Anyone shocked how far Benny has fallen? At Bundesliga Hamburg, his coach thought he was going to be a great talent. Now he is not starting for NE instead of 17 year old Fagundez. This is a more rapid decline than Kirovski.
Yeah, that would make sense if he was being benched in favor of brutes. He's not. Creative young players like Rowe and Fagundez started over him today, and they combined for a goal.
Benny's one of my favorite players, personally, but I can't really make much of an argument for him. This hasn't been a good year for him, and I honestly don't know why. Kind of a snapshot in time of the mood (not as proof of anything), he had three chances saved late that all could've pulled NE level.
The dude has been here for about a day and is not liking supercooper's shenanigans. I dig it (no offense).
Shenanigans? Go back 5 years ago, and you could argue that Benny was as skillful as any American player around. This is a steep, steep drop, I'm afraid.
Simply put. It seems to be a physical problem. MLS appreciates skill just as much as the Championship or the EPL but if you dont have both then its a problem. He gets brushed of the ball a bit too easily tbh. Fix your physical game Benny or I suggest a move to Mexico (which would be fantastic imo). He isnt playing at his highest ability either but when you are even slightly off form & dont fit with physicality, it can cause bad problems.
its high irony. but Fagundez, Rowe, Toja, Rowe, Cardenas. They are stacked at talented skillful midfielders. And they have forwards that are plenty good enough in Sene and Bengston, and they just recently picked up a young french forward who is on the level whose name escapes me. Its their black hole of a defense thats killing them. As far as young midfielders with swagger, Rowe REALLY should be getting a look at in january if Camp Strudel is still a thing. That said, it was Feilhaber's first game being benched i believe. Hardly a pattern. If it does develop into a pattern though, as good as those players are that are his competition, a player with his pedigree should be beating those guys out. If not and its a locker room issue, im sure there are plenty of MLS teams who would jump at the chance. Lets wait and see though if its a bobby convey situation, but one game being benched is calling wolf if you ask me.
also if a trade were to happen, id say the most likely candidates would be Chivas USA and Portland, and would much prefer Portland with Caleb Porter there. Thats the sort of player that Caleb wants desperately. Id say Chivas USA would be a good fit........but i remember saying that for Agudelo, Califf, and Sharlie Joseph too and look how thats turned out.
Chivas or Portland make a lot of sense for Benny- good post. Remember Benny is from Southern Cal too.
you know.....i initially did, then i deleted him, i have no idea why. guess i felt they didnt play the same position boy we were all pretty wrong doubting him, that dude is a bulldog......i love Lee's game.
I blame his time at Derby. His development seemed to stop whilst he was riding the pine on that sinking ship.
Id agree with that too. I remember seeing that over at YA and thinking "oh dear lord......thats not gonna go well". That really was the worst Premiership team ive seen since ive become an avid supporter. Worse than Reyna's Sunderland even.
This is at least his second benching. He was coincidentally also benched at the same time as Adu a few weeks ago.
Should have never come back to MLS. The retarded allocation left him little choice in where he went. Now some think Chivas and Portland are his best options, outside of NE? Quite a shitty position to be in.
to be honest i went down the line, i couldnt think of any other team that would give him an assured start save for those two. And Caleb Porter's scheme fits him like a glove, it would give him the keys to the car like Freddy got in Phili. And theres plenty of good players around him; the timbers struggles have really perplexed me they are stacked with young talent. it would be up to him to succeed in it.
If you go back to the 2006-2007 season with Hamburg, Benny was a 21 year old who had done well enough to get starts in midfield alongside Rafael VdVaart (Dutch national team + later Real Madrid, Tottenham), Sorin (capped 75 times for Argentina), Jarolim (capped 23 times for the Czech Republic) AND Feilhaber was keeping Trachowski (Sevilla) on the bench. N de Jong (AC Milan and Dutch national team) got hurt to open up a spot for Benny. Look at the quality above! Wow! This is why it is stunning, as a 27 year old with a load of top experience(s), he is behind 17 year old Fagundez.
It does sound like both Adu and Feilhaber need the same solution. Might be fun to see a midfield with Adu-Feilhaber-Nagbe/Zizzo with Jewsbury as DM in Portland or at Chivas: Adu-Feilhaber-Bolanos with Joseph as the DM at Chivas Last stop at the OK Corral for those 2.
i still honest to god believe the best our midfield has looked since 2007 was the Bradley-Feilhaber middle we ran from around the Ecuador friendly to the Gold Cup final. I thought those two complimented each other perfectly.
I agree with him fitting perfectly in Porter's scheme. But Freddy was never given the keys to the car in Philly.
Jeld-Wen can accomodate larger pitch dimensions than what they currently have. Spencer wanted the lines drawn as tightly as possible because his side was longer on physicality than anything else. They can go with a slightly bigger pitch next season should they so choose. (Personally, if I've got the likes of Benny, Nagbe, and Zisso, I might want to consider it.)
Interesting about Benny as I remember him being one of those players I thought would develop into a mainstay in the US national team program. It is hard to believe the year he is having...