Roles were different though, with Sarachan he was more like a complementary player, with Gregg he is being asked to manage midfield which I don't think he is able to do
Zardes is like the anti-Nagbe. Nagbe is really good so long as he's not in position to score a goal or make an assist. Once in that area, he sucks. Zardes' touch is disqualifyingly bad unless he's in close. Then he's passably good and freakishly lucky.
I played with guys like that (much lower level). At a certain point, you just have to give them their due.
Nagbe's attacking passing was actually excellent during the period when Josef was in his funk. He's more of a possession mid, though Zardes's strengths are stamina, combo play, and soccer IQ. His goals were the result of strong combo play. He is not a lone forward. He lacks the aerial game to dominate on headers. He lacks the pace to race past defenders to latch onto leading crosses. He lacks the power and touch hold up the ball. He lacks the balance and super-quick feet needed for poaching. The players who come closest to being complete lone forwards are CJ Sapong and Christian Ramirez. So it'd behoove the team continue with the combo play displayed in the second half. Reminded me of Gyasi's MLS Cup-winning year with LA.
At this point I think we all owe Zardes an apology. Yes his touch is bad. Yes a better forward would really serve this team well and frankly I think we all believe that forward will be Sergeant and his time will be soon. But there's a talent for scoring BS goals and just being in the right spot and not blowing it. Zardes seems to have that talent. He's not a bad player to have on the squad. That third goal was a thing of beauty just as much as his first in this tournament was a thing of ridiculousness.
Even when he does well, GZ gets the patronizing praise. People can't admit their idiotic criticism. He's been a good forward for the US. He has a good goals/assists record in competition. Maybe better will come along. Wouldn't put all the hope on one unproven player, though.
He is very coachable. Succeeded on Arena's LAG and GB Crew. Hopefully in 2 years the kids will push him off. Meanwhile he is good enough for Concacaf.
He had a goal and an assist in the Copa. And he's only 27. I don't think he'll be pushed off the team. I am hopeful one of the youngsters develop enough to claim the #1 spot.
Nobody owes Gyasi an apology, every criticism of him is accurate. Scoring a tap in and an uncontested shot from inside the box against the 98th ranked team in the world (ELO) doesn't cover up for the fact that his scoring rate is awful and he kills a ton of attacks with his donkey touch. The post game posts in this thread are fairly typical Bigsoccer overreactions. Yeah, he'll get a lot more time, and him being in "good" form will be really important for us, but his role in the team is soley down to our forward pool being trash outside injury prone Jozy and a teenager fighting for playing time in Josh Sargent.
Most of the criticism has been over the top nonsense. And none of our forwards scored against 106th elo-ranked T&T in October 2017. He has a good goals-assists per 90 record for the US. Claims to contrary are just lies in the service of inanity and some kind of unhealthy fixation for a teenage boy
You're really stretching here to deny Zardes credit for his two goals tonight. Both were excellent. On the first goal, it's Zardes' dribbling that opens up the space for Bradley. And as soon as Bradley sends it in, Zardes anticipates where the play is going to go, allowing him to get in behind the defense. On the second goal, the fact that Zardes was briefly "uncontested" was a result of his own smart off-the-ball movement (along with Pulisic drawing a defender).
zardes is good.. compare him to brian ching... hes miles better he scored our second winning goal vs ecuador in the copa america