Alexandru Mitriță [Forward]

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I was finally able to connect with a guy (who happens to be named Dan) who used to work in my firm's IT department. This Dan was born in Romania and still follows the sport there. He thinks NYCFC probably overpaid, but also expects Mitrita to tear it up over here. He confirmed what we have seen. He's very fast, very skilled, and not afraid of contact. He said Mitrita's biggest issue to date has been his attitude, not just getting carded and such, but with his own team to some extent. He said he's the type of guy to argue over taking PKs and free kicks. He further explained that he thinks the switch to the US will possibly ameliorate this. He was a little obscure when explaining it, but the sum of it is Dan indicated he thinks the culture change from Romania to the US might help Mitrita subsume his worst impulses while maintaining his aggressiveness.

Also, it was great catching up with him and if it works out I'll take him to a game or 2 this year.
 
I was finally able to connect with a guy (who happens to be named Dan) who used to work in my firm's IT department. This Dan was born in Romania and still follows the sport there. He thinks NYCFC probably overpaid, but also expects Mitrita to tear it up over here. He confirmed what we have seen. He's very fast, very skilled, and not afraid of contact. He said Mitrita's biggest issue to date has been his attitude, not just getting carded and such, but with his own team to some extent. He said he's the type of guy to argue over taking PKs and free kicks. He further explained that he thinks the switch to the US will possibly ameliorate this. He was a little obscure when explaining it, but the sum of it is Dan indicated he thinks the culture change from Romania to the US might help Mitrita subsume his worst impulses while maintaining his aggressiveness.

Also, it was great catching up with him and if it works out I'll take him to a game or 2 this year.
This is great intel.
 
Hey guys, this might be my first and last post here but here's the deal. I am Romanian, and I lived for 6 years in the US, 1 of them in NY, actually. I have no personal life currently, so to my severe shame I intensely watch what Romanian players end up doing abroad, especially the ones that are considered good, and upcoming talent (we, and when I say we, I mean Romania, has a bunch of new talent coming up at around the 21 age mark - we recently qualified for the under 21 EURO there, leaving Portugal, Wales, Bosnia, and Switzerland home, teams we would not really perform against at a senior level). Still very much a TBD though if we can regain even a glimpse of former genius that we had in the 90s.

Ok so Mitrita, since I see there is not a huge amount on intel on him so far on this forum. As a matter of fact, the description above is pretty spot on. He has huge attitude problems, but that's because he was one of the stars at his club team (mind you, not the only star). Today, against AIK, he had several runs at defenders and actually passed the ball to set some dude up twice, which would NEVER had happened in Romania lol - he would have taken the shot 8 times out of 10. Come to think of it, he should have taken the shots today as well, since people around him are, and I literally mean this with ALL DUE RESPECT - not great at this sport.

The reason he passed the ball is because he's the new guy, he doesn't speak the language (i dont think), and he's trying to become friends with people - if he starts scoring more, which he should, you will probably see a gradual selfishness appear with him, which again, actually might not be that bad of a thing. Also, some diva behavior - my friends from back home and I always mocked him for pretending to be at least Maradona when it came to everything being all about him. Also, he's 23, it's fine.

Now I really don't watch MLS, so I don't know how it compares to our Romanian league - my gut feeling is that you guys are heavily underestimating our league. Sure, it's comparatively shit to 10 years ago when we had a Europa League quarterfinal between 2 Romanian teams, or when our champions were defeating Roma and Man Utd in the UCL in away games, taking out Ajax, and beating Chelsea at home; but still.

When Mitrita was sprinting today, he was way faster than anyone on the pitch. I guess what I am trying to say is that Mitrita was on track to score 20 this year in our league. I see no reason whatsoever for him to not score 20 in the MLS, especially since there seems to be a LOT of space in the defenses there compared to Europe (again, might be wrong, like I said, I don't watch it that closely).

If anything, it's kind of cool that we have a player in the MLS as a high-profile signing, gives me a reason to watch it. And maybe this will open the door to a bunch of others. Last thing I'm going to say is that I saw there were some people on this forum weary of the Romanian league, his 2 goals in Seria A/B, whatever, that's fair. I can tell you that there are plenty of people back home (where this transfer has been the talk of the week) who are super unhappy he ended up in the US, and that's also fair.

Don't know if any of this was useful, but hey, now it's here - whatcha gonna do
 
Hey guys, this might be my first and last post here but here's the deal. I am Romanian, and I lived for 6 years in the US, 1 of them in NY, actually. I have no personal life currently, so to my severe shame I intensely watch what Romanian players end up doing abroad, especially the ones that are considered good, and upcoming talent (we, and when I say we, I mean Romania, has a bunch of new talent coming up at around the 21 age mark - we recently qualified for the under 21 EURO there, leaving Portugal, Wales, Bosnia, and Switzerland home, teams we would not really perform against at a senior level). Still very much a TBD though if we can regain even a glimpse of former genius that we had in the 90s.

