January 8th, 2009 . 10:10 am . By: Buzz Carrick

Here’s a little fun with a guy MLS missed out on. 

I’ve been poking around You Tube looking for videos on players I have been tracking and I found this little gem of a video on Alex Elliott of Portland from last year.  Unfortunately for MLS, Ellitt signed with Germany’s Sportfreunde Siegen which is in the Regionalliga Sued, Germany’s third division.

But since he signed somewhere else and with the combine coming up I thought I could use this video as an example of what I would look for when I see players on tape or in person.  I am sometimes asked what I see or what I’m looking for so this might be a good exercise.  Plus the video is just fun to watch.  Now a little highlight video isn’t really the best way to scout a player cause it’s his very best stuff and is very limited.  You want to see players in person, or perhaps watch an entire game or two on tape. 

On this tape Elliott is #10 in purple or white.  Yes he’s a little small at 5′7″ but he has some of the tools a player needs to overcome that.  Quick little darting player.

Let’s look at the tape…

So here’s a couple things I saw… or didn’t see.

1. Nice ball moves to beat multiple players on the dribble.  Check out the ankle breaking cross over he does about 5 times in here. Wow that’s a sick move.

2. Plays head up and can anticipate players coming in on the tackle.

3. Accurate passes to players in space and almost always with good weight to them. 

4. Good field awareness, knows where his teammates are without really looking around.

5. Has the quick burst and touch to go by defenders and to keep the ball just out of the tacklers reach.

6. The relentless work rate and energy off the ball, how quickly he gets around the field and how much ground he covers.  Also he almost never gives up on a ball.

7. Downsides are he can be pushed off the ball give him size, which you can see happen a few times even in this video.

8. He’s also basically useless in the air.

9. He doesn’t have a lot of help so we don’t really get a feel for how he would fit into a team tactical concept and how good he is at combining.

10. Can he play a lick of defense? Really we have no idea.

So all those good things we see here and he would not have been in the top 5 among seniors strikers, which is why we can’t really scout form a highlight video.  Top 20 for sure, likely at the bottom of or just outside the top 10, depending on how he had done this year and the generation adidas class.  By the way he’s a Canadian U17 and U20.

Anyway our MLS combine coverage begins this Saturday and I hope you’ll check out our daily reports and then join us for our 8th Annual MLS Draft Day Chat Room I’ll be hosting from the MLS draft room floor.

Categories: Top Ten.

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