Tea Light in the Dark Universe: Bobby Wood at Hamburg

A goal every five + plus games isn't good, though is tied for top scorer on this Hannover side. Their being pathetic has to have something to do with his lack of production. OTOH, a good starting striker in the 1Bund is expected to be able to rise above team mediocrity now and then. Four players have gotten off more than his 13 shots this season (one has 27). None of them have played as many minutes as he has. That said, he puts 70 percent of his very few shots on goal. What this says is either that he's being locked down or that he's not moving enough, or both. Attackers who do all the little things that make their team better can get away with not scoring so often. Sadly, that isn't Bobby. He kind of does one thing, and he's not doing it. This probably isn't exact, but I always see him, at his best, as a poor man's Inzagi. His game is about somehow getting lost and then popping up unexpectedly in dangerous positions in the attack. But he's got to score or at least create goals, or at least create some chaos in the defense that allows others to create, to be effective. He's just not quite hitting. Maybe it's confidence, but he's waiting for the game to come to him. The best goal he ever scored was for Union, IMO, when he was physically knocked off his feet, spun back onto them and beat the defense and keeper. He needs to have that single mindedness back. That said, better CBs would have probably kept him on the ground in that situation.

 

The actual question was more: how have Bobby's teams performed in the games he's played relative to other players in Bundesliga history.

His teams have finished 14th, 17th, and now rooted at the bottom in 18th. His points total the last three years have been trending downward. Don't really care to take the time and parse out his team's W-L-D total for games he's actually played, but fair to say he's been on some bad and quite possibly this season's worst Bundesliga teams. I can image it's incredibly frustrating. Couple this with the USMNT's abject performance and I reckon we'll look back on Wood as a barometer for this older generation of players whose era is coming to an end: marginal top flight players who are much more likely to be in a relegation fight than fighting for trophies.

I really like the guy when he's on. He's active, strong, quick, probably a pain in the ass to defend against because he doesn't give up and will chase lost causes...also however he doesn't look out of place on these sh***y teams he's found himself on :/

Gold star and rep for anyone who can come up with these stats:

What is Bobby's team's points total for games he's played (bonus for more accurate assessments of team position when he was off/on vs when he subbed on/off; i.e. team was down 0-1 when he was subbed off; a 2-1 win still counts as a 0-1 loss in Bobby's book)?

How does this compare historically? Has anyone had as miserable of a return after spending 2+ years in the Bundesliga?

 

A goal every five games. He contributed to scoring every four games.

I'd have hoped he'd have higher numbers for assists. Neither he nor his teammates can put the ball in the back of the net.

Remember when Dortmund was interested. Also, Everton was too.

I still feel Wood isn't a has-been. He performs adequately in the BL, but does kinda well for the NT. He at least scores consistently. Another goal or 2 for Hannover and I feel it can help him majorly. Like Jozy, he's a streaky scorer.

 

If we're honest, Wood isn't a Bundesliga level striker. Very sad, but true. I see him going down to B2. He just doesn't score enough, and Hannover will be relegated, so no option to buy Wood. Back to Hamburg! As I write this, Hamburg are in place for promotion back to the Bundesliga. Ha! I think Wood is done.

 

Would Hamburg even take him back?

A quick look shows them top of the 2nd division.

 

He's probably still under contract at Hamburg. So yeah, they'll take him back, then sell him.

 

They’re at the top of the table but if you look at goal diff, psg they are not. They’re getting it done with stout D.

 

Yep, love the kid but I'm aware he's not very good and I'd be concerned if he were our main striker for this cycle.

 

He isn't a star. He is good enough to be a squad member, spot starter, etc for several 1Bl clubs.

13 goals in 45 caps may not be striking fear into the hearts of US opponents, but aside from Altidore it is the best rate of any US CF.
IMO a problem we have here is that we get our hopes too high on players and then when they fail to live up to them, we're disappointed a bit too much.
Wood may be a 1BL tweener, but who in the US pool is better? We're quite high on Sargent, but he's scored what, 2 so far? Weah looks good thus far at Celtic, but the SPL is several steps below what Wood is facing. In MLS, Zardes? Dwyer?
Making it in the 1BL is a lot more difficult that making it on a national team, as Wood's goal scoring record indicates. 45 caps, after all, is just a smidge moer than a full season. If Wood was returning even 8 to 10 goals a year in the 1BL we'd all be quite impressed. He's playing against well drilled, very talented and completely cohesive defenses week in, week out in the 1BL. At the national team level he only occassionally sees the talented bit, and in CONCACAF not even that so much.
This is not to say that the US should focus on Wood for this cycle. I really could care less about nats play. It is to say that the US does not at this point have a striker who would fare much better in Wood's current situation.

 

As I noted in other post, he's not having a bad season for a USA striker in a top 5 league. Which is not so much praise of Bobby as acknowledging our strikers in Europe have always been mediocre.

