He's lucky to be in the EPL at all, and it is possible to be a good player on a bad team. He just hasn't been a good player. If he keeps it up he'll get his move... to the Championship.
for those not paying attention, it goes something like this: The USMNT goes as far as Jozy takes us. This is his team now.
You can't score goals when you don't get service. Jozy isn't a creator, so he needs service and he hasn't gotten it.
Keep some perspective: last season, in the Netherlands, Jozy was scoring just as much as Bacon. The defenses facing Jozy now in the EPL are 10 times better than what he had in front in the Eredivisie. I'd reiterate: in the Netherlands, Mike Magee would also be scoring left and right. Those teams focus on attacking, their defense is often a single guy left behind alone to face the counter.
Jozy is a proven international goal scorer. Nothing to do with Aron Johannson. Michael Bradley scored 856 goals in the Eredivisie. That's not to belittle AJ's half a season's worth of accomplishments in the league(yeah, i know he was ace in Denmark), but perspective may help. Again, I watched the Chelsea match. Jozy played very well for what he had to work with. He always had at least one and frequently 2 defenders plastered on his back when receiving aerials. Sunderlands play around the area was until the subs pretty horrific. Jozy rarely got the in dangerous position. Still he fought. He had a great sequence at the 62nd minute in which he fought through 2 defenders and got possession of the ball in the box. Sunderland may turn out to be an excellent situation development wise. With the NT he had Zusi, Dempsey, Fabian, Bradley, and Jones setting him up. At S'land he'll need to learn to be much more proactive in his reading of the game to get at the scraps on offer.
You may "lol" all you like but it's true, as anyone who watches the Dutch league knows. I'd wait until Bacon starts scoring in a league where they actually defend; or starts scoring for the NT against a rival that is defending, and not going all in attack, desperate to get an equalizer. Scoring in Holland or Denmark is not enough to guarantee anything at the World Cup level. The Dutch themselves know that, that's why they don't call the likes of Castaignos or Falkenburg or Promes to their NT. They may score plenty in the Eredivisie, but the Dutch themselves know better than trust them in the Euro quals or WC quals.
I'd settle for AJ doing a bit more at international level. Plenty of chances have been created for him.
This service myth persists. Allow me to suggest a counterpoint. I was reading a review of the Stoke v Manures Cup match today and they wrote that Cameron sent in a beautiful cross that skimmed off the head of a Stokey whose name I forget and went off target. We know that Jozy has no aerial game. Do we want to read the same review of USA v Ghana or do we play Boyd or EJ who both have excellent scoring records off headers. There are serious questions raised in this thread.
Be honest with yourself (just an expression) and tell us if you don't think Aron has been more dogged todate with the USMNT in trying to create chances for himself. The WC will not be Dutch league. Mind, I feel Aron should play winger so I dont see him as a replacement for Jozy
In that he's more similar to Dempsey than he is to Altidore. However, trying to play him as a CAM is misguided. Just as misguided as doing so with Dempsey. They can be second strikers, wide forwards, main strikers. Neither is fit to be the organizer of the attack, IMO. I can see Mix fulfilling that role, if needed. Although chances are the organizers will continue to play wide (Fabian and Donovan).
The problem at Sunderland is that he is reading the game, but the passes he expects to land where they should (if it was a good pass) don't go there. Regardless it looks like he puts forth effort to pressure (runs at the ball) when he has no support and then when there is support he barely moves or follows through on movement when he anticipates loss of possession. He needs to fix that and use effort to pressure at the right times and keep his movement and readiness up throughout plays past the point of possession loss.
MB will be neutralized by JJ's nonsensical behavior on the pitch and his own penchant for getting caught out of position and/or getting muscled in transition. Because we will pack it in and play defensive football - See french friendly from last year - our goal opportunities and scoring will be nonexistent unless Jozy can manufacture a couple moments and goals. It doesnt help that FJ seems to be losing grace in Huffelpuffenheim.
Surely, AJ won't bully defenders like Jozy often does, but I strongly disagree with the "needs to be facing goal" part. See Bosnia game. Facing away from goal, he flicked the ball around a defender to set up his own shot and also played the 1-2 with Kljestan which led to Jozy's 3rd. You don't have to be huge to hold the ball up. Having said all that, Jozy should start against top teams with either AJ in the old Dempsey LW role or as a super sub.
While everyone, from the kid collecting bottles outside the stadium of lite to Jozy himself wishes he was scoring more, it is not uninteresting to look at the 2 times Jozy has put the ball in the net for S'land. He won a WWE wresting battle with Sagna. Sure the Frenchie is not 15 anymore, but if Jozy could more consistently win those 1 v 1 wrestling mataches (and he wins lots, to be fair) he would score more. The second was backing in on Terry, turning and hammering a left footed, quick release very opportunistic back to goal shot. If Jozy can replicate either of those moves (which were both against top team internationals - perhaps a tad past their prime, but no 17 year old pimple faced kid from Molde either.) in the WC, he's aces. If he can draw attention and set up LD/Demps/AJ/MB/FJ to score out of the midfield he's aces. And to be fair, Jozy team-defends very well these days when asked, which will not be a bad trait in this group. Jozy's a streaky scorer. Who cares about November. We should all pray he stays healthy until April, then turn on the gas. All said, AJ is and will continue to be a legitimate contender as partner or replacement. Some serious competition is always good and at some point JK will go with the hot hand. AJ could be Charlie 2.0 in the right situation as well.
That's defective coaching. IMO, a coach worth his salt would have made Jones --and Bradley-- understand their role already, and how to fit it to each other, or would have benched one of the two for good. The opportunity-manufacturing guy for the USMNT for about a decade has been Donovan. Let's hope he still has some magic left in his bag of tricks.
It's a little concerning that this thread keeps getting replies, when the initial premise is so monumentally stupid. And now I'm part of the problem.
Well, we qualified for the hex by not calling up Jozy. A lot of people thought that was monumentally stupid. I'm guessing Jurgen will not want to be that unpopular again. What for, really...
"We qualified for the Hex by not calling up Jozy..." Germany, Portugal, and Ghana are not El Salvador, Antigua and Barbuda, and Jamaica. Jozy is by far the best American forward. He's in a crappy situation at Sunderland, where he gets no service. Since you called that a myth, please force yourself to actually sit through a Sunderland game. They can't get him the ball. They are incapable of sending a ball to the striker's feet, the only way that the striker (whether it's Jozy or Fletcher) has a prayer of doing anything with it until his teammates get up field. On crosses, Sunderland rarely get a cross in undeflected, and when they do they rarely clear the first defender. Even their buildup is completely ineffective. They pass it from side to side along the back line, in to Ki, and back to a center back, before inevitably sending a prayer up to the lone forward, who's battling two EPL caliber centerbacks. As for the statement that Jozy has no aerial game, that is just untrue. He is not an elite aerial threat. He is not particularly good in the air given his size. But those statements are very different from saying he has no aerial game. He's scored a large enough number of headers that it is dishonest to act as if he can't score with his head, just to benefit your argument.
Sunderland's midfield reminds me of a ball hog in basketball. There are better offensive options but that midfield ie Adam Johnson loves holding onto the ball until the defense takes it away.
Of course he has no aerial game in Sunderland. Fletcher doesn't, either. Impossible to have an aerial game when the crosses go five feet above your head.