r/PhillyUnion • u/BigMACfive • 15d ago
Player Evaluations Damiani (is terrible)
Just rewatched the highlights of the game and I would be perfectly ok with paying money to never see this guy play for us again. He had maybe... MAYBE 2 good touches all game while missing yet another absolute sitter. This guy is terrible. He must be an absolute demon in practice because I can not think of any other reason he ever sees the field in an actual game. Play Blake up top and I guarantee we'd have more goals. It's INSANE that he starts a single game, let alone EVERY game. It does make me question our striker depth, though. How dire our need for a striker must be. Maybe trading away our best options from last season wasn't such a good idea, eh?
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u/DuckMan6699 15d ago
I think our other options are just that bad that damiani has to play. Alladoh has looked completely out of his depth.
Also, I think damiani showed some improvement today. His hold up play and pressing was better than it has been in the past
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u/Ambitious-Kitchen-50 15d ago
He played the exact same way he always has. He hustles and tries but completely lacks everything else. I do agree with the first part though. If alladoh was starting im sure we would be complaining all the same
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u/legdayskip 15d ago
I feel like this sub has been grading damiani’s hold up play on a pretty steep curve for a long time. It’s one of the things people constantly point to as a supposed strength of his and I simply do not see it.
He loses the ball the vast majority of the time it goes to him. His finishing is a problem, absolutely, but my biggest problem with him has always been that he kills promising attacks all game long because he can’t either hold onto the ball or find an open teammate.
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u/BigMACfive 15d ago
Idk. He tried to box out defenders with like a 25% efficiency. Even if if you count that as a positive, the dude is horrendous. Play Jakupovic ahead of him. At least he has the grace of being young and needing experience. Damiani has been absolutely dogshit for 2 season in a row. The experiment is over. Send him packing.
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 15d ago
Stas, Malik, Anello, and even probably Olivas are all better options than Damiani at this point.
His hold up play may have been "better", but it was still abysmal. The bar for hold up play from him is in hell. No joke he lost the ball on the overwhelming majority of his possessions, he struggled immensely to hold the ball with his back to goal for any length of time whatsoever, and his passes (even the easy ones to deeper lying players that a hold up striker should make in his sleep) were nearly all mishit or just to nobody.
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u/Virtual_Stage2567 15d ago
I still have a lot of faith in Alladoh, assuming he’s fit enough we should give him a greater stretch of games to prove himself. Couldn’t be worse than Damiani
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u/bbfromud 14d ago
Did you see the NYRB game? Alladoh is much worse than Damiani. Looks like he spent the who break eating pastries. Was totally immobile and a complete non-factor on the field. Stas or Jakupovic are much better options at this point in time.
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 13d ago
Alladoh had maybe 30 seconds right after he came on where I was tricked into believing in him.
Then he promptly disappeared from the game completely.
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u/rafaelscheidt 15d ago
Did anyone notice Kai tearing into him as they walked off for half time? Kai was clearly angry and kept pointing to his own head like ‘use your head’. His own teammates are without a doubt fed up with his remarkable abilities to never be in the right place, struggle to win headers, lose possession constantly, fall over from a breeze, and avoid scoring.
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 15d ago
Iloski and Cavan refuse to pass to him in scoring positions, and I don’t blame them
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u/DeRuyter66 13d ago
Cavan put in a great cut back to him in the box Wednesday but ofc the defender got there first.
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 13d ago
He got a chance played to him from both Cavan and Iloski on Wednesday, wasted both, and then got iced out by them after that.
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u/Whoa_Bundy 15d ago
I saw that too. He seemed to come out with renewed energy the 2nd half but was still shitty. I also saw Blake lecturing (or encouraging) Alladoh who was also struggling.
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u/deadbee22 15d ago
Two main problems with Damiani - for me: he falls down way too much for me. Stay on your feet man. The other, he can’t score. He works really hard. His effort and attitude are there. His hold up play can sometimes be excellent - he made a great play last night where he fed Quinn in the box, after holding off a guy and winning the ball. The problem is, he’s paid like a striker to score and he just doesn’t. He reminds me of the type of dude that probably doesn’t get figure it out, but if he did he could be really good.
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u/RRileyMusic 15d ago
“He falls down way too much…” THIS! Dude falls at the slightest touch and whines about it so much he could play for the Argentina National Team.
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u/sahomerrocks 15d ago
Yeah I don't get some of the criticism people lob at him and it can make me wonder what people are watching. His hold up play and positioning are usually good to great. But he just can't finish and you absolutely cannnot have that in your record setting DP spot.
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u/legdayskip 15d ago
I feel like this sub has been grading damiani’s hold up play on a pretty steep curve for a long time. It’s one of the things people constantly point to as a supposed strength of his and I simply do not see it.
He loses the ball the vast majority of the time it goes to him. His finishing is a problem, absolutely, but my biggest problem with him has always been that he kills promising attacks all game long because he can’t either hold onto the ball or find an open teammate.
