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Has Gyasi Zardes played his final game for the LA Galaxy? According to Grant Wahl, the LA Galaxy currently have a 3 million dollar offer on the table from a club in the English Championship. While it's unclear how likely such a move will occur, the following questions are worth considering— Is this the right move for the LA Galaxy? Is this the right move for Gyasi Zardes.
From a paycheck perspective, there really is no time like the present for Gyasi Zardes to make the move to Europe. In 2014, Zardes scored 19 goals in all competitions and was easily the breakout star of the season. 2015, however, hasn't been nearly as successful for the Hawthorne product. He struggled mightily at the beginning of the year as a forward, showing an inability to create chances for himself when the service wasn't there, and his time on the wings for the Galaxy has also been less than successful.
Zardes' stock did not plummet in 2015, however, as he had a breakout year for the USMNT. With no guarantees that Gyasi Zardes can repeat his 2014 performance, the time is now to move to Europe while the interest is at a peak.
From a development standpoint, however, the English Championship is not all that better, if better at all, than MLS. Furthermore, Zardes would also have to face the well known anti-American player bias that has kept some of this country's greatest youth talents glued to the bench in Europe. As a USMNT fan, this is not the move I want to see Zardes making as there is no guarantee he'll receive playing time, nor is the level all that better to make a significant difference.
From a Galaxy perspective, the move is a mixed bag. While Gyasi Zardes may be an effective north-south speed winger for the national team, this isn't really a style the Galaxy play, and Zardes'inability to be creative from the position has hampered the team and kept more creative talent like Jose Villarreal and Raul Mendiola on the bench.
On the other hand, the Galaxy's current forward tandem of Robbie Keane and Giovani dos Santos, simply isn't going to cut it. Neither of them can hold the ball very well, and both of them are best when dropping off. This creates a tactical mess in build-up play. Given Zardes' 2014 success, there is no reason to believe that moving Giovani dos Santos to left mid and Gyasi Zardes back to forward, couldn't be just as successful.
With Alan Gordon best used as a sub and Jose Villarreal played best as a second striker, similar to Keane and Giovani dos Santos, losing Gyasi Zardes would be a real blow to forward depth If the Galaxy sell Gyasi Zardes, they'll almost certainly need to go out and find a target striker, and given their recent attempts with Rob Friend and Samuel, it's not exactly a sure thing that they'll bring in someone who will succeed.
What are your thoughts? Think the Galaxy should part ways with Gyasi Zardes?