I noticed a few weeks ago Carlos Salcido is in the Mexico Olympic squad as one of their over age players. Personally I felt quite sad it never worked out for him at Craven Cottage. When we got him after the World Cup I thought he was going to be a great signing… sadly he wasn’t. Tonight he was up against our very own Kasami as Mexico took on the Swiss. Mexico won 1-0 but both played with Kasami coming off after 85 minutes I really rate Kasami and hope Big Maart gives him an opportunity next season. From what I seen of him last season (mainly in the Europa) I think he’s got the potential to be one hell of a player.
I was preparing a tirade when I saw the title of this thread! I agree about Salcido. I thought he was going to be solid, but sadly he was anything but, and ended up being another scapegoat. I also agree about Kasami. He looks like he's got a great future ahead of him if he keeps doing what he's doing.
Salcido was the complete opposite to Stephen Kelly- great going forward, defensively poor with little sense of positioning.
Kasami was subbed again in tonight's game. I've heard differing reports about his performance varying from "lazy" to "making runs but the ball never came", which basically boils down to "didn't make an impact on the game". Here is a link to our old friend Goal.com with the line ups and their player ratings - you will see Salcido comes out the better of the two - http://www.goal.com/en-gb/match/80556/mexico-u-23-vs-switzerland-u-23/lineup-stats
Salcido wasn't half as bad as he was made out to be. He had a few poor games up front that colored our perception of him and, at least for the members of his board, he never recovered. After Christmas 2010/2011, I'd argue he was at least as good as Baird (which, granted, isn't saying much) who was playing RB at the time. Salcido's biggest problem was pace ... he just never had it, but he lead the team in tackles that season. JA Riise had a shake start to our season last year, but went on to perform pretty well. While I was looking at my Fantasy team for next year, I noticed he was the highest ranked player amongst our defenders.
Cameo tribute to Kasami from the Club after last night's game v Mexico - http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2012/August/KasamiWatch.aspx
Salcido apparently had a decent game in midfield in Mexico's 3-1 semi final win over Japan today. They've got Brazil in the final. Kasami had a very average game (no pace) in Fulham's 1-0 win over MK Dons today.
I think this is part of the problem with Kasami- he doesn't appear to be excellent in any area, although he is undoubtedly good in many. He's not an out-and-out striker Not quick enough for the wing Not creative enough to play in the hole Not solid enough defensively to play CM If we can pick a position for him and focus training on developing a key associated attribute he's got the technique to develop like J. Cole did at Chelsea.
I think Kasami's a good candidate to go out on loan at the start of the season. He's still young (only 20) and doesn't really seem to have settled into English football yet. A few months with a Championship club should show us what he's made of.
Agreed fulhamish but can't see it happening. In hindsight might have been better for him if he'd taken the rumoured (Agent inspired ?) move to Juventus in January. On second thoughts maybe not, given the pickle Juvo are in at the moment. He's obviously got potential but it just isn't working for him at the moment.
I think he'd benefit from a Dembele-style change, like silky says. He needs to find his niche and work on that.
I've seen very little of him in person, so I don't really know what to think about him, but this assessment worries me. A few years ago, I remember some football coach or other with a reputation as a good spotter of talent (can't for the life of me remember who - sorry) being asked what he looked for in a player. He said that he would always take someone who excelled at something, even if they were very lacking in other areas over a decent all-rounder who didn't have any particular area where they were exceptional. His argument was that you can train a certain degree of improvement into almost anything: you can turn poor to competent, you can turn competent to quite good, quite good to good, etc, but there's a limit to how far up that spectrum anyone can be moved from their starting point. This means, so the coach sais, that you can't turn unexceptional into exceptional. If someone is lightning fast, you can teach them to be competent at crossing and become a much more effective winger; if someone is a wonderful tackler with a poor touch, you can train them to become a competent passer and become an exceptional holding midfielder who contributes massively to the team but relies on others to do the creative stuff (Dickson Etuhu under Roy is the perfect example). But if someone is 'just' a decent all-rounder without any specialism in their skill set, the best you can do is to turn them into a slightly better all-rounder. If there isn't an exceptional core skill to build around, they'll never be exceptional. I'd also quibble about the Joe Cole example. When he was in the West Ham youth set up, they were raving about him. He was earmarked as a future star long before he got near the first team (or, probably, started shaving). Cole was a long way from being just a good all-rounder, and - at his best - I thought he was one of the most creative English midfielders of his generation. It's a shame he never got more chance to play in the hole behind the strikers.
I'd take the coach at his word. Dembele is probably a better example, although with Cole he floated between a few positions. Mourinho did a good job of drilling in defensive responsibilities to players like Cole and Duff- Cole became a left winger at Chelsea, and then for England- although he would probably prefer to play 10. With Cole it was probably less about developing technical abilities and more to do with discipline and playing for the team, which I would guess is easier to do. Dembele's strength on the ball, and rarity of him losing possession, probably made his switch to CM quite straightforward- it was his positioning and discipline that needed to improve (when he was pushed forward he used to stand by his marker & it wasn't a case of the marker finding him). I'm not sure where Kasami will fit in- if he is marked for the wing then it looks like we'll continue to play very narrow as he isn't going to hit the byeline many times.
As luck would have it, or not because it doesn't really tell us much about Kasami's role at Fulham, the Club have profiled him today - http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2012/August/BigExperience.aspx My own feeling is that he could play the old fashioned inside right position, which I guess translates to attacking right midfield. Like most I've not seen an awful lot of him but enough to suggest his strenghth in the tackle and willingness to run at the opposition would fit that. Concerns though are that he is very one paced and doesn't read the game well (pretty much as silkship said). The second of those however is most likely down to lack of experience/game time at the top level. I reckon Jol will give him an extended U21 run and decide by January where things stand.
And a well earned gold for Carlos Salcido and all his team mates. [Only watched a tiddly bit of the game v Brazil and he looked as though he's bulked out a bit.] Mexico's next game v USA (on Wednesday) should be interesting, not least to see if a certain Mr Dempsey features !!
I watched the whole game with my eldest and (jokingly) told him just before kick off that Mexico would win 2-1, with Salcido scoring. Almost right. Delighted for Salcido.
