It's a question that a lot of Wizards' fans have been asking lately. Is Coach Onalfo's seat getting hot with the current slump the Wizards are in? Kansas City has not won a game since their 3-1 win over New England back on June 13th (the open cup win is officially a draw). That's over a month that KC has gone without a win. Taking out the Wizards 3 goals against Minnesota, the Wizards have only scored 2 goals in that time frame, one an own goal and one a Claudio Lopez free kick. Since May started, the Wizards have only won 2 games, a span of 14 games. While the team had a busy stretch in parts of June and July, that's still a pathetic number of wins for KC. Two wins in almost 3 months of play is going to get you no where in any league, including the parity driven MLS.
So is Onalfo's seat hot? It probably should be, I mean look at the results. That's a poor performance for any team to have. The good news is that even with this poor run of form, the Wizards are surprisingly not out of the race to make the playoffs. After last night's results, the Wizards are 8 points out of first place with a game in hand, and 7 points out of second with 2 games in hand on DC. So winning those two games in hand would put KC back in the race. Such is MLS and it's parity, even with this poor run of form KC is not out of it.
In the end, Onalfo is likely feeling some pressure with the lack of results lately and I'm sure his seat is getting a little hot, but no where near hot enough for him to be concerned about losing his job during the course of the current season. Onalfo's past performance on taking the Wizards to the playoffs in his first two years (no matter what you think about how they got in the previous two seasons) has probably bought him at least 1 seasons grace should the Wizards miss the playoffs this year.
A worthy question.
ReplyDeleteI often struggle to understand Onalfo's decisions, yet overall he has done fairly well with the personnel he has.
Let's face it, the Wizards have neither a genuine finishing forward nor a consistent ball carrying center midfielder. They have a DP slot and should have money to go after at least one of these positions which I think would make a big difference in some of the stats you mentioned.
Now with Davy and Jimmy out for a while things will get tougher. This is the time when Claudio seemed fatigued last year so that will put more pressure on a thin forward line.
So, is it the responsibility of Vermes or Onalfo to fill these voids? It will be interesting to see what the Hungarian player does, but my guess is it will be another Trujillo gamble.
Unless the Wizards miss the playoffs by a few games, Onalfo will likely be back next year.
But unlike Trujillo, Zoltan seems to have proven himself more at the club level, scoring more goals, and even doing well enough to earn national team caps. It could certainly work out to where he's no better than Trujillo, but his club history seems to point to a player that's had a better career.
ReplyDeleteAnd actually after the concussion on Saturday I think we may have another big position that needs to be filled. We need another center back, McKenzie just isn't going to cut it being the guy off the bench for a center back.
ReplyDeleteOnalfo's choices on where to play people is horrible. He cant figure out how to use our best play (Arnaud) which doesnt fair well when the tactical wizard Bob Bradley (hope every one knows that a joke) figured it out in a couple training sessions. When Conrad is out he then doesnt move Besler inside (where he played in college) so Harrington can play his best posistion, which would leave McKenzie off the field.
ReplyDeleteWe signed Jewsbury to a long term deal over the offseason to bring in Hirsig? It just makes no sense, I dont understand what the idea is around the players we have been bringing in.. Hopefully Zolton provides something, because we dont need another aging forward that can only score when on a streak. We have no creativity in the midfield and dont have 1 forward that can beat a defender when he gets isolated 1v1.
Onalfo and the management arent doing horrible, but are doing sub par in terms of the rest of the MLS.
Zusi at attacking mid? I dont know really, just need something to be created up there. If we can figure out a good attacking mid Arnaud can play up top and Wolf and Lopez can split time.
Good points PVFC.
ReplyDeleteMckenzie has to go. I totally agree with Besler in the middle. Holbein/Besler is a stinkin young combo, but McKenzie just doesn't work. I like what I see with Besler.