He's got a long way to go obviously. But if he can get significant minutes, even as a sub, in BL2, that would be a good start. IIRC, Gooch was at Clemson at 19. Obviously quite the different level of both training and play. For anyone who's seen him play, what are Brooks' strengths and weaknesses?
From what I read from Hertha Berlin fans in some of Hertha Berlin forums they think Brooks has a lot of potential, and they think he might be the next great player coming from Hertha's youth system but he is 19 still too early too tell. Hopefully we will get to see Brooks play if the US qualifies for next years U20 WC in Turkey.
Obviously the kid is probably still growing into his body so there may be slight coordination concerns. But he's built like Boateng who came out of Hertha's system and he's been compared to him a bit in the past and hopefully he turns into a left footed version of JB.
John Anthony Brooks played the entire second half in a 2-0 preseason victory against Viktoria 89 who play in the German 5th division.
So spielte Hertha: Burchert - Ndjeng (46. Morales), Brooks (46. Neumann), Lustenberger, Schulz (46. Bastians) - Rukavytsya (46. Beichler), Kluge (46. Perdedaj), Ronny (46. Diring), Knoll (66. Holland) - Ramos (46. Raffael), Kachunga (46. Djuricin) Tore: 0:1 Mahmutovic (73.) http://www.herthabsc.de/de/teams/test-teplice/page/829--45--.html 0-1 loss to Teplice of the Czech league today. Brooks played the first half, Morales played the second half.
My god, who'd thunk that a better version of Gooch is even possible? ('we can rebuild him...we have the technology')
Looks like Brooks had a good game against Norwich City, in the link below around the 11th paragraph it says that "John Anthony Brooks made a crucial intervention to cut out another dangerous Elliott Bennett cross". http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/sport/norwich_city_2_hertha_berlin_3_1_1454530
I have gone to a few Hertha forums and the fans really like him and think he has played really well especially for a 19 year old, I heard he had a really good game and was solid against Juventus. Brooks and Hubnik are expected to be the starting CBs when the season starts next Friday against SC Paderborn, because defenders Franz and Jenker are still recovering from injuries.
So Hertha will sell Brooks for nothing becomes they think he's mediocre and he actually turns into one of the better defenders in the world. I'll take that.