This is ARIS! The Continuing Quest of Freddy Adu.

https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?p=19976999#post19976999

in 10 minutes i will post

 

Excellent! Thank you

 

Adu is still learning the left wing position, he's always been a natural A-mid. The more experience he gets, the more he'll know what to do with the ball in that position. The fact that he has two goals and two assists already from that position shows he has the potential to continue doing really well. It's not about the age he started playing pro.

I just hope he remains as a starter, if he suddenly stops playing after an incredibly promising start and one bad game, well, it would be just like his other European outings....

 

Not picking on you. But why do so many people in this forum assume that left wing is a big change for Freddy Adu? He played left wing for most of his time at DC United. It's just that he aways WANTED to play central attacking mid. But United had an MVP named Christian Gomez in those days. It's about Freddy becoming a mature player and accepting his role. He has never really been willing to do that. And the proof is his endless comments in public about his preferrence to play in the middle.

 

In his defense, he was a friggin' dumb kid that was frustrated at a coach that often was trying to teach him a lesson like a dad! What does a kid do when he is punished? Talk back right? Well through those first years he's learned his lesson, and is NOTHING close to what he was in the beginning, especially with teh media, WHEN HE SHOULD HAVE talked more, he left teh world in the dark with his times at belenenses and Monaco. We really had no idea what was going on.


Now, adu failing in Nowak's system wasnt too hard to see why, he wanted more defense out of his outside backs then offense and smart play. We had a beautiful MLS specimen in Josh Gros that all he was, was 3 lungs with legs, not much of a soccer brain, nor a cross, but he played his heart out and would come back and defend (or try) like his life depended on it. This was the bread and butter of the style of player Nowak liked on his wings, Freddy wasnt meant to be there. Maybe as a secondary striker but that was Jaimes spot in his semi'prime.

Freddy just wasnt meant to be at DC, not sure what happened at RSL was it afterwards?

 

He got the contract offer from Benfica and walked through the rest of his time in MLS.

 

Freddy tweeted after the game about needing a one hour ice bath. He must have felt pretty beat up. Maybe the people talking about fatigue are right.

 

nice day out today. Needed the relaxing day off. Now gonna go check out the wolfman. Hope its good
twitter ADU

 

What??? It stopped RAINNING in Greece?

 

it only rains when we play...

 

im actually pleasantly surprised Greece has weather called "Not On Fire", this "Rain" stuff is a bit interesting for them

 

Nowak must have learned from his pal Mourinho, who wanted Joe Cole to play more defense. Cole complied and was awarded with a starting spot. What idiots (Nowak and Mourinho)!

 

Somewhere related to this you have to factor in the general trends in the roles of wingers and the general diminishment of the CAM role on a lot of teams in recent years. In many places the wingers often pinch in more and play somewhat as wide AMs with defensive responsibility than as pure traditional wingers, and the traditional A-mid role is becoming more rare as more teams go with two deeper-lying CMs (sometimes a DM with a deep-lying playmaker styled somewhat on Pirlo's role at Milan, sometimes a DM with a very dynamic box-to-box CM, sometimes two box-to-box guys taking turns flying up the field, lots of different combos).

In other words, if Freddy's intended to be a pure A-mid, there aren't as many places that he could make a living playing that role full-time anymore. I think he's been realizing that recently.

 

Adu failed in Nowak's system? If that body of work out of a 15-17-year-old is failing you may want to reconsider your standard.

 

WTF? A 14 year old playing in 30 (or 32 matches) and scoring 5 goals for a Championship team is a failure?

 

Didn't Adu make MLS Best XI under Nowak? He certainly clashed with him, but he played fairly well.

 

But how old was Freddy when he was playing for Nowak? And Cole for Mourinho . . . ?

 

I clearly recall him tweeting last Spring something to the effect that he was really starting to envision himself at right mid.

 

There's a minimum age for playing defense?

 

No, but maturity often comes with age.

