The reason we need Jermaine on the field is not only because he plays a great ball forward, gets into the head of the opposition, and because of his soccer IQ...but because he has has got enormous balls. Love this Jones quote from Ives: "I think that we three are good players," Jones said. "Now we was switching (from) Mo and Michael and Me and Michael. I think that maybe in the next game, maybe we try how we can play with me and Mo to see what's best for the tournament." To me, Jones does better getting forward than Edu or Bradley and just plays at a completely different level. I think that if Jones was at Aston Villa he would be starting right now and not sitting on the bench. If Jones was on Rangers he would be starting right now. Jones obviously doesn't understand why Bradley is an automatic starter just as most of us don't understand why he is an automatic starter. The only automatic starters on this team at this point would be Howard, Dempsey, and Donovan...but I don't think such a thing should exist because players need to be pushed at all times.
This was bound to happen? why? Take alook at the 2nd half, specifically 49:24? Michael Bradley in time and space takes 2 touches and passes to Jones at 49:26, Jones with a man on him and facing Bradley, with one-touch on the ground perfectly swirls the ball onto the stride of Chandler on the other side of the field. Thats what you call the next level of a player( can play at the one-touch level facing any direction, in traffic and in either the offensive or defensive zone). There is a specific reason why he was getting sniffs for Germany before his Prime season of 08-09. He controlled the middle strongly and had more break-ups( headers come to mind) than Bradley. I would not rate Jones Higher than Bradley for that game because he had that turnover at the end, i thought both were 7's, but He is our best midfielder, because of what he can do, that others cant. Tactically and technically to be specific, not who hustles more. And what i noticed once Jones was doing this, Bradley came alive and started to join the one-touch party. perfect example of Bradley learning from the more experienced 29-year old player. As a result, a guy like this is going to question, hey how about me and Somebody else, too!? And i think Bradley should be starting come June, unless Edu does better. but Jones has a point...
His ability to control and pass out of pressure was superb in that game. Best half of any of the central middies.
This kind of thing is a baby-step into the bigtime. God forbid that a journalist would ask the same question.
i think if Jones was faced with " whowould you pick if you had to win,Jones would pick bradley as his partner, but when he got benched he sees something and wants all of his teammates to get an equal opportunity. Bradley had 135 minutes in the 4-4-2 Edu had 90 Jones had 45.
lol no, what I did notice though was we were nearing the end of the game Bradley took one touch to control the ball, then kicked a curling rocket to the left upper corner of Paraguay's net prompting a world class save from Villar. Then Jones tried to do the same thing on a rebound and sent it straight to section z. Bradley was by far the best player on the field against Paraguay. He controlled the tempo of the game, made smart passes, spread the play wide and retained possession. He deserved to be on the field. I would love for the one upper-manship of Bradley and Jones to continue it was true.
well, Bradley being a quality midfielder aside, i think its foolish to refuse to try other players when you are so deep into one position. you cannot argue the fact that nepotism is in fact an issue in the team (bob is even willing to try out other keepers but not other midfielders) despite the fact that Bradley probably is our best CM.
Making passive-aggressive snipes about a coach's choices constitutes "having balls" now? I thought it constituted "something that happens in virtually every team everywhere". I'm not really impressed either way. More annoying is the Aston Villa argument... again. I don't even know what to say to this anymore. How many new ways can I say "Villa has been in a tight spot fending off the bottom of the table during a run of difficult opponents and hasn't had time for trying out new players"? I bet if Michael was the one playing for Blackburn he'd be getting PT. Or maybe I should be snotty about the relative positions of MB and JJ at their estranged German clubs. Jeer about Bradley's cards and fights but at least he was never demoted to the reserves. A favorite recourse of the kook. It's a media conspiracy, all those silly $heeple refusing to question authority.
Jones elevated mikes game in the second half against paraguay. Mike was not good in the first half. He should have come out for Diskeruud
So if it's not all of them, exactly how many are we talking? And why is it weird that in a tiny, small time group, they wouldn't want to be the one to piss off the manager?
I think Jones is just talking about options here, the key word is 'maybe' he's being polite to Edu, but the US is a better team with Bradley on the field, of that I have no doubt.
Do you not know the meaning of "virtually" or something? What I mean is: I have yet to see a major soccer figure say that MB has drastically underperformed in the last 2 friendlies, or didn't deserve his spot up there. Let's take Ives for instance. I don't think he's afraid of pissing off Bradley, as his site published the Jones quote. Yet he himself stated that MB was among the better players against Paraguay. This is a fairly ridiculous thing to quibble about anyway...
What exactly is passive-aggressive about a player saying that BB has seen Michael for 180 minutes in combination with other players and now we should have an opportunity to see what the other combination looks like without MB? That is not passive-aggressive, that is a direct statement that Jones believes MB needs to be treated the same way Edu and Jones have been treated for playing time. Bradley played well on Tuesday and he is one of the best players on our team in my opinion, but Edu and Jones also happen to be 2 of our best players as well. Why else would BB toy with having all 3 of them on the field at the same time. So now that it seems that having those 3 play central mid at the same time doesn't seem to work well then 1 of them has to sit or switch to a new position. Why don't we look at Edu and Jones for central mid for a half and see what happens? Why not give Bradley a look at central defense? I remember Eric Wynalda commenting on FSC last year that he thought MB would make a wonderful central defender. I want the best guys on the field in combinations that work. If it is Edu/Bradley that is cool. If it is Jones/Bradley that is cool. Will we ever know if it is Edu/Jones?
If MB is the best player we have at CM, then it really wouldn't hurt to see Jones play in the middle with another midfielder with the A-team in a friendly. All of us should be for this.
I think even Bob supporters (in general I support his decisions minus incessantly starting Bornstein and a few other strange moves) are totally fine with this. It is the "media conspiracy" people and the "pull Bradley out because he sucks" people etc. that I have a problem with. A little level-headedness would go a long way on this board. If the Spain game came along and we started with Jones and Edu I would be perfectly fine with it, even if I do think Edu isn't as good a player as other people think, or that he's just very out of form.
I haven't seen a single media conspiracy post, and I haven't seen a single pull Bradley out and start Adu post. Why is it so hard to have a problem with what people actually post, that we have to make something up?
I went back and edited the Adu part as that was an extreme example that hasn't been mentioned, but as far as the media conspiracy thing goes, go check the Nepotism thread, it is totally ridiculous. There really are people who believe that the coach "has the media in their back pocket" or whatever. Edit: No, it IS this thread, go read the first page about media members who don't want to "piss off the manager". That talk is nonsense, and YOU were the one that inferred it, INCREDIBLE. Nice memory gmonn.
You missed the "Media conspiracy? NO," didn't you. Our senior PL and Bundesliga CM just asked why not him and Edu instead of him and Bradley. He's actually training with Michael Bradley. He's actually playing in the PL, and his Bundesliga club actually refuses to sell him, unlike our "best CM." And yet some posters here and a few twitterers--I mean the US soccer "media"--seem to think the Michael Bradley Supremacy is a foregone conclusion. Jones seems to think he's not good enough to start every game, and I agree, and so do a lot of reasonable people.
Can't really be a brigade. 3 out of the 4 posts you quoted were by the same person. Now, "An Army of One", that has potential.