Sunderland,Sunderland,Sunderland,Sunderland,Sunderland,Sunderland,Sunderland,Sunderland,Sunderland,Sunderland,Sunderland,Sunderland,Sunderland,Sunderland,Brum. This is always such a silly debate. "Could" Bease start for a number of EPL teams? Sure. If, at various times, Fabrice Fernandez and Neil McCann could start for S'hamton, Bease is easily in that class. But at the same time, while both "started" neither locked down a starting job, which is different. If Bease were a right sided mid he could start for Man City, but only because SWP is gone. I think Bease would have a chance at Fulham, although I'm not sure he exactly plays Cookie style (except that he is hard working, which would fit in and if and when he did cross there would be someone there to get on the end of it for sure.) Bease joins a wide class of players who have had decent enough results while failing to cement the #1 spot - one can recall JOB having similar issues at Ajax before he finally became top choice at LB. Lewis at Fulham. Convey at Reading, just to name some Americans. Howard at Man. U. LD at BL. You can, shockingly, even be good enough to lock-start for a few months, then fall off form, or have someone else step it up. Save for teams that are obviously below him - or those with clearly world class LM's, I don't know how anyone knows where in the world Bease would start until he moves there and takes the field.
You see. You are missing the point. He IS performing in for a top team in Europe. He is not STARRING for a top team in Europe. That is different. But he plays - a lot. He scores a decent amount. He is not playing as well, in many eyes, at the moment as he had. But say it with me: Demarcus Beasely is performing at a top team in Europe. There now. Doesn't that feel better?
The only way you could get me to believe that kakaboypuf is a troll, no matter how ridiculous his screen name, would be if he were Norwegian.
I wouldnt really disagree with you. Watching PSV against Lyon (sans DMB) I wondered who to take off for dmb. I dont think he is even in the middle of the pack.
Beasley would be a blessing for Spurs, but wouldn't fit at Fulham. It depends on who needs what. But he's quality. He would certainly figure into most Premiership sides.
I certainly agree with that. he's a very good player but I think that he's been being used a bit differently this year than last. I remember last year, he would mention the differences between coming off the bench and whatwas expected of him vs. starting the matches. I'm in no way insinuating that he preferred coming off the bench for PSV but he did mention that it was easier for him to score goals because Hiddink would have a clear objective in mind when he'd come on - running at defenses who's legs were slightly tired and wreaking havoc wherease Beasley described starting and going the distance in matches like a marathon - he'd have to do more going two ways. Other than that, I think the article may be taken a bit out of proportion. He's living in a country foreign to him and from what I've seen he's in a bit of a slump right now and, well, for this season. He's played more but hasn't necessarily played better, so it's easy to see how that affects a player's confidence. I think he'll stick it out and see what happens over the sumer, etc. But the PSV of this year is different from the PSV of last year with so many players gone. It's almost like walking onto a star team and living your dream - doing well, mixing well with tremendous players and teammates, and then seeing them go - Van Bommel, Park Ji-Sung, etc. Oh well. Life goes on. With the departure of other players and maybe even his manager, that can be pretty stressful. I don't think what he's saying is so un-reasonable.
It also can be that Guus wants more out of Beez this year. Last year, DaMarcus ran up to van Bommel's bombs from the midfield. This year, he has to take his guy on and that's a totally different bowl of wax.
A classic error when comparing a player's individual goal scoring ability to that of himself? Sure Beasley's teamates have been able to take advantage of his without peer pace and intelligent runs but to see him score so many striker's goals on so few chances blew people away. Maybe you had to have an intimate knowledge of Beasley as a player from the time he was 17 to fully understand how impressive what he was doing on the pitch is. For most people here he didn't go from being an unknown player from a second rate league to the bigtime. People here knew about him but always had questions about his touch, ball striking ability, and finishing. Maybe someone who expects a player going to PSV to be Romario is dissapointed but someone who actually knows about Beasley isn't. The goal scoring stat is extremely useful for people with knowledge of Beasley and who can but his actions into context, those who have seen every goal he has scored and many of the chances he has missed, those who notice how he has radically improved himself. It's not that when he was with Chicago he never got any good chances it's that he now converts the ones he gets at such a high rate, he scored his four CL goals on only 5 shots, that makes the goal totals impressive.
But are they more effective, can you use them to man-mark Pirlo out of a game, literally? Probably the most skilled player in the world, a Brazilian who is the world's best futsal player, couldn't even make it at Sao Paulo. What is skill if you do nothing with it?
It depends on what the purpose of the forum is. If its about open discussion and facing reality then you are correct. Of its about over the top blinkered optimism well.....
