I wanna feel we're (at most) 2 years before those 2 are leading the line. I don't wanna go through another qualifying cycle with Jozy having 0 competition for playing time.
This is what worries me. He should have easily torn up a Gold Cup. Even Clint got himself 6 goals that tournament. Jozy needs a solid international tournament to really showcase for his NT legacy.
I don't discount any WCQ goals. I have watched the US sweat out too many results over the years. We've needed just about every goal. I posted about it before. He hasn't padded his account in blowouts.
Altidore's work against El Salvador-level teams and low-level Hex squads has been noted and praised over the years.
Why? So that folks like @puttputtfc can say "yeah but it was the gold cup and it didn't mean anything"?
So harsh. I'll be the first to admit Jozy scored against Spain and had some great goal in the 2010 WCQs. I'll also realize that was ten years ago and he's peaked. Not sure what's so difficult about this.
Our previous top choice striker before Altidore (Brian McBride) had his most productive season professionally at the age of 31 or 32. (You can find tons of other examples internationally too.) Early signs are that Altidore might be having his most productive season ever right now at the age of 29. Given all of that, I don't think anyone can be all that confident that Altidore has peaked.
Altidore can be a beast when he's on. I would be OK with him back in the fold as long as he's on a short leash. I would worry about injuries but there's no reason he shouldn't play hard all the time. If he doesn't play someone else and move on.
That may be the KICKER. He was probably our best option for years, which may have influenced him to not "play hard". Since, he didn't have anyone to steal his starting spot.
You're basically right. I forgot how old he was. According to wikipedia, he had 10 PL goals (11 total) in the 2005-06 season. And then he had 9 PL goals (12 total) in the 2006-07 season. He was 33 in the 2005-06 season, and 34 in the in the 2006-07 season. Unless you count his very first season in MLS in 1996, those two Premier League seasons may have been his most productive seasons professionally.
No worries. It's pretty impactful as he seemingly got better (clubwise) as he got older and transitioned to a much better league. Quite usually, the opposite.
He seems to be a better, more well rounded player than when he was best 11 at the age of 23 in Holland. Doyle and others have remarked on his greatly improved link and hold up play. This season he is playing as the modern lone 9 that people thought he couldn't handle.
Until he can prove himself to be effective against decent defenses, there is little reason to be optimistic.
Thats pure silliness and not answering my assertion. You say he can't score against better competition but ignore the more recent evidence that he can, in fact, score against better competition. He didn't give up those two soft goals to a bad T&T team. That was not his mark on either that I saw.
You're assuming too much of his role on the squad. We lost because of the goals we gave up. He's suppose to score goals Yes, but we know we won't score the lion's share. He came up MISSING a lot in qualifying though.
How do people still defend this guy? I realize he'll be in the team, most likely, and if he keeps performing in MLS, then that's fine. But as others have said, he is "best" when guys are feeding him tap ins, which this new DP seems to be doing frequently so far. Plus, anyone pretending it was solely a defensive problem in the Hex is kidding themselves. I think we scored 10 goals in 2 games, right? Take those out and the scoring was atrocious. Jozy scored in one game in the Hex, both set up easily by CP. I think that was in the game we scored 4, as well. So in games we really needed him, he didn't score. The guy can be involved, but needs to be rotated. He needs to be rotated just like every old Lion should have been rotated since 2014, based on current form. It's ok to say he stinks, he hasn't really been performing for the USMNT since his goal against Spain, but that as long as he's banging in goals in MLS, he needs to be involved in the team. That's more than I can say for some of GB's other call-ups...
I wasn't defending him. I was merely saying that Jozy's detriment is that he didn't score enough goals. We lost on against T&T. That is a ton of blame to go around for many players. I think he's average, which is upsetting as he had the talent (and youth) to be our best striker ever. And I def concur that he needed to be rotated years ago. The lack of strike options upfront meant we relied more and more on him (even in recent years when he just wasn't getting the job done).