Jonathan Lewis [Forward]
- Thread starter Falastur
- Start date
At year end, Mr. Lewis's career remains a bit of an enigma. He played more minutes in roughly 3/4 of a season with Colorado than he did in 2.25 with NYC. His G+A/90 with the Rapids was a solid .801, down from the eye-popping 1.13 of his first 2 seasons with NYC (in just 561 minutes), but still quite good. His overall MLS figure is .860. You would expect someone like that to get regular minutes, but he's not.
When first traded, and excluding games he missed due to the Gold Cup, he started 6 of the first 7 games, subbed once, and averaged 70 minutes per game. Since then, in the final 12 games he started 4, subbed on 5 times, and DNP 3 times, averaging just 34 minutes per game including the DNPs. None of his post Gold Cup DNPs were due to NT duty and I don't remember him being hurt. The Rapids changed coaches with 7 games remaining, and his reduced playing time started 5 games earlier. In his entire career, he played 80 or more minutes only 4 times. So even when he starts he is usually among the early subs.
When first traded, and excluding games he missed due to the Gold Cup, he started 6 of the first 7 games, subbed once, and averaged 70 minutes per game. Since then, in the final 12 games he started 4, subbed on 5 times, and DNP 3 times, averaging just 34 minutes per game including the DNPs. None of his post Gold Cup DNPs were due to NT duty and I don't remember him being hurt. The Rapids changed coaches with 7 games remaining, and his reduced playing time started 5 games earlier. In his entire career, he played 80 or more minutes only 4 times. So even when he starts he is usually among the early subs.
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dummyrun
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clearly his off the ball movement/positioning, defensive positioning intelligence, and decision making on the ball continue to be the biggest flaws in his game and keep him from maintaining a starting spot even on a less talented colorado side.
He single-handedly crushed RB this year with two goals so for that he should be celebrated as an elite matador.
I still wish we had JLew. I know at the time it seemed like it was “best for everyone” that he left. At this juncture do people feel differently?
Does he get that many more minutes in Colorado? I think we could use the speed.
from what i remember he was finally getting a few games as a starter in 2020 season but then the whole team got covid and it messed it all up. not sure if he got the spot back
i think we miss his energy when he came off the bench, but he was never going to be a starter for us. he didn't do the work on both sides of the ball well enough and/or understand the tactics viera or dome wanted to implement enough to get that starting spot. dome gave him a few starts and he didn't keep his spot. even after going to colorado, he wasn't a stone cold starter and i would say colorado's talent level is below ours. So, even if he were still with us, i don't think he'd get many games as a starter.
the energy he added off the bench was fantastic and we could definitely use him for such tactical substitutions, but it wouldn't be fair to him since he obviously wants more game time. perhaps he'll come back to us in the future after he's matured and improved.
He did not start a game until August, then he started 7 of the final 13, so roughly half from that point. He played in every one of their games, but averaged less than 40 minutes.
I don't feel differently except for the fact that we currently have like 20 guys on our roster.
Given that Ronnie didn't play Mitiri due to his lack of effort on D I can't imagine he would have played Lewis much. I think the difference in opinion between what Lewis thought his role should be (full time starter) and what the team though it should be (occasional starter/super sub) was too different and it was better for everyone that we moved on. Still sad to lose a young talented player like him though.
