Not sure I agree. Cameron and Brooks are both very aggressive in their positioning, chances they take on the ball (more with dribbling for Cameron and passing for Brooks), and both have been known to ball watch a lot. They are both good players and don't compliment each other terribly (like Brooks and Gonzalez do), but I think there are better partnerships, and I also think Cameron is a much better defensive midfielder than center-back. I think that partnership's performances at Copa America was flukey. Brooks was really good for like three or four games, but Cameron really wasn't as good during Copa America. He was bad in the first game against Colombia and got beat for at least one goal in that game that I remember. I noticed a lot of mistakes when we were winning, as well. He just was getting away with a lot of those mistakes. Sometimes you get away with them, other times you don't. Brooks was awful against Argentina, nearly as bad as he was as the game just played. I think Brooks had a good Copa America, Cameron an okay Copa America, but I think there were a lot of overreactions to that CB pairing. They weren't as good as some state, and their games don't compliment each other that well.
The only player we have that is of the level and compliments him better is Besler but we will never see that. Positionally you're right but Cameron's athletic ability makes up for it. Brooks needs to be with a mobile partner.
If I were coach, I would have to be in very dire straits to ever trust JAB again in the lineup. The CR game was off the charts bad. The problem is that he has been untrustworthy to some degree with both the USMNT and his club for quite a while. Mixed, of course, with excellence. I don't think the mix is tolerable.
I don't think one horrific game excludes a player from future selection, even if that player has had bad moments in the past. I don't think there is a single player in the world who has never had a nightmare game.
Think about this though: With good teams, how often do you see situations where dangerous players get into a 1v1 with the last defender with then only the goalie to beat? It's not terribly often. Why is that? Usually the backline is much more connected, the space between midfield and the backline is compressed, the GK is quicker to come off his line, the midfield has not allowed the entry pass to be unchallenged, or it is a high bouncing ball that allows the defense to recover it's shape, or the second central defender has a little pace and is challenging from another angle, which makes the attacker go towards the end line. Any number of reasons, none of which were the case when we played CR the other night. JAB was turrible in those 1 v 1 situations, as bad as I've seen a top level defender, but how were those situations created? While his performance is to be questioned, the other 9 outfield players are not blameless. The guy's coach in Hertha plays him this term whenever he's fit. So the guy has some people who are paid to make decisions that think he might have some quality.
Brooks was arguably our best player at the Gold Cup just this past summer. I saw his Man of the Match performance in person vs Paraguay. Anyone remember his 1v3 stop? Incredible. Check it out at the 0:15 mark here: Then he missed his mark at the end of an intense 90min vs Mexico, and it cost us a point. Shit happens when you're 23. Post game our Chief Narcissist decided to deflect criticism away from his own atrocious 343 mistake that cost us a critical early goal and took the crowd out of it, and instead he threw JAB under the bus as the main failure of the game. Inexcusable. Good coaches take responsibility for losses with the media. And they DON'T, under any circumstances, criticize specific players. It's like Coaching 101. You criticize in private, no matter how pissed you are in the moment. Brooks's confidence was shot for the Costa Rica match. Personally, I still believe in him. A new coach is going to reach out and rebuild his confidence. And JAB will be a lock on the team sheet through the next two World Cups. Fcuk Jurgen.
Let me stop you right there. This comment tells me everything I need to know... you've never coached at any level.
I suppose I'm bias because he's one of my favorite players, however, people who are paid lots and lots of money in one of the best leagues in the world seem to be very high on him. Club vs. country form is very different, especially when it comes to CONCACAF where games are not so easy all the time, but both him and Cameron have done quite well together (in my opinion). from YA: http://www.espnfc.us/german-bundesl...nd-silicon-valley-in-race-to-join-super-clubs "Hertha have already gone down the investment route themselves. In 2014, the American private equity firm KKR injected a total of €60 million into Hertha, and gave the club the chance to invest into the squad. "That's a clear 'yes,'" Ingo Schiller, the club's finance executive, said when asked whether the KKR money made U.S. international John Brooks' new contract possible." Hertha's GM @ 3:25:
It's true he was left isolated on various occasions. But the individual mistakes are what was really troubling: bad touches/traps, misplaced passes and other unforced errors.
More evidence that Defenders and Goalkeepers aren't allowed to have a bad game or two. Yes, he had a bad week, particularly in CR, but he is our best defender, and likely will be the best defender we've ever had. He will be a champions league player for a decade.
I'd have some patience with JB. Given the amount of quality/depth we have in our CB ranks, nobody, not even Brooks should be written in with ink, but I could forgive him this horrendous match (and not really a stellar Mexico match either) and give him the benefit of the doubt that within a properly selected and managed team, assuming he's healthy, he'd be one of if not my very best options at CB over the foreseeable future. Until a streak of form proved otherwise. We've got competent CBs who can step in (and more talented prospects in the wings), so that's not an issue.
A coach told me something when I was young that I'll never forget. He said as a defender you always have to perfect. A forward just needs to get 1 out of 100 in a game. You always need to be 100 for 100. Now obviously you can make mistakes that go unpunished but the point stands.
More talented prospects? Don't crown CCV or EPB just yet. Brooks is the best young CB in Germany right now.
No, that's not what I meant, though I can see how you might have read it that way because of my wording. I meant that we still have talented prospects yet. I did not mean that they are more talented than Brooks.
USA vs Costa Rica: Breaking down Brooks, defense's shocker http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/201...-john-brooks-chandler-omar-gonzalez-klinsmann
Uhh, we didn't cap CCV the other night, did we? Anyone else be surprised if the guy has second thoughts about reppin' the ol' US of A after that loss? I reckon he's on the phone with Southgate right now.
I very much doubt a guy with exactly 0 league appearances in his career is on Southgate's radar, especially given his complete lack of call-ups at any age level for England.
A guy starting for Spuds could very well change that equation, though. This isn't so much about "now" as it is about "later," and bringing him in without capping him (particularly given how bad and evidently low-morale this camp was) was somewhere in between "useless" and "counter-productive." He could've stayed with his club in London and done more for the USMNT cause.
Here's hoping. But after Costa Rica, even I am filing my one-time switch. And I don't even have another nationality.
Wolfsburg signs US defender John Brooks in record transfer https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...9ebfec-45ff-11e7-8de1-cec59a9bf4b1_story.html