I'm literally asking because I have not seen him play for his club for a few years... and he's made about 20 mins of "difference" more than I did in the BL last season, right? So he's an "elite" winger?
It doesn't matter if no one in the BL wants him, the whole point is these decisions are very obviously not based on one factor.
I have been looking for clips of Bradley in this tournament, especially the Mexico game. I am hoping to challenge my view that he was an enormous defensive liability, a poor out let for the defenders, turned the ball over too often and didnt provide much on the positive side in terms of distribution. I found this one but think there are many more telling examples. In this clip, his marking is slow, pressure did nothing to prevent the attacker from picking out passes, and general lack of awareness of space/runners around him. This explains the whole game in 15 seconds. Michael Bradley is too old, slow, and lazy defensively to play at this level anymore. Time to move on #USMNT (could have picked 30 other poor defensive plays in the second half) pic.twitter.com/9Z3PYQIo50— Dane Azeles (@Azeles06) July 8, 2019
The simple truth is that Bradley's decline in athleticism has been a huge defensive liability in recent years. Why is he still a team staple? Conspiracy? Sadly, not. He's still one of the most accurate passers in this team and he's one of the better players when it comes to playing out of pressure. My guess is that he looks very good in training because our roster doesn't have many players who are capable of exploiting his weaknesses. But against the Mexico's and above, he's going to get exposed. Berhalter isn't a lazy guy so I have a glimmer of hope that he'll study the game tapes and recognize this issue. As far as last night, Bradley wasn't bad. There were a couple instances of him not being able to keep up with his mark and his pressing ability is out the window. But him and Mckennie were left out to dry for the majority of the game so I'm sympathetic to everything they were relied on to do. Still, it's time to move on from him in the starting lineup.
As his PR agent, Stu Holden says.."Michael Bradley controlling the midfield"...I gag every time I hear it and he says it over and over.
Really poor RB play does him no favors. As much as I'm intrigued by him as athletic attacking outlet, his defensive awareness is not good IMO. What is he doing in this clip. Bradley is trying sensibly to mark people, if slowly... but Cannon is running by like he's a Mexican attacking looking to make a overlapping run. It's easy for Bradley to look bad marking people because of his mobility issues, it happened a number of times last night (although it's hard to blame the goal on him), but the reality is just about any clip you'll provide will find other players doing an equally bad job. At times last night that list of names ranged from Cannon, to McKennie, to Arriola, to Ream, and even Pulisic IMO (although much less of this is on him). This doesn't absolve Bradley, but it does suggest a larger tactical breakdown. McKennie in particular seemed to really neglect what should have been his duties, all things considered. Ream at LB should never be isolated like he was, he and Bradley marking 2 Mexico attackers shouldn't happen and it mostly did because a lack of support from other players and a lack of a reaction by Gregg to either emphasize that the team do a better job of supporting OR making a change via subs to reinforce and counter that change, through fresh legs or formation shift or whatever.
As I specifically mentioned, “when healthy”, he is an elite winger. Given that you haven’t seen him play, perhaps you might want to check your perspective unless that interferes with the narrative you’re trying to push.
Let me help..."he's not healthy!!!!!! he never is!!!!!! Egg knows what he's doing, he just came in 2nd in the GC. The decision on Lovitz wasn't made in a vacuum."
He has 10 combined goals and assists in the previous 3 years. When has this elite period occurred? My having not seen him is exactly why I'm asking, I'm not pushing any narrative. Because, I mean, I just compared his last 3 years at LM/RM to a bunch of other attackers... Chandler, in terms of production from wide midfield roles, is shit. Bruun Larsen is a player I've watched a lot, and he craps all over Chandler... so would you call him elite?
Well he did play 20 minutes last year. Wouldn't that be a factor in him not coming in under the new manager? I'm literally asking, I'm the guy that thinks there are many reasons for these decisions, not one or two.
Definitely on Larsen. He’s quite good. Whoscores has Chandler over the past several years rated slightly higher than Larsen. Its MoTM perfect but not a bad indicator. When did Larsen play against chandler?
Bradley did play pretty well the first 35min of the 1st half. Problem is, he completely ran out of gas, afterwards. But in MB's (and the entire team's) defense, it should be pointed out that MNT only gave up 2 goals the entire tourney. The transition from MB as penciled-in starter to penciled-in veteran backup CM on the bench really needs to start soon.
