Jozy and the Footycats: Altidore at Sunderland

For me, it really went off the rails from the Arsenal loss, which somehow he seemed to pin on Altidore and Johnson (who had all of 23 combined non-defensive touches when yanked at halftime). Then, Altidore sat out the next two games, the cup final loss and the embarrassing FA Cup loss to Hull (which Johnson also did not start, FYI). While Altidore sat, Sunderland went 216 minutes without goal and somewhere in this whole stretch it became his fault to a degree that he had to not only be left out of the cup final (which was total BS, no matter what Poyet says), but he also had to be demoted to a reserve match.

Of course, trying to make sense of anything that team does is the errand of a fool. Nothing much makes sense around there for a few seasons and a few managers now.

 

he can if its all part of the same action, which it was, Jozy only got free of the hold by pushing. Good luck trying to change my mind on this.

 

Turning is really not a problem for him normally, our memory banks are littered with AZ/USMNT highlights when he turned on somebody like a villain. For whatever reason, he is just not even trying to do this very often with Sunderland. It is among my biggest complaints of his play this season, because lemme tell ya, he turns one guy high and suddenly everyone will be granting him more space to face the area from its top - where he definitely often thrives.

 

Said before France or Turkey would be good level for Jozy, but he could be a hero in France. Does Josmer speak French?

I prefer he not go back to Netherlands.

 

Ready-made thread title- "Nothing Toulouse- Altidore in France." Grazie.

 

Then he gets to play in the CL at least.

 

He is not good enough for EPL level, not even at the last club of the league.

Time to go to a league that is suitable to his skills like the Championship, Dutch league or MLS.

 

Most of the Sunderland team are not good enough for the EPL level either.

 

Don't know about that, few players like Borini and Scocco could do well at the midtable-teams.

 

Sorry, I should have said most. I'd say 80% of their team is Championship standard.

 

Agree.

 

I really just don't get the flat out hatred of playing soccer in England. But then again, after spending the better part of the season reading through this thread, irrational thinking is the main thrust of 85% of the posts.

 

What is the "EPL level" anyway? The lower half of the table is pretty much all teams that bounce back and forth between there and the Championship, so you could argue that most of the league isn't really "EPL level," they're just teams that are filling out the ranks for the few teams that really matter to show their stuff.

 

I'd be curious to know what was said behind closed doors after that game. Up until that point they were starting to play better as a team. After that, it was every man for himself.

 

I disagree. I say most of them are, but then most of them are performing so woefully below their capability and/or past performances. This team is well worse than the sum of its parts.

 

Was about to say roughly the same thing. This is the wrong combination of players.

They desperately needed an on field general that everyone respected and followed and was able to keep everyone moving the same direction. They kept switching managers trying to achieve that effect. Now with them on the verge of going down and a lot of contracts going away, the "reset button" can finally be pushed. Hopefully better people can fill the leadership rolls.

 

I don't think there is any hatred. We just don't like seeing our guys play on putrid teams in the EPL.

 

but putrid teams in Germany and France are OK? I get that playing on a team fighting relegation is a no-win situation. For every Dempsey at Fulham, there are a Parkhurst in Germany, Feilhaber in Derby, Bradley in AV, Jozy in Hull, Davies in France.

Anyway that's not what I read here. Somehow only savages play soccer in England according to way too many posters here.

 

Our guys are more likely to be on decent teams in those leagues. And frankly, the polarization that comes with the EPL can leave a player ill-labeled which is annoying to fans of that player (us).

 

He has Haitian family, including his mom. Haitians speak a French patois, so he probably does too, and could learn the main language easily.

Toulouse is a mid-table team. A lot better than this Sunderland, a club I wouldn't be surprised to see in League One in a while.

 

When player X plays poorly in country Y for a not so good team Z, BS posters generally read fewer reports or criticisms about player X due to language barrier. If a local fan of team Z brings us the bad news, we can run such a fan off BS. If the same player plays in EPL, we can all read the criticisms and reports. We can even go to team Z's supporter board and pick out quotes that can be used to justify our claim that their fans have been so unfair to player X. Well, at least that's part of the reason.

 

The English invented the game as a mod of rugby, and they haven't forgotten it. The lower table teams in the EPL still have a lot of rugby in them: the fouling, the hoof-the-ball out of the back, the runs without combinations, the long-ball hoping for a header, the blind crosses hoping for a lucky rebound, the overall lack of sophisticated tactics.

Personally, I rather have our players in bottom-half clubs in the continent, than in bottom-half clubs in England.

 

After that season will they come in at Sunderland's valuation, is the question. Such a move to a lower league would surely be good for him, hopefully it happens.

 

You've got that backwards.

 

Modern rugby and modern football are like the modern chimp and the modern man: both come from the same ancestors. But those ancestors were closer to rugby. Using hands or not was left to each 'school', but tactically, it was punt and run and push and throw.