The Galaxy have made a habit of signing high profile talent, and when he arrived this summer, Steven Gerrard seemed to fit the pattern. He, like those who came before him, was going to fit in and help the team bring another MLS Cup back to the StubHub Center. But with the playoffs and the presumed run to another trophy set to begin, Gerrard isn’t driving the team forward. Instead, the Liverpool legend is dragging the Galaxy down.

Gerrard’s stay in LA started brilliantly, with a goal and an assist in his first MLS match. His fitness wasn’t great, but that would come along, Bruce Arena assured. He would get more mobile and comfortable with the team. Things would be great. There was no reason to doubt him.

MLS PLAYOFFS, NEUTRAL’S GUIDES: Eastern Conference | Western Conference

There was every reason to trust Arena. The Galaxy haven’t just signed some of the biggest stars to come to MLS. They have also had the most success with those stars. David Beckham, Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane all won multiple MLS Cups under Arena, who has shown that no manager can integrate big personalities and talents as well as he can.

Gerrard has bucked the trend, though. He’s not fitting in. He’s not playing a key role in a great team. While Arena promised an improved Gerrard as the season went on, that hasn’t been the case. The Galaxy have struggled in the season’s final month, but their trajectory still looks good compared to that of Gerrard.

The 35-year-old has looked every bit his age. He has been slow and, most terrifyingly, is always attempting to conserve energy. There isn’t an unnecessary run he won’t try to avoid, and there’s no chance to track back he won’t consider skipping. The game always looks like it is passing him by, as he too often becomes a carousel in the middle of the pitch.

Gerrard’s inability to keep up with the match has created a huge hole in the Galaxy team. Not only is he a step slow going forward and far from tidy in the final third — he was played in alone against Sporting Kansas City on Sunday and shot directly at the goalkeeper — but he’s ruined their ability to maintain shape and defend.

SEE MORE: Why each knockout round team will (or won’t) claim MLS Cup.

It’s impossible for a team with a four-man midfield to provide a suitable shield for its defense when one central midfielder is useless at stopping the counterattack or picking up runners into the box. That’s especially true on a team like the Galaxy, which is full of attacking talent who will almost always have both outside midfielders looking to get forward.

The only way for the Galaxy to maintain a coherent defensive shape is with their central midfielders. Juninho is doing his part and then some, but Gerrard is a turnstile. While opposing teams are running at the LA defense, often through the center of the pitch, Gerrard can be found 30 or 40 yards from goal, just watching.

This isn’t an entirely new Gerrard. Liverpool saw flashes of this last season, his last at Anfield. It’s why he was no longer first choice and partly why he left the club. As age had caught up to him, he was no longer good enough.

Few players in their mid-30’s can handle the rigors and demands of playing in the center of the pitch in the Premier League. But MLS was supposed to be different – not an easy or low level of play, but certainly less demanding than what he was used to in England. Instead, Gerrard has looked worse than he ever did at Liverpool. Even those who were pessimistic about Gerrard’s ability to transition to MLS didn’t expect him to be this bad. No one could have imagined that he’d be so slow and immobile.

SEE MORE: Beckerman, Jones, Borchers highlight WST’s MLS All-Hair Team.

The Galaxy did know that Gerrard wouldn’t be quite like their prior Designated Player signings. After all, he is three years older than Beckham when he signed and when Landon Donovan retired, while Keane was only 31 when he joined LA. There’s a reason the Galaxy only gave Gerrard an 18-month contract when Keane got two-and-a-half years (with an extension that followed) while Beckham signed on for five-and-a-half years. They knew the end was nearer than anyone else they had signed, even if they didn’t think the end was now.

If Gerrard can’t play better than he has, and markedly so, the best thing for LA is for him to watch the postseason from the bench. The Galaxy’s success hasn’t simply been a matter of stars shining bright, but a deep group of role players. That includes the likes of Baggio Husidic and Mika Vayrynen, who are far less sexy and offer significantly less upside than Gerrard, but are capable tacklers and able to do the work in the middle to ensure the defense isn’t exposed.

SEE MORE: MLS knockout round preview capsules.

Benching a superstar is never easy, but right now, Gerrard looks like a crutch. If the regular season exposed that, the postseason will only make it more glaring.