Ok so Mitrita, since I see there is not a huge amount on intel on him so far on this forum. As a matter of fact, the description above is pretty spot on. He has huge attitude problems, but that's because he was one of the stars at his club team (mind you, not the only star). Today, against AIK, he had several runs at defenders and actually passed the ball to set some dude up twice, which would NEVER had happened in Romania lol - he would have taken the shot 8 times out of 10. Come to think of it, he should have taken the shots today as well, since people around him are, and I literally mean this with ALL DUE RESPECT - not great at this sport.

The reason he passed the ball is because he's the new guy, he doesn't speak the language (i dont think), and he's trying to become friends with people - if he starts scoring more, which he should, you will probably see a gradual selfishness appear with him, which again, actually might not be that bad of a thing. Also, some diva behavior - my friends from back home and I always mocked him for pretending to be at least Maradona when it came to everything being all about him. Also, he's 23, it's fine.

Now I really don't watch MLS, so I don't know how it compares to our Romanian league - my gut feeling is that you guys are heavily underestimating our league. Sure, it's comparatively shit to 10 years ago when we had a Europa League quarterfinal between 2 Romanian teams, or when our champions were defeating Roma and Man Utd in the UCL in away games, taking out Ajax, and beating Chelsea at home; but still.

When Mitrita was sprinting today, he was way faster than anyone on the pitch. I guess what I am trying to say is that Mitrita was on track to score 20 this year in our league. I see no reason whatsoever for him to not score 20 in the MLS, especially since there seems to be a LOT of space in the defenses there compared to Europe (again, might be wrong, like I said, I don't watch it that closely).

If anything, it's kind of cool that we have a player in the MLS as a high-profile signing, gives me a reason to watch it. And maybe this will open the door to a bunch of others. Last thing I'm going to say is that I saw there were some people on this forum weary of the Romanian league, his 2 goals in Seria A/B, whatever, that's fair. I can tell you that there are plenty of people back home (where this transfer has been the talk of the week) who are super unhappy he ended up in the US, and that's also fair.

Don't know if any of this was useful, but hey, now it's here - whatcha gonna do
Perfect American English from the intern. Even correctly used slang “whatcha gonna do?”
 
Hey guys, this might be my first and last post here but here's the deal. I am Romanian, and I lived for 6 years in the US, 1 of them in NY, actually. I have no personal life currently, so to my severe shame I intensely watch what Romanian players end up doing abroad, especially the ones that are considered good, and upcoming talent (we, and when I say we, I mean Romania, has a bunch of new talent coming up at around the 21 age mark - we recently qualified for the under 21 EURO there, leaving Portugal, Wales, Bosnia, and Switzerland home, teams we would not really perform against at a senior level). Still very much a TBD though if we can regain even a glimpse of former genius that we had in the 90s.

Ok so Mitrita, since I see there is not a huge amount on intel on him so far on this forum. As a matter of fact, the description above is pretty spot on. He has huge attitude problems, but that's because he was one of the stars at his club team (mind you, not the only star). Today, against AIK, he had several runs at defenders and actually passed the ball to set some dude up twice, which would NEVER had happened in Romania lol - he would have taken the shot 8 times out of 10. Come to think of it, he should have taken the shots today as well, since people around him are, and I literally mean this with ALL DUE RESPECT - not great at this sport.

The reason he passed the ball is because he's the new guy, he doesn't speak the language (i dont think), and he's trying to become friends with people - if he starts scoring more, which he should, you will probably see a gradual selfishness appear with him, which again, actually might not be that bad of a thing. Also, some diva behavior - my friends from back home and I always mocked him for pretending to be at least Maradona when it came to everything being all about him. Also, he's 23, it's fine.

Now I really don't watch MLS, so I don't know how it compares to our Romanian league - my gut feeling is that you guys are heavily underestimating our league. Sure, it's comparatively shit to 10 years ago when we had a Europa League quarterfinal between 2 Romanian teams, or when our champions were defeating Roma and Man Utd in the UCL in away games, taking out Ajax, and beating Chelsea at home; but still.

When Mitrita was sprinting today, he was way faster than anyone on the pitch. I guess what I am trying to say is that Mitrita was on track to score 20 this year in our league. I see no reason whatsoever for him to not score 20 in the MLS, especially since there seems to be a LOT of space in the defenses there compared to Europe (again, might be wrong, like I said, I don't watch it that closely).

If anything, it's kind of cool that we have a player in the MLS as a high-profile signing, gives me a reason to watch it. And maybe this will open the door to a bunch of others. Last thing I'm going to say is that I saw there were some people on this forum weary of the Romanian league, his 2 goals in Seria A/B, whatever, that's fair. I can tell you that there are plenty of people back home (where this transfer has been the talk of the week) who are super unhappy he ended up in the US, and that's also fair.

