Ultimately, we wound up in very a similar place, albeit by slightly different means. I agree the global soccer economy is the best indicator but there is a lag when it comes to emerging players. For one wild-ass example, maybe Novakovich is the best CF we have but the global market hasn't caught on to it yet.
Your opinion and global soccer may or may not sort talent correctly (it isn't "efficient" when you consider bottlenecks, as the economists call it). However your methodology is to start with players playing at a high level which is fine up to a point you reach above as foll (I added Weah): --------------------weah----pulisic ------McKennie --------------brooks--miazga------Yedlin What has to happen next is that you have to discount the ability of the remaining players, as the market has, and add a plan because saying that Saief is next in line basis playing in the Belgian league doesn't really do much for me. Kljestan played there for a UEFA CL team. For me the methodology is to ask who I can add who will deliver the ball to the feet of Weah and Pulisic so they can score and who can I add who will get the ball thru midfield so we don't end up with Wondo and Dempsey against Argentina chewing their cud, instead of registering a single shot. You put Adams next to McKennie in dmid but I don't really see Adams doing much in terms of getting the ball to Green and Wood e.g. against France. That was Shaq Moore. Ahhhh, because he played wide. So we need to add some width. Adams is god wide but he cant get there from the position you put him. Yedlin can get wide but his passing isn't exactly AAA and we need at least one fb back on defense anyway. So, think of it this way: ---------------weah(Wood)-----Pulisic(Green) --------------wes -------------brooks---miazga----Yedlin -----------------GK: Steffen You can run but you can't hide.
I’d take a slightly different tack and look at the core defensive triangle of brooks/WM/Miazga (assuming he gets time). Is this a great defensive unit? Do their collective strengths offset their individual weaknesses? Who could we add/subtract that would tighten this up? Finding this foundation is vital IMO and it’s more important to find the right chemistry than to pick based upon individual accolades (and a huge believer in soccer as a global meritocracy).
Agree and disagree about Cameron. I think his attitude was not as big a deal as people on here think. Good players should be confident, and should be angry when they are dropped from the team. However he is going to be old, and ever since Charlie Adam knocked him in the head in Stoke at practice he hasn't played well. He was as out for a while with a concussion. We cant count on him anymore.
I know, my take wasn't meant to attack yours in anyway, just to add an addendum on one player. I have no doubt benching Cameron was idiotic last fall and just foolish, period, even w/him making some awful mistakes in if I remember right the Costa Rica match. He was justifiably angry w/what happened, but his response was of a piece with Wegerle's dish drop in a restaurant moment in '98 where he apparently said, "We're all in this for ourselves. Right. Not the team" or something of that nature. At the end of the day, Cameron's response was to mix another metaphor, cut from the same cloth: it's about me, it's not about the importance of keeping the team chemistry positive going into a crucial match. That to me is what links this team so thoroughly with the '98 debacle in certain ways. Just as the guys just slowly but surely became solipsistic self-important d bags in '98, these guys just didn't seem to put the team ahead of themselves under Klinsy and Arena for large stretches and it's telling and an indictment of the coaches and the players and one of the reasons I love the kids coming up so much, there really seems to be a camraderie there which should glue everything back together fairly well if we're lucky. The 2013 implosion that Strauss wrote about in the early Hex, the quit job at Costa Rica, the loss at freaking Guatemala in qualifying, and the clusterflutch which was the play down the stretch in qualifying just painted a picture of a team w/o much heart, toughness, spirit, or spine, kind of odd considering Bradley's disposition, and reputation, but there's no debating the truth of that. This team quit and choked multiple times,and logged more embarrassing results than the '98's, '02, '06, and '10's combined.
Depends. If his attitude was just frustrated, but not putting himself first, i'd agree. The sense I got from the reporting was that he was a black cloud raging around in the locker room and on the bench, and was a source of tension and discomfort. That's a problem. If the reporting's wrong, i agree, not a problem, but if the guy was basically blanking and moaning and walking around in a sour and sometimes rageful mood, it is a problem, and the reporting suggests that it was really ugly.
We will have to see if Schalke use WM as a 6. I have my doubts. So far they have not. It's up in the air which is why I would not look at it now and go forward, instead, on the basis of what is before us which is Trapp has played 6 so far and defense has been fine.
I'm happy to look at Trapp but the speed of play and thought at the 6 is a vitally important role and Trapp hasn't played at world cup speeds. Can he adjust a la Beckerman and Armas or not is the million dollar question. If i was playing right now and not using WM as a 6, I'd start with Morales as you know what you're getting from his as a 6 - he's not exciting but reliable at higher speeds as a destroyer type. Going forward, this central defensive triangle would be my first area to lock down: there are lots of options for good or bad.
I understand and I've been eager to see Trapp get away from Berhalter for a long time. People dont get how exploited some of our players in MLS are. There is a reason why Trapp is so much better for Nats than at Crew. Morales is not in Trapp's class. We are locked down fine with Trapp because it will be up to competitors to show that they are the ones to take the job away from him. Whether it is Adams or McKennie or Durkin, long live the competition but those guys are too young for the 6 position at this time.
Trapp is a traffic cone vs high level ballers. Doesn't have the presence nor work rate required. Don't conflate that with needing to be a destroyer.
Yes, good point. Another example would be if Sargent begins starting for WB. He instantly vaults just about the whole striker pool. Was a pretty nice goal by Novakovich...
The fact that he lost a ball to Kante then tracked back and picked the ball off Kante's feet in the USA box without fouling him seems to have been totally lost on Trapp critics. Trapp may not be our 6 in Qatar, for all I know, but this constant drumbeat to replace him with amateurs in 2018 is ridiculous.
I’m not a big Trapp guy but I think we have plenty of time to give him his due opportunity over the next 12-18 months. Have doubts about his ability to cover defensively but I’d like to give him some extended run. Not like we are overflowing with talent at the position.
———Novakovich——— Saeif——Pulisic——Weah ———Parks—————— ————Trapp————— Rob-Parker-Miazga-Yed ————Bono—————
Its getting hard now for anyone over 22 or 23 to get any respect now, unless they are Brooks or Yedlin. We are told they simply aren't good enough, even if there's no actual way of knowing until they've properly been tested out. You can't have a squad of 20 17 year olds. Trapp seems to be one of the better mid 20's guys, and he should get a run as a #6 until better options emerge.
Which reporting are you citing? GCam since he got his first real callup in Feb 2012 has had several stretches when he has been on the US bench behind players that were arguably not as good or as accomplished and yet we never heard any problems with him as a locker room cancer ... ... until the end of the hex in 2017. I wonder why?
This is why I use the phrase “minor league.” There’s no way for us to know how he will respond when the game speeds up but to presume that he can’t seems as biased as the assumption that he obviously can (or is better than Morales). Both Beckerman and Armas were able to handle “high-speed” ballers as a 6 and WT seems at least as good as them.
That is a strange thing to say. We generally come in 14th to 28th place in World Cups. One top 8 finish and one (3?) 32nd and one failed to Qualify in the last 28 years. We have the 14th to 28th best league. All seems pretty efficient. Almost all our other tournaments are played at home. As Russia just showed (plenty of other examples including us in 94), the home team tends to outperform.
I'm not sure who you guys are arguing with about Trapp. He has been good for the USMNT the last 10 months. The media are talking about replacing him with Bradley for the next Friendlies. So, you are arguing the wrong point. I have no idea why you would give Bradley minutes over Trapp or anyone under 28. I think Trapp is superior to Bradley right now. But Jeff Carlisle, Daryl Grove, and many others seem excited to see Bradley in there instead of Trapp (or Williams).