I have mixed emotions so far. We've seen it for about 90 minutes spread over 2 matches. Both were friendlies and these were Adu's first caps and Dempsey's still fairly young at striker. I was salivating when I saw that lineup posted and it didn't quite live up to that but I'm inclined to say this is the way to go up top for us. It certainly wasn't a free flowing unstoppable attacking force that was our clear #1 choice but I have to say they were at least productive. I think Dempsey needs to learn the (Target man) position a little better... Some argue it doesn't bring out his best talents but he is still fairly productive in the roll. Lets not forget he cant cross at all and would often beat guys on the perimeter, find space and gift the opponents a goalkick. He will have some chances to take guys on 1 on 1... At full strength we hope donovan will be overlapping with pace out of the midfield. Adu I think we agree has the potential to be productive. These two looked very good against the swiss and alright today against the South Africans. I would have liked to see more than 8 minutes of the Adu-Altidore partenership but regardless I would say if qualifiers started today... My money is on Dempsey and Adu starting strikers. It takes tremendous continuity to get two strikers working well together and I don't think they have created a true partenership yet. But I think there is a lot of potential here. I'de really like to see this a few more times starting against Sweden. ------ I set up an ezboard website to try to track formations and rosters for all international teams. I took guesses at many of the lineups and others are outdated so anyone who would like to check it out and post suggestions for any lineups please check it out. Registering should only take a sec. Hopefully we can scout our opponents a bit better in the future. Thanks http://p067.ezboard.com/bnatteamrosters
Jozy is better suited for that role, so if you're gonna "learn" somebody, might as well be the guy for the future.. I'm sick of Dempsey in that role, for the US and Fulham.. This would have been the better lineup.. --------------Jozy------------- ---------Adu-------Demps------ --Bease-----Bradley------Feilhaber/Edu Born----Boca---Gooch-------Dolo
IMHO, it is going to be Altidore. Ching is adequate for now. But Altidore will take the position soon. I think you put Adu