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Jon Erice – More than just a replacement for Aly Ghazal?

AFTN

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Jon Erice – More than just a replacement for Aly Ghazal?

At first blush, the signing of Jon Erice by the Whitecaps fills the need for a defensive midfielder given the release of Aly Ghazal. While Ghazal’s role as a stopper who made some terrific tackles was well received, his passing ability fell short of the mark. The more cynical of us will hope that we’ve seen the end of the repetitive odd passes to no-one (or to the opposition). The signing also may herald an additional bonus for the faithful.

When the signing of Erice was announced by the Whitecaps, I took the time to look at his highlight reel and noticed that the bulk of his highlights posted by the ‘Caps were pinpoint, longer passes to players in dangerous positions. Unlike the hopeful hoofing down the field we came to expect from the likes of Kendall Waston, Erice seems to have an eye for purposely going forward.



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A closer look at Jon Erice… #VWFC pic.twitter.com/LeiLOmcP7R

— Vancouver Whitecaps (@WhitecapsFC) January 22, 2019


Of course, I’m not too naïve to put a lot of stock in a highlight reel, but it is interesting to note the nature of the highlights chosen by the ‘Caps’ publicity crew. In other words, our new manager let Ghazal go for a reason and sought out the more versatile services of Erice for a reason. Could this be a new trend?

It has long surprised that the Whitecaps have had a dearth of players looking forward and with the ability to make a dangerous (dare I say beautiful) pass to spring a teammate. I’m thinking of Davide Chiumiento, Pedro Morales, Christian Bolanos, and Yordy Reyna in the main, and Mauro Rosales and Daigo Kobayashi to a lesser degree.

Other than this small handful of players, who else has consistently been such a threat? Sadly, there is arguably no more necessary a position to fill on any team, but not one highly valued by our previous managers.

Other commentators are already raising some other concerns about this signing (it isn’t a Designated Player, Erice isn’t a top level player having played most of his career in the Spanish Second Division, he caused some controversy with his previous Spanish outfit, jeez I’ve never heard of this guy…). Nevertheless this could actually be a signing designed to fill a role and a more versatile fill at that. I’ll be looking to see if this is, in fact, a trend.

Jon-Erice-credit-Albacete-Balompié-1024x672.jpg


Read Further on AFTN.ca
 

Dude

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Someone on the jocksniffer site pointed out his record of wins when in the starting XI was perfect last season, which caught my attention. Winning habits mean something, and frequently it's the type of stat that gets lost. Good habits. Leaderships. Dirty work. All things you can't easily measure in stats, but what do I know? (The answer is, very, very little about advanced stats).

Those reels can for sure be doctored, and if he's a high end Tierr 2 player in Spain, it's arguably a lower level than MLS, and yeah, the better players in the division should be tearing it up, and be able to make those long passes, because they will process it that much faster.

I'm hoping MLS is a level where he finds his high end grove, and still can find the time on the ball to make passes to spring an attack.

Ally Ghazal was likeable and I never have an issue with a hungry ball winner, but man, he was even more limited than Laba on the non-defensive end of things. I felt there were many opportunities last season where they could have / should have used Davie Norman Jr. instead of Ghazal...get the kid blooded, and let him work through mistakes and get up to pace. See what we have...because frankly, Ghazal just did not blow my mind.
 

mtkb

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That Japanese striker who's name I've already forgotten had a great highlight reel package too... in a league with Adanac quality defending... hell, Mustapha Jarju filled the net in the Belgian second (or was it third, and does it matter) division.

You know who else is dynamite at pinpoint passing? Lee Nguyen... if ONLY they could get a guy like that...
 

Dude

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That Japanese striker who's name I've already forgotten had a great highlight reel package too... in a league with Adanac quality defending... hell, Mustapha Jarju filled the net in the Belgian second (or was it third, and does it matter) division.

You know who else is dynamite at pinpoint passing? Lee Nguyen... if ONLY they could get a guy like that...

I'm coming around to this way of thinking. Is it that MLS is not as terrible as the football world of snobbery would have us believe?

I also give you one Anthony Blondell, he the stud that came over on a purchase from the vaulted Venezuelean Premier Division. Seriously, I doubt this guy could hang in the VMSL Premier. 3rd in scoring int he FVSL Premier, behind Mini Utah and some tall farmer kid.
 

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