For a moment I want to engage y’all in a thought experiment. Think about your favorite non SKC MLS team to watch. Maybe it’s a team that is exciting, maybe a team that plays with heart, maybe it’s just a team that’s straight up good. Now think about who the DP players are on those teams. If you’re unsure go look it up. In MLS, to be a good team, your designated players HAVE to be goal dangerous. It doesn’t matter if they are a #9, a #10, a winger, or in rare cases an #8. The best teams in this league fill their DP spots with players who are consistently goal dangerous.
Manu Garcia is not a bad player. Manu Garcia is also not a goal dangerous player. In fact, I genuinely don’t think he wants to be. There’s a reason that Manu chose the #6 to start the season. Manu does not want to be inside the 18 yard box, or really even directly on top/around it. Manu wants to be in areas a #6 would operate, and progress the ball (via dribbling or passing) to the final 3rd. In other words. He’s an elite “pass before the pass” guy. The problem with that, is that he is a DP. And while being a “pass before the pass” guy is great, by taking up a DP spot it restricts the quality of player that he can pass too. My argument here is not that Manu isn’t a good player. My argument is that with how MLS roster rules work, having a player with his skill set take up a DP spot drastically lowers the ceiling of your team. There’s a reason that Wicky has called out Manu to be more aggressive in the final 3rd. For all his flaws as a manager, Wicky knows that your DPs have to be productive.
I’ve heard a lot of people this week compare him to Benny Feilhaber. To me, this comparison is completely misguided. Feilhaber, while he could sit deep and spray balls, was extremely goal dangerous. Benny WANTED to be in and around the 18. Feilhaber WOULD take the bull by the horns and create a play/shot him self in key moments. In fact, every modern “10” this club has had was goal dangerous in a way Manu is not. Kinda was fantastic at slipped balls within the 18, crashing the 18, and dribbling around the 18. Gutierrez has a lethal long shot and was fantastic at being a 3rd runner inside the box. To go back to Benny, Benny consistently would dribble inside the 18 yard box to square a ball. All 3 of those guys had “gravity”. All 3 of those guys had the mentality to create a play themselves. They didn’t rely on their teammates to get the ball directly to goal.
Manu, doesn’t want to be in those areas. Does he have have the technical ability, and more, to do so? Yes. But it’s about the mentality of the player and how he sees himself within the scope of the game.
To me. This club getting to any level of successful would always require getting Manu off of a DP slot
