acevedo is growing into a ring as time goes on. he's become more physical and is learning about how MLS is. his playing has improved a lot since his first start while keeping that bit of passing touch.
we are definitely missing mata offensively though. he definitely has the edge over gudi going forward due to his speed and dribbling. not to mention, he is a natural left back and has the speed and stamina to get back to play defense more than gudi. mata has his faults for sure, but it's definitely a downgrade to gudi. to be fair to gudi, he's not a left back and has admitted as much. learning the position at a pro level with no prior experience can't be easy when he's lacking in speed, which would help him cover for his poor defensive positioning (again, something he is having to learn).
With Sands back, I think our back line is pretty tight. As long as no one has a stinker of a game, we are one of the stingiest defenses in the league. Some keeper mishaps and poor freekick wall building decisions have us losing games we should have tied and tying games we should have won. If our attack can catch up to our xG, we should be ok. But so far that's a big IF with taty seeming to have some major Yips and thiago still growing into the league.
Personally, I think if we gave Santi more time, we would see more improvements. Even with his limited minutes, he's shown lots of energy and the willingness to take people on and/or make the pass when it's there. I think it's too early to say whether he has the vision Maxi has, but his energy to get around the field and make those runs is well above the aging maxi. I don't know how long his loan is for, but I hope ronny uses him more.
