I hated Greg Vanney when he came to DC United. It really was nothing against him, he had just been traded for my favorite DC player, Facundo "erpfu" Erpen. I was sad to see Erpen go and disappointed that we got an old, slow guy in exchange. There were rumors of a magical left foot, that as far as I can tell must have been amputated and reattached to Marc Burch, but that is a different story. Vanney's first few games were not great and I was very critical of every mistake he made. Although I didn't want to admit it, as he got more comfortable with his teammates and the style of play he made less mistakes and his experience really started to pay off in the back. His lack of speed was always an issue and will probably always be an issue, but if he can help groom Burch and McTavish for future success I'm ok with that trade off in the short term.
I would like to keep Vanney on for another year or two if we can reduce his salary and he will take minutes as a backup, with a few starts thrown in to give the others a rest. As it stands today, he has not re-signed (or resigned for that matter) and we have not signed another central defender to take his position. Another reason I would like to have him stay on is that I think he might make a good coach in the future. Having heard him talk a few times, he is very articulate and seems to analyze the game well from an objective point of view.
4th and final installment of the Backline Chronicles: Marc Burch, how I love thee, let me count the ways.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I still don't like Vanney as a center back. Nothing against him personally, and from interviews he sounds like he'll make a hell of a coach someday. But he's slow, overpaid, not exactly a physical specimen, often wants to much time on the ball, and should be expendable with our legions of South American defenders getting off the boat soon ;-). Time to ship him off for a useful piece of the puzzle. I wonder if anybody's got a spare winger lying around and needs an old, slow, overpriced defender?
Old, slow, AND overpriced? No wonder Goff says RSL is working on a trade for him!
Post a Comment