right to left

Namoff, McTavish, Boswell, Burch

Vanney is an option off the bench in D, Gros looks for time in midfield where he belongs, or subs in D as needed.

Namoff - Bos - McT - Burch

I don't know long term, but with the current DC squad I like McTavish in the middle.

Burch McTavish Boswell Namoff

Anybody know how fast/slow he is compared to Boswell? DC seems very vulnerable when Boswell and Vanney are in the middle together due to their collective lack of speed.

Yup. Namoff-Boswell, McTavish, Burch

A young, talented back line that plays simple, uncomplicated defense and isn't too adventuresome. The benefit is that any of them can go forward when the opportunity presents itself.

Burch can serve a cross-field ball better than any back since Agoos. And he's decent on crosses and corners too.

As others have said, Namoff, Boswell, McTavish, Burch.

Gros & Carroll fight for the last starting spot, perhaps both starting 2/3 of games as they spell other regulars.

What everyone else said - pretty clear who the top 4 are.

The proposed lineup has to be the lowest salaried back-4 in the league by a wide margin.

My lineup vs. Houston would be:

---------Perkins-----------
Namoff--Bos---McT----Burch
---------Carroll-----------
Olsen----------------Gros-
---------Gomez------------
----Fred--------Emilio----

Tom is spot on here with the lineup for tomorrow night (I posted similar thoughts a couple of threads ago). Goff, any thoughts on the possibility of Soehn going with something like that? Seems like Fred could play the position much like Moreno does, which is the kind of play we've sorely been lacking up front.

I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but I would like a Namoff-McTavish-Boswell-Burch backline.

Glad to see the Erpen for Vanney trade resulted in McTavish and Burch getting starting roles. Just shows that the Erpen trade was one of the worst ever, not that trading Erpen was bad per se, but trading him for Vanney was. Clearly there was defensive talent already here and Erpen could have been used as trade bait for an outside mid, destroyer mid or a serviceable backup to Moreno (although Dyachenko may work into that role, much less sold on Kpene and Addlery is gone at the end of the year back to USL-1 or the Vietnamese second division or the Turkish Cypriot fourth division or whatever.)

with wvu and uva starlets on this team, i'm hoping one day, one day, we get a hokie starting for united

perkins
namoff-mctavish-boswell-burch/gros
-----carroll-----simms--------
-----fred---------gomez-------
----------moreno-------------
---------emilio-------------

why not have a little fun with it?

For now:

-----------Perkins-----------
Namoff--McTav---Bobwell----Burch
------------Olsen-----------
Gros--------------------Fred-
-----------Gomez------------
------Rod--------Emilio----

When Jamie's healthy:

---------Perkins-----------
Namoff--McTav---Bobwell----Burch
---------Olsen-----------
Gros----------------Fred-
---------Gomez------------
----Jaime--------Emilio----

yep, everybody has this right. The great thing about this is that you have guys there with good touch, vision, and passing ability as well as the ability to get forward when it's there. I think Namoff has the best first touch/trapping ability on the team. Burch can make those cross-field passes on a dime. McTavish is good at the ol' though ball. And Boz is useful on the set plays and the occasional foray forward. It's nice to have some size back there too. Boz, Burch and McTavish are all pretty tall. Now, let's hope they can deal with this LA speed that just score 4 goals.

Quote Devon McT, "I'm getting there. Boswell's got a lot of experience back there so he has helped me a lot." Notice he said Boswell has a lot of experience.

Boswell.

Thx,

Jay!

Goff we need player ratings for the Dallas vs. Galaxy game!

Amazing

I'm going to go out on a limb and say:

Namoff McTavish Boswell Burch. I know, I know it's a radical departure from Namoff Boswell McTavish Burch, but I'm thinking

Experienced New Guy Experienced New Guy might work better than

Experienced Experienced New Guy New Guy

But, if McT is left footed (which I don't know) it might make more sense having him as the left center back.

I hear next time LA and Dallas are going 4-4-3 and skipping this goalie business altogether.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLY CRAP WHAT A GAME!!!!!!! I'VE NEVA SEEN A MLS GAME GO BACK AND FORTH WITH 11 FREAKIN GOALS IN TOTAL....AND no BECKHAM EITHER!!!!!! VIVA LA SUPERLIGA!!!!!!! VIVA EL MLS!!!!!

