Look you just joined today and immediately started out on me in this thread. its pretty obvious man whats going on here. Anyway the point of this thread is that dempsey is now playing much better thanks to AVB sitting down with Clint and showing him what he needed to do to play better and he is doing it. Good on him its going to make him better for us in 2013 and 2014.
He was looking pretty poor for the first half of the season. He just started to come good this week. It was pleasant to see. I hope he keeps it up. It is not necessary to be so epithetical. I know this fourberie going on seems fun but proceed.
Well Spurs are my favorite team. It is easy to get hyperbolic about these things. He has played well in these past 3 games. I was happy to see him play better. you just joined where is all this hostility coming from?
For those interested here is the story about AVB sitting Dempsey down... http://www.london24.com/sport/totte...i_m_now_finding_my_feet_in_new_role_1_1708891 I think these things will go a long way to helping him play even better in our 4-3-3 in the US.
The consensus among USMNT posters (as much as there ever is a consensus) has been that for all the tinkering Klinsi has done, our central midfield lacks creativity and flair. Lots of suggestions have been made for how to get that creative spark with the majority of the focus on Landon or Dempsey. Although both Clint and Donovan are creative players, their playing styles are very different. Landon plays fast combinations, beats defenders with bursts of speed and make incisive passes. I think Landon's passing is what makes him appeal to so many as the apparent playmaker for the US but he's most effective playing in space. IMHO, Clint's physicality and close control make him the better fit in a central role because he can absorb contact and maintain possession in traffic. AVB taking the time to effectively transition Clint into the #10 role seems to be paying dividends for Tottenham and could be a huge boon to the USMNT.
All very true. Excellent post. I think the best thing to do might just be to allow both of them to take their turns playing the number 10, then. When one is acting as the 10 and attempting to create, the other should race into dangerous positions. Dempsey, for instance, is an absolute menace for defenses that just sit in their own half because he is such a fox in the box, while Donovan's blistering speed makes him perfect for getting in behind defenses playing a high line. I think that Bob Bradley did this really well in the second half against Ghana. Dempsey was a withdrawn/second forward, pushing up alongside Altidore, but also dropping into the hole and drawing the defensive midfielder's attention away from Donovan, who would subsequently drift inside and play some great passes. This all culminated in the penalty, where Landon and Clint combined excellently. It should also be noted that Benny Feilhaber had an excellent entry pass into Donovan that started the whole deal - I can't help but wonder if Jermaine Jones is capable of that same kind of play. Either way, great to see Dempsey adapting his game and learning to play the final ball. I've always thought that he had great vision, but the touch on his passes tends to leave you wanting. Very surprising considering he's spent most of his career in Europe, but he more than compensates in other ways.
he played for fulham though under 4 different managers. fulham isnt known for bright passing football. totenham have proven to showcase that at times. (not always mind you....oh not always but we tend to be a forward thinking club...I remeber first watching in the 90s when sometimes we had 4 strikers on the pitch!!! oh Ginola!!! what a crazy guy!)
Right. Fulham suited Clint well because it was in a competitive league and they had players that provided good service when he got into good spots. However, it didn't really stress the importance of he himself serving up a good ball. That's not to say Clint's passing hasn't really improved, but that it was never made crucial to his game.
Serve the good ball up to who? There wasn't anybody. So he shot the ball himself which is what they wanted him to do.
Funny thing about CD in the EPL, my impression is that every single time he's gotten a new manager, the new manager has had to get their head around how to use him and how valuable he really is. Seems like every manager (even Jol) that came in (and his 1st mgr @ Fulham, too) has tried to bench him. Then they eventually figured out that he was indespensable to that team.
I completely agree, except that imo Bradley did that with them starting midway through the ConfedCup. From then on, they were sort of twin-10's, or alternating 10's. Crazy thing, they almost never combined, it was usually one or the other. They weren't truly 10's b/c they had to track back. But, they surely had the scoring burden that a 10 carries. I thought BB used them brilliantly. As for how they should be used now, it's a mystery to me. There is such a jumble for so many of the other spots. And, the team seems technically a lot better. And, Klinsi certainly has us playing a different style - there are so many options now, there isn't a starting 11 that I could pencil in and say "this is clearly our best option." Especially given how little time Dono&Demps have had w/ the team.
The conventional wisdom--which I subscribed to--was Dempsey didn't excel at laying on assists. May have just been the quality of strikers to play off of.
Dempsey's work off the ball has been the difference in his recent performances. He is setting himself up to find players once he gets the ball. His instincts have been to make the finisher's runs, which are sometimes exactly what a creator should not be doing. He has been better at taking angles that his teammates can play off of and then finding them. This is a good development for the US Team, should it continue.
Agree. That is his mad Texas genius. The key is: him fitting together with his teammates in that madness.
Exactly and thank you sir. Intangibles? Contributes beyond metrics that are measured but are none the less vital.. I think the question in the OP is yes, and a great big HAIL YES if we are seein ghim starting to settle in and find his way after the AVB talk.
I would love to see Demps as our CAM. I never really thought of him as that because he was such an ace goal scorer but we've never had a CAM before. Would just need to get Jozy banging on all cylinders for the nats.
I have not seen many of his games this season, but in reading the reports it seems the coach trusts him. If they finish in the top 4 and he is a starter, as he is now, it will only help the US team. No matter how many goals he scores.
Agreed. He will not score as many goals in this role but if things go well we should see double digit assists.
It's interesting that AVB persisted with Dempsey through the adjustment period when the player wasn't an AVB target.
He served up plenty of good balls from deeper positions at Fulham, the kinds of passes that set the table for the attack. He also served up good final balls that just weren't finished.