'Beckham can't solve Galaxy's problems'

13 April 2012

David Beckham may have been credited with helping turn around Real Madrid's season and leading them to the Spanish title - but FC Dallas coach Steve Morrow does not expect him to do it again with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Former Arsenal midfielder Morrow last week got a first-hand look at the struggling Galaxy as his team beat them 3-1.

Scroll down for more

Champions: David Beckham will leave the Spanish champions for the MLS strugglers

That result left the Galaxy second bottom of the Western Conference in Major League Soccer, with only nine points from as many games.

After watching that game, the former Northern Ireland international believes the Galaxy's problems are too big for Beckham to solve alone.

"They haven't had a good start to the season up to now," Morrow told PA Sport.

"David Beckham on his own isn't going to turn it around and I don't think (Galaxy coach) Frank Yallop expects him to."

The Galaxy recently signed former Portugal and Middlesbrough defender Abel Xavier. He made his debut on Sunday against Real Salt Lake but could not prevent a 3-2 defeat.

Morrow said: "They have had a few injuries to deal with and they have had to restructure the team a little. There have been a lot of trades, a lot of comings and goings.

"They are trying to get the right mix but in this league it is not easy to get players in with a lot of restrictions like the salary cap and obviously the Galaxy have a lot of players taking up a lot of space on the salary cap."

Beckham's five-year contract - which could be worth up to £128million in salary and endorsements - will not count against the salary cap as the Galaxy have used the designated-player rule to bring the England midfielder to MLS.

However, the likes of captain Landon Donovan - one of the highest-paid players in the league prior to this season's influx of foreign stars - ensure there is plenty of pressure on the Galaxy's salary cap.

Morrow, who spent two seasons as a Dallas player after a long career in England, also warned Beckham that life in MLS will not be as easy as many expect it to be for him. For one thing, Beckham can expect opposing defenders to single him out.

"For sure he will be get special attention," Morrow said. "All of the more talented players in the league do get a little more tightly marked, but that is something (Beckham) has dealt with all this career."

The biggest danger, Morrow believes, is underestimating the league he is joining.

"He certainly can help on the field," he said. "But you have to realise the standard is much higher here than people back in Europe think.

"I get offered players all the time and they come over and it's very quickly apparent they are just not up to it.

"I'm forever telling agents that the standard is much higher than they think."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in