The question is whether the Galaxy really believe Gerrard has reached the end. They have three months of evidence saying so and, with the playoffs set to begin, they’re out of time to hope and wish.

Seven months ago, Major League Soccer kicked off its 20th season with 20 teams, an all-time league high. Now, one day before the league’s postseason begin, the field has been trimmed to 12, but if you’ve focused your soccer attention on other leagues, you may have missed how and why the final dozen have survived into late October.

Take heart, MLS-adjacent friend: We’re here to help.  You’re neutral, you’re curious, and we’re committed to bridging taht gap. With our Eastern Conference view published last night, here’s Ryan Rosenblatt with who to watch and who will win – our neutral’s guide to the Western Conference playoffs: 

Who to watch

The Western Conference is good. Very good. But they don’t score as many goals as their counterparts in the East do. They do that whole defense thing. And yet, they’re magnificently fun because there are huge expectations, megastars and fan bases prone to wild cries of disaster. If you like narratives, either for the drama or the hilarity of their fragility, you’ve found the right place.

SEE MORE: Giovinco, Larin lead our 2015 MLS awards.

Nobody draws the attention of the LA Galaxy, who feature reigning MLS Most Valuable Player Robbie Keane and have added Giovani dos Santos and Steven Gerrard midseason. They were quickly anointed MLS Cup champions and racked up goals as people started to get comfortable with the idea of LA winning four titles in five years. But then a funny thing happened – Gerrard was exposed as a central midfielder incapable of running, which is a problem, and the defense started making like a turnstile. So are they the best or dumpster fire? It has to be one or the other.

The Sounders aren’t much different, featuring great talent and lots of losses. They also come with the bonus of a team long on underachieving in front of MLS’s biggest fan base. That makes for a delightful, if uncomfortable, setting.

Expectations and star power aren’t nearly as big elsewhere, but they’re nothing to sneeze at … Sporting Kansas City has all 10 goals and 15 assists of Benny Feilhaber, plus the human firework manager in Peter Vermes …The Vancouver Whitecaps are the best team Canada’s has ever produced … FC Dallas hits you with Mauro Diaz’s brilliant vision or Fabian Castillo’s terrifying pace, not to mention a manager in Oscar Pareja who is so good that we don’t even miss Schellas Hyndman’s butter leather jacket … If only the Portland Timbers had half the ambition of every player Jurgen Klinsmann chastizes for leaving MLS to play in Europe.

Entertainment rankings, teams

1. LA Galaxy – you either see the most incredible collection of attacking talent thrill you or laugh at their expensive demise.
2. FC Dallas – they score. A lot.
3. Seattle Sounders – whatever they do, they do it big and dramatic.
4. Sporting Kansas City – they would top this list if there was a Vermes Cam.
5. Vancouver Whitecaps – a good team without a bonafide star that plays in the most sterile stadium in MLS.
6. Portland Timbers – it’s almost impressive that a team with Diego Valeri and Nagbe can be so boring.  

SEE MORE: Beckerman, Jones, Borchers highlight our 2015 MLS All-Hair team.

Entertainment rankings, players

1. Robbie Keane – he’s carrying the most star studded team in MLS history on his back and has even made cartwheels cool.
2. Benny Feilhaber – it’s like watching the ultimate Jurgen Klinsmann troll.
3. Obafemi Martins – there’s a strong correlation to when Martins plays and when the Sounders are good.
4. Fabian Castillo – having him playing for Pareja kind of feels like we stole Colombia’s best non-James Rodriguez resources.
5. Mauro Diaz – the only thing better than a maestro is one who does it so casually that you have to check to make sure he’s not sleeping.
6. Anybody but Steven Gerrard – good players can run.

But who’s going to win?

You could make the argument that no conference in MLS history has ever been as deep as this year’s West. Every team could legitimately win MLS Cup and it wouldn’t be a giant shock.

Dallas are the runaway favorites, having won the conference pretty comfortably in the regular season. They’re exceptionally strong through the center, with Matt Hedges in defense, a dependable midfield duo, Mauro Diaz pulling the strings and David Texieira playing well enough to unseat Blas Perez up top. That doesn’t even touch Fabian Castillo, a sure-fire Best XI selection. They’re talented, they’re good and manager Oscar Pareja is a shiny golden god.