 

Sorry, cant comment, dont really watch too much EPL/kept up wtih chelsea. But yea, Cole was a HELL of a skillful player, and frmo what i remember seeing of him, a talent you dont often see out of england! Maybe he'd be better off in spain with his silky skills? What happened to him? Is he still at chelsea? Does he still do those sick moves that he often would try when younger? Or did the coaches work that out of him?

Just another confusing statistic that doesnt say much and can confuse the average person about his time at DC.


He did great some games, others he wouldnt do much with his 30mins he'd get, and other times disappear on teh wing.

His best game by far in a DC uniform was playing against Celtic in that friendly, tearing them up.

But beyond that i cant really say I can remember a game where he pulled the same kind of contribution or even a contribution he has had at Aris so far with DC (good kind ).

I mean again, Adu still was a kid back then, 14-16 years old is still damn young for MLS, a very strong, strength oriented, skills come second league, for a skinny 5'6 130ishlb to really succeed.

Not to mention Nowaks style, which was very drill sargeant like, but got the best out of his players, but asked alot physically from his outside backs, which may have been too much for adu, given his age, his muscle, and not to mention lack of experience at that level having to defend against men, and to try to adapt to the MLS.

 

Which is par for the course for most young players

That was also the best game Andy Metcalf ever had, not to mention Nickell and De Roux. In other words, it was totally meaningless.

I would hope so. I mean, his last season in DC was what, 4 years ago?

Nothing personal, but the way Nowak told Adu to play is exactly the same way Donovan plays for Everton today. I don't know if you realized this or not, but very few teams employ a dribbling #10 like Etch used to be.


Instead, you have a lot of fast ball movement, dribbling only in space, and instead of a #10, two high attacking wingers who pinch in as needed and two deep-lying central mids who come forward into the attack.

"Skill" as you fethishize it, only exists in inferior leagues where a dribbler can dominate, Mexico (for some reason) and at the very highest level of the game (Messi, Kaka, etc.). Hell your version of "skill" isn't even the icing on the cake, it's the candy rose on top of the icing.

If Freddy had listened to Nowak and adapated his game accordingly, his career would probably be quite different.

 

Maybe but he can also learn it at 20 under Cuper and still have a fantastic career. He is still plenty young, we will know a lot more in the next 3-4 years.

 

LOL I dont get this reference too much, Its golf right? Either way, i think you are trying to say its a good sign of things to come??

Either way, for me yes he had 5 goals, but there were times he disappeared and failed to make ANY impact all togther. But again he was a kid, and maybe would have been better off playing at the youth level in countries where his skills could have been formed and 'used' better for the level of play, imagine if he was raised in argentina or brasil! Di Maria 2?? Oh wait a minute... lol

Exactly! That was my point! His best game in a DC uniform came at afriendliy which we might have let even francisco tobar show his goods on the soccer field! But to be fair, he did own alot of good young lpayers on that celtic side, dont remember many of them as i dont know too much about the team beyond their time at that moment with Nakamura lol.

In my opinion, adu would have been better in a touch oriented league like argenitna, mexico, or any latin american country for that matter if he had to start his career as a pro at 16 in some league. MLS I think just wasnt a good fit for his game. Heck even at the youth level at the big teams in europe would have been better for his development, as it isnt so much abuot results, but getting these kids to become good pros by the time they graduate out of the program.

Yep! Right on the whole '10' thing, but it still works in latin america, it works for the best leagues in the americas and thats all i care for. MLS isnt ABOVE this.

The style you speak of is primarily the english style of playing it.

The player that you say the '10' is a creative player. In this day in age, Etcheverry would become a forward, which believe it or not before he came to DC and still during his time on the NT he played as a forward. He was a supporting striker, but also could set up the players around him.

Adu IMO is similar, he can play as a supporting striker, and can succeed and possibly pull a ronaldinho/Del Piero. But he also seems to have the ability to have a nice cross and ability to play on the wing. Lets see how it turns out, as he likes to play up front too.

And to say that dribbling only exists in leagues that are inferior???? Are you kidding me??? Go look at brasil and Argentina. Tell me those leagues are inferior. They will keep pumpiong out quality for years to come while europe keeps buying them because they cant make much decent players out of their own leagues like argentina and brasil can by the boat load.