That's your opinion. At the end of the day, Don Garber is the CEO of SUM, which controls marketing for CONCACAF. in 2018, Bradley was named to best 11 for Concacaf for doing what exactly? Seriously look it up. It was a criminal selection. The Bradley/Arena/Garber relationship goes back years. Garber is one of the most powerful soccer executive on the planet. He is: -commissioner of MLS -CEO of SUM, -USSF Board of Directors member -Vice Chairman of World Leagues Forum - member of FIFA's Football Stakeholders committee. - in constant close communications with top Media television business executives (ESPN,FOX, etc.) Under Berhalter, this coach has dropped a top practicing DM player in Canouse after doing better than Bradley in January camp. He has completely ignored a much-improved and in his-prime Morales who was fighting for minutes in mid-table Bundesliga team and cracked the line-up on numerous occasions as a DM/CM. Numerous players were ex-communicated based on age, but not Bradley and then Berhalter slowly introduced other over- 30 players. But, not impressive ones, only players that were connected to Arena/Berhalter from previous years (Ream/Gonzalez). Last night, Bradley was the worst player on the field in the second half, and you can hear people screaming at televisions "sub Bradley, he so slow" and this was only in the 65th minute. Nope, what does Berhalter do? he leaves a Champions League bound Winger on the bench, subs in a CM to play winger and then a LB. Mexico's coach is very familiar with the corrupt USSF politics and knew Bradley would be on the field. What does he do? when the time is right and Bradley becomes a tired and slow traffic cone, he goes all out assault from the middle-wing and then cut in - down the middle and it works. Berhalters subs were scripted before the game. This was Bradley's redemption game. And it backfired AGAIN. Michael Bradley going full 90 when he is a clear liability on the field? We have seen this before. Rinse and repeat. How many big games do we have to lose before our weak-ass fan base wakes up to the nasty corrupt internal politics that has been destroying this team for years? The "missing players generation" or "talent pool isent that good" is pure bullshit. Look at what I can create even without Adams: -------------------Altidore----------Sargent (Werder Bremen rotation) Pulisic (UCL) -------------Mckennie (UCL) ----------------Boyd (UCL bound) --------------------Morales (mid-Bundesliga rotation)------- F. Johnson (UCL)--------Brooks (UEL)-----Long----------Chandler (UEL)/Yedlin. Michael Bradley FC.
Yurch, your whole point is that Morales is better because of his resume (so far, so good) it then you ******** up with the nobody has wanted him for 5 years. I’m quite confident that if a club had a choice between Moarales at his salary and Bradley at Morales’ salary in 2015, they’d take Bradley. If your argument is he was unavailable because he was under contract with TFC, well shit, by the same token nobody wants Messi.
Michael is intelligent he makes a great long pass - when he has the time and space .... other than that - as a veteran - he needs to put his stamp on the game .... I just don't see him as beneficial going forward .... years back the team was turned over to a group of utes (Donovan and Beasley and others) .. it is time for MB to retire from international ball. That is a graceful way of relieving the decision from GGG. I hope he has the dignity and self awareness to just retire from international ball.
Once again, I'm talking about the last twelve months. It's embarrassing you guys are having to go back to 2015 to "make a point". Hey, in 2007 teams would have preferred Donovan to Morales too! Woohoo, love these games. Who would you have rather been in the lineup in the gold cup (this years, not 2011)? If you say Bradley, then this argument is fruitless (and I'm right again, just as I was in 2017).
This may come across as more critical than meant but I notice Bradley’s long passes are generally arxhingand to the outside where there’s a lot of space. They are not perfectly weighted balls ground hugging passes like we saw McKennie unleash.
and those worm burners are exactly what Schalke like him to play. Once again - the USMNT coach needs to adapt the system to the strength of our players .... our men's team is not Man City .....
This is really bizarre. That quote from me is comparing the two from 2015? Negative. I mentioned MB having no European interest for 5 years? Sure. Hardly my point though. Strong argument you're making though - in 2015, if bradley and morales had the same salaries, but were free agents, teams would choose bradley. If this was 2015, I'm all aboard baby! I don't get why people try to argue with me. I forecast huge failure in 2017, it comes true, nobody cares, we're still on dat MB90 train! I stop watching, knowing more failure will come. Who cares! This is the best we have, and despite every Big 4 player being a starter when healthy, Morales is DIFFERENT! Now we have weird arguments about 2015, which I didn't bring up and don't care about (yes, Bradley was a top 11 player in 2015, I think that should have been the last year)! As it is, it's not 4 years ago. So the question remains - Who would you have rather been in the lineup in the gold cup (this years, not 2011)?
Yurch, That's how they deflect. ignore and deny the players better competition. Morales and Canouse treatment and Adams at RB was "criminal" in the most non-literal way you can explain it.
I wonder if their passing has anything to do with them not being Bradley's replacement... is it possible that there are certain tactical decisions at play, and this is more complex than you're framing it? This is really not that complicated. Whether or not you want to do what Gregg did isn't really the point, but you have to realize he's clearly going for something specific with his tactical set up. Ignoring the reasons he did what he did and just going on about Bradley being slow or how "this guy plays in the BL!" or whatever just makes you look ignorant. Adams at RB is clearly him trying to get more out of a dynamic talent... but that has already been adjusted. He wasn't trying to play Cannon in the same way, was he? It was an experiment, maybe a very odd one... but Adams was injured for this GC so you can stop bringing him up. I mean, at least until he tries to play him at RB again.