Saw this on the Quakes site. "Only 22?!" Dudes, he's already 22 and should be in his prime!! A big part of what's wrong with US soccer is that we think players are young until they hit their late 20's. We need to develop kids when they are 14, 15, and 16. They should be pros in their late teens (at least at a lower division side). We wait for our players to go through four years of college (well, not Tommy) and then think they are young at 22 and 23. It's Tommy Time now. Go Quakes!! - Mark
Yeah, in his previous 4 years with the club, last year was the first year he finally broke 1000 minutes. His previous highest was 825, and Dom actually nearly halved his 2014 minutes in 2015 ("ya gotta remember, he's only 20 years old" - that was Dom's reason for not playing him). IMO he needs to get at least 1000 minutes again (last year he actually had >1500), which means a number of starts, or they are at risk of setting him back again. He doesn't have to be a regular starter, but he should get some starts and come off the bench a fair amount. At some point, before it's too late, they just need to give him the keys as a regular starter, and then you're going to see something, because he's finally going to be able to relax and play his game. We were starting to see that towards the end of last year when Leitch was starting him a lot and encouraging him to go for it.
Yes. We need a sea change in attitude, both for our own team and others in MLS. We need to develop players sooner and get them serious minutes while they are young. Of course, the US Nats need to do that too. Go Quakes!! - Mark
He also got 340 minutes in the Open Cup. Definitely needs more than 1000 minutes this year. Also needs to get starts in a row so he can get into rhythm, not just here and there. I'd use him anywhere from midfield to forward, arguably he's the "top depth" guy at the moment.
Unfortunately we haven't really seen him take a shot from distance yet this season, so don't know if his shooting has improved. But as evidenced by the LA preseason game, he can at least get poacher type of goals. If the offense is moving the ball well and dynamic enough, he'll get some goals. And we know he's good for some assists as well.
Play TT as the tucked in Rmid with Mag above Flo in the middle...Vako as the tucked in Lmid with Danny and Hoesens up top. For me it is a no brainer. It would require Flo to stay home in a deeper pure 6 role. Imo, we absolutely need him deeper. I'd have to take another look but it seems like we're pretty set on playing zone in front of our back line... two blocks of four compacting the ball side... it didn't look too staggered though. The potential issue with that is when the ball enters Flo's zone he has to step up, if the ball is quickly played behind him. The CB directly behind his zone should be stepping to that ball...or it could be on of his teammates in an adjacent zone or block...depends on how they choose to cover. It definitely looked like growing pains with the central mid zone adjustments in the first half of the LA game. It seemed like every time Flo stepped up his teammates Yueill, Cummings and Quintana we slow to respond to the ball in the space behind him. LA was able to get behind Flo and have a lot of combo joy at the top of our box. Alessandrini was giving Yueill fits. I think there was too much separation between the mids and CBs...elongated the CB zones...CBs were too far away to quickly close the space. Hopefully it will tighten up, but we don't have recovery speed at CB. If we're slow to react and get caught flat in central defense we're going to get combo'd straight up the gut. Hopefully our attack will keep enough heat off our back line. If we play Tommy and bring Mag's work rate and attacking skills into central midfield ahead of Flo it just might happen.
I have still yet to see Magnus really hold the ball in traffic and move it under duress the way that Godoy can. His MO seems to be the quick, incisive pass. I watched a few of his games in Sweden and I saw it over and over. He gets it, he maybe takes a touch, but then he gets rid of it right away, often a through ball or that type of high risk / high reward pass. That is not necessarily bad in a CM, but it will lead to a lot of short possessions. We're either going to score off that pass or it's a turnover. So you wouldn't want to see it every time. Godoy is more of a hold or move it forward and then distribute with a shorter pass guy. Jackson tends to play more of the high risk / high reward passes but I think he is a little more patient and varied than I've seen Magnus in that role. I'd love it if Stahre could find a place to start TT regularly but I don't think it's going to happen. I expect to see Vako and Magnus as outside attacking mids, Godoy and Flo in the middle, Hoesen and Wondo up top. Right now looks like Stahre sees Hyka as first off the bench for attacking players, then TT and Quincy. Jackson would be first depth at CM. That said, crazy things happen every year, so I expect that it won't go as it appears to be planned right now. One thing that I think will happen is that before the year is over, Flo will be back at CB.
