Schmid on Morris, Anderson, Gomez, Alonso, Sturgis, Farfan

The Sounders went though light training today at Starfire. Afterward, coach Sigi Schmid spoke on a variety of topics.

One blog post below has video of Schmid’s take on the wave of red cards rushing through MLS, and another his take on the 0-3 start of Sounders 2.

Here is more from Schmid on a variety of other topics:　

On using Jordan Morris as a reserve: I wanted Jordan to find his game, enjoy his game. I think there’s been a lot of expectations that have been heaped upon him – not least of which from you guys. And sometimes it’s good to take a step back. Sometimes if the front door is locked, you take a step back and you look at the back door and you make your way in that way.　

On forward Oalex Anderson: You’ve got to understand Oalex. I guess the best term is he’s wonderfully unpredictable. He’s got pace, he’s got all these things, he’s got a little bit of magic: pulls off a play – the little one-two that he pulled off to get through on that play was fantastic, but then he’s also a young player and sometimes you’re not sure what’s going to go on. He’ll learn. It’s a big difference playing in front of 2,000 people, then all of a sudden playing in front of 40,000. But he’ll learn, he’ll mature, he’ll make better decisions as he moves forward.

On if Anderson could become a starter: I think we push guys on too quickly – forward and backwards sometimes. He’s a player that I think has got immense potential. So what you look at in evaluating whether a guy is going to be a contributor down the line or have a big career – obviously he’s got MLS speed. He’s got quality speed. He’s got good quickness. He’s pretty clever with the ball, he’s shifty with the ball, he knows how to get that step on people. So those are the things that he’s good at, and those are MLS caliber. So now it’s adding the other things: consistent passing, positional play, defending at the right times. Those are the other things you’re trying to add. But what you’re looking for in a young player is you’re looking for the fact, does he have something that in your mind is MLS caliber. Is it technical? Is it tactical? Sometimes is it physical? So you go from there.

On substituting Anderson ahead of Herculez Gomez: We wanted to get more pace on the outside. Herculez at this stage I think is more of a target forward, and we already made that switch by bringing Morris in. We wanted Morris to play there.

On Osvaldo Alonso: I think Ozzie’s come in this year with a very good attitude. He’s been very compliant about doing the things that we’ve been asking him to do this year. So as a result I think his physical status is better. But in fairness, last year was the first time Ozzie had ever had surgery. Some players, sometimes, that’s a new experience and they struggle with that. … For Ozzie last year, surgery, an emotional years with his father getting here from Cuba, there were a lot of things and distractions that way off the field – young child at home – there were a lot of things. This year I think he’s very settled. There are a lot of things that have fallen into place, physically he feels much stronger, he’s doing what he needs to do, and it makes it much easier.

On midfielders Nate Sturgis and Michael Farfan: Farfan has been disappointing because he’s been injured. We think he’s a good player. We sort of stepped back and said let’s build him up over a longer period of time because we felt that we threw him in maybe a little bit too early because of the injury that he had last year at the end of the year with DC. So we’re taking a longer buildup time for him, but he’s a good player. Sturgis is doing what we expected him to do. I didn’t have him on the bench in the last game because I decided to go with three forwards on the bench and I figured we could cover at midfield in a different manner, because I wanted to have the choices to begin in up front. But he’s a player that’s right there in the 18: He’s a veteran guy, he’s a good passer. Even though S2 lost on Sunday and he played with them just to keep fit and get 90 minutes, I thought him playing for them, they were so much better than they were Wednesday even though they lost by a worse score … their overall play was much better, and I thought a lot of that was because of Nate.　

This story was originally published April 4, 2016 at 5:04 PM with the headline "Schmid on Morris, Anderson, Gomez, Alonso, Sturgis, Farfan."