LA Galaxy 2022 Player Postmortem: Samuel Grandsir

Nov 29, 2022 - 5:38 PM

Samuel Grandsir had ups and downs in his second season with the LA Galaxy, but he always stepped up for the games against LAFC.

Grandsir, signed in 2021 from Monaco, having played and scored in the Champions League there. And while he was a TAM signing, avoiding the pressure that came from a Designated Player tag that seems to have saddled his compatriot Kevin Cabral, Grandsir showed an ability to contribute in a myriad of ways, even if his goals and assist totals weren’t eye-popping.

It was more of the same in 2022, although with more games available to play, Grandsir did increase his goal and assist totals compared to 2021, and he really stepped up when it came to playing the crosstown rivals, which meant his highlights were very notable.

Consider, in the four games LA played against LAFC this year, across all competitions, Grandsir had four assists and two goals. In his 35 other competitive appearances, he had four assists and two goals.

Here are Grandsir’s competitive stats for the Galaxy in 2022:

In watching him play in general, I thought one of the reasons Grandsir seemed to earn more playing time than Cabral was because he was a pretty good defender, but in looking at his FBref.com scouting report graph, his defensive output is mostly average for wingers, while his attacking output, aside from assists, which are good, is average to below-average.

FBref.com

It must be said, however, that Grandsir does progress the ball in attack, mostly in terms of verticality, basically pushing the ball upfield as quickly as possible, which Greg Vanney has sought to make a consistent element of the Galaxy attack. Ultimately, that, plus the consistent monster performances against LAFC, fully demonstrate his assets to the team.

Hard to decide on the best highlight of his season. It’s either this nice equalizer in the playoffs against LAFC...

...or this equalizer, in league play. Not an identical goal, but definite parallels here.

Grandsir’s under contract for 2023, the final year of his initial deal with the Galaxy. I’m curious to see if there’s any market to sell him back to Europe, or if he will remain a fixture for LA next season. While he hustles in every game, the inconsistency of his goals+assists production remains a concern, even if he did ultimately improve in that department this season. If he could get something like 10 assists, seven goals next year? That would probably be his level and would probably be about his ceiling. Can we count on that to happen? The guy’s 26 now, it’s not that a player can’t ever improve on the past, but he’s approaching his peak and I don’t know that I would bet for 17 G+A if I had to put money on the line.

Still, compared to some other players who have underachieved for LA, I think Grandsir is a useful player overall on the roster. I think his highs show there is a player who is capable of making game-changing plays, but we just need to see him positively change games more often for the Galaxy and everyone will be happy.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.