6 are the wrong side of 30. 3 are d-mids. 1 is an MLS player with 0 league minutes. 4 are MLS players who haven't proven anything at international level. More importantly, none would will the same niche Nagbe would.
Nagbe is free to do whatever he wants. What bothered me was the nerve of Arena. In his attempt to show us how Klinsmann was wrong about everything, he made Nagbe (and Villafana) auto-starters. Maybe Tata can teach Nagbe how to play, but there is no way he should have started 13 of 18 games under Arena. The only games he didnt start were the opening round of the GC, the friendly preceding the GC and the second game of the January camp. Nagbe was very much a big problem of poor midfield. His lack of effort and complacency isn't needed at this level. We shouldnt be wasting minutes on average players who will be 32 in 2022. Yeah, that is about the quality of an assist we can expect from Nagbe. A square pass a few seconds late and then Pulisic creating a goal...
I don't have the BS mindreading skills to know Arena's 'true' motivations for starting Nagbe. He maintained his dribble then passed it to Pulisic for the strike. Plenty of US players would have lost the ball in that situation. In the match, Nagbe had 11 recorded defensive incidents(recoveries ints, tackles, etc.) and 3 drawn fouls. Bradley had 4 and 0. Pulisic had 4 and 2 Arriola had 3 and 1 The lack of effort may have been with the non-Nagbe players in the midfield. https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/m...-and-tobago-vs-us-mens-national-team/boxscore
Marketing. Arena was never worried about qualifying. He was worried about his legacy. He was there to show that he was the alpha man of US Soccer. Klinsmann was there to meet MLS/SUM halfways; He called Nagbe up and pretended to have a plan for him but secretly he knew he couldn't count on Nagbe in a death match in Trinidad. So he used him as a sub. Arena wanted to prove that Klinsmann was wrong; he wanted to take his chance to put himself above the Klinsmann myth. He had nothing to lose. After all, qualification was never in doubt.
Hear, hear! Really, the sentiment you're arguing against is frankly juvenile, and hardly fit for a forum such as this.
When was he ever really that effective? DCU, even during Kitchen's heyday, was dire. They just somehow ground out wins out of nothing, a la 2012 San Jose. He's like a poor man's Beckerman. In theory, he should be more athletic, but I can't think of anything else he's better at than KB.
I don't really dispute your point (my wording should've been "even less effective than he was before he left DCU"), but as ugly as that team was, he was a big reason why they were able to grind out results. He no longer possesses that meager ability, and I don't currently consider him to be in contention for any spot on the national team depth chart.
Nagbe missed the obvious pass initially and ran into a dead end like he did all year. Eight recoveries* on the left side of the field is a sign of effort? He didnt even attempt to close the runner on the second goal. He is consistently seen trailing the play while walking in most games. We dont need a midfielder that passes sideways, cant read the game and stands in the middle of the field. He had limited impact on the honduras game. FJ is blasted around here for his game against costa rica. Nagbe was even more absent, but is moved back to middle of the field for last two games. You can only see him in the bottom left part of the screen in the first half. You can see him run into trouble and get stripped at the top early in the second. * Recovery - This is where a player wins back the ball when it has gone loose or where the ball has been played directly to him.
If you hate yourself enough to watch that game again, you will see what you see there. Nagbe having passing options, hesitating, dribbling, falling over, and usually losing the ball. Luckily, that time he fell in such a way he was able to get up and make the pass that was open the whole time.
No way I'd watch the whole game, but will do 10-15 mins of highlights. After watching Nagbe and Villlafana live in Harrison and then those two plus OG against Honduras, it is hard to not be critical of all three against T&T. I forgot about the missed PK on OG. That guy had a disaster of a Hex. I remember when I got told over and over that OG was the best defender in MLS back in 2015. They were so focused on being angry at JK and about Alvarado, but VA was still better than OG.
Alvarado was terrible. But JK did take his GC to try a young CB and determine if he was good enough. He wasn't. But Arena didn't even try with Miazga. Whether Alvarado is better than Omar is like arguing if it is better to be eaten by a shark or a lion. But in the Fall of 2017, Miazga was better than Omar.
Besides being criticized by JK, Nagbe had one other thing that worked for Arena. He stayed out of Bradley's way. He generally disappeared in central midfield, but Bradley then didn't have to think about him.
Both made tons of mistakes, but only one of them had potential. Unfortunately, he never put it together. Hedges over Miazga? An even worse slow big guy that wasnt going to make it.
Nagbe got the assist in that T&T match. How many other players in that match were making the obvious pass leading to a goal? Nagbe was clearly closing the shooter on the second goal. The shooter simply took a speculative shot from non-dangerous distance. Old Man Howard simply blew it. Unless telekinesis were involved, recovering the ball typically involves a bit of effort. The goal-against in the Honduras match came along Pulisic and Zusi's side, with Omar Gonzalez completing the clown show. What was Nagbe's involvement?
Many players had balls that led more dangerous first time shots. Being better than players of that game isnt criteria for anything. He was standing in the middle of the field with no awareness of the runner and then jogged in his direction. The shot was speculative, but from a spot where the ball should always be pressured. Nagbe had little impact on the Honduras game. Not being worse than Gonzales and Zusi isnt good enough for the national team.
This is an objective fact, that everyone here witnessed, that was easily checked. Should I respect the opinions (which should be based on a wide range of observations of facts) of someone without the capacity to correctly remember this discrete fact? Or should I conclude that they are a bad faith spinner? Be my guest to rely on the facts of someone who's opinion you agree with. Everyone can have their own opinions and we can disagree about them. The vast majority of people on here don't make up their own easily ascertainable, objective facts. Did I say anything about Nagbe and toughness? Is this just a pivot to more useful topic?
He got the assist. It was an elimination match, so it was a 'criteria' for everything, actually. In a diamond midfield, the nominal wide mids set up centrally. The diamond sacrifices width. Nagbe slid over to pressure the ball. It was speculative shot that should be saved 10/10 times. The goal didn't come from his flank. That was pretty impactful.
@IndividualEleven , we all know you will go round and round for ever defending some average MLS player. My last words on Nagbe for now... He wasnt happy about his role without doing anything. He turned down a call up right before the Hex. His fallout played into the MLS vs Klinsmann rift. The firing of JK gave us Arena, who eliminated talented player over poor ones. Klinsmann was right about Nagbe. He showed he wasnt a quality international players while playing regularly 2017. He is skilled player that is complacent and doesnt understand how to play the game. This complacency was at the heart of what was behind the US not qualifying and was seen in any of the highlights including the second goal against T&T. Here is an american player that knows how to close down players.... aka running.
Your claims aren't supported by evidence at club or international level. Out of Tata, Porter, Arena, and JK, only the last didn't make Nagbe a starter. Of the four, only JK has been widely ridiculed by his own players for a lack of tactical nous--and on both sides of the Atlantic at that. His Bayern players ripped him. His US players ripped him. But JK's the reference on how to use a player.