Altidore is 6'0, if he's even that. No way he's 6'1. I suspect Wright is around 6'5, give or take an inch. He looks visibly way taller than anyone on the field. He was 6'3 maybe three or four years ago. And I find the comparisons between them to be so lazy. I'm not calling you racist or anything like that, but I find those comparisons to be purely down to race, and I've seen it made a few times. Is his rough floor equal to Altidore's? Potentially, but not from a stylistic standpoint, probably a production standpoint.
I don't think this is true. We can obviously separate a really good youth player and one who's not good, but it doesn't mean that a team who has multiple high level international footballers at each position and guys who are coming in on 10, 20, 30+ transfer fees is going to take away their playing time and give it to an 18 or 19 year old kid from the academy with no experience. I absolutely believe that Wright and McKennie are capable of making the jump that Pulisic made, but I don't want them to lose a season like so many players their age around the world have. 3 or 4 first team appearances and the rest being with the second team is not the level I believe these players need to be playing at. They need regular first team football. I want them to get that. If I was Schalke coach, I'd have both starting right away because I think they have big potential, but you just gotta think what is realistic to happen in their situations, and what is best for their development. Thats my opinion, at least. I'd like to see both go out on loan.
Someone who says I'm not calling you a racist to begin a sentence is calling you a racist. Not even going to dignify that with a response. Both basically #9s. Physical, large, good but not great ball skills. Not exact players but similar enough. He's not 6-5 give or take. If you give he's not 6-6. He's 6-3+. Anyway we can disagree.
You seem to be jumping to a pretty extreme conclusion. I had inferred the comparison was both have significant physical traits that their style of play doesn't exploit. Wright's floor is well below Altidore, just like his ceiling is higher. For someone who like's to keep track of progress by "first team" minutes, it should be clear that at 19 yrs old, Wright is well behind what Jozy had accomplished at that age...
Yeah, we are going to agree to disagree. I feel like there's a big misperception about how Altidore plays. People want him to be like Drogba, but the reason he failed so badly at Sunderland was that he doesn't play anything like that. He's a complete poacher. A glorified Wondo. He holds the ball up really poorly. He's strong, but rarely uses his strength to his advantage. He's an average athlete at best. Can't win any headers, and has average speed. Technical skills are really poor, awful first touch. He's an excellent finisher and a good player, but little else. On the contrary, Wright is an elite athlete. He's just about the fastest guy on the field. There are very few (if any) footballers his height who have the speed that he does. He's very coordinated and skilled for such a big player and someone who's as athletic as he is. Where he might struggle that Altidore does not is how he reads the game. Altidore knows his game and plays it smartly. Wright is still raw, and doesn't always make the right decisions, but he's also only 19, and he has improved in this area already. So to summarize, I think both are very good finishers. And you could say that they are both strong since Wright has started to bulk up. Besides that though, I think their games are night and day.
Altidore doesn't read the game well. In fact, he is very poor at knowing where to be for the final pass. His hold up game is good.
I'll concede Altidore is an average athlete. However, he uses his size and strength well. That's one of his strengths as a player. He's crafty at gaining advantageous positions on defenders and then uses his wide body to draw fouls, including penalties. His first touch isn't bad either. Anyhow, we all hope for more success in Europe for Haji than Altidore had. He appears to have the goods. Next season will be huge for his future.
Jozy would have found his level in Europe if MLS hadn't thrown 5 million his way. EPL and La Liga were two obvious leagues that just wasn't his style or quality. After tearing it up in Eredivisie with AZ I think a mid table Bundesliga would have been a good fit.
Wut? Jozy plays like a very small person at times. He has the body of a tank, but mostly plays soft. When he can be arsed he can play, hopefully we get the motivated Jozy for the USMNT. I haven't seen Haji play, but when others were talking about him not playing to his size, my thoughts were sounds like Jozy.
Haji is taller, faster and has more moves. His problem is he chooses the wrong moves at the wrong time more times than he should in a given game.
This is only a problem if he doesn't produce goals and assists consistently. I think the same could be said about Dembele at Dortmund. He makes some really awful decisions, and can sometimes destroy a game for his team, but then he has a really nice play to score a goal or create one for a teammate. As simplistic as this may sound, Tuchel prefers Dembele's wild style to Pulisic's reliable style. I think if you are dealing with players of an equal talent level, you might prefer other players to Wright, but you aren't going to find many players who can produce goals and assists as often as he does. His style hurts the team more than probably any other player, but it probably does help more than any player (or almost any player), as well. You gotta let him play his game until it starts hurting more than helping. So far in his career, its helped a lot more than hurt at all levels.
3 Yanks starting in cup match today: #U19-Start11 gg. #BVB! VOOOOOORWÄRTS, #Schalke! #Westfalenpokal #Halbfinale #S04 #schmiede pic.twitter.com/bzQwP080tD— Knappenschmiede (@knappenschmiede) May 26, 2017
And Haji scores: 12. | Toooor! @HajiWright trifft zum 1:0 für die #schmiede— Knappenschmiede (@knappenschmiede) May 26, 2017
Adds another: 45. + 2 | @HajiWright trifft! #U19 4:0 #BVB #Schmiede #S04— Knappenschmiede (@knappenschmiede) May 26, 2017
Hat trick: 65. | 5:0 Torschütze: @HajiWright #Schmiede #S04— Knappenschmiede (@knappenschmiede) May 26, 2017
I just noticed that Schalke II have been relegated to the fifth-tier Oberliga. That's annoying, as it increases the downside for Wright if he does not play for the first team from the outset in 17-18 and does not go on loan.
That's likely not a concern with him already being promoted to train with the first team, plus his performances with the U19's
Haji and Jozy are nothing alike in style of play. Haji excels in space, far more of a dribbler and will face up his mark and go at him. Jozy comes in the holdup mold, not nearly as athletic or willing as a dribbler and is heavily reliant on service into the 18.
I interpreted that announcement to mean that McKennie and Wright will train & play with the first team for the rest of the year, rather than an ironclad guarantee that they would be permanent first teamers and never play in a reserve game next season. We'll see. I certainly hope he can bypass the reserve team.
I think like with most teams, a player promoted to the first team will train with the first team and play with the first team if the first team coach wants them to play with that team for that specific game. If not, they will play in their age group in the reserves, whether thats U-23 or U-19. There's also a chance a player goes out on loan.
Jozy excels in teams that combine around the box and push numbers forward so he can either pass and move into a shooting position or trail the play and slam home the cut back or finish at the far post after another runner draws defenders. He isn't McBride or Twellman, they were dependent on service in the box. He's not a Wondo style poacher. Jozy is dependent on a fluid attack. They don't do what he did in the Villarreal debut video above or this with nearly as much regularity. He has a better shot than they do and is a more technically sound finisher with his feet. Those type of guys do a better job of making early runs and being more active. They produce more xG with their movement and he overperforms with his finishing. Athletically he has average pace, for a forward (at the '09 CC he was in the top third in Top Speed, even with Maicon) above average strength, and average leaping ability (which is very highly correlated with winning contested headers). Haji has a better first touch, left foot, pace over distance, and dribbling. He also is going to be better at winning contested headers due to his size. What's similar is that he is not a natural high energy, backline stretching, gap exploiter.
I really like Bob Morocco's summary, but would add that Wright's traits make him potentially a much better individualist, which is valuable to so many teams that either are mid to low level in their leagues and don't get a ton of chances to push numbers forward, or to teams that are more high-level but need a spark off the bench guy when plan A hasn't worked.