Ream would struggle a lot in Serie A I think. While it is not as physical as England, you've got to be a tough defender.
When I was growing up, this was the gold standard for lunch box treasure - twinkie snd hoho's were cooper and silver. Mikey is a treasure ... there back on topic.
This is already starting to happen. He is starting to show he can be world class (IMO) at the '6' position. He has all the qualities. He can score from outside the box, he is a neat, tidy, passer of the ball. He has great long pass accuracy. He is a tenacious tackler, is decently quick, and knows how to support his backline always going to pick up the ball to distribute from the back.
Yep. I'm really not much of an Ives fan, myself, but the original tweet was: @worldfootballcm: Stat of the Day courtesy of Michael Bradley of Roma after 80': 63 passes w/ a 95 percent completion rate. Stay calm and pass it to Bradley. Amoia is well worth following, btw. Often translates press conferences.
MB rated 6.5 and both Totti and Lamela get 6 according to the Gazzetta. Whether "the opponent was pressing enough for Bradley to have been important" is a truly bizarre comment and anyways wouldn't that have influenced both Lamela and Totti's rating as well.
what is interesting abut Michael is that, while he is not running fast, he is soccer fast. I think of him as our Zidane. That guy was slow as hell, BUT he was damn quick in a soccer match.
Did you watch the game? Torino sat back and allowed Bradley space to collect the ball from defense and play it safely forward to the other midfielders or forwards. He almost always played the safe pass. He did his job well, but he was not pressured that often. Totti and Lamela created the lion's share of Roma's chances.
This is a true observation. But I also saw where he was a third CB (at times), and when Torino would jumble the ball in the box, he'd tidly (is this a word?) pass the ball out of the back, first time when the torino players would do a loose pass. He'd ping it out of trouble to a midfielder for a quick counter attack. He's sharp in that area. Sure, there wasn't much pressure on that game, once second half, Torino hit a mental wall... but Totti, Lamela, Osvaldo, all were having issues communicating and missing passes, going left instead of right, just not understanding... and playing pretty sloppy! Mike had the cleanest passes of all the players, direct, on point, and always accurate. There is only one time where Totti did a back heel/flip where mikey didn't understand/see it coming and he was kind of bitched at by Totti for staying back instead of making the run for his back heel into space. He's your classic 6 that game. Great performance by him.
I understood what you were getting at. Mo Edu is a serviceable 6 until he gets pressed. That is when you notice his lack of quality.
Totti and Lamela played different positions then MB and thus had different responsibilities. Your "they didn't press him enough" argument still rings hollow. Reminds me of Mexicans complaining that Tim Howard stopped too many shots. Again Gazzeta rated MB higher than both Totti and Lamela, as did I and possibly Zeman since Totti came off. So did they get it wrong or are you just smarter than the Italian sportswriters?
I'm guessing you and Bruce have some history that compells your crankiness, but saying Bradley is "our Zidane" does not necessarily express or imply that Bradley is of the same quality as Zidane; just that he's the closest thing we have to it. That doesn't seem too outrageous a view.
Not outrageous, but it is a good illustration of one of the many funny phenomena regularly seen on BS. Whenever one poster compares two players of different stature (or era, or country, or position, or ...) to illustrate a point, you can almost be certain another poster will jump in to complain that the two players don't belong in the same sentence together (or some variant of that thought).
The point is that his style is nowhere similar to Zidane, even taking into account their difference in quality. Zidane was a classic number 10 and the most creative player in the world. He was valued for his skill and vision. He was not known for his defensive qualities. Mikey, on the other hand, is known first and foremost as a defensive player who is also tidy with the ball. He's not an especially skilled player with the ball at his feet. No one has ever confused him with a number 10, however. His game is nothing like Zidane's. The only similarity is that they play in the middle of the midfield. The closest thing we have to Zidane would be Fredua, of all people.
I would never make the comparison. I did for the sake of example. And you completely failed to respond to the substance of my post.
"The closest thing we have" is a comparison, and you made it. The substance of your post was not really relevant to my original point, but if you compare your 'asinine' post (#91) to your clarifying post (#95), perhaps the light will begin to dawn. The former is pure BS reflex; the latter defends a point of view. Okay, I'm done ...
Since he didn't I will. Bruce said nothing about skill on the ball, but rather observed mikey ain't quick in the traditional sense, but he gets by in soccer games, kinda like Zidane aint all that quick, but he did all right. You saw the two names in the same sentence, and then WHOOSH the baby was out the window.