Monday, July 01, 2013

Midseason Player Grades

We're at the midpoint of the 2013 MLS season.  KC has completed half of their 34 game schedule.  Currently the team sits in a tie for 3rd place in the Eastern Conference with 26 points and a 7-5-5 record.  It's been a drop from the team's level last year, although KC has lost just as many games as they did in the 2012 season.  The difference is that KC had 3 more wins that this year have been draws for KC (the 0-0 draws vs New England and Chicago, the 1-1 draw at DC where the referee incorrectly ruled a goal offside, or the 2-2 draw with Dallas where KC blew a 2 goal lead, can be pointed to as big dropped points).

Here are some grabs for players at the mid-point of the season.

Matt Besler - B+ - Sporting's defense has struggled of late, but Besler's had another solid season for KC in the back. He's continued to be the rock of KC's defense.  Finally last year people started to see him as the rock of KC's back line. Now it's time to prove he can stay at this level.

Claudio Bieler - A- - KC's leading scorer through the first half of the league season, with 8 league goals and 9 in all competitions.  He's doing what he was brought in to do, score goals, and he's done it scoring goals that KC would have missed last year, just more composed finishing.  The lack of an A is because of incidents during games where I thought the disciplinary committee would step in.  So far he's avoided suspension.

Teal Bunbury - INC - Has only made 2 appearances since returning from his ACL tear.

Aurelien Collin - C+ - Collin has been solid for Kansas City this year as you'd expect, but he's been flirting the line between controlled and dangerous too often this season.

Bobby Convey - INC - Played only 3 games for KC then was traded to Toronto. His play in the first two games saw him benched and he made only 1 appearance after that.

Christian Duke - INC/B - A split grade for Duke.  He hasn't appeared for KC, but has been a solid contributor for Orlando so far this season.

Dom Dwyer - INC/A+ - Another split grade for Dwyer with his loan to Orlando. But it's hard to imagine Dwyer's loan going any better. He scored 15 league goals in 13 games, and added another 3 in 3 Open Cup games.  Good enough to earn him a recall to the first team.

Kevin Ellis - INC - Made his first start for the club in the Open Cup this year and his first league appearance, but not enough to warrant a grade.

Benny Feilhaber - D- - The game against Montreal where he picked up a pair of assists is what keeps this move from being an F for the first half of the season. Feilhaber was supposed to come in and be the attacking midfielder while Graham Zusi stayed on the wing.  That hasn't happened, first Feilhaber lost his spot to Peterson Joseph and then to Zusi.

Josh Gardner - D - Gardner was expected to be left back depth for KC.  He earned his one start of the season there.  He's spent more time at the left wing position. And other than 1 cross against Chivas has failed to impress. His last appearance was in the Open Cup against Orlando and played poorly enough to be pulled at half time. He hasn't been on the bench since.

Mechack Jerome - A- - Jerome was expected to just be Chance Myers' back up this season and get a handful of appearances.  Unfortunately for Myers he's struggled with a quad injury, but that's opened the door wide for Jerome who has done a good job filling in at right back that even allowed him to work his way back onto the Haitian national team.

Peterson Joseph - B- - Joseph continues to improve under KC.  He won the starting midfield job from Feilhaber earlier this season before missing the last month with Haiti.  He'll miss most of this month as well while still on duty for his national team, which is a bit of a blow at the club level as he could continue to get time here.

Kei Kamara - B- - Kamara came back from his loan when few people (myself included) thought he wouldn't return. Most of us figured Norwich would make the deal permanent. Kamara was slow to get up to speed when returning, whether that was from lack of cohesion or disappointment in no permanent move. He's started to come on lately though, scoring 2 against the Crew.

Jon Kempin - INC/B - Another double grade. He did a solid job in net for Orlando after Miguel Gallardo went down injured, until he picked up an injury himself. He's gotten little time since returning from injury though.

Eric Kronberg - INC - Just two Open Cup appearances for KC's back up.

Mikey Lopez - INC - Only 1 appearance for KC's first round pick, he's spent a good amount of time away with the US U20 team.

Kyle Miller - INC - No appearances for the KC product this season.

Chance Myers - B- - Myers has struggled with injuries a bit this season after staying healthy for most of the past two years. He's been normally solid when he's been on the field though.

Paulo Nagamura - C+ - KC has changed the way the midfield plays this year, all 3 of KC's midfielders get more freedom to rotate and move around the midfield. Without a Cesar type in back, both Nagamura and Oriol Rosell have failed to really lock that role down when they rotate back there.

Jimmy Nielsen - C - Not that Nielsen's had a bad season, but I think expectations were higher after his goalkeeper of the year performance last year. He's made the second fewest saves of regular starters this year.  Only 1 regular starter in goal has a lower save percentage than Nielsen's 62%, and that's Carlo Cudicini for LA. Which isn't good enough for KC.

Lawrence Olum - C - Has mainly been coming in off the bench for minimal minutes through the season. But lately, specifically the Columbus game he showed well playing in Julio Cesar's old role.

Ike Opara - B - Has done very well filling in for Besler and Collin when they've been injured or on national team duty. I have no complaints about his play, he's done quite well.

