Two articles posted by the Washington Examiner’s Craig Stouffer in the past 24 hours deserve to be read by everyone.
The first one talks about what all fans have been saying since Sunday night, “Why the hell are Salihi and Boskovic not starting?” I said at the time, this looks like a desperate power move. Craig seems to agree.
While it’s admirable for Olsen to hold both of them to the same obligation that every other player on the team has, to fight and earn their starting jobs each week, Boskovic and Salihi are two of D.C. United’s three highest-earning players. The franchise has made a commitment to each of them. Olsen singled out Boskovic repeatedly as a big reason why D.C. didn’t achieve what it had hoped last season, and from everything Olsen has said during preseason, he played as big a role as he could himself in landing Salihi. Without further explanation from Olsen after last weekend on his lineup change, benching the pair looks like the strong-arm tactic of an inexperienced coach.
The second one just follows up with that, with some questions about whether Olsen is or can provide the type of steadying and calming influence on his players that is necessary.
All I have to say is, Preach. Olsen made the wrong moves on Sunday, and fans will have to hope that he puts the best 11 players on the field (that are with the team), and lets them work together to figure it out.
Ok I know Craig Stoffer is a trusted journalist in the DC media, but I think is trying to create a story here where there isn’t one. You haven’t seen any quotes from Salihi or Boskovic saying they were unhappy. You cannot even suggest that this team is in crisis two games into the season. Now if Salihi does a disappearing act over the next few games then we can start to worry. However, they are on the bench for one game and Boskovic gets on and Salihi was supposed to before the injury.
I think what he’s saying, and what I agree with, is that people have been saying Ben’s been super stressed about everything, and losing sight of the larger picture. By his quotes, Salihi didn’t start because Santos was better in training. I say BS. And if it is true, his sitting down his top player to prove a point, when we were going against a presumably weakened side, is foolish. No one is saying sound the alarms and fire Ben, I just think it deserves scrutiny.