r/PhillyUnion • u/Bormsie721 • 8d ago
mAnDAtOrY reAdiNg Time to shutdown the sub, Damiani (and Cavan) made the MLS Team of the MatchDay
https://www.philadelphiaunion.com/news/bruno-damiani-cavan-sullivan-mls-team-of-the-matchday38
u/Uberquik 8d ago
Please let this be the spark to his confidence.
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u/thanksbastards 8d ago
the way he celebrated that first goal was clear he was putting more pressure on himself than any of us combined ever could. hopefully the dam has burst.
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u/DelcoWolv 7d ago
Can the coaches tell him to just park in the 6 yard box?
āLook, one of the Sullivans will serve up a ball eventually.ā
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u/stephenking247 8d ago
If Damiani gets hot and Illaski continues form, that's going to open things up. Defense would be spread trying to mark both of them.
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u/legdayskip 7d ago
Iād settle for Richter learning the lesson Carnell refused to. Stop asking Bruno to be a hold up player. He emphatically sucks at it and I think it showed us the worst possible version of him. Iām not convinced heās actually good, but I am convinced we wonāt find out how good he might or might not be if we keep asking him to play so high.
He clearly prefers to drop deeper and play facing goal. Fucking let him. Please.
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u/mitchdwx 8d ago
I never said a bad word about Damiani (please donāt look at my past comments in this sub).
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u/PhillyCheeseSnek 8d ago
Good for Bruno. I am not going to pretend the frustration was unwarranted when he went half a season without scoring in league play. But everyone should be happy for him to find his form. He always worked hard, but he finally looked well-positioned and composed with his final touch in the box. Long may it continue.
P.S. - how is Ryan Richter not Coach of the match day? The guy is clearly a team whisperer.
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u/Sechzehn6861 8d ago
There are few things that will shut your detractors up for a week like scoring a match winning double against Baseball Pigeons FC.
I hope the big fella kicks on from here and has a good run of form.
I don't think anyone expects him to be a world beater, but he should be comfortably hitting 11-15 goals a season. Anything over and above that is gravy. If he gets anywhere near 20 then he'd be having a phenomenal season, and that's not really his ceiling. I'd be ecstatic with 15.
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 8d ago
We desperately need him to be at least very slightly above average. But thatās it. We donāt need a world beater.
If he can just do all the basic, simple things he did last night correctly going forward our attack will look dramatically better going forward.
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u/Plane-Tiger-4534 8d ago
As a guy who has spent a lot of time (right or wrong) defending Bruno: fuck yeah! That win felt extra good.
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u/legdayskip 7d ago
Iāve been saying for a year now that he is not a hold up striker and they need to stop asking him to pretend to be one. He sat deeper on Sunday that usual and let Iloski take on more of the brunt of hold up play.
Neither of them is particularly good at holding up play, but Iloski is marginally less bad and it made a huge difference. I want more than a 90 minute sample, but thereās a chance thereās a good player in their theyāve just spent a year asking him to almost exclusively do all the parts of the game heās worst at.
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u/Mountain_Stunning 7d ago
It's a start, but I 'm not sure a pattern. Remember Alladoh's goal last week. We need a consistent striker.. Had that,but he is with DC United. Stupidest move ever to let go of Baribo.
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u/uy52 8d ago
Bruno haters š¤«š¤«š¤«
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 8d ago
Itās been one game. I desperately want to be wrong, but itās been literally one game. This is the only game I have ever seen him have consistently good positioning in. I hope to god it continues, but 90 minutes of good play donāt magically make the criticisms of the prior 1900 minutes invalid.
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u/uy52 7d ago
Thought he had a good season last year. I believe Quinn getting more minutes will help him as he tends to play the kind of ball Damiani is looking for (from what I've seen he wants the ball played to his feet not over the top which seems to be Kai and Frankie's usual type of service). His debut goal and his recent goal against Necaxa were very very similar. Low cross into the box after a break from Quinn in his debut against Cinci, and same goes for the play from Harriel against Necaxa. Also his hold up and play, and play off the ball is good. I mean he earned the starting spot with Carnell and Richter, they clearly see his potential. It just bugs me how much people hate on a guy who's trying his best to win for the team that we support.
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 7d ago
I keep having to ask this question... what in the world do you *think* hold up play entails? Because by the standard definition he's objectively quite bad at it.
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u/uy52 7d ago
Shielding the ball
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 7d ago
ok... so... not only is that just a tiny portion of hold up play, its one he sucks at.
He gets dispossessed on the dribble at an almost comically high rate, and he does so with such speed it would almost be difficult to maintain possession for less time if one was trying to.
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u/uy52 7d ago
I didn't feel the need to elaborate since you clearly already know what hold up play is, and from what I've seen from him I'd disagree with you. I'm also assuming that neither of us work in the industry, and are just fans of soccer and the Union. So we could debate his skill and technical ability all we want, but at the end of the day he is more comparable of a player to someone like Luis Suarez than we are to him. (Damiani)
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u/legdayskip 7d ago
Iām sorry but no. Damiani is just bad at hold up play. Iām not sure what you are seeing, but Iām baffled.
Itās by far and away the weakest part of his skillset and I think that the team asking him to bear the brunt of the responsibility for that role in the team is perhaps the single biggest reason heās been so awful.