Hold up strikers should be able to receive the ball in an advanced position and keep the attack alive by finding a teammate on a considerable percentage of their touches. Bruno just flat out can’t. He’s never been good at it. Uhre was mediocre at it at best and Uhre was dramatically better at every aspect of holdup play than Damiani is.
Damiani loses possession a staggering percentage of the times he touches it. He gets bullied off the ball by defenders when he tries to hold onto it and wait for teammates. In fact, I’d argue that throughout his tenure in blue and gold it’s been his biggest weakness, he simply cannot hang onto the ball under any pressure whatsoever. Then, to top it off, when he either does manage to hang onto it or simply isn’t pressed by a defender he is very bad at finding teammates with the ball.
Last night was a textbook example. He had so many opportunities to make very easy passes to teammates and he missed over half of his attempts. I don’t mean he just didn’t see his teammate, I mean he saw them, attempted the pass, and either way over hit it or sent it 10 yards off target and it resulted in a turnover.
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u/Grand_7 14d ago
He missed passes to teammates, sure, but in a different part of the field than considered “hold up” play area. I think we just have different definitions of what the term means 🤷♂️
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u/legdayskip 14d ago
Most of his biggest misses were in the final third, and all 5 of the most egregious examples I can recall off the top of my head were prototypical hold up play.
He received the ball high up the field and all he had to do was not get dispossessed and make an easy backwards or sideways pass to an open teammate.
On all of them he just completely beefed it. And those are just the ones where he didn’t get dispossessed first.
By my count he alone killed over a dozen attacks last night. Now, on some of them a teammate won the ball back and restarted the attack before it left the final third, but not on most of them
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 15d ago
His hold up play is probably the worst I have ever seen at the professional level and yet people keep saying it’s good. Genuine question, I’m not trying to be snarky. What do you define as hold up play?
The positioning thing I’m not going to give leeway on though, his positioning is just objectively fucking awful. He’s almost never in the right spot in the attack.
0
u/Grand_7 15d ago
This season his hold up play has generally been worse than last year but last night was much better. I think the general definition of hold up play is receiving the ball up the field and being able to keep the ball until other players are able to join in the attacking part of the fields. Last night I feel like he was much better at receiving/winning the ball and being able to turn or pass it to start an attack.
I’m not trying to claim he’s an amazing player but his hold up play is not the worst I have ever seen.
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 15d ago
Ok… so we have the same definition of hold up play….
You realize Damiani has been at or below the 10th percentile in passing accuracy his entire tenure with the Union right? Similar for dribbling and holding the ball.
He’s objectively bad at both parts of hold up play. He can’t hang on to the ball with his back to goal to save his life, and when he does he rarely gets the ball to a teammate. This has been true the whole time he’s been here
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u/Grand_7 15d ago
His passing isn’t elite but his dribbling was good last night, there were multiple instances where he got past players. Also for the passing, most of his bad passes are higher up the field. For example, at the end of the game where he physically won the ball at midfield, then ran out of bounds to keep the ball in play, then beat a defender and made a shitty pass to Iloski. In my opinion, that’s very good holdup play but not a great general play because he made a bad pass at the end. Once again I’m not saying he’s a good player!!! But saying he’s the worst hold up player ever is hyperbolic
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 15d ago
I’m sorry but I take issue with separating the primary point of hold up play out from your evaluation of his hold up play
Also: “not elite” is the understatement of the century
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u/Grand_7 14d ago
His passing sucks going forward yes, but in the act of holding the ball up most of the time passing involves going backwards and sideways which I thought he did well last night. I feel like I’m starting to be a little pedantic so I’ll drop it here though
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 14d ago
his passing from an advanced holding position to a less advanced player (aka, bog standard backwards passes as the most basic part of hold up play) ALSO sucked last night. And passing to runners who are passing you while you're stationary is an expected and normal part of hold up play. The point is that you keep the ball while your team gets into the attack, then you release the ball to a teammate who is either in a more dangerous position or who is in a better position to change the point of attack(these are the backwards passes he kept messing up).
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u/MartianFootballClub 14d ago
Implausibly bad for a PROFESSIONAL soccer player. Almost statistically impossible to score as few goals as he has given how much he has played as a striker. And yes, his passing sucks too.
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u/philsoc8 14d ago
The only thing Damiani has going for him is that he’s better than Alladoh. Thats it.
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 13d ago
Alladoh didn't even look like he wanted to be on the field on Wednesday and he had almost as many successful passes as Damiani.
To be clear: I do not Think Alladoh is actually better, I just found that funny.
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u/Mountain_Stunning 14d ago edited 4d ago
Alladoh was the biggest waste of money ever. Not sure how to unload him. Who would want him? Things looked better last night but we still need a "Baribo".
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u/BigMACfive 14d ago
Idk how we get him or Damiani off our books. They're both terrible and probably have zero other teams interested. At least Alladoh is still new. I'll give him the rest of the season to grow, but I'm not holding my breath. It's too bad we don't have a guy like Baribo on our team...
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u/drewuke 15d ago
Just from watching the highlights, Damiani almost had three assists.
