Post-match: USA vs. Antigua & Barbuda: the midfield

Discuss.

Bradley was average, I suppose.

Didn't notice Jones at all.

Edu forced me to notice him....with his badness

Same as ever...Edu makes easy passes look hard. Its truly incredible.

No cards. JJ got a talking to but kept well under control after that.

you guys are being too hard on edu- he was about 26-26 on backpasses for boca to square to goodson under zero pressure from antigua in a home world cup qualifier. quick passing, attacking soccer indeed, juergen...

He was noticeable at the beginning of the game. Especially when he was laying on the ground for 2 minutes while his teammates were passing the ball around him.

However, as the game progressed, Jones was playing so high at times that he was further up the field than Donovan and Dempsey. This left a hole in the middle of the formation and Bradley and Edu kept back-passing it to centerbacks or side to side to each other. With no outlets to pass to (and sometimes even with outlets available), Edu gives the ball away far too often and in very dangerous positions. Bradley at least has some composure to be able to dribble out of bad situations, but even he has a couple bad giveaways a game.

The center of the midfield has really regressed since the Scotland game (or maybe that game was just an anomaly?). They seem out of sync with each other.

Back pass. Zzz...

It's not their fault. Jones, Edu, and Bradley don't belong on the same field. One game against Scotland doesn't overwhelm a year's worth of data. Those 3 together are the death of creativity.

Watching two coaches bang their heads against the same brick wall has sucked.

Edu was horrible. His passes were so off. Should just go with a Bradley-Jones pairing.

I think Edu is a useful player shielding the back four. His defense makes up for his poor passing in that role.

But we don't need that role vs. A&B!

We're playing against a bunker on a wet field with a semi-pro keeper. We should have been taking lots of long shots, and the fact that we didn't is mostly on the midfield.

Move it quicker please!

Jones was absolutely invisible. He clearly doesn't mesh with the team, and I'd like to see him on the bench in the future.

Questions:

Why is MB playing so deep when he's proven against vs Italy, Scotland and Brazil he's far better playing advanced?

Why is Jones given the freedom above MB to play a more advanced role when he's far less successful at connecting on passes anywhere near the final 3rd?

Why is Edu playing anywhere besides a strict DMid, #6 role? How many times does Jurgen need to see him fumble and bumble the ball away to get it through his thick skull that Edu can not create and is not good with the ball? It's the same with Rangers, so I have no f'ing clue where this idea came from that Edu should play in an advanced role at times, and more advanced than MB a large part of that time.

Why are we wasting a roster spot on Beckerman? Why not have given that spot to Benny, Sacha, Mix, Bedoya or Freddy? You could play Beckerman as a 6, but even then there's two guys in Jones and Edu who should be tried there first, not MB for christ sake.

JK raves about Torres but has no clue how to use him. He's best centrally, yet has been either a winger for us lately or today, a LB. Seems the injury solves that dilemma for Jurgen as he no longer has the choice. I do however suspect part of that injury was due to Torres being played well outside of his comfort zone, which is on Jurgen for his roster mismanagement.

We don't have any wingers on the left actually providing any kind of width for the mids. They're either to far up the pitch (Gomez/Clint) not offering passing outlets to escape traffic, too central when they should be wide, therefor clogging the middle(Torres/Clint), and no one we've played at LW is providing any kind of crossing or scoring opportunities. Get healthy Brek, we need you.

Jurgen, why have you abandoned any resemblance of creativity in from our mid field? The creative players(Freddy,Benny, Mix, Bedoya, Kljestan) have been tossed aside. We don't have a 10, but MB has shown he can create in an advanced role. Jones and Edu can't. SO what do you do Jurgen? You moves MB much deeper, have zero replacements in terms of creative mids in the final 3rd, and instead move Jones and Edu(Dmids by trade) into more advanced roles and hand them the responsibility of being our creative mid field presence. Makes little sense.

I worry about Tue.

Gotta hope that Holden gets healthy and returns to form, or some other CM like Torres, Kljestan, Corona, or Mix force their way on the field because Jones can play Edu's role so much better.

Wow, that is quite a stretch in my opinion.

i'm just going to say it, edu and bradley were ********ing awful. edu has no business being on the field, he was flat out embarrassingly bad. i'm done with the crap, stop playing edu, if klinnsman wants a shield player than play beckerman who actually plays faster and is far more comfortable with the ball at his feet and accurate with his passes. edu is an absolute waste of a player on the field, he provides NOTHING to the game.

bradley needs to be more aggressive, he was pussy footing around, walking to balls in space when he needed to moving towards them and not being assertive enough. why is he 40+ yards away from edu in his blind spot when edu has the ball, he needs to be screaming to get the ball from edu, moving to him and pushing the ball upfield. instead he is a ghost, along with jones, and edu bumbles around with the ball and finally dumps it back to a defender.

so ********ing frustrating.

That midfield isn't creative enough to break a bunker. Bradley was better than Jones and Edu, but merely pedestrian himself. All three against a bunkering team is simply a waste.

Would have been nice to have Adu or Feilhaber for some creative passing available off the bench. Would have been nice to have a real outside back like Lichaj or a real left wing like Beasley available, so that Torrez could play his normal CM role.

Edu's poor passing out of the back, including a couple of really horrid turnovers, will cost the US sooner or later.

Come back soon, Holden.

Not at all...

If Torres was central, or even left mid, he does not encounter that AB right sided player coming at him full speed, with a heavy touch and a 50/50 ball that he gets stomped on trying to win while playing left wing back (and staying forward most of the match).

Worst match I've seen Bradley play against a poor quality opponent in a long time, maybe ever.
Mikey was decidedly average. Edu was simply not needed and brought the speed of the attack to a grinding halt that few men could ever appreciate. I'm talking about you Chris Armas and ABMOD.

Jones at least got forward and attempted to trouble the back four at times. He played the best of he three in a crowded underwhelming US midfield.

That performance on Tuesday and we lose while not scoring at all.

That's a key point. Can't blame it all on Jurgen as sometimes shit happens, but Jurgen was the one who helped created that opportunity by his complete mismanagement of our player pool. If he has so little confidence in Parkhurst then what the hell is he doing here? Even having Lloyd here for emergencies to cover our RB's and LB's, who he's called in as recently as Feb would have been smarter, without even mentioning Lichaj.

I suppose Parkhurst sounds German enough for Jurgen to think he might be good... like our striker who doesn't play 1st team football for his GERMAN club.

Sigh...

Too many touches.

Id be surprised if Holden ever returns from this injury. Like Twellman and Charlie Davies... I think this one has ended his career

Parkhurst is good

Not the best game, but far from the horror show the typical group of hyperbolic posters want to say it was. Edu wasn't nearly as bad as some make out, and Jones was far from invisible, one defense splitting pass cross field stands out (I think it was to Donovan). And for my money, Edu was in the DM role tonight, with both Bradley and Jones having more free roles to go forward. Though there was some rotation, and Jones certainly does go forward with more authority than Bradley does.

Look, I hate the 3 CM formation with Edu/Bradley/Jones (or 4 or 5 CM formations) as much as anyone, but it did look good against Scotland, and was worth another look. But I'll admit, it was silly against a team that was bunkering.

If we are going to go 4-5-1 with an inverted triangle, then I'd much prefer Jones or Beckerman as the DM, and Bradley as a CM, paired with someone like Torres, Dempsey, Donovan, Adu, or Feilhaber in the middle. Both Jones and Bradley have their moments in attack, but neither has the tools to be a true #10 type, and both together against a bunker is asking them to do too much.

I love how we scored 3 goals but couldnt break a bunker....lol