Jacob Peterson - C - Has done a decent job of providing a spark for KC since returning from his injury. The lack of goals or assists from him are the big knock. He has the work rate there just needs to be more on the end product.

Oriol Rosell - C - Has looked very good at times for KC, but has also looked like a 20 year old spending his first time as a consistent starter. I think he looked much better with Olum playing a Cesar type role against Columbus.

Soony Saad - B+ - Saad hasn't gotten a ton of time, just 204 minutes in league play, but has looked quite well when he has played, especially the game against Columbus. He missed a chance for more games in the Open Cup when he was away playing with the Lebanon national team.

CJ Sapong - D+ - He's been in a slump this year, badly. He didn't really have a sophomore slump, it's just hit him in his 3rd season.  He only has one goal and one assist, KC will need more out of him in the second half of the season.

Seth Sinovic - A- - His error against Columbus aside, Sinovic has again been extremely solid for Kansas City in the back. He's arguably been KC's most consistent performer on the back line.

Yann Songo'o - INC/B - He was Orlando's leader in minutes played when his contract was terminated by mutual consent and he went back to Spain.

Michael Thomas - INC - Only one appearance for Thomas this year.

Graham Zusi - A- - Three goals and five assists for Zusi He's been solid no matter where he plays. His new contract shows the clubs commitment to him going forward and his signing it shows his confidence in the club to help him continue to develop and not stand in his way when a good offer comes along.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonderful blog, daily reader.


Agree with most but I think you switched the ratings for Fielhaber and Nagamura.

Looking at the individual ratings you gave for each game:

Nagamura 5 4 6 7 8 5 6 3 3 6 6 6 6 4 3 4 = 82/16= 5.12
Feilhaber 5 4 5 5 8 6 6 4 4 5 5 6 3 = 66/13 = 5.08

We won't disagree with those ratings as they are opinion.

But you did give Feilhaber "Wizards Man of the Match" twice, to zero for Nagamura.

Feilhaber has three assists to one in 3 less games.

A four is the most common rating you gave for all players/all games so far this season; Fielhaber got one 3, Nagamura has three 3's in your ratings.

It seems unfair to hold the expectations for Fielhaber playing at attacking mid against him, when he has been assigned or forced to play behind Nagamura in each appearance.

And the huge number of incomplete passes, dispossessions, the penalty surrendered and the suspension should count against Nagamura as well.

Wonderful blog by the way, daily read.

Would love to see a 4-1-3-2:

Nielson
Myers-Collin-Besler-Sinovic
Olum
Kamara-Zusi-Fielhaber
Bieler-Saad (or Dwyer/Sapong)

Nathan Martin said...

To be fair to CJ, comparing his first 2 years when he mostly played center forward to this year where he has played exclusively as a winger is a bit apples and oranges.

To your point, though, that is his position and he has been reduced to jumping for backpost crosses with little hold up or creation from his side.

Anonymous said...

Besler - B kinda disappointing season so far, by the standards of the last couple years anyway. i wonder if going back and forth to the nats is throwing him off just a little. i'm not worried, and i expect him to have an A+ second half.

Claudio Bieler - A- moves so well off the ball, its really a clinic in positioning to watch him. he is so smart about the subtlist of things. he just knows a foot worth of slightly better positioning leads to an inch of more space when the ball gets to him and that can be the difference between getting a good shot off and getting a hurried shot off. the amazing thing is he could easily have 5 more goals based on his chances.

Aurelien Collin - B -I actually think he has played a pinch better than Besler this season. i agree he can be a bit reckless at times.

Bobby Convey, Benny Feilhaber- not going to bother grading them. hope vermes has learned his lesson about picking up floundering former nat team players as projects.

Josh Gardner - C -i never expected more than depth from him. I'm surprised he has played this much.

Mechack Jerome - B+ a great surprise this season and we needed him to be with Myers injury problems. but lets not go overboard.

Peterson Joseph - B- occasionally great, but it feels like the increase in minutes hasn't had a correlative increase in eye popping creative moments. feels like he has plateaued a bit.

Kei Kamara - A has been great since his return to the starting line up.

Chance Myers - B- who knew that he would look like ryan reynolds when he cut his hair? oh right, talking about soccer.

Paulo Nagamura - C i think he shouldn't be starting. i prefer larry o in the defensive midfield.

Jimmy Nielsen - C - maybe he is getting old, maybe he is distracted by promoting his book. he just hasn't been as good, if this was just the last 4-5 games or so i'd give him a D-. he has been uncharacteristically out of position quite a few times lately and hasn't had his 1v1 mojo that made him a stud the last few seasons.

Lawrence Olum - B he's been solid when called upon

Ike Opara - A- I actually think he's been the best central defender for us so far this season

Jacob Peterson - C

Oriol Rosell - B hardest player to rate? solid, but it feels like he has better in him.

Soony Saad - B+ give the kid more minutes

CJ Sapong - B- i feel like he has played better than the stats show.

Seth Sinovic - B+

Graham Zusi - A- i still think if he could just be a little more greedy in front of goal he could really light up this league