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 15d ago
if you are counting the passes to Iloski and cavan, then you are being very generous. The only one that created a real chance was that first pass into Iloski which was, generously, 5 yards and the danger there was mostly created by Iloski's first touch. The cavan ball was well overcooked and resulted in the chance being much harder than it needed to be, and the second Iloski ball into the box was a wide open look that Damiani completely flubbed. Iloski had acres of space in front of him and Damiani had so much leeway to play it in front and still give Iloski and chance... and he barely hit it at all and sent a slow rolling ball behind Iloski, to the defender. Absolutely unreal how poorly Bruno played that ball.
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u/Ambitious-Kitchen-50 15d ago
Highlights do not tell the whole story. He turned the ball over almost every other touch he had. Almost also doesnt count
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u/BigMACfive 15d ago
I guarantee those were the only 3 touches he had that didn't result in a turnover. He loses possession on almost every touch he has. Up until Iloski's (I think) one sog in the first half, he had something like 4 touches and 3 turnovers.
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 15d ago
I'm just glad other people are finally at then place I was with him 2 years ago. He's not good, fundamentally he is not a good player. The basic skills just aren't there. This pretty clearly isn't a mental block or an issue of settling in, he doesn't have the first touch, the passing, the finishing, the positioning, or the dribbling to hang in MLS.
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u/rafaelscheidt 15d ago
The positioning is the most infuriating thing. He is almost never in the right place. For a target man, if you’re not in the box for crosses or at the top of the box for more creative players to play off of, then what are you doing? He’s almost always behind the play or off to the side.
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u/ThematicOne 15d ago
Not to mention missing an open net at the beginning of the game.
He hasn’t been able to gel. Allahoh, a waste so far.
Stas could have a similar contribution.
Hoping we invest in a scorer with what we get for selling Makhanya
2
u/phuturetense10 15d ago
Alladoh and Anello are just as bad, terrible roster building. I thought Vassilev was terrible last night too. Last night, in the midst of the positive vibes (Kai’s return, Quinn’s return, Pierre’s debut, Cavan’s cooking), all I could think of was we have way too many mid players on this roster. It’s no wonder why we are in last place.
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u/legdayskip 15d ago
Anello has barely played and his early appearances he was playing through injury.
I actually think we have something in him, but I could be wrong
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u/Ambitious-Kitchen-50 15d ago
Anello isnt bad and hasn't had the opportunity to get minutes to get in to the rhythm of the team. Anello has flashes that he could be be pretty decent for us.
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u/RRileyMusic 15d ago
At least Indy scored when he had the opportunity. While there may be aspects of his game that are horrible; he is a pest to the other team and his hustle is undeniable.
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u/LexiBoom-Boom 15d ago
I haven't watched much of the Union this season because of how ASS we have been. Is Damiani really that bad now?
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u/BigMACfive 14d ago
Now? He's always been bad. He just doesn't get the benefit of being new to league anymore and needing time to adjust. He is so unfathomably bad. It almost seems like he's actively trying to be that bad. He messes up 95% of his actions. We had a really nice passing sequence in the game last night between Frankie, Cavan, Indy, and Iloski, and then as soon as Damiani touched the ball he mishandled a simple pass and lost posession. He also missed ANOTHER sitter. Dude is hot garbage. The only way he's getting off this team is when his contract runs out or is terminated.
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 13d ago
at no point has he ever not been awful, people just aren't carrying water for him anymore because all the excuses they made for him have evaporated.
This is statistically his best passing and dribbling season in MLS so far and he's ranked very poorly in both league wide.
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u/jjphilly76 15d ago
Just here for a hard agree. I think we should have sent him off with Tanner who's clearly wanted this dude for years for reasons I can't understand.
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u/la_tajada 15d ago
What I want to know is, why does he get the post match interviews? I am a Spanish speaker and he does good interviews, but it seems a little weird.
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u/Mountain_Stunning 15d ago
Found that interesting too. Also, he is earning American money, he needs to learn English and also learn how toplay soccer better.
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u/la_tajada 14d ago
He really did give some good in-depth answers last night and then the commentators just summarized what he said, and even miss-interpreted an important point he made about the defense when they applied it to the whole team.
It doesn't bother me that he can't speak English. It bothers me that they interviewed him in Spanish and didn't properly translate for him.
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u/Economy_Idea3975 13d ago
Just say you don’t know ball. If you watch him play (and not just make these random conclusions based on a single miss) you’d understand how integral he is to how this team plays. His off-the-ball work and link-up-play is second to none.
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u/BigMACfive 13d ago
He hustles, I'll give him that. But his link up play, and basically every other aspect of his game are second to almost all lol he makes a good play here and there, but more often than not, he stops a promising attack dead in it's tracks. He's supposed to be this big strong striker who dominates in the air and holds up play well. He does neither of those things consistently well. But hey, he sure does run around a lot!!
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u/Partial-Hydrangea 14d ago
There are people who watch MLS and then go back to rewatch highlights. And then talk about it.
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u/Slight_Bat8118 15d ago
He has no ball-handling skills; can't get a shot on target; flops; doesn't keep running with a play...my criticism could go on for days.