[GlryManUtd]

1. Altidore will be playing most likely, he is a forward. hes slower, strong, and smart, hence needs to be paired with a fast, finishing, striker. sadly that was davies, but he wont be in south africa due to his injury.

2. dempsey has the best skill on the team. he plays with style and composure and plays a great attacking wing. he plays there at fulham and scores and sets up from the position, as he does for the national team.

3. he was only put up at forward for two situations: the first we where waiting for jozy to come of age basically, it was around late 2007 and early wcq's. the second was when he was getting tired but bob still wanted his ability on the pitch. he scored from there, but they where both late when the defense was tiring.

so my argument in a nutshell is jozy needs to be paired with a speedy striker, dempsey is most potent on the wing for club and country because it gives him more freedom and hes a natural midfielder. and stu is a super sub so far, he gets nervous and shakey when he starts, hes just not there yet. someone give me a reason why he needs to be up top.

[usry723]

Originally Posted by GlryManUtd

1. Altidore will be playing most likely, he is a forward. hes slower, strong, and smart, hence needs to be paired with a fast, finishing, striker. sadly that was davies, but he wont be in south africa due to his injury.

Call me crazy but I'd take Jozy in a foot race against most of the USMNT players any day. Don't be fooled by his size he's still got the pace to get behind the defense.

As for the original question, we just don't have anyone else that is proven or talented. That's what these friendlies are for to find Jozy a partner. Findley or Cunningham fit the build that you want.

[kokoplus10]

Originally Posted by GlryManUtd

someone give me a reason why he (Dempsey) needs to be up top.

To get our best 11 available players on the field and put the team in a possition to win.

If you're telling me that it is a better option to leave Dempsey on the wing and have one of either Adu, Cooper, Casey, Ching, Cunningham, EJ, Findley, or Flavor of the Week up top with Altidore...

as opposed to one of...

Holden, Feilhaber, Torres taking over Dempsey's spot out wide and moving Dempsey up top...

Then I would disagree with you.

[Clint Eastwood]

Dempsey has played as a forward in the premier league on occasion, so it's one of the least crazy notions we'll see on Big Soccer. If the deepest part of the team is our midfield, and we're thin up top.......it's something worth considering at least. Or moving Donovan up top for that matter.

I happen to not be a proponent of either Donovan or Dempsey moving........but it's at least worth a discussion.

[crews46]

I like Clint Dempsey - I like his ball skills, his ability to try the hard stuff that sometimes is the difference in a game, his 1v1 tricks...but I'm not sure I like him at RM for the national team for a couple of reasons. As good as Clint is, he has not shown the same level of commitment at RM for the nats as he does in the prem - even in games that count, like WCQ's and the Confed Cup. He doesn't work hard enough on defense, and mails it in too often. He has shown, though, that he'll work hard to get goals - so put him where he can score and doesn't have the defensive duties.

Also, even playing for Fulham when he's working hard, I've seen him get burned on the wing by opposing teams. He's slower than he looks. At the international level, most teams have blazing fast wingers that he shouldn't have the responsibility to track back with. Put Holden's young legs and crossing ability out there and move Clint up with Jozy.

Jozy, alternatively, is faster than he looks, and I'm actually looking forward to seeing what an Altidore/Dempsey combo could do. Were there a few times in the Confed Cup when they played together after Clint moved up to forward late in games, or had Jozy come off by then? I know they combined for a goal or two...

Also, it frees up our crowded bench of midfielders and gives more chances to players I think deserve more time on the field. If Davies were still in the line-up, it wouldn't be a question. But now, it's worth moving Clint up and seeing what it does for the team at midfield and striker.

[freisland]

Originally Posted by GlryManUtd

1. Altidore will be playing most likely, he is a forward. hes slower, strong, and smart, hence needs to be paired with a fast, finishing, striker. sadly that was davies, but he wont be in south africa due to his injury.

2. dempsey has the best skill on the team. he plays with style and composure and plays a great attacking wing. he plays there at fulham and scores and sets up from the position, as he does for the national team.

