I said I heard it. And from watching, in terms of the defense. From what I've seen of Mendez, he can play deeper, but doesn't always. Agree that they have different skillsets, but the reasons for the comparison are pretty obvious and go well beyond "hispanic."
Where? It doesnt mean that much if you heard it on here from petty poster who is upset that he has chosen Mexico for now.
I've heard him called lazy / fat even by Mexico fans, who can be pretty catty at times. But he went the full 90 in a difficult loss Friday night. Notably, Schelotto pulled our other attacking mid and left Alvarez in when needing a goal, which is a big vote of confidence not in just his ability to change the game but to physically go the full time in a scrappy rivalry match. We all know about the skill, but I've been impressed with his mentality. He's worked hard to be 90 minutes fit for this level, which is hard to do with sub minutes here and there and missing lots of time with international duty. But he's seizing his moments
Efra hasnt done what Pomykal has this season, but keep in mind he is around 2.5 years younger. Lets hope he keeps developing and decides playing for Mexico isnt for him. If so, we could have a very special player on our hands.
He's not coming back to the program. Been his dream to play for Mexico. Family influence plays a role too.
Made his Mexico senior debut against Costa Rica today: 🇲🇽 @efrain_alvarez1 makes his @miseleccionmxEN senior team debut! #ElTriEng— Fut Mex Nation (@FutMexNation) March 30, 2021
Carleton is the worst case scenario for Alvarez. Throw in Adu. All very skillful but none are good defenders that put in a ton of work. Alvarez can correct the ship as can Carleton who may be near his last chance. Teams don't play formations built around classic Argentine #10's anymore. Finding a place for those players depends on them doing a lot of dirty work -pressing, running, tackling etc. If Alvarez learns to do that let's say at a Pulisic level he will be fine but if Pulisic is finding it hard to be a starter at Chelsea with a good level of effort then Alvarez should have his eyes wide open.
Eh, I believe Carleton ruined Carleton’s career. I’m an Atlanta fan. And I am hyper-critical of my team’s lack of focus on youth development. It irks me beyond belief. So much so that I could very easily shift my allegiance to Charlotte when they come into the league if they do things right. That said, Andrew Carleton is 100% responsible for his own undoing. Perhaps you can argue that maybe he needed better mentorship; I could agree with that. But Andrew proved to lack the professional character necessary for the professional game. Furthermore, he’s slow and weak. Slow and weak players don’t make it. They can have all the flash in the world, but they will never take their game to the next level because they’re too slow and weak to do anything with all that flash.
I agree with everything you said but I still wonder if he'd gone to say PSV or equivalent if he'd have flamed out so. Would they have worked on his strength so he was no longer weak. On his work rate and other weaknesses. He wouldn't have been around his old running buddies so that temptation would not have been there (and can't be blamed on Atlanta). Answer might still be he wouldn't make it but looking back staying home and with Atlanta seems the worst possible choice he could have made. I would caution any great prospects against signing with a brand new MLS team until they have a track record of development and integration.
That would be all but a handful of MLS teams. It applies to this thread as the LAG definitely don't have a track record.
Some have bad track records. New teams have no track record. Would be very hard to convince me to sign for a new team (if I were in that situation). Do the newest teams have players of that ilk?
One thing journalists could regularly do to help this issue is to publish grades on the quality of each team’s developmental system. Even though, I’m not much for public shaming, holding teams accountable in a very public way would put teams feet to the fire to not neglect their youth systems. For example, let’s say our beloved Brian Sciaretta - or whoever - decided to publish a biannual rating system and made that public record. I tell you what, if I’m a parent, I’m not letting my kid sign with a club with F track record.
I would take a new team without a track record over one with a bad track record. I found it weird that so many people were upset about Efra's teammates going abroad when the LAG had never had a home grown player as a regular on the first team.