How can you tell? It's so tough in soccer to judge and compare players. There are no stats to compare.
You are correct in that. The easiest way for me to tell is by zeroing in on a player and just watching them for a while. Wallace is often out of position and gets beat on the counter attack only for someone like Chara to hussle back to save it. Wallace crumples under pressure often as well, when he should just clear it out of bounds he tries to do too much and then it bites the rest of the team in the ass. Just check the highlights from last nights game at 2:00 is especially what I'm talking about. [video=youtube;Y87HUvtb2HA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y87HUvtb2HA[/video]
haha it does take being really zoned in on one person sometimes when there are so many people. I'm looking for the page, but you mentioned lack of stats... I remember about a month ago there was a stat of the most failed passes in MLS and Rodney Wallace was number one on that list.
Rodney Wallace definitely looks like he's in over his head much of the time. Is it just inexperience or just a lack of football IQ? The game moves too fast for him to make good decisions out there. It seems to me that he suffers from a lack of confidence and over confidence at the same time, if that makes any sense or is even possible. Maybe his injury took something away from him and he hasn't adjusted his game accordingly? On the positive side; I love how he is able to get off a cross with just a sliver of space. I haven't given up on him, but I am real close.