Jose Rangel played a decent game last night in goal for Chivas. Immediately after the game fans on social media started to anoint him as the next starter for the club. Saying that they would be open to have him start over Miguel “Wacho” Jimenez in week one of the Liga MX season. That may seem odd considering that this is exactly the same scenario that Miguel Jimenez found himself in when he took over for Raul Gudiño less than a year ago.
Throughout the season “El Wacho” was touted as one of the bright spots for the team even when they struggled to pick up points at the beginning of the year. If that was the case just a few months ago why have the fans turned on Jimenez so quickly? It’s not like he’s had awful outings, although he could have done a bit more in the last game for the team last season. Which did see Chivas get ousted by Puebla with Jimenez having some trouble. Is a change at goalkeeper warranted for Chivas at this point though?
None Of The Options Are Quality Goalkeepers
Raul Gudiño with his stints in Europe and his sheer size was always thought of as one of the best prospects in Mexican goalkeeping in general. However, he was never able to be consistent at Chivas. There were a multitude of factors that came into play. One of them being multiple mistakes that he made over his tenure. Also, he never had great press. On the other hand there’s Toño Rodríguez who is back at Chivas after being on loan at Queretaro. He got even more chances to start for Chivas than Guidiño, and he proved time and time again that he’s a below average goalkeeper. At this point in his career he’s taking up a spot at Chivas that he probably shouldn’t have. If you looked at times like Queretaro’s worst player you should really consider another profession.
That leaves us with Wacho Jimenez. There was a reason why he played third fiddle to the two guys that we just mentioned. Ultimately he’s not a player that’s overly talented. Even though he’s held down the fort rather well in these last couple tournaments in which he’s gotten a chance to play. Overall though, since Oswaldo Sanchez left for Santos all those years ago Chivas has not found a top notch goalkeeper. Keeping Luis Michel over Alfredo Talavera has to go down as one of the worst decisions in the Vergara era at Chivas.
Going With The Young Guy May Not Be A Bad Option
With everything that we’ve just described it wouldn’t hurt Chivas to go with the youngster Jose Rangel. The problem is if he starts week 1 and struggles it could look bad if Paunovic goes back to Jimenez. Ultimately the best course of action seems to be to start Jimenez, and let him play to see how things go. If you see that things are just not working out you can then turn to Rangel.
It’s a tough decision for Paunovic because at the same time he’s not going to want to stick with any player that he doesn’t have confidence in. At the end of the day we don’t necessarily know how long his leash is going to be as head coach of Chivas. The last thing that you want to do is be a coach who is tied down to poor goalkeeper play. What he really should definitely not do is go back to Toño Rodríguez. We’ve seen a lot of him in Liga MX, and he’s proven time and time again that he’s not the answer.
