Player Profile: Christian Tiffert

When Christian Tiffert signed the hopes were for a blend of Brad Evans and Brad Davis. That did not quite happen. Instead, the player the Seattle Sounders got is more difficult to quantify. He is good, shows signs of being great, but needs more time before an accurate judgement of his MLS career can be made.

Tiffert played many roles with the 2012 Sounders, but his most common was in the middle as the not-Alonso.

Skills on offense: He's probably the second best crosser on the team. Strong short and medium passer and can thread the throughball better than any. Positional awareness is very strong. Did not show a great shot, nor was he as strong on set-play service as was expected. This is likely that he's better in the flow of the match.

Skills on defense: The second best non-defender at tackling. Tiffert will not leave a passing lane open when on man, nor allow all but the most amazing of shooting angles. Almost never out of position no matter what his role, he applies pressure throughout the field. Strong defender in the set-piece situations.

Best Case in 2013: He's not going to be an Alonso or Beckerman level central mid defender, but he can be at the next level in MLS. He's also not going to be a Davis/Morales/Zusi level of assist man, but he can be at the next level in MLS. If in 2013 he reaches his peak of performance you could see Evans+Alonso and get a 4-6 goal player with 6-10 assists and top-level defense.