After that, there’s a giant mess. Every team is good at times and vomits all over themselves at others. The difference between the good Timbers and bad Timbers is too often Darlington Nagbe, otherwise known as a coin flip. The Galaxy have all the attacking talent in the world, but also feature a tarnished carousel in Steven Gerrard that robs them of any sense of shape or steel. Sporting Kansas City would probably prefer Gerrard to the options they’ve trotted out since Roger Espinoza went down, and nobody in MLS history is as consistently good at turning a magnificent team on paper into a middling one on the field as the Seattle Sounders.

SEE MORE: Capsules for all four MLS knockout round matchups.

The good news for everyone not named FC Dallas is that it’s only five or six matches to MLS Cup, and we’ve all had a great run of being blackout drunk without puking that many times in a row.

Rankings, teams

1. FC Dallas – if you ignore defending, attacking and coaching, they’re not even that good.
2. Portland Timbers – imagine if they win MLS Cup before the Sounders.
3. LA Galaxy – they have one star too many, but Bruce Arena won an MLS Cup with Adam Cristman at striker, so this doesn’t seem so bad.
4. Vancouver Whitecaps – they’re not supposed to win the league, but they also weren’t supposed to be this good.
5. Seattle Sounders – is that rain or 44,000 people crying?
6. Sporting Kansas City – they’ve won three games in the last 10 weeks, but they were all against very good teams. If you think you know what this team is going to do, you’re a liar.

Seven months ago, Major League Soccer kicked off its 20th season with 20 teams, an all-time league high. Now, one day before the league’s postseason begin, the field has been trimmed to 12, but if you’ve focused your soccer attention on other leagues, you may have missed how and why the final dozen have survived into late October.

Take heart, MLS-adjacent friend: We’re here to help.  You’re neutral, you’re curious, and we’re committed to bridging taht gap. With our Western Conference view set for Wednesday, here’s Ryan Rosenblatt with who to watch and who will win – our neutral’s guide to the Eastern Conference playoffs:

Who to watch

So here’s the thing about the Eastern Conference: it’s not very good. But now that we’re in the playoffs, that doesn’t really matter. One of these teams is going to MLS Cup, every match is of huge importance and, more than anything else, the lack of quality can turn into hilarious stupidity. That is vital to premium entertainment.

Toronto FC’s Sebastian Giovinco is a little bit of all of those, although the stupidity is usually reserved for those wearing a different colored shirt than him. The Italian is MLS’s MVP (if anyone else wins it, cancel the league) in part because of his 22 goals, in part because of his 16 assists, and in part because he made opposing defenses question his humanity by disrobing them in front of tens of thousands of people. He is wonderful, and he comes with the bonus point of making other teams cry. It’s fun to watch adults cry over sports.

SEE MORE: Giovinco, Larin lead our 2015 MLS awards.

Watching D.C. United do anything would make anyone cry, but goalkeeper Bill Hamid single-handedly keeps them from giving up double-digit goals on a regular basis. That alone is potentially the most amazing feat in MLS and still doesn’t make them watchable … The Columbus Crew have joint-leading scorer Kei Kamara, magician Federico Higuain and human metronome Wil Trapp. Plus, there’s Ethan Finlay, who is doing all he can to make Jurgen Klinsmann call him up to the national team, save hold the manager up at gunpoint … Didier Drogba is all you need to justify watching the Montreal Impact, and the same is true of Lee Nguyen and the New England Revolution … The New York Red Bulls come with either history, bringing MLS Cup to the Big Apple for the first time ever, or hilarity, watching their fans try to explain how the Supporters’ Shield is all that matters anyway.

Entertainment rankings, teams

1. Toronto FC – Giovinco will try to save the cursed team in MLS.
2. Columbus Crew – no team has more players that could embarrass you except the Galaxy, but the Crew players can all still run.
3. New York Red Bulls – goals are entertaining enough.
4. Montreal Impact – disrespect Drogba and get outed as the child of Satan.
5. New England Revolution – Jay Heaps really likes to wear sweaters with his suits.
6. D.C. United – their best player is their goalkeeper.

