Replacing Deshorn Brown with Dom Badji is not the answer

Arguments have been made back and forth about how good Deshorn Brown was or how good Deshorn Brown could eventually be, but we shouldn't talk about Deshorn Brown any more at this point. He's gone to Europe and we're not likely to see him back in burgundy any time soon. Unfortunately for the Rapids, regardless of how good Brown was or wasn't, he was the golden boot winner on the team for two seasons running for a reason: he was the best that we had.

Guess what we saw in that first match of the season? Though he did act pretty well as a pest in the final third, there was little he did that was worth talking about other than be a large person annoying the center backs. Check out his stats on WhoScored from the match. 9 aerial wins is certainly impressive for a center forward, the first step in some pretty darn good hold-up play. Unfortunately, he was awful in every other sect of his game. A 60% passing completion ratio is mediocre at best and was one of the biggest reasons why the long balls they attempted nearly always died with him. That's also a big reason that the Rapids got very few shots. Badji attempted few dribbles on his own, turned it over quite often and, on the one golden chance that he finally did get in front of goal, he had a missed shot that even Deshorn probably shook his head at.

I hope Kevin Doyle's on the phone ASAP.