Geez, I just realized I have Danny and Hoesens up top in my previous post...need coffee bad. Flo might take a turn at CB, but I don't see him staying there permanently. I think we'd bring in another CB before that happens. I still think Flo is critical at Dmid, but I also think there will be a learning curve with our zonal midfield defense. A big part of that will be situational awareness or discipline to do the right things in that scheme. Some guys will take to it well and others will struggle. There is a lot of coordination involved...I think it will be second nature for Flo, but not so much for Godoy. Hyka will need to pick up his game to out compete Tommy. Imo, Tommy's overall game is better right now. I'd like to see him start, but I don't see him behind Hyka as first option. I think it will play out like the second half of last season with Tommy bringing more to the game than Hyka. We'll see what happens.
It's limited data but based on who's played when in preseason and with whom, looks like Stahre sees Hyka as ahead of TT on the depth chart. They are both worthy of minutes but it will be a little tough this year. They are playing behind (roughly) $1.5 million DP's, both of whom are strong threats to score. So it would be hard to take them off the field when you need a goal. Hyka and TT would be more likely to come in when you are protecting a lead, TT in particular because he plays good D. In 2015 Dom used TT primarily as an 86th minute time waste sub when they had a lead, if he used him at all. Hopefully his role is not limited to that again.
Good interview. Wonder who he could possibly thinking of who when he says this: "..if I put myself in any MLS coach’s shoes, your focus is on the next game. Your focus isn’t on an 18-year-old kid’s development. And so I understand why a lot of the coaches in MLS play older players – it’s because if your job’s on the line, that’s what they’re comfortable doing." And yet what he says next indicates that he doesn't think this is necessarily the right mentality entirely. "I hope, and I think, that mentality is changing. I’ve seen it already, just with our Earthquakes teams alone, I’ve seen it with Salt Lake as well, one of our Western Conference opponents. I also see it in other leagues with young players like [French phenom Kylian] Mbappe, [others,] you name it, are doing amazing things. I’m hoping that Major League Soccer looks to these leagues and sees what we can become.”"
I’m all for the development and playing of younger players but with the coaches coming and going, I can see how they wouldn’t want to risk a younger player in certain games and situations. In the case of Tommy , I’m sure Dominic was sitting on the edge of his seat after Doyle was fired so that is probably why he started more experienced players. If I was a coach , I’d probably do the same thing especially if your team is below average as the Quakes have been. This is the case with every team in the world though , not only in MLS.
Doubling down on what he was doing to no effect already? If that was indeed Dom's thinking after Doyle departed, he could not have been more misguided.
Well he was misguided. The only reason why he was named coach was because Doyle brought him to San Jose. Doyle was in Dom’s corner but Fioranelli wasn’t. When Kaval fired Doyle, Dom was a lame duck. The night the Quakes beat RSL and when Kinnear subbed off Ureña for Sarkodie only 5 minutes after scoring, you saw Jesse on the sideline and he wasn’t happy regardless of the win. That spelled the end for Dom and Jesse fired him not 12 hours later. I don’t see how Kinnear wouldn’t have felt that his job was or could have been in jepordy and I’m sure that had to affect his decision making in player selections.
I think what actually cost Dom his job was the previous home game (?) when they were completely dominated at home by SKC and had 0 shots in the 1st half. It wound up being 0-0 but the Quakes were unbelievably inept in that game and played ultra conservative and afraid. At home... I think that's when Jesse made the decision. Just took him another week or to roll it out. IIRC people asked why he would fire Dom after a pretty good victory against RSL, and he said, basically, the ship had already sailed.