SEE MORE: Beckerman, Jones, Borchers highlight our 2015 MLS All-Hair team.

Entertainment rankings, players

1. Sebastian Giovinco – he is what happens when you mix magic and peak aerodynamics.
2. Didier Drogba – even his dramatic falls and faking of injuries are hilarious.
3. Ethan Finlay – watch opposing defenders’ knees tremble.
4. Lee Nguyen – his hair isn’t even the best thing about him.
5. Bill Hamid – watching one player keep an entire team at bay is magnificent.
6. Kei Kamara – he’s the best goal celebrator in MLS, and he scores a lot of them.

But what’s going to win?

If momentum is a thing, the Crew will make it to MLS Cup. They put a hellacious beatdown on D.C. in the final match of the regular season despite playing without Kamara and Higuain. But MLS history tells us that momentum matters about as much as the Colorado Rapids.

SEE MORE: Capsules for all four MLS knockout round matchups.

The Revolution should be good — after all, they’re not too different from the team that made the final a year ago — but they have neither a dynamic attack nor a steadfast defense, so it might take a bit of magic. Then there’s the Canadian party of two, both led by European superstars. Montreal’s best chance is that Drogba earns them an extra goal each match on swag alone, while Toronto hope that Giovinco can make up for a defense as ironclad as an MLS roster rule.

That leaves the Red Bulls and United.

One was the best team in the regular season, have a bonafide goalscorer (Bradley Wright-Phillips), a budding young star in defense (Matt Miazga) and are the epitome of how to build a really good team on a modest budget. If your uncle won’t shut up about how sports were “back in the day,” give him a beer, turn on the Red Bulls and enjoy two hours of freedom while he mutters offensive things to himself.

The other’s best player is their goalkeeper and they haven’t gotten a point against a playoff team since Aug. 8.

SEE MORE: MLS sees ratings increase on FOX, ESPN for 2015 season.

Most likely to actually win

1. New York Red Bulls
2. Columbus Crew
3. New England Revolution
4. Toronto FC
5. Montreal Impact
6. D.C. United

The United States men’s national team is still starting Jozy Altidore at striker because, well, they don’t have anyone better. The four-year search for centerbacks is still plaguing Jurgen Klinsmann’s team, too, and left back is the same black hole that it has been for the better part of two decades. And yet, none of those create the same problems for the US that the absence of a good defensive midfielder does.

It’s not a coincidence that the US’s best stretch of play under Jurgen Klinsmann came with Kyle Beckerman in the team and playing well. His ability to shield the back line, not to mention keep possession and even distribute quickly to spring the counterattack, brought strength and control to the team. But his time as part of the national team’s spine was short. He’s tailed off since last year’s World Cup, often finding himself behind in the action and chasing the play, which is the worst thing for a defensive midfielder.

SEE MORE: Shallow CONCACAF can be Klinsmann’s salvation.

Beckerman was the product of Klinsmann’s long search for a defensive midfielder. Danny Williams and Alfredo Morales were given chances to win the job before Beckerman did it, outplaying the other two by a wide margin. Neither Williams nor Morales looked up for the challenge, and they still don’t now. The conversion of Mix Diskerud to a deep-lying player hasn’t gone well enough to even make him an option for the job, and the same is true of Joe Corona.

The man who has looked best suited to the job is Geoff Cameron — problematic considering he’s also looked like the best option in the center of defense — has never quite made it into Klinsmann’s good graces and doesn’t play the position for his club. Of course, the man who would be best in the spot doesn’t solve anything for the US. Michael Bradley would be stupendous in a deep role, but he’s the US’s best option in nearly a half-dozen spots, and Klinsmann thinks he’s more influential closer to goal. The result is another search for the next Beckerman, an unremarkable player, but one the US hasn’t been able to replace.

Without a defensive midfielder, the US’s already shoddy back line has been hung out to dry. Teams are running at them with pace time and time again, easily interchanging and playing into space. The worst thing you can ask of a back line is to defend facing its own goal, but that’s what the US are doing time and time again. They’re constantly retreating, chasing, trying to put out fires caused by a midfield that can’t stop the counterattack, slow the opposition or even force teams to play in parts of the field that don’t endanger the goal.

