He's already better than a number of our full NTers. Look at his ability on the ball, IQ/awareness and defensive presence. Would like to see a Adams, McKennie and Paxton midfield trio tried with Pulisic as an inverted LWer. Paxton Pomykal vs Toronto FCpic.twitter.com/Lj4ttuTj86— Sanjiv (@USMNTvideos) June 24, 2019
Saw this video the other day. Combine that with what I saw in the u20 WC, and someone saying he's the 2nd highest rated American in MLS, why is he not with the team? I said it on another thread, but what can Bradley do better than Pomykal? Agree that him, Adams, and McKennie is the best combination moving forward. But if we're moving Adams to accommodate MB/Trapp, is there room for Pomykal?
I suspect he's not at the Gold Cup because losing him for that and the U-20 WC would be very bad for Dallas. I will be annoyed if he's not with the senior team for games in the fall.
I said it. He's now rated 18th in MLS on whoscored across entire league and is now the top rated American in MLS. Memo Rodriguez is only other American in top 40. They don't play the same position yet Mikey (97) and Trapp (187) are shoe-ins for the NT. Same as Arriola (135) and Zardes (126) who are often starters. Lima is at (204). Whoscored is obviously not the full argument but it supports the eye test and many of our NT regulars aren't even ranked top 100 in the league. The conundrum of course is to play a Adams, McKennie and Pomykal trio which on paper suggests is the highest rated potential midfield we can put together, means the Bradley/Trapp role disappears.
Pomykal's main deficit is the final pass, which makes him more of an 8 than a 10, but we could kind of get around that by inverting both Pulisic and Boyd, and starting Pulisic relatively deep so as to give him good runs in transition.
Cheers. Yeah, I guess I still don't get the argument where "Pomykal is an 8, Bradley/Trapp are 6s", but most agree that defense at the 6 is the biggest MB/Trapp weakness. Thus, what are they doing better than Pomykal? Not playing defense, and not doing anything else better.
My guess is he'll be with the U-23s unless there's an injury crisis with the senior team. Why? 1) USSF seems to be putting a high priority on the Olympics 2) CONCACAF Olympic qualifying is only partially within the October international window 3) Teams don't have to release players for Olympic qualifying even if it falls in an international window, but European clubs definitely won't send valuable guys if it means missing games 4) CONCACAF Nations League is happening in that window as well So Kreis will need all the MLS guys he can get. Plus if we are going to take the Olympics seriously (which I support, though I know a lot of people think it's a waste of time) then you can see a case for building some cohesion in that team, and Pomykal is poised to be a leader there. ETA This is not to say I'm banging the table for him to be with the U-23s; it's just what I think will happen.
10 against better teams where we're going to start deeper and have to win the ball or press, 8 against worse ones where the requirement will be to hold possession and breakdown a d. I think the default cm in the Olympics will be Wes, Adams, and Pax. For the full senior team, the start of integration will probably be Nations' League, which if we're committing this much to winning GC, should be used to expand roster options. Pax may have already been in the fold if not for a u20 conflict.
Beat me to it. I don't think we see Paxton until November, sadly. I can't fault the decision though. I'm sick of not making the Olympics and any Euro clubs are going to tell us "LOL f-ck off" unless their guys are riding the pine.
I think it's 50/50 for November, to be honest. Our second Nations League game of the fall is less than a week after MLS Cup. I could see some of the domestic guys not getting called on the rationale that "they need a rest."
This midfield would be such a pain in the ass to play against. All three guys play with bite and can run for ages. Maybe you lose a bit without the technical flair of a Mendez or someone like that. But Pomykal/McKennie/Adams would be annoying as hell for an opponent.
I think he'd probably be ok unless he's getting sold this winter. If anything MLS fixing their schedule so they don't have the the international break right in the middle of the playoffs (not to mention playing MLS Cup in December was kind of idiotic) will make it more likely he gets called in. Plus, depending on who has eyes on him, getting him caps for a future work permit appeal wouldn't be a bad idea.
The best 6 in the pool is Adams, and second best is McKennie. Roldan is a better pure 6 than either Bradley or Trapp as well, and even a guy like Kitchen is having a good season and is young enough to be relevant through this cycle. The nice thing about Adams/McKennie/Pomykal is that those guys all have the skill sets and soccer IQ to play differently against varying levels of opposition. That said, I'm fine with Pomykal going to Olympic qualifiers instead of the fall NL games (and there's zero chance Adams and McKennie are getting released for the Olympics). But we need to call him into the senior team at the next reasonable opportunity.
A motor I haven't seen since young Mike Bradley. Tune into FC Dallas folks, something is special down there.
He's actually better at final balls than he's showing recently. Watch how he plays with Ferreira as a gauge. Pax is looking for runs and Ferreira has played with him a while and knows this - so he makes runs and Pax sees them. I actually see Pepi benefiting from this if he gets any real minutes because he also makes hard runs into space. If Pax joins the national team and they learn each other there will be more key passes. Zardes might be better that Altidore because of this but Pulisic, Sargent and Weah etc are ideal. Really the whole new generation coming up plays this way while the older players not so much. Makes a mishmash when put together as the styles don't always mesh.
It just seems so obvious to me that Adams is a materially better 6 already, and McKennie is fully capable of playing there absent Adams, that worrying about Paxton vs Trapley/Brapp isn't relevant. He doesn't need to supplant Trapp, he needs to give us another option in the box-to-box or attacking midfield that lets us move around Pulisic. Looking at the roster, that makes it look more like he needs to beat out Roldan and Mihailovic, and he may already be there.
Quavas Kirk laughs. That's an easy one. Because he was with the U-20s. I have high hopes for him, but he's not Jesus. He can't be in two places at the same time.
Hey, I'm with you, of course. But we've lost the entire Adams argument to keep MB/Trapp on the field. McKennie is also way better, I agree. Guess my question is the only argument for Bradley/Trapp is that, for what they lack defensively, they make up for with them long diagonals. Just seems that for any offensive spark they give us, that Pomykal is doing the same, and doing it better, by most accounts. Hope he'll be with the team whatever the first camp is after the Gold Cup, instead of any Olympic excuses. The nats are for the best players (or supposed to be, though not currently/in recent years), and Pomykal is one of them (and also in MLS, which should help his standing). If he's good enough for the full nats, which he is, he should be with them. Any argument against that is just to, for some reason, maintain the status quo.
I just can't agree with this. The Olympics are more important than friendlies or this Concacaf Nations thing. It was the right decision to leave Paxton with the U-20s and though I don't think anyone would object to calling him into the full NATS for a look, his first international priority moving forward should be the Olympics. Also some of you really need to put the breaks on a bit. Paxton is just now coming into his own. He has a total of 2 goals and 2 assists in his entire MLS soccer career. We don't know if he's the next Luis Gil or the next Claudio Reyna. Our history is full of many more promising young attacking midfield players who never developed than those who actually became national team stalwarts.