3. he was only put up at forward for two situations: the first we where waiting for jozy to come of age basically, it was around late 2007 and early wcq's. the second was when he was getting tired but bob still wanted his ability on the pitch. he scored from there, but they where both late when the defense was tiring.

so my argument in a nutshell is jozy needs to be paired with a speedy striker, dempsey is most potent on the wing for club and country because it gives him more freedom and hes a natural midfielder. and stu is a super sub so far, he gets nervous and shakey when he starts, hes just not there yet. someone give me a reason why he needs to be up top.

I've never seen them race, but i would be surprised if Jozy were slower than Demps in any meaningful way.

Demps is not a pure forward, true, but he is oportunistic, good in the air, clever, canny and can drift in and out a bit - none of which is terrible in a striker.

Sure you'd like a 1 for 1 replacement for Davies, but you've got to play with the players you ahve. If you don't slide Demps or LD up top Jeff Cunningham is the most likely candidate, followed by Findley, EJ, Buddle ...

Happy to try JC there, but I think that the US team, against top competition, is going to benefit more from getting one of our middies on the field - Benny or Torres in particular.

Demps up top is likely to play a bit more withdrawn and means we morph fairly easily into a 4-5-1 (for good or for bad ...)

It's not ideal, but I think it's got to be one of the options BB is considering. Demps was not a good choice as a lone striker, but he is one of those guys who does manage to find a way to poke the ball home with decent regularity, which is never a bad thing.

[soccermusician]

i think because he has a scoring nack and some people want him closer to goal....

[superdave]

This is a very easy question.

1. Dempsey delivered as a forward in the Confed Cup.
2. Davies got hurt so there's an opening.
3. Stuart Holden (or Torres, or Benny) > Ching (or Casey or Cooper or Cunningham).
4. Donovan is an alternative to move up to forward, but since he's playing at a world class level as our LM, that seems very risky.

[Plan B]

I actually wouldn't mind seeing us experiment without an out and out striker, the way arguably some clubs playing the 4-3-3 have done in the last year or so (barca before Zlatan, man u last year, arsenal this year - there was a good johnathan wilson article on this in the guardian recently).

For so long we've used at least one old-fashioned #9, and that worked when it was the norm, and when that player was McBride especially. I just don't think we have a proper player to sit at the top of a 4-3-3 and be a lone striker now, and our big/little combo in a 4-4-2 worked with Casey/Davies but with arguably no other combo. Not sure that we should compensate for our lack of a quality striker by sticking two guys up there anyway, esp at a time when most nations are using one. We'll be overcrowded in midfield, our possession will be poor(er) against top teams, and arguably with a couple of guys hanging around deep we limit the space into which we can counterattack, which is a strength of ours.

I'd rather play to our strengths and use Clint or Jozy as a false 9, LD on the left, and either Clint (or Holden, or Torres) on the right. We are gonna attack from at least one fullback position, we can leave one or two midfielders deep at any given time to prevent against the counter and, if needed, and protect our weak CBs (though if we really wanted to get radical and make up for our lack of center backs we could bring back the libero and drop a healthy Edu or someone back there ). Clark is most likely to be the defensive guy in the midfield; Jones and Bradley can ideally split time being the more creative forces in the center of the field and each can drop back effectively as well.

It's working pretty damn well for Arsenal at the moment-- they are torching teams offensively-- and ok we just have LD, Clint, and Bradley instead of Arshavin, RvP, and Cesc but it's still a pretty modern tactic that could cause some confusion to the opposition, and it plays to our particular strengths and, now, deficiencies. And our guys know each other pretty well and have success overlapping up front as it is.

I would honestly rather us try something like that than hoofing the ball up to Casey and asking LD or Clint to be the running to flicked-on headers and held-up balls, which was Davies' game not theirs. Or depending on crosses to a lone striker. All that seems like madness.

[crews46]

Originally Posted by Plan B

I actually wouldn't mind seeing us experiment without an out and out striker, the way arguably some clubs playing the 4-3-3 have done in the last year or so (barca before Zlatan, man u last year, arsenal this year - there was a good johnathan wilson article on this in the guardian recently).

I'm not sure we have the defensive discipline for a 4-3-3. If the mids sense we need help in the back it would quickly devolve into a very defensive 4-5-1. Of course, given Bob Bradley's inability to sub tired backline players early enough, maybe that's a good thing (at least late in the game).