Even a good defense would be exposed in such situations, and the US certainly doesn’t have a good defense. That is how they’ve managed to give up three goals or more five times this season. And that doesn’t even account for the ability to control tempo, spring the counterattack or recycle the ball. That all requires the work of an entire midfield, but is keyed and led by a defensive midfielder.

SEE MORE: Gladbach add to Klinsmann’s woes by confirming Johnson’s injury.

The position has long been one of the most overlooked in the sport, in large part because there’s little sexy about it. It’s not where you find goalscorers or even assist men, while not being a defender often leaves them out of the praise heaped upon an excellent back line. But the role is often the linchpin of a team, and also exceedingly difficult to do well. The job requires the ability to read the game like a centerback, cutting out attacks before they become dangerous, and the tackling skills of one as well. It also requires the mobility of a fullback, able to drift wide and cover wide, retreat and play all over the field. And doing it well also takes a midfielder’s passing skills, because giveaways from deep in the midfield are disastrous, while the feel of when to push tempo, when to play at a slower pace and how to switch the point of play are all crucial.

Defensive midfielders have to be the best of a defender and the best of a midfielder — tactically and technically astute. Unfortunately, it is in those areas that the US player has long struggled. There are a dozen Americans who have the range, strength and tackling to play in the center of the pitch at the highest level, but combining that with the reading of the game and skill to pass from such a key place has been a struggle. Maurice Edu is the ultimate example, good enough for the lower levels, but never quite adjusting to the pace, complexities and skill needed to excel internationally. Ricardo Clark falls into the same category, as do so many other Americans who were supposed to fill the role of defensive midfielder over the last decade-plus.

Unfortunately, the US doesn’t have much on the horizon. Wil Trapp is probably the best hope, technical and smart, but the 22-year-old is in only his second full season with the Columbus Crew, and too often looks like it. Perry Kitchen could fit the role, but he’s fairly limited and doesn’t look up to snuff. After that, there isn’t much. Kelyn Acosta doesn’t even play the position regularly for his club and Marky Delgado, who started at defensive midfield for the US at the U-20 World Cup, generally plays on the wing for Toronto FC.

The US struggles to keep goals out. They struggle to limit the opposition’s chances. It’s a problem that has been pinned on the back line, but that defense is hardly being put in good positions, and they actually have some decent players there. Cameron, Matt Besler, Omar Gonzalez, John Brooks and Tim Ream are capable talents, to some degree, while Matt Miazga and Cameron Carter-Vickers provide a lot of hope for the future. That crop far outstrips the current and future prospects of the US defensive midfielders, which is composed of proven inadequacies like Williams and Morales or the one great hope, Trapp.

SEE MORE: Klinsmann fans, critics coming together to ask for the coach’s ouster.

Klinsmann can assemble a workable defense. The pieces are there and should only get better. But that defense won’t hold up to the bombardment that the midfield subjects it to. The only way to change that is to either pray for Trapp or make a major adjustment. Maybe that means dropping Bradley deep, giving the team the circulator it needs to dictate play the way Klinsmann wants. Or maybe that means moving Cameron, currently the team’s best centerback, into the midfield.

In lieu of that, expectations are going to need a readjustment. That could be on the part of the fans, who will have to accept a team that’s a sieve defensively, or it could be on Klinsmann’s part, who will have to drop nine behind the ball and protect the defensive with numbers, proactivity be damned.

The United States’ ability to be what Klinsmann wants — exciting, proactive and versatile with a potent attack — depends on a defensive midfielder. The Beckerman era is over and, as bizarre as this sounds, it means the US have taken a shot to the gut. Now they need another defensive midfielder to be the team’s watchman. For the midfield’s sake, especially for the defense’s sake and, maybe more than anyone, for Klinsmann’s sake.

Tim Howard was the United States’ goalkeeper, then he took a year off and Brad Guzan became the man between the sticks for Jurgen Klinsmann. Now Howard is back and, after the Confederations Cup final, the two goalkeepers will have a Battle of the Bald for the job. But that competition comes with a hole – it excludes arguably the best American goalkeeper.

