After Wednesday night’s tie (again) against the New England Revolution, Nowak was asked about Jaime Moreno and was quoted here as saying:
“If he’s fit and fresh, it’s a different Jaime,” Nowak said. “We’ll make him get the fitness back.”
Maybe I’m missing something. How do you make somebody get their fitness back?
Moreno has been noticeably tired for well over 2 months now. Not coincidentily, that also coincides with the downturn in play by DC United. He’s making mistakes that tired people make, like the bad clearance last week that cost us a goal.
I have a real problem with this mentality that players will eventually just work through whatever ails them. Moreno is getting old. He is battling tendonitis (which I know VERY well doesn’t go away by just playing on it) and has a history of back problems. Bottom line is he’s just worn down. He paces himself to go 90mins by picking and choosing when he’s going to exert some effort. Is a tired, injured Moreno who is only going half speed better than a younger, fitter guy giving 120%?
Nowak needs to understand that as dependant as we are on Moreno that we can’t afford to have him just walking around the field, or even worse get injured right at playoff time. Let some of those young guys like Nickell or Dyachenko get some minutes in his place. Look at how the pace picked up once Moreno was subbed in the 75th minute (first non-injury related sub in recent memory) for an example of how good we can play without Moreno and then check out your own quote above… “If he’s fit and fresh, it’s a different Jaime”