Personally, I’m a fan of picking the best player available, regardless of need and position. At third overall, Perry Kitchen was the best player available. In my opinion, he can start at defensive midfield in MLS tomorrow and he was the best player in the draft. When the best player in the draft falls to you at No. 3, you have to pick him.
Where Does Perry Kitchen Fit Into D.C. United? Three Great Central Midfielders, No Firepower Up Top
The problem with D.C. picking Kitchen is that the center of midfield, particularly defensive or box-to-box midfielders, is the only position where D.C. is pretty set. The Black and Red need a lot of help right now, but Clyde Simms and Dax McCarty could be staples of an MLS Cup contender. Kitchen is able to play along the back line, but I think that’s a waste of his talents. He’s a defensive midfielder, and a great one.
So, how does D.C. fit all three of Kitchen, Simms, and McCarty into their team? Simply put, they would need to acquire a complete center forward...or hope Joseph Ngwenya magically got really good. Some kind of 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1 variation with McCarty playing in front of Kitchen and Simms, two of Santino Quaranta, Andy Najar, and Chris Pontius out wide and a better forward than they have now up top sounds like something that could work really well.
A lot of D.C. fans won’t like that their team didn’t fill a need with the third overall draft pick, but they should be happy that their team took the best player available. Their midfield now looks absolutely rock solid.
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