Thoughts on Convey?

[danno]

Wondering what BS poster think about Convey's performance v CR? Didn't want to search through threads to find references...

I was surprised to see him start, but I thought he played better than I expected he would. Did a few things up the wing and didn't make a lot of mistakes, basically he did his job and you can't ask for that much more....whether he is our best option or not is an entirely different question. Lots of giveaways but not in positions that hurt us.. however against better opposition these giveaways would hurt

[Clint Eastwood]

I thought Convey did OK yesterday, and got himself into some dangerous positions.

I'm confused by his situation as well. He looked like he belonged out there yesterday. Maybe it's the Reading staff that are underestimating his talent, as opposed to Bruce Arena overestimating it. People on these boards tend to give Arena a tongue-lashing for calling a Reading reserve in. I'm just saying perhaps Reading are clueless. How many of their coaching staff have made it to a World Cup Quarterfinal?

[GoDC]

I think he is one of the most important players in the pool for us. What he can do frees Beasley to concentrate on the attack and come back to defend when he wants to, not all game.

[the Next Level]

Bobby was pretty good until match fitness caught up with him in the second half.

This is what I have said before. Up-n-down-the-line workrate guys like him, Mullan, Ralston, Klein, Hejduk, etc. have a future with the Nats if we move more towards a 3-back system.

[JayDelight729]

Convey was very good yesterday. One of his best games for the United States.

He is deserving of another start vs Panama.

Not sold on him yet, but he does deserve another look.

[Ray Luca]

Wondering what BS poster think about Convey's performance v CR? Didn't want to search through threads to find references...

I was surprised to see him start, but I thought he played better than I expected he would. Did a few things up the wing and didn't make a lot of mistakes, basically he did his job and you can't ask for that much more....whether he is our best option or not is an entirely different question. Lots of giveaways but not in positions that hurt us.. however against better opposition these giveaways would hurt

Moving without the ball he is very very good. He falls back on defense. What he was weak in was his passing off the dribble and and his shooting off the dribble. I believed all along the reason for this is when he runs all out he loses control of his body and that's why he makes bad passes and shots.

He should slow down a bit to gain control of his body and he still will be fast. If he did that he is another fast starter on the National team. That is what we want to be about speed and not size and an always dangerous counter.

The only thing that will hurt our game after that is the back pass. Whistle (boo) if you see any player not under pressure back passing on the first and second pass after we win the ball when we don't need to back pass to avoid high pressure.

If we stop doing that we are in business in WC Germany.

Would have been nice to have Adu as a roll player at left wing mid in Germany, but unforetunately that is not meant to be.

[Ray Luca]

Bobby was pretty good until match fitness caught up with him in the second half.

This is what I have said before. Up-n-down-the-line workrate guys like him, Mullan, Ralston, Klein, Hejduk, etc. have a future with the Nats if we move more towards a 3-back system.

If we move to a three backs we will definately let in counter attack goals that will lose us games we should not lose. Even with 4 backs we still need wing mids that can get back behind the ball when we lose the ball.

[Eliezar]

I thought that he looked like a player that had talent, but was not in sync with the team. I was not impressed with Ralston nor Convey today though. I also really do not know what formation was actually played today (despite what the TV announcers gave). I think we played a 3-3-2-2 to be honest. Not the 3-4-3 that the announcers gave us.

[the Next Level]

If we move to a three backs we will definately let in counter attack goals that will lose us games we should not lose. Even with 4 backs we still need wing mids that can get back behind the ball when we lose the ball.

Disagree. If we have Deion Sanders, Ronnie Lott, and Gary Fencik in the secondary, you are not going to complete any TD passes.

We have those types of guys coming up in the USA system as CB. But NObody as OBs (excluding Marvell Wynne and Kevin Alston). Then we have good, fast players who just run up and down lines until you say stop. The combination of those two assets would work just fine.

[roadkit]

I think Convey showed what many of us have known for a long time (and others have known but won't admit): he belongs on the Nats.

If you ranked the starting players from 1 to 11 with the best being #1, I would give Convey a 5...

[Roehl Sybing]

I have no thoughts on Bobby Convey. That's how much I regard him.

[MikeLastort2]

Convey had a great game last night, and will be one of Arena's players in Germany next year.

[danno]

Thanks for all your comments. I don't doubt he will be in Germany although I don't know if I am yet convinced he should be. In my opinion he gives the ball away too much (even when not under pressure) and needs to clean it up to be a more effective player.

[United20]

Convey had a great game last night, and will be one of Arena's players in Germany next year.

That's real generous of you. Bobby played at a 5 yesterday. Majority of passes are back passes, and doesn't play consistently enough to be considered a starter nor second string. Lewis and Beasley are ahead of by a longshot. But, in Bobby's defense - he needs more PT with his club and USMNT which will get him to the level to match his talent. As for now, he is a fringe player to make the roster.

[MikeLastort2]

That's real generous of you. Bobby played at a 5 yesterday. Majority of passes are back passes, and doesn't play consistently enough to be considered a starter nor second string. Lewis and Beasley are ahead of by a longshot. But, in Bobby's defense - he needs more PT with his club and USMNT which will get him to the level to match his talent. As for now, he is a fringe player to make the roster.

We've got Lewis, Beasley and Convey on the left. The World Cup roster is 23 players. Barring injury, I definitely see Convey being on the roster for Germany. Bank on it.

[nobody]

I thought our outside mids, Convey and Ralston, were the weakest spots of our starting lineup. Convey made few glaring mistakes, but did little offensively and didn't combine well with his teammates going forward. He made a couple decent moves with the ball and then blew the cross. Defensively, he was decent, but nothig special. He wasn't a glaring problem as none of our team really was most of the time, but he wasn't anything like a bright spot out there.

[United20]

We've got Lewis, Beasley and Convey on the left. The World Cup roster is 23 players. Barring injury, I definitely see Convey being on the roster for Germany. Bank on it.

What Bobby will have to do is beat out Hedjuk for the back-up LB position. Not sure BA will bring 3 LMs' since Noonan and Dempsey can play LM and more Mid positions than Bobby. If he can prove that he is a worthy LB back-up, then beat-out Hedjuk. This will be tough for Bobby.

[mathiaslg]

He needs to work on his technical skills, though that is true for a number of our players.

He appears to have good field vision, he just oftentimes lacks the ability to get the ball where it needs to go.

At this point in time, were we to qualify, I don't think he would make the squad. Were he to improve a great deal next season with Reading, he might have a chance.

[RichardL]

I'm just saying perhaps Reading are clueless. How many of their coaching staff have made it to a World Cup Quarterfinal?
Quick quiz time.

1) Which former Manchester United winger played for England 42 times, including making the last 8 of the European championships in 1980 and finishing joint 5-8th in the 1982 world cup?

2) Who is the current manager of Reading?

[nowherenova]

Nice Rich. Convey will do while we get healthy. He's a decent player that may slide onto the final roster because of Arena's apparent faith in his abilities. I'm not personally sure he's worthy, but I'm no expert either. He does deserve more chances to prove his worth.