Another good point is that, unlike Deuce, Bobby has managed to score on Mexico twice already, in competitive games (C-CAF cup and quals).

Still, I hope Sargent and/or Weah become solid options. I don't think last year Bobby looked particularly good with the NT.

 

How credible were those reports?????

 

The reports that others were interested were quite credible. Remember, Wood didn't really score at the beginning of his season with Union, and he was shut out for the last month or so, but in between those times he absolutely ripped the 2BL apart. That's the sort of thing that attracts quite a bit of attention. Union fielded a lot of inquiries, at least they told me at the time that they were doing so. But Hamburg actually kept at it.
That said, there's interest with intent to sign and interest that is to satisfy curiousity. I don't know that he had a bunch of actual offers. We know he had a couple. But there were a lot of contacts and questions being asked.

 

I’m undecided. Do any of you remember his first season at Hamburg where it felt like he was driving their offense that sometimes struggled to provide him service but he still found a way to put up play stats?

I also remember how well he would drive at defenses like a pitbull that I haven’t really seen much.

I don’t know if this old Bobby is gone and he’s simply regressed, or if moving back to BL2 or maybe MLS would bring back the better Bobby.

 

It feels like the horrid start to his sophmore season really dug deep in him. He scored a goal early on and then went months without a goal. Must have killed his morale. And all the critics getting on his back; and fans.

 

Wood sure gets a cut a lot slack, which I’ll never understand. Next stop MLS.

 

Because for years, there's been a choice between Jozy and Wood. If you don't like Jozy for whatever reason, you're tempted to build up Wood as the alternative while ignoring his faults.

 

Well HSV is transferring Jann-Fiete Arp to Bayern next season so is Bobby gonna come back to HSV?

 

I'd argue Wood at his best in the anti-Altiodre

Prime Wood is a bulldog who won't let you rest for 90 minutes and will keep. coming. at you. Jozy, I feel, is more calculating and is more streaky, in that he won't hound you for 90 minutes, he won't race into corners and blind alleys to harass opponents, but he will carve out some moments when he has the advantage over you and Prime Jozy can make you pay dearly in those moments.

So, the players when compared side by side are only similar in their futility on European soil; playing-wise they're much different.

 

He's got 3 goals in 12 appearances for Hannover. (~360 minutes / goal)
He had 7 goals in 50 appearances with Hamburg. (~630 minutes / goal)
Those numbers simply aren't good enough to be in the Bundesliga.
To be a striker in the Bundesliga, you need no more than 270 minutes per goal.
To be a star striker in the Bundesliga, you need no more than 180 minutes goal.
These are simple rules of thumb.
He's not a disaster, he's just not good enough.

 

He made a decision at 14 to leave his family and go in residence at the 1860 Munich academy. He stuck it out and advanced despite it being the sort of situation that would have psychologically destroyed a lot of players. He went to a traditionally meh but very high profile 2BL and became an absolute star. For a season it looked as if might conquer the 1BL as well.
He's as mentally tough as any US player, ever. He's a nice guy.
Also, as has been noted several times, as far as the US national team is concerned, a player who can succeed in the 2BL is still not a common thing.
Plus, when he is playing well, he's quite exciting.
That said, I'd love to see him in MLS.

 

Huh. Interesting. However, just for sake of argument, let’s look at the numbers.
At Nurnberg, Misidjan scores one every 1,352 minutes, Ishak every 328, Palacios every 438 and Zrelak every 357.
But that’s just Nurnberg. Hmmm, at Stuttgart, Gomes (an occasional national teamer here) socres one per 322. Nico G every 724.
Meanwhile at Mainz, while Mateta scores one every 257 minutes, Boetius is every 1,060 and Qaison every 357.
At Dusseldorf, Henning is their number one in terms of minutes, and scores a goal every 379 minutes, while Daksch is per 780.
At Schalke, Uth scores every 480 minutes. Burgsteller every 404 (they are numbers one and two in terms of minutes).
I know, I’m rotten cherry picking, looking at the bottom of the table. Oh, wait,
at BDort their number 2 in terms of minutes striker Larson scores one every 421 minutes. Number 4 in minutes, Phillipp scores one every 594.
The list is much longer. And the fact remains, while Wood may be the worst striker ever to play in the Bundesliga (he’s not, this is sarcasm), he remains the top scoring striker at Hannover this season.

 

HSV is likely to get promoted, so they'll be able to afford Bobby back.

If they sell him I hope it's to the Eliteserien so we can have Norwegian Wood.

 

Because he hustles a lot, unlike others that jog around.

 

With the odds against him; I'm putting $5 down that Wood scores tomorrow. And an assist for a victory.

 

I think Wood is just one of those guys like Morales or Ream...a good player for top-half-of-the-table teams in the second division and a mediocre player at best for bottom-half-of-the-table teams in the top division. That seems to be his level, and historically for the US talent pool, that's not too bad. We're just trying to move beyond having to rely on those sorts of players at this point.