Ok i had to get that out of me sry, wow that was awesome! I HOPE DC United get the better of Houston in a similar exciting match! Oh and I HOPE them Mexican, British, Dallas, LA viewers, and everyone around the world got to see that game just because they thought Beckham would play and hopefully they watched it to the very end regardless cuz that my friends is easly one of the best MLS games eva!

I love everyone writing off Vanney after he played through being injured for three games and still did a better job than Facundo.

If Bobby keeps playing like he did against CA he might keep his spot over a healthy Vanney, but based on his piss poor season to date my healthy back four for DC is:

Namoff--McTavish--Vanney--Burch

Why does everyone call the Dallas-LA match such a great one? All I saw was an exhibition of completely listless, dispirited defending. Terrible marking, nobody staying goalside of their man, no closing down of open attackers in the box, no bodying on through runs. Ugh. Amateur hour.

Where was Yallop?

Goalside of their man? That´s pretty old school, man. Laying the wood on free runners? We´re talking about practice...

We want our MTV, our Beckham-cam, and lots of cool goals. Defense and mudders don´t sell jerseys.

As to lineup,

Namoff---Boswell--McTavish---Burch

----------Olsen------------

Gros------Gomez-----Ronaldo

Fred Emilio

morphit,

I think you're mixing Uniteds there, mate. Sweet dreams.

Basically an echo. I will point out that in the games they've played together, Boswell has been towards the right and McTavish towards the left.

I won't claim to say it's the best lineup but I'd give a nod to Dan's notion of mixing the experienced and inexperienced playsers. Something to think about.

Also, I'm with Todd H. I realize it's the thing to do to be a hater out on these forums but it's ridiculous to write off Vanney so easily. Which of the five sits? Well, let's see how everyone's playing when that day arrives. I'm just hoping they stay healthy and the coaches have the luxury of choice. Taking the long view, it would be nice for the young guys to get the time to move along their development this year if they can continue to carry the load since Vanney's obviously not the future.

Look forward to seeing Gros back at midfield. We'll be seeing less of Simms. Carroll too unless lightening suddenly strikes him and he reanimates.

The lineup everyone is suggesting would be my own as well. I think, also, that KP and DK are once again a couple steps ahead of us all. With Burch and McTadge getting better, it seems that Management tipped these two to be starters next year, and moved Facu to open up some room and get an SI spot, bringing Vanney in for some depth for the rest of this season.

Next season is when this move really pays off, however. Vanney will be gone, unneeded. Gomez is most likely gone. Fred will be acclimated to the city and the organization, and ready to step into the middle and run the show. Gros can go back to left mid. Carroll can be released or traded if he doesn't shape up. Moreno is also likely gone, and with that, we would have 3 SI slots open (ErpFu, Moreno, Gomez), a DP slot, and a pile of freed up cash to bring in a world class striker to belay Emilio (Ronaldo?), a speedy winger (Solano?), and a holding mid(Seedorf?). Those exact players may not be right, as I don't know what level they're at these days, but the situation surely gives the club some tantalizing options.

This is amazing, we all agree: Namoff-McTavish-Boswell-Burch. This may be the first time that American soccer fans, us being a pretentious and contrary breed by nature, have agreed on anything.

Kire - we don't hate Vanney because it's the "thing to do," many of us hated the Vanney-Erpen trade from the moment it surfaced as a possibility. I think the exclamation point came in the game against the Rapids on the day the trade was announced when he handled the ball while flailing about on the ground in the box. He is slow, was always overrated for his free kick ability, and is frankly just not that good. He didn't bring any value to DCU.

Well, except that now we've seen that his "injury" has allowed United to realize its starting back four of the present and future. And a solid backline it seems to be. Absolute genius, that Kevin Payne.

>>I think you're mixing Uniteds there, mate. Sweet dreams.

Maybe we could borrow him...

Wow, you're right about agreement. Ditto the lineup here. Like I said on a previous thread, The positive of the Vanney trade is that it gave Burch the opportunity to break the lineup, where he's looked good so far. The FO are just lucky that Burch has turned out to be a hidden treasure, otherwise we would all be in agreement calling for their heads.

Sorry Kire, Moreno is not a SI.