Okay, Stahre. You let Hyka out of the dungeon and look what happened! Now we know Tommy didn't blow the doors off in the 480 seconds of playing time you allocated. I mean, if he was as good as Miguel Almiron he might have scored nearly 0.045 goals in that time and he actually scored 0.000. And since the team lost by 0.03 goals, he clearly didn't do his part. Oh, I got that wrong, they won by a goal. So maybe he isn't bad luck? Even if you aren't sure, you could review some of the other 3514 minutes of tape that happened before you arrived? No one is saying "give him the captain's armband". You don't even have to start him. Just like Hyka. Now that we have you trained up on substitutes since last week (good job, btw, you'll get a framed certificate), you know you just yell to the table and say "22 coming in for 20". And if you are a Star Trek fan, and you are felling silly, you could even say "Make it so!" Those guys pretty much have you let you do it... as long as you put him on the game day roster... which happens to be one more thing we need to discuss. PUT HIM ON THE F'N ROSTER. To borrow a phrase: "Free Tommy Thompson!"
Dunno. I am thinking back to someone relaying a "Ready" twitter(?) post. That seemed like he was hoping and felt ready. Of course I could be misremembering.
I think Tommy is actually hosed with this coach. I have already resigned myself to the idea that he's not going to get much of a chance. The reason is that his playing style does not really fit Stahre's at all. Stahre likes his mids to be aggressive with their passes - play it forward quickly with longish, high risk / high reward passes. Magnus fits perfectly - that's his game. Jackson also fits pretty well because he is a good medium / long range passer. Medium / long range passing is not TT's forte. He is more about being careful with possessions, he'll play it back sometimes - he can be overly conservative at times, he'll play shorter give-and-gos, things like that. It is more about the safe pass and then movement - he is more of a possession / combination play kind of player. Of course in a 4-3-3 he could play in the front line. He'd be a little better fit there - his touch is really, really good at times, which would help him receive the pass and get into good positions, but he is more of a distributor and his shot is not great. So I think he fits best in a more possession-oriented offense as a wide or central mid. It is an insult because he's already shown he's a good MLS player, but If he's not going to play for the Quakes, might as well have him play in Reno so that he can stay sharp and work on his shooting and maybe more aggressive passing. But at this point, if Stahre is going to be the coach for a while, he would be better off playing for another team. If Sac gets an MLS team, that would be ideal. It is an unfortunate turn of events because it was like pulling teeth for him to get playing time under Dom, even with an inferior roster, and then Leitch was like the best possible coach for him, both in terms of style of play and the fact that Leitch really believed in him. Now it is back to a scenario that is even worse than the Dom days. This year he will likely have less minutes than any of his years with the Quakes, even 2014, when he didn't start playing until August. So it's like last year he had a nice inflection point that had him moving upwards in a steeper direction, and now there's another inflection point that is slamming him back down in the other direction.
That was at the Philly game when he was in the 18 but of course didn't play. He was supposedly out with an "illness" last week, and someone mentioned during a pregame talk for fans that he'd be out a few weeks. He's been pretty active on twitter, so I don't think he could be like really, really ill if that's even what it is. One of his recent tweets (re-tweets) - hmmm. 986302193715294208 is not a valid tweet id
Yeah. This is sad and pathetic, and he'll do well for any team that gives him a chance. I'm with you. Should have kept CL as the coach and suffered through some growing pains rather than go backward to this crap. Some of our better players sit on the bench, and guys will less skill get to play. We're screwed. Woe is us. go quakes!! - Mark
It's getting curiouser and curiouser. He's been all over social media, and recently posted some video of one of his "skills camps", featuring Salinas. I suppose that could be from some other time, but he was tweeting in reference to an instagram that Salinas just posted. Usually you don't instagram stuff from months ago. Last week one of the coaches said he'd be out for a few weeks. What kind of illness does one have where you know that you'll be out for at least a few weeks? Mononucleosis? Or does he have Abouttobetradeditus? Shout out @SalinasSJ11 lol https://t.co/ScKGyV4xRU pic.twitter.com/brJDiFz92F— Tommy Thompson (@tomthom11) April 18, 2018