argument that Dajome is just like Rodriguez and you should start one of the youngsters in his spot. And, I'm not averse to trying that.
Santos picked up some points for us recently. I don't mind him playing to his strengths. LB isn't his strength.
I dunno, thinking about the situation some more, I am wondering if the problem for Rodriguez is that he's a more attacking winger as opposed to a wing back and plays less defense than Dajome. Play him, its not like Dajome is a defensive wiz because he sure isn't lighting it up in the attack. At least try to solve the problem. It might not be horrible to create 5 more legit chances and give up 5 more. Something has to change and if this is the roster through November, I don't think I can watch Dajome another dozen times. And I agree, Santos' current usage is better for him and the team.
The Athletic has an article on how teams have changed from last year. Below is what they say about DC. Not sure why i pay for a subscription when I have our page for free! Improvement in some places, static in others D.C. United is third with a 27.9% big chance rate, keeping Christian Benteke well-fed in dangerous spots. There’s some naivety to their late-game approach, having already dropped 10 points from leading positions. Still, they’ve seemingly taken a large step in the right direction.
I wouldn't call it a trap so much as a crutch - or training wheels. Something to keep us from the spoon while we totally rebuild. With the way the draft works in the NFL or NBA, you'd want the spoon. But in normal sports like soccer, baseball and hockey you never want to tank. I'm glad for that.
The Athletic did a stats breakdown on the entire MLS recently. The one surprising stat is that DCU leads the league in one category: DCU has been in the lead of its matches 45% of the total minutes played. Those 10 dropped points from a winning position have been brutal. I don't know if that stat line, alone, means this is a good squad, but it would seem to indicate that DCU has the quality to compete in any match which is a major improvement over the past few seasons.
We have some youth but a lot of +30-year olds. We also have no quality on the bench (or in some starting positions). It is really surprising to see us lead in minutes leading, and very encouraging! I imagine we will continue to see those late-game fades until we can really rebuild the roster. Also, I thought we also lead in yellow cards?
Suppose we don’t re-sign Benteke and Klich at the end of the season. What two positions would you most like to see us use DP slots on (given our new system)?
The first month is a get eight month for everyone, we missed an opportunity to pick up more points against teams before they figure it out. At the same time, almost all those teams are straight up better than us so can’t expect too much. Now that teams are getting in their flow, it’s going to be harder to pick up points. Without an influx of talent this summer, it looks like another season with no playoffs to me.
A DP striker and an attacking midfield/number 10. We actually need to use all three senior DP slots, as well as all three U-22 slots that are now allowed.
Ally is a different story. With the resources available to him, he offloaded Ruan and Durkin, and brought in Herrera, Stroud, Bartlett, McVey, Antley, and Peltola. Troy has definitely shown promise. Only question mark is Pirani. It’s a short track record, but nothing indicates he will sign busts—especially if you include what he did at Nashville.
I 100% get that and wouldn’t hold it against someone for years. To be fair, I’m still expecting a FO own goal, but Ally’s decisions so far have defied our organizational gravity
They have to get the dead money off the books, that part is easy it just takes time. The hard part is then spending that money on the right guys. I like the guys they picked up in trades, I don’t like they thought it wise to sign Pirani to a young DP contract. I don’t know what they are in him, other than youth, that would lead to that decision. Fletcher looks lost half the time but he’s scored just as much as Pirani and is dirt cheap. Just play that guy and spend the big money elsewhere.
My guess is they had (I believe) three U22 spots and nobody to fill them (I think we still have two unused?), so they took a shot on Pirani. He only got a 2-year contract, so while it’s not looking like a great move (at all), it’s relatively low risk. Between his shot and “mustache”, he’s screaming U-13