which confirms that he isn't part of the 1st team Winter Camp. can't be helped, played 3 5th division game after returning from a 7 month injury and scoring a goal that was more GK blunder than anything, isn't enough game time. there are too many players that seem too injury prone. From what I recall he injured himself back in May too, wasn't tackled or anything. Than I believe he had some issues that delayed his return. kid will turn 20 soon and needs to find his rhythm. More injuries could be detrimental to his potential.
It's a strange thing that Tab has called Nick considering he only played 3 games so far this season and comes from an injury. An explanation could be that they did not release the best players for this camp, but is it worth to call someone who is out of the field several months ago? Although they have not yet released the list, their call would be very surprising
Winger isn’t the deepest spot in the pool and this is a player who has been consistently involved now for a couple years (when healthy/released). It’s probably one of those “it doesn’t hurt to have a look) scenarios.
If he wasn't going to be with the first team for preseason, I can't see much of a reason to not call him. U23 winter training camp doesn't really help him. Nick was supposed to be called for the September camp to the full national team before he got hurt. That obviously implies he's really highly rated in the federation, and Tab especially has always been high on him. Tab probably wants him for the world cup, and thinks that it's more important for Nick's future to be fully integrated with the team rather than cementing a spot with the Schalke U23s.
Check out @SoccerByIves’s Tweet: Best player at the #USMNT U-20s today? Schalke’s Nick Taitague, his combination of speed and skill is something to see. Injuries have slowed him down over a chunk of the past two years, but if he can stay healthy he has the talent to be the next American success story at Schalke— Ives Galarcep (@SoccerByIves) January 9, 2019
Fingers crossed he stays healthy. Watching clips of him back in '17, he just flat out better than any American attacking prospect I'd seen other than Pulisic over the past ten years (Wright also had his moments, and then Sargent blew everyone out of the water that year while Nick started having serious health problems). Still, if Carleton is 97531's favorite "could be" fingers crossed prospect, than Taitague has been mine (especially after I jumped off the Wright train last year, and already was convinced w/o question that Sargent was legit for more than the past year), when you watch him play, when he's healthy, the speed, the fluidity, the intelligence, the constant danger and upset he causes in opponents halves is just so damn impressive. It doesn't shock me at all that he might look fantastic in camp. If he's healthy and match fit, he'll show better than virtually anyone in the camp, or not available if not all of them period. I just hope that somehow he can finally get healthy. Have they been soft tissue injuries (it sounds like that) or injuries of another sort? I don't recall torn ACL's, or MCL's, or LCL's etc, no nightmare torn achilles situations, but if memory serves, it sounds like they were often soft tissue, and just as a sports fan, guys that have picked up soft tissue injuries multiple times seem to always have to battle them. Is there any kind of sound, fundamental treatment that could help someone in this situation that is more efficacious in a long term sense? I've generally felt that at least in the NFL, the way soft tissue injuries have typically been treated has been incredibly idiotic, repeatedly causing players to miss large chunks of time and go on and off and on IR over and over again because of a failure to stick to a long term, smart plan for rehabbing an injury. That's what I want with him. Forget the next 6 months, what does Nick need to do to open the door to health for the next 10 years? Are there options he can take that give him a better chance at avoiding future injuries, or is it simply luck? Always been curious, since I follow all the sports and have seen injuries repeatedly handled poorly in multiple sports, heck, including my own. I just want Nick to have the chance that guys like John O'Brien, and Terrence Boyd, and Renken, and Gyau, and Holden and on and on didn't have (granted all were differing situations). It may be just in the stars, or not, but I'd like Nick to succeed or fail based on his talents rather than the treatment regimen he receives, or due to impatience on his or his clubs part (not that this is necessarily happen).
more and more reports are saying that Schalke is very very close of snatching Man City's rated Academy's Welsh 00-Matondo. That's the kind of move that could end up blocking Taitague.
Unfortunately, when you’re in Schalke’s position in the table and need a lot of points to make a move to get to the Europa/CL spots, you don’t usually do that by solely relying upon your too small, oft-injured, 20 year old to make his debut and consistently create goals for you.
it's official Schalke signs Matondo until 2023. as for Taitague he played a Schalke II friendly recently in a 5-1 loss. Played the 1st half only as game was 3-1 HT for the other team. The only Schalke goal came off a corner, no Taitague involvement. Other team was a RL team. Always heard that Nick Taitague although has skills, he's inefficient on top of his injury proness issues.
injured again, he was MIA in Schalke II's 1st game post break and now official site. https://schalke04.de/knappenschmiede/oberliga-westfalen/u23-empfaengt-paderborner-zweitvertretung/
latest Schalke II update he's still injured. Injured for the season??? Someone closer to the U20s than me said Taitague is "the most dangerous player we have," but he likely won't be fit in time for the World Cup. https://t.co/GIeCc6itwx— scuffed (@scuffedpod) March 15, 2019
its crazy that Taitague will have wasted crucial year post U19 doing pretty much nothing but rehab. Still can't beat guys like Corey Anton who've been injured-out of shape since Aug 2017........That's almost 2 years for that guy, missing crucial last U19 season and the post U19 season.
He’s likely done ever being a player with top potential. We’ve seen this story before. Let’s hope he can recover and make a living playing somewhere.