There's an opening for marketing director for the Sounders. Tommy seemingly has quite a bit of relevant experience, so he just might get the job if he applies.
I really do want to believe in Tommy. I think he has the technical skills. He needs to develop vision. I think the new staff can't be anything but good for Tommy. If the new staff can't help him... then I think that is on Tommy.
Id agree, if there was a coach that was going to give tommy a chance to succeed in MLS. Nows the chance. Hopefully he proves a lot of people wrong and leaves a lot of hand wringing at Kinnear and Stahre.
In '17, TT was frequently the best player on the pitch, on either side of the ball. He is plenty good enough for this league, we've just badly misused him, and give him a supporting cast of crap all. Go Quakes!! - Mark
However you want to view his playing, he's much better than several guys on our roster with way more minutes. Our team would have been better if we'd played Tommy in place of Eriksson. (At least, from the sixth or seventh game on, once it was clear that Eriksson was crap.) Go Quakes!! - Mark
It sucks to know we'll never know for sure. I think fans would have also preferred to watch Thompson whether he played better or not. I never got a sense than anybody cared at all that Eriksson was on the field aside from that one nice goal he had late in the season.
This is year three of me saying it.....he doesn't have the quickness to get separation on the dribble and his off of the ball movement is not good enough to create opportunities. it's sad but he's just like Junior Flores. Great technically but he just never developed to be good enough.
I think you are incorrect about his off the ball movement. If anything, I think he was accused of having too much off the ball runs forward during his early career under Kinnear. The Quakes would turn it over and he was too far up to help in transition defense. I think Kinnear hammered him on it and now he hangs back more expecting that he might have to fight to win back the ball if the Quakes lose it. Very few Quakes move off the ball. They usually try to find spots to stand and receive balls played at their feet. Tommy is a guy that likes picking balls up in space on the move. If Almeyda values that, he’ll play better than previous years.
This infuriated me to no end. You are very easy to defend if you stand around at a designated spot and wait for a ball to get to you before you start running anywhere. It baffles me how static the Quakes have been in nearly every situation, and it's a big reason why they have struggled to be good. I don't really recall Thompson being a particular bright spot in that area relative to other players on the team, but he could have hardly been worse than anybody else. I do hope he gets a chance with Almeyda's staff. There are so many caveats to his time in San Jose that it's impossible to make any definitive statements on what he is as a player. If for no other reason, I just want to see him play so we can answer that question.
And it's just not that they don't make runs or move into space to receive the ball, they don't seem to understand the need to make runs to open up space for a teammate.
Rinse and repeat. Unfortunately, you see a lot of teams who play to space rather than a dynamic game in modern soccer. It doesn't matter whether I watch MLS, EPL, La Liga, etc., teams defend space and are more concerned with defensive shape rather a dynamic game which requires quality 1v1 defense. In the case of TT, I just don't see what other's see on wanting him to be a full time starter and describing him as one the best players on the field. If he was that good, other team's would be talking the Quakes about trading for him (that may be the case, but there have been no rumors). So, yes, he had been impacted by the Quakes coaches and style of play, but so have other players. Can TT be a starter in MLS? Yes. Will he be an impact or all star level? No, I don't think so.
Assuming that this is so, that makes TT better than several players on our roster and a couple of those are starters. The static play thing has been a problem since '08. It's like a bad Doyle hangover. It's like our brains went to Houscum in '06 and stayed there. Hopefully, Matias and staff are bringing a fresh set of gray matter to the club. I fear that we will continue to suck in the coming season. Go Quakes!! - Mark
Exactly my feelings on him. He either finds a new level of feel for the game (not technique, but an understanding of what to so with himself) or he starts or he doesn't, but he is just a replacement-level player. I saw just one game where I thought he was really excellent. But there is reason to hope that a totally new, and high-level staff might find something to show him that gets him to take that next step.
Tommy in Japantown. Almost back @SJEarthquakes 👀 https://t.co/jvwYu0vhNs pic.twitter.com/qSlcXRpkz8— Tommy Thompson (@tomthom11) January 18, 2019
You could level this criticism at many players on our team. Shea rarely has any idea what to do with the ball until after he has it. He almost never makes runs to open space for another player. Godoy could be accused of the same thing. Jackson, Eriksson, Cummings, Lima sometimes. And Kashia thinks he should make long passes every time he has the ball. Vako has been making a solid effort to be more of a team player lately, kudos to him. So, why level this criticism at TT? He at least usually knows what he wants to do with the ball before he gets it. He's not as clever as Wondo, but that's a pretty high bar. Also, Wondo can't execute his ideas at speed, so he's not as effective as he once was. (I'm referring to Wondo playing at the wide mid spots here, not when he plays as a forward.) I don't get the overly critical response to TT when he's actually got a better soccer brain than most of our players? (Which is another in a series of blistering indictments of our roster, team, coaching, and culture.) Go Quakes!! - Mark
Because I have high hopes for TT. I think it is possible for him to raise his level. Most of the rest you listed I have no hopes for real improvement from, the exception being Lima. The difference is that Lima needs to improve his technique more than his vision, I think his vision is okay for what is required from a RB. But he is already and asset on the field. I don't think Tommy is, yet. Obviously you disagree and feel Tommy should be starting. That isn't what I see when I see him on the field. The reason for the overly negative reaction is that some people seem to think there is some sort of coaching conspiracy to keep Tommy off the field. But to me it is a conspiracy of Tommy's weaknesses. I have hope they can be improved.
If Tommy is going to be a succsesful proffesional this coach is the one who will bring it out of him. I am very excited to see the style of play from the Quakes. Could this be the year that Tommy breaks through and Jackson becomes a true week in and week out mainstay?
He may be a middle of the road or could even turn into a slightly above average player but I don't think he will ever be a star they projected him to be. Age 23 is still young enough to grow but he has been a full fledged professional of 5 seasons. Sooner or later he has to make the jump from a promising youth team or home grown talent to a starter and/or veteran and he has not done that this yet. Mop up duty here and there and late season starts in meaningless games won't prove much. His brother, Tanner Thompson at 24 years of age has already given up the game and hasn't played since 2017. I'm not too keen on MLS salary rules but if true, as a Homegrown Player under 25 years of age, he may not count against the cap. I guess that's good.
TT looked lively in the first half of the NYRB game last night. Losing 4-1 after taking a 1-0 lead at the half is a horrible result though. If Tommy can play the way he did in the first half for 90 minutes, he may have finally come out of his shell.
He's our most exciting player on the ball and is a young local kid. If we are going to suck ass, which apparently we will continue to, can he please be our #10 instead of a RB?
The problem is, yesterday it looked like no one on the team could play the Almeyda Way for more than 45 minutes.
It looked to me like the Quakes were much slower to the ball from the 2H kickoff. And then ATL scored, and the quakes looked beaten, just like last season. That’s what happens when you don’t have the energy to fight back. I didn’t notice if RBNY made any tactical changes, because I missed the first 35 minutes of the game, and U-verse/Univision isn’t showing any replays.
Keep practicing.. You never know where you might end up ‼️ https://t.co/9YkGdqslTo pic.twitter.com/ZTLlCgYGAV— Tommy Thompson (@tomthom11) May 13, 2019