Don't know if any of this was useful, but hey, now it's here - whatcha gonna do

If we get 20 goals from him it would be amazing. Hopefully Mitrita being on NYCFC means you'll watch some games this season and stick around on the forum but either way the intel is appreciated.
 
Thanks for this. Very helpful, and I like that it is candid straight talk.

I don't think anyone around here knows much about the Romanian League. People here obviously know a lot about MLS and enough about the major European Leagues to ballpark where MLS may fall (although there is some disagreement). Generally, I think the consensus is that MLS is a couple notches below the 5 big European leagues; maybe closer to the few just below that; and probably at or above the leagues for the smaller European countries (at least those that we get to follow).

MLS is has increased salaries a lot in the last 3-4 years, and the improvement in the league is noticeable. You also have academies up and running at a lot of clubs that are putting talented kids into the league - and now those guys are getting sold off to the Bundesliga and EPL.

As for Mitrita, I think people are cautiously optimistic. He looks great on tape, and he did today too. He's too much of an unknown for people to get really excited, but everyone's fingers are crossed.

Hope you stick around as we all see how he does.
 
If we get 20 goals from him it would be amazing. Hopefully Mitrita being on NYCFC means you'll watch some games this season and stick around on the forum but either way the intel is appreciated.

thanks, I appreciate it!

one thing though: I'm pretty sure Mitrita was taking the penalties for Craiova as well. idk if he's gonna be doing that here, so if he doesn't, then some readjustment of expectations should be done. Still, I think you guys saw from the ever-trustworthy youtube highlight reels that he hasn't scored 13 tap-ins this year. Like a good chunk of them are proper finishes; and he can also score tap-ins.
 
Thanks for this. Very helpful, and I like that it is candid straight talk.

I don't think anyone around here knows much about the Romanian League. People here obviously know a lot about MLS and enough about the major European Leagues to ballpark where MLS may fall (although there is some disagreement). Generally, I think the consensus is that MLS is a couple notches below the 5 big European leagues; maybe closer to the few just below that; and probably at or above the leagues for the smaller European countries (at least those that we get to follow).

MLS is has increased salaries a lot in the last 3-4 years, and the improvement in the league is noticeable. You also have academies up and running at a lot of clubs that are putting talented kids into the league - and now those guys are getting sold off to the Bundesliga and EPL.

As for Mitrita, I think people are cautiously optimistic. He looks great on tape, and he did today too. He's too much of an unknown for people to get really excited, but everyone's fingers are crossed.

Hope you stick around as we all see how he does.

that's totally fair about the cautious optimism and, unfortunately, as a rule of thumb, Romanians tend to be really shit when leaving our league. My personal take on it is that it's not lack of talent or skill, but rather poor mental and social adaptations skills.

We had a guy last week who was sold for 10M euros to some Saudi team - he originally moved from Steaua to Anderlecht, was supposed to be the next big thing, then ended up at Sparta Prague and now, at age 25-26, in Saudi or UAE or whatever. Even though he had scored 10 goals and 10 assists for both the teams before this one, he couldn't crack it. Which is a shame.

Hopefully Mitrita will not be like that - and re: your point about the MLS being pretty much level with Top 5 minus a few notches - that's kind of my point. I think the Romanian league is probably a lot closer to the MLS than you guys think, just a different style. If he can score 15-20 there, why wouldn't he here?
 
thanks, I appreciate it!

one thing though: I'm pretty sure Mitrita was taking the penalties for Craiova as well. idk if he's gonna be doing that here, so if he doesn't, then some readjustment of expectations should be done. Still, I think you guys saw from the ever-trustworthy youtube highlight reels that he hasn't scored 13 tap-ins this year. Like a good chunk of them are proper finishes; and he can also score tap-ins.

I think Mitrita is the favorite to take our PKs this year. David Villa has been the PK taker for the last 4 years so with his departure the spot is now wide open. Given the large fee we just paid for Mitrita and the lack of many other obvious guys on the roster to take PKs I strongly suspect he will get them.
 
Hopefully Mitrita will not be like that - and re: your point about the MLS being pretty much level with Top 5 minus a few notches - that's kind of my point. I think the Romanian league is probably a lot closer to the MLS than you guys think, just a different style. If he can score 15-20 there, why wouldn't he here?

I think we're always just skeptical until the guy starts producing here. It's not just based on the relative quality of the league. MLS has seen it all, including players who played great in superior leagues and bombed here.
 
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I think Mitrita is the favorite to take our PKs this year. David Villa has been the PK taker for the last 4 years so with his departure the spot is now wide open. Given the large fee we just paid for Mitrita and the lack of many other obvious guys on the roster to take PKs I strongly suspect he will get them.

yea ... umhh ... he's not exactly great at taking those. it'll be fine. things are fine.
 
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