Two central midfielders (Bradley and Diskerud) did our scoring with two sweet volleys. Williams with a brainfart that I'm willing to cut him slack for. Jones did a lot of hard work and at times looked like a left winger. Edu with a secondary assist.
As I said in another thread, I don't know what to think of Jones today. He had some good moments, but nothing that really started an attack and the negative killed a bunch of chances. I think he's still part of the squad but IMO he needs to be on the bench right now. Danny Williams had some bad lapses in judgement but calmed down in the 2nd half. Gatt looked good on the wing to me. Not great, but it was encouraging. He made a couple runs early that helped get attacks started. Sacha was kind of there. Nothing really negative or positive. Mikey was our best player IMO. Mix scored which is great, would've liked to have seen more of him, but he did look calm on the ball.
Williams: Like the announcer said, you're going to have games like this. Especially in bumpy fields, with opponents going studs up and the refs letting everything go. He played well, the thing was that he would make some really bad passes for no reason whatsoever. Jones: The guy is all class, tenacious, contributed on both sides. IMO, JK plays him way too high but he does very well. Oh, btw: No yellow. Bradley: I can't see a game where he won't be the best midfielder, for both teams. Edu: He shut it down. Smooth as always in his limited time. Kljestan: Played his part. Mixx: Didn't play for too long by what I've seen from the other games he deserves a call up for winter camp and the Gold Cup. Gatt: I'd like to see more of him, less of Corona. Overall the midfield was good, they seemed nervous throughout the match and this was true in the first 20 minutes. I didn't like that defensive midfielders play way too high (Bradley and Jones), which sometimes left Williams the choice of either retreating and giving up 20 yards or challenging the attacker and leaving a huge gap between the midfield and the defense. I think we most play with Donovan in the middle with Bradley in support in a 4-3-1-2, both Williams and Jones should stay in front of the defense unless Bradley gets back.
Were we watching the same game? Edu's touch was horrible, he had a giveaway near the end because his ball control was so poor he couldn't shield the Russian player. His passing was mediocre. He was about as smooth as a shot of Pepe Lopez tequila. Playing 9 minutes of club ball the whole season I'm sure had something to do with that though
Williams: - I suspect from Hoffenheim and previous US matches that he's much better in games that feature more half-court and less transition. This match unfortunately for him featured a lot more transition. A lock in Concacaf but one of the other mids could have started here. Jones: a mature controlled match. Was excellent in the attack. Bradley: man of the match. well taken goal. covered ground immensely getting into the area and getting back to defend. Smart in the passing game. Edu, Diskerud, and Kljestan showed well.
I thought that Bradley was not only the best US field player, but was the best field player out there for either team. Slick tackles, crafty footwork, probing passes, and a golazo that shocked Krasnodar. Jones was up and down. I had hoped to see more physical play from him to balance out the mugging that was taking place by Russia's #7. Williams had a forgettable night.
The dude was brought in to play in front of the defense, kill any attack at any cost and make safe passes. Sounds easy? Ask Williams. I think he even had a hockey assist.
They weren't DM's. Williams was the lone DM tonight. In a 4-3-3 on attack both CM's have some freedom to get forward with a single "6" behind that stays home. They were doing what was asked of them. I think we played our strongest CM trio today but we need to be better in possession when attacking. Way too many poor passes today from many of our players.
Jones is a top player in terms of overall quality, but everytime I watch him play I come away that he needs to be a sub. Spacing, finishing, movement, and too many touches, all hurt the offensive side of the ball. He's need to be upgraded with a more offensive minded CM.
I mentioned this in th pre game thread dual 8's have to play with each other a lot and either way one of them is more ofensive or defensive. Jones and Bradley generlly get in each others way. But hey they had that one pay where they almost combined at the the top of the russian box. On a side note does anyone else get the sense that our team compared to most national teams is just very disorganized? I think it comes from the fact that most of there guys have played in the same league at some point. Really an unheralded advantage of nations with solid home leagues.
I'm sure that when one of our offensive-minded CM's establish themselves on a regular Champions League squad over several years that they will get looks over Jones. Jones had some good moments today.
Jones is getting a lot of stick, but I think he seemed to improve as the match went on and created some great opportunities in the 2nd half. Kljestan should have, at a minimum, supersub status on lock.
I think this would be a bad way to approach it. Much like starting Eddie Johnson over Jozy. Its not just about their quality for their club or what level of club they play for- its about how the whole is better than the sum of their parts. Jones is clearly, as an individual, one of our top players in terms of talent. He does't fit well with the system and the other players.
I agree with most of what you're saying, but if you're not an attacking midfielders then you're defensive midfielder. Both Jones and Bradley played the Pirlo or Xavi role, the holding midfielder role. They don't play like Kaka or Ozil or Carzola or Pastore, etc. They're deep laying midfielders that have the ability to attack, and FYI, there are very few countries that have players like Bradley and Jones and even less countries with players of their abilities. I would even venture to say that we're better at creating these type players than goalkeeprs. I also agree that that's our strongest midfield. Capello couldn't do anything to control it and we were always in the game.
He was pretty good in D, but when we get the ball back we can't have immediate turnovers due to poor passing and shoddy skill. He made safe passes but withe his MLS assist notwithstanding a lot of his other passes were on target but hard for players to control. Williams didn't have a great day either, I guess in comparisson Edu was better but better doesn't mean good. I mostly just don't like that we're putting someone in a game who isn't even consistently making the gameday roster for his club. I think other players could have done just as well, if not better, in the same role.
Same issue that has been problematic with this squad for some time. Jones and Bradley are two of our best players but they are far too close to the same player. I'd be surprised if Klinsmann doesn't just keep running them out there and try to get them to learn to play together and stay out of each others' way. Really hard to send either of them to the bench as Bradley is a big, big part of this team's heart and Jones is our most accomplished player at club level. I am encouraged that there are moments throughout all of our games where they sync up. If they ever do get in tune on a more regular basis, we end up with something quit likely better than what we have if we just bench one of them and fill his spot with a lesser player.
Glad to see the Mixmaster finally given a look by JK. Imo he is our second best 8 after Bradley. Since JK has shown a willingness to play both Bradley and Jones, why not try Bradley and Mix. Might be a better combination. I think Mix has a bit more creativity in the final third than Jones, which is something this team could really use.
That's what friendlies are for, though. I need to see his stats but he did do his job, as soon as he came on the Russians put a lot of pressure him and he either had to make a dangerous pass to the defense or risk a bad pass. You have to cut him some slack because he came in very late when Russia wanted to kill the game and he was put in a tough situation. The main thing was to kill attacks by any means necesarity (like Kljestan did when he got his yellow) and he did his job. Other than that Klinsmann could've taken out a forward instead of Willaims and push Bradley up even higher but we needed a goal. I'm comfortable with JK's decisions for this game, I rather give Edu a chance than to bring yet another new face that would need to be accomodated.
I personally don't like the Bradley + Jones+ Williams midfield trio. All 3 are similar in style and how they play. Bradley being better than the other two.
He seems to try and do too much for USA. He dribbles too much and dawdles on the ball. With Shalke, he plays a very disciplined, minimalist game. He did improve in the second half against Russia, so I'm hoping that he sees the beauty in simplicity.
That's why I like Williams a little more. I feel like he just gets and moves the ball and doesn't play outside of himself. Plus Williams is less likely to get red carded. With that said Williams made a big mistake today.