so the question I have now that Freddy at Benfica, since his arrival from the MLS, how much improving has Adu done up to this point??? This is in reference to the Walcott article and the way that Wenger has brought him along... It's really hard to say how talented these young guys are b/c none of them are real consistent right now... I mean before the start of the season, Dos Santos was dropping them in left and right, but he hasn't looked a shade of the player from pre-season, Walcott imo had slipped down the ladder a little bit based on his performances and what I had seen out of him... Make no mistake, he had a great game scoring two goals, but will we continue to see more of this from him on a consistent basis or will he continue with the growing pains... I predict the ladder, he still needs to get the final third of pitch down I believe... But he's definitely improving, so as I asked how much improving has Freddy done already, I don't get to see all the Benfica games, but in the Swiss game, I noticed improvement in strength on the ball, coming back to play defense, his hustle, confidence... He just seemed like a completely different player from what I had seen when he was at RSL...
England suffered heavily for putting the inexperienced and clearly not-ready-for-primetime Walcott in the squad. With Rooney barely himself due to his foot injury, and Owen getting injured, England were left woefully short of strikers. I bet if you asked 100 Englishman, 99 of them (in-hindsight) wish Sven would have called up Defoe or Bent instead. Not that those guys are Thierry Henry or anything, but they're seasoned professionals. Walcott was a waste of a spot, and why do that? He'd NEVER played a premeirship match. Adu wasn't going to play, so why put him in the squad? Now the USSF could have brought along ~5 kids from the U20's to sit in with the team and experience the tournament with the full team. That would have been just fine.
The fans are pissed off about Simao, Miccoli, Manuel Fernandes etc leaving. They won't start coming until they start winning again.
Your question is a very interesting one. I'm going to offer the heretical thought that he hasn't improved that much. He was already very good. I say this mainly based on his performance with the U20s. I know these are younger players but Freddy's ability to handle the physical side of play showed a big leap forward in that tournament rather than after he left for Portugal. And of course in terms of skills and flair and all that jazz, he showed plenty of it in the U20s. For various reasons--coaches, the supporting cast, motivation, style of play--Freddy had trouble sustaining his best in MLS. You could see it now and then in flashes. Maybe this reflects poorly on Freddy because in the final analysis motivation and effort are an internal thing. Maybe he just needed to get a little older and more mature both physically and emotionally. But I think the package really had come together by the U20 tournament. I'm sure he will improve further in Portugal, but I don't think the big improvement occurred after he moved there.
Their bursts of brilliance show exactly how talented they are. One young guy does something fantastically well, but of course, not consistently. Another young guy never does something fantastically well. The first guy has shown his talent and his potential. Alex Ferguson had a quote to the effect of: Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez are going to be really something when they mature. They're what, 21 to 23? And we're talking about 18 year olds. The huge talent is why they're playing at all.
His improvement didn't - and, in fact, couldn't - come on the technical/skill level but rather from tactical, being more aware where to position himself, where to make runs, where and when to look for his teammates, etc. Physically, Portugal is a step down from MLS (as is Celtic, judging from their All-Star game appearance) but it's 2 steps up tactically and technically. Both moves work greatly in Freddy's favor. He now works with players who are very much similar to him. And Chris Brown does likewise.
Dont want to seem like a troll, but I have to call you out on this bullshit. Messi was the top scorer and best player of the u-20 at 17, so WTF are you talking about?
So he was better for one game? Messi was the player of the tournament by far. I can't even imagine what he would have done at this year's u-20 WC.
What isn't true either. Messi played just second half and was on another planet, he was a few levels above anybody else on the field.