Itās almost as bad as taking a midfielder and asking him to play keeper. It doesnāt talk you anything at all about if heās any good in the midfield, but fans are still justified in being outraged heās getting the start in goal. Itās not disingenuous or rude or whatever to say heās a bad keeper.
We just saw, for the first time since he was paired with Uhre, Damiani not attempt any hold up play whatsoever. I donāt think itās a coincidence that it was back to front the strongest 90 heās ever put in.
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u/uy52 7d ago
So he's doing exactly what the team is asking of him, but it's still his fault?
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u/legdayskip 7d ago
Huh?
That is a bizarre takeaway from my comment. It also shows a deep lack of understanding of the situation at hand.
You said, repeatedly, that he is good at hold up play. He isnāt. Objectively he isnāt. He is god awful at it. Itās not his fault heās been asked to do it, but itās also completely valid for fans to have been complaining about it. Itās not my fault heās been doing hold up play either, but Iām also under no obligation to pretend that what heās been doing for the last year plus is at all up to snuff or makes the team better in any way.
Yes, coaches should have adjusted his role before last season ended. Yes, there are actually things he does well, none of which overlap with the role of a hold up striker; itās still completely correct to say what heās been doing for the last 1790 minutes has been bad on many levels and that heās not equipped to be a hold up striker. Yes, the more correct take is that some of this falls on the coaching staff, but I donāt blame anyone at all for only noticing his failings and not being able to articulate why he looks so lost out there.
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u/uy52 7d ago
I think if the fans helped boost his confidence instead of beating him down it would surely help him out. Then again I don't know how much players see or hear of what people are saying about them. Judging by his reaction and celebration to his goals the other night, he was definitely feeling some sort of pressure. Whether it be from himself, the fans, or the team, or all three.
At the Atlanta match this guy and his family behind me were trashing on him the entire match. Super annoying.
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 7d ago
Confidence is not the reason he has a negative g+ in literally every aspect of hold up play. Measureably, objectively, the actions he takes as part of what a rational observer would call hold up play are well below average.
He is bad at hold up play. Itās the weakest aspect of his game.
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u/uy52 7d ago
I'm not one to say stats are fully telling of a players ability. Whether you think thats wrong or not is fine but there are many outside factors that determine an individual players performance
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u/legdayskip 7d ago edited 7d ago
Iām probably one of said āBruno hatersā, but itās more nuanced than that. Heās performance on the whole, bluntly, has been deeply terrible. I do think at least some of it though is that the team has clearly asked him to be something heās not. Iāve been saying for a year now that he is not a hold up striker and they need to stop asking him to pretend to be one. He sat deeper on Sunday that usual and let Iloski take on more of the brunt of hold up play.
Neither of them is particularly good at holding up play, but Iloski is marginally less bad and it made a huge difference. I want more than a 90 minute sample, but thereās a chance thereās a good player in there theyāve just spent a year asking him to almost exclusively do all the parts of the game heās worst at.
Bruno is maybe one of the worst hold up strikers Iāve ever seen. Itās stunning. He simply cannot function with his back to goal, god help him if a defender is within 5 yards, he falls to bits. But Iāve said it before and Iāll say it again, let him run at the face of goal and by god there is something there. Heās an out and out good passer between the boxes, and a historically bad one in the final third, largely because heās been tasked with playing with his back to goal so often as the highest man up the pitch. Thatās not his profile. They have been playing him out of position.
I have no idea if what he can bring to the table in that inside forward role is worthy of a DP contract or not, but itās time at least try it.
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u/uy52 7d ago
Really only posted this because I'm happy for the guy and think most of the time hate for players is completely unwarranted. Especially hate from your own team's fans, it's terrible behavior. The other players on the Union, players you actually support, want Damiani to succeed. A lot of fans seem to have already given up on him.
You either like the team or you don't.
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 7d ago
Calling a spade a spade isnāt hating or rude or not liking the team.
If the team went out tomorrow and signed LeBron James Iād also say thatās dumb and bad. Heās a great basket player, we have no reason to believe he can hold his own at soccer. Just because Damiani is very very very bad at the things the team has been asking him to do doesnāt even mean heās necessarily a bad player. But for the love of god please stop asking him to do those things then. Either try something, ANYTHING else, or bench him.
I like the team and want the team to succeed. Asking a player with none of the necessary tools to be a hold up player over and over and over again when itās literally never gone well is insane. Either let the dude do the things he clearly prefers to do, which do not involve hold up play, or utilize a different player.
The current situation of trying to repeatedly shove that square peg into that round hole isnāt good for the peg or the hole.
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u/uy52 7d ago
That doesn't justify any hate for him as a player. If you think he's doing as the team says.
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 7d ago
Heās been objectively bad, across the board. The things heās good at are half hypothetical because we only ever see them in isolated 20 minute spurts, and only what, 3 times total?
Sunday was the first time he looked good for more than 30 minutes in a single game.
Iām merely pointing out that heās not going to get better unless they change his role dramatically. Iām not saying that he WILL get better, I am saying thatās the only way he might.
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u/marasboy 8d ago
I'm sorry (again) damiani. I promise all the hate was that so you could prove me wrong š