While Howard has kept playing for Everton — usually adequately, but with some bad goals mixed in — and Guzan got demoted at Aston Villa only to win the starting job back, Bill Hamid has been the unquestioned man between the sticks for D.C. United. More than that, he’s been the best goalkeeper in all of MLS.

There was a time when Hamid was a project – more potential than end product. For every brilliant save he’d make, there would be a howler, and while his athleticism was never in question, his positioning often was. But that was two years and seemingly another career ago for Hamid, who has been nothing short of brilliant ever since.

His shot stopping is beyond reproach and his reading of the game is now better than average. The mental mistakes and lapses in judgement that made him such a liability before have all but gone. He’s every bit as dependable as he is jaw dropping.

The same can’t always be said of Howard and Guzan anymore. Mistakes may not be a regular part of Howard’s game, but they’re not especially rare, either. His positioning can leave a lot to be desired, and crosses can become an adventure. While he was marvelous in his last match for the U.S. — the record-setting show against Belgium in the World Cup — that isn’t the norm, and the last three years at Everton have proved it. Guzan is steady enough, as he showed at the Gold Cup, but he’s hardly a match-winner, and even if much of his demotion at Aston Villa can be chalked up to Tim Sherwood’s bouts with insanity, he was dropped as his club’s starting goalkeeper not even six months ago.

SEE MORE: Klinsmann’s experiments make for a difficult viewing experience.

The U.S. has long had some of the better goalkeepers in the world, starting nearly two decades ago with Brad Friedel and Kasey Keller, but that isn’t the case anymore. There are lots of competent choices, but no clear cut world class ones.

So if there is going to be a battle for the starting goalkeeper job, why isn’t Hamid given the same opportunity to win the gig as Howard and Guzan?

Klinsmann will say that Hamid has gotten his chances, earning call-ups to the national team over the last three years and two caps to go with it. He’s been in training several times, and Klinsmann has been able to watch him play. It’s not as if Klinsmann is flying blind on Hamid.

Hamid hasn’t exactly been given a fair shot, though. He’s been relegated to the group of third- or fourth-choice goalkeepers, brought into camp sporadically and for short spurts along with Sean Johnson and William Yarbrough. This despite the fact that he’s been miles better than both at the club level. It seems as if no improvement and spectacular play for D.C. United can get him out of the lower rungs of the team.

It is just D.C. United, and in the eyes of Klinsmann that is not insignificant. He’s not challenging himself at the highest level, toiling away in MLS while Howard and Guzan are playing in the Premier League. But that’s also an unfair weight to hang on Hamid, especially if it’s considered a damning one, seeing as Hamid is at the top of his game and the other two aren’t.

At this point, if Howard and Guzan are better than Hamid, it’s not by much, and the greatest difference between them is the inexperience of Hamid. There’s only one way to change that, too. With experience, the gap, if it exists, between Hamid and the current two can disappear quickly.

One thing that won’t change is the age difference between Hamid and Howard and Guzan. Hamid is just 25 years old, while Guzan checks in at 31 and Howard at 36. And while Hamid’s play has just been getting better and better, Guzan and Howard’s has been going the other way. Come the 2018 World Cup, it’s tough to envision Hamid not being the Americans’ best goalkeeper. But while Klinsmann hasn’t put huge value in experience, things are a bit different in goal, and the last thing the U.S. wants to do is hand the keys to the team to a goalkeeper with only a handful of caps at the World Cup.

Klinsmann has preached the importance of bringing along young players and, to his credit, has given players extraordinary chances all over the pitch. Whether it’s DeAndre Yedlin, Julian Green, Jordan Morris or a dozen other players, Klinsmann has bet on players early and given them every chance to prove themselves, in matches as well as in training. It didn’t always pay off right away — sometimes becoming disastrous, like at the Gold Cup — but Klinsmann remained committed.

SEE MORE: Tuesday a failure on all levels for Klinsmann, U.S. Soccer.

That attitude hasn’t applied in goal, though. Maybe Hamid isn’t the best American goalkeeper. Maybe he shouldn’t be starting for the U.S. But if not, he’s not far off the pace, and he certainly has earned the chance to compete for the gig.

Hamid’s time is coming, probably quicker than U.S. fans and even Klinsmann want to acknowledge. Hell, it might be here already.