Mike Bradley: UEFA Cup 9/20 Heerenveen vs Helsingborg (R)

Almost never. He is a RM or CM in a 3 or 4 most of the time.

Sorry, yes he did have 1 goal with the Metros. That is his only other goal though. I dont count the U20, and I wouldnt count it for any player. Its clearly a level below a quality professional league.

total, utter nonsense. Gattuso, Davids and almost every top defensive midfielder in the world get called for PKs-because it is their job to stop the attack by ALL means necessary. Not that Mike can't improve, but it is also his job to snuff the attack.

There's also the fact that Gattuso wasn't even remotely close to the same player when he was 20.

Gattuso started his career at the Italian side Perugia, but transferred in July 1997, at the age of 19, to the Scottish team Rangers. Walter Smith, who brought Gattuso to Glasgow, left the club in 1998. Smith's successor, Dick Advocaat, did not favour Gattuso and, after being played out-of-position as a right-back, the Italian was sold in October 1998 to Salernitana for £4m.

That's right, when Gattuso was 20, he was playing at Salernitana. The team was promptly relegated, but they did have some other good talent in the late 90's (Di Vaio, David Di Michele, Fresi, etc.)

Shortly thereafter, I think in 99, Gattuso moved to AC Milan. That's when he started to develop into the player we know now.

Michael Bradley is only 20. He's still developing, learning how to be a world-class central midfielder, and he's going to make mistakes. He was never going to start his first season at Herenveen and play like Patrick Viera. It takes time to learn the craft. Playing donkey-ball for the metros was never going to do it (sorry I'm a DC Fan).

Good observations. I'd restate this slightly to say that he is in the process of refining a game that, on many levels, is already exceptional. I posted several times over the last couple of weeks something to the effect that Bradley, in my view, has two serious weaknesses. One is failure to get his shots on the goal and the other is a penchant for mental lapses in his tackling. He has clearly taken some steps to rectify the first of these. The second should be obvious to everyone.

To repeat, he is only 20 and he is still refining his game. Identifying the fine line between too much aggression and too little is one of the most important parts of the game a defender has to learn. Acting on the judgment of when to tackle, risking a PK, or when not to tackle, risking a goal scoring opportunity, is even harder. It remains to be seen whether Bradley acquires this particular judgment skill or remains a Mastroeni-like player, unable to finesse his way out of those tough situations without a major foul. Personally, I think MB is playing at such a high level for someone of his age that he will easily overcome the problem. Let's look at his red/yellow card accumulation at the end of the season and discuss the topic then.

I think its irrelevant. The point is that MB is starting to produce when his team needs it most-while Alves is out being flaky. Not bad for a 20 year old kid.

I basically agree with all of that. It is VERY different whether he is taking cards because he is very clumsy or because he is agile but playing aggressively. With Mike, it is clearly the latter.

He seems clumsy with his aggressiveness sometimes, though. He also has the inability to clear balls (or make solid contact) that are hanging in the air. My guess is vertigo.

I find it funny how Mike's play is called "aggressive" while other players who have made similar bonehead, costly fouls and crunching tackles have been called "reckless". I also find it funny that it appears Mike has made DUMB decisions on more than a few occasions but he's still described as a "smart" player. He's had some severe mental lapses. You can chalk it down to being young, but you'd think that, at the least, he would learn from his mistakes.

I think he's a promising young player though. As with most young players his decision making is inconsistent.

Agile, aggressive.

Clumsy, vertiginous.

Boneheaded, reckless.

Ives links some video ...

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x30ync_heerenveen-helsingborg-53_sport

and adds his comments ...

"For those of you who haven't seen them yet, here is a highlight reel of the goals from Heerenveen's 5-3 victory against Helsingborg, including both of Michael Bradley's goals. Bradley's second goal is especially impressive, though the penalty-drawing tackle he delivers in the next sequence brings a cringe. Overall, still a great showing from a 20, yes 20-year-old American midfielder."

Does he give credit to JD and BS?

Not exactly ...

http://njmg.typepad.com/sbi/2007/09/video-of-michae.html

....

"Kudos to SBI Mafia member Frank Perez, AKA FP from the Left Coast, for providing this one."

http://www.[B]uefa.com[/B]/competitions/uefacup/news/kind=1/newsid=588944.html

....

SC Heerenveen 5-3 Helsingborgs IF

Helsingborg are still in with a chance of progressing after a spirited comeback from three goals down at half-time. Heerenveen made a flying start with Gianni Zuiverloon setting up Michael Bradley to opening the scoring, before Gerald Sibon added two more before the interval. The away side responded with Henrik Larsson and Razak Omotoyossi on target early in the second half, but Kristian Nielsen and Bradley restored the three-goal advantage. Larsson's second from the penalty spot completed the goal count, after Bradley had brought down Ólafur Ingi Skúlason, and kept the Swedish club in the tie.

....

Well one thing we can be sure of is that it's unlikely we'll ever get to accuse Michael of "disappearing" in a match. For better or worse the guy gets involved.

Here's the time sequence of the goals and yellow cards ...

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/uefacup/fixturesresults/round=15118/match=301434/report=ev.html

Heerenveen has 10 goals in 2 games, so as a team they are certainly clicking. Michael is definately a part of that. However, past history would indicate this run is more of a fluke than a trend, and from what I saw in highlights and the sheer number of goals his team has scored I would tend to assume this is an anomaly rather than a start of a new trend.

The rule of thumb I apply to any young player is they are only as good as they are right now. Don't try and project too much onto them in the future, because you never know how they are going to grow as a player. And don't let what you want a player to be cloud what he actually is right now. That hes young means that there is potential for growth as a player, but is not a guaranty of that.

Still, even at current form not bad for a 20 year old. This is truly weird to have an Alves-less 'Veen putting up baseball scores. And to have Mike get a few is stranger still. Would have been fun to have been with the team the last 3 games. They've got to be giddy.

This little run will end soon enough, but what a hoot to be twenty, starting and scoring in Holland and Europe - especially when you're as crappy as Mike is!

There's a 10 minute highlightclip up on the official Heerenveen-site now:

http://www.sc-heerenveen.nl/web/show/id=136913