But therein lies the rub. If we are indeed comparing leagues, you might be able to speak intelligently about the Eredivisie but do you really have that smae kind of knowledge about some of the other leagues it's being compared to. Norway? Czech Republic? Austria? Turkey? What about someone who has collected the match results from 12,000 matches over the last three uears featuring 320 teams from 20 top divisions across Europe, and uses a mathematical algorithm in an attempt to rank the teams. Is such a person speaking from as much ignorance as you make them out to be? Sure it doesn't mean those results are ncessarily right or more accurate than your estimations, but those results hardly qualify as ignorant, no?
Might be a mistake for DMB to move there this summer planning on prem football. Just a thought. I agree with the overall point, though. Who knows. DMB has established himself as an interesting player. He's had some success but looks to have a lot of upside. But as to where he'd work out, I think PSV isn't a bad spot right now. Bluedaddy has made an interesting cultural point. In the tabs, the interview would be termed a "come and get me plea." But maybe it's just what it is, a second year player struggling through a second year.
I hope Beas doesn't end up like Park. Last thing I would want is for Beas to crash and burn at any EPL team. And why wouldn't Park succedd with Hiddick as coach?? He coached him in Korea no?
same exact knowledge? no, but you ask this as if my not having the same level of knowledge on these leagues somehow means i know less about the eredivisie norway? i'm fairly well up on it... czech republic? decent knowledge, nothing encyclopedic i assure you... austria? outside of a couple teams, i don't know a whole lot... turkey? i know it quite well (we have a great turkish TV station here ) i try to stay up on as many leagues as i can, but when the conversation turns to the japanese league, i promise i'd be the one quiet and listening - i won't be prattling on argumentatively at length attempting to break down something i haven't seen... that would make me look like bob dole look, i understand where these people are coming from, they are proud of bease and i am too - however, all these unrealistic expectations don't serve anyone, least of all the people carrying them yes, this person is attempting to quantify what cannot be quantified through mathing up results - is there a factor for absent players? horrible ref calls? lucky bounces? adverse weather conditions? red cards? momentum factor? strategic implications? it's just like that hilarious thread where cutely naive US fans try to mathmatically prove that donovan is better than every "attack mid" (half of the players cited aren't even attack mids) in the world than ballack and totti using only international games played and international goals scored soccer simply cannot be even remotely understood using statistical analysis, it just doesn't work with this game like it does for baseball or basketball besides, this seems a bit disingenuous of you - i don't recall slamming anybody's math work, i do recall taking the stuffing out of people who speak with such great authority on players they've obviously never heard of, much less seen of course, i can be a sh** sometimes, i won't lie, it's a bit fun.... but let's also factor in that i could be telling the absolute truth about a particular topic, and it won't stop certain folks from breaking out the pissy name calling because they don't really want to hear the truth of course i get the tried and true "eurosnob", but my favorite is when somebody doesn't realize i'm american and goes into a chorus of "go smoke your pancakes and buy a hooker for your windmill, you fake german" it's like having my own mini-daily show...
Well, not ignorant, but useful it is not. The problem with soccer is that it isnot mathematics. I love to get my hands on the formula that proves my remark wrong, because then I get very rich without bribing players. So when we try to asses DmB with other players by stats it doesnot give him the credits he deserves, because the impact of his presence on the freedom/room he creates for other players to perform isnot caught by those stats, but by the number of points won by the team.
I think Beasley should get a million dollars to play for the Chicago Fire, and have his crunk Michigan Lake pad on MTV's "Cribs". Maybe you've seen it.
Ive watched him play and hes only had like 2 decent games. None existent in the United lineup just like Richardson. He is yet to play like the PSV Park.
How will Beasley's not playing as much for PSV affect his World Cup performance? Not much, in my opinion, but it's food for thought. I also would like to point out that jingoist American soccer fans here at Big Soccer CAN NOT handle much dissent or criticism. I'm yellow carded for it mainly because I think Italy (although I know we might beat them) is going to beat the snot out of us. I'm actually feeling alot better about our prospects this summer, but I think the European teams are going to be really serious about what they're doing in June, and that means they beat us. Anyway... Beasley, although perhaps the US's best player, is not an exceptional talent. He may not fit into PSV's system, but he won't fit in to a lot of European sides systems either because there are bigger and more talented dudes by the truck load all across Europe. There are going to be truck loads of Champion League quality European and South American guys who want even see a German field in June. Our one Champions League guy, who didn't even play against Lyon, will though. It tells you something about US soccer players and our opposition in Germany.