It's Colman's Time To Shine

Cristian Colman scored against Colorado with help from an amazing Mauro Diaz through ball, but that’s not the only reason he has earned a starting spot. Colman has done everything right as a lone striker: he stays on the shoulders, he holds the ball up, and he finds space in the box. Granted his stats last year were less than positive, but I think he deserves a pass for that. It takes time to develop connections with your teammates, and the two goals Colman has scored this season show those connections have been built.

The question is, who loses their spot for Colman? Well, there’s a few formations we could try to accommodate Colman:

4-2-3-1: Tried and trusted by Papi. New England rely on their attacking midfielder, Diego Fagundez, to get their offense going. In this formation, Fagundez would be marked by Carlos Gruezo, who did a stellar job against both Valeri and Rusnak, both in similar roles to Fagundez. Also, New England love to push their full backs forward, which will leave space for Barrios and Lamah, but that requires another midfielder to plug any gaps during a counter.

4-4-2: Drop Diaz? There’s a good case for dropping Diaz. One assist doesn’t make up for four poor games, Urruti drops back enough to nullify the #10, and the dreaded turf monster lives at Gillette Field. For a flat 4-4-2 to be as effective as possible, two box-to-box midfielders would be ideal. Acosta isn’t fully fit yet, but if he was, he and Hayes would be the perfect combination to make it work.

4-4-2 Diamond: This is a formation we might see later in the year if we can’t get our attack going. It would require more defensive work from Barrios, Diaz, and Lamah, and it would also require us dropping a very impressive Hayes. I don’t think Hayes would be good enough as a lone defensive midfielder.

Formations aside, Oscar has been more than willing to try anything to get our attack going. Dallas outshot the four teams we’ve played this season 67 to 41, and most subs have been positive, even when we were up 3-0 against Seattle. New England is Dallas’s first away game, and it will likely work out in our favor. New England will be going for a win, leaving more opportunities for Dallas to get in behind, and I don’t think we will play as defensively as most away teams.

In other news….

Zlatan joined MLS with a bang, scoring a brace against LAFC to help LA Galaxy win the first “El Trafico” derby. Some people took to social media to suggest that his amazing performance demonstrates that the MLS is a retirement league, and Zlatan is here for an easy pay raise, which is nonsense.

For one thing, Zlatan is rumored to have turned down a very lucrative offer from China, but regardless of any truth to the Chinese offer, Zlatan isn’t on a designated player (DP) contract; he took a 95% pay cut to leave Manchester United and join LA Galaxy. This brings me to a larger point about the trend in MLS DP contracts at present. Long story short: they aren’t retirees. Look at the ages for the DPs signed in 2018:

Not one DP over 30, and the average age is around 23. What about the players that signed before 2018? The average age of MLS players currently on a DP contract is roughly 27. By the way, 27 is also the average age of Premier League players. For MLS as a whole, the average age is around 26.

The days of giving big contracts to big, past their prime, names is either coming to an end or it’s already ended. The Pirlos, Gerrards, Lampards and Defoes of the world are no longer sought after by MLS ownership or fanbases. MLS fans want their own heroes, and ownership want to make money from their investments. As a final example, see how Ezequiel Barco’s value at least theoretically jumped quite a bit after joining Atlanta.

Austin-based Guardians! Check out the FC Dallas Fans ATX group on Facebook and here are the details for the next Austin watch party!

The next watch party:

New England vs FCD

Starts: 5:30pm

Kick off: 6:30pm

10801 Barnhill Dr,

Austin, TX

78758

Busca La Forma,

Marcus Aurelius Wrightus