It's not really a question of him "half-assing" it or not. He wouldn't be out there if he wasn't mature enough to understand these kind of chances don't come around very often in a young career. You better to ready to put your best foot forward. Pulling the ball out of the goal like that just shows his head was in the game and he's more interesting in collectively competing than in individually show-boating. Keep the faith Haji!
I remember waking up at 3am to see if he was going to play in Finland. Those were the days. His time in Aris was a huge head-scratcher for me. The guy was a difference-maker whenever he played, but they sat him for league games and only used him for cup games. The two times he appeared in the league for more than injury time, in one game he scored, in the other he assisted. Hate me if you will, but no one is going to tell me Adu got benched in Aris because he wasn't good enough. I watched.
The only way to help this post derail the thread more would be to and, “...and what was JK thinking leaving our best player home in 2014?”
Well time for new Haji thread. This thread has been struck by all three of big soccer's versions of Godwin's law.
Maybe that could have been true at Aris* but, Rize apart, it wasn't the case anywhere after that. The guy just couldn't be arsed any more and coaches got tired of the circus. * His problem at Aris was that the coach (Hector Raul Cuper) is a strict disciplinarian tactically, which just didn't sit well with Fredy. He wouldn't/couldn't fit the system, so he go benched.
On the bench with Weston McKennie. 📋 Our final XI of the year 👇#VfBS04 #s04 pic.twitter.com/3wiHf6LPYd— FC Schalke 04 (@s04_en) December 22, 2018
came on for the last 3 minute. This could be it for him as pretty much every striker should be fit for the post Winter break. and Kutucu scored Schalke's 3rd too.
I'm racking my brain here, and I honestly can't remember any goal prior to this one where an American assisted another American's goal in a Big 4 league under this definition. The closest I can think of is there were a number of goals at Fulham where one of McBride or Bocanegra forced a save off a set-piece or rattled the crossbar and the other one followed up on the rebound and scored. For example, the first goal here:
Considering where he started the season he's in a great spot. I don't get all the doom and gloom. He's a first team player at Schalke going into the winter break.
Wasn't Schalke at one point ready to give up on Haji based on his 2nd team and loan performances? Not a bad turnaround, even allowing that the strikers are so banged up and beleaguered that Tedesco actually fielded a DM and a LB as his strikers recently.
Wright seems to be in the Winter Camp although Tataigue and Jones seem both absent. Kutucu seems to be the only U19 player. Schalke tends to not call up U19 players in their last U19 season. This seems to be the rare time they go for it due to fitness of other players. Seems like the strikers might not all be ready this early, still 2 weeks left before the season starts. For one TM, still has 4 strikers as injured. And Schalke have been linked with transfer for strikers. Schalke II coach made it seem like Wright and Fontein (the other II player called up) have a chance to recommend themselves to other professionals. Sounds like not necessarily future at Schalke.
💬 #Tedesco on transfers: "We want to respond to the Naldo departure. It is more important, however, to make a good transfer than make a quick one. We want to do something about the centre-back position and up front." #s04 #Benidorm2019 🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/bOSRgkmEZZ— FC Schalke 04 (@s04_en) January 4, 2019
Schalke's been a dumpster fire this season. Embolo didn't grow into a Leroy Sané replacement and now they talk of replacing Naldo with Salif Sané. SMH.
Naldo's value is more attacking than defensive, which fits 1BL being an attacking league but recently over the last 2 seasons. Felt to me like he was becoming a defensive liability. So not surprising that he's lost his place. and I'm not surprising that he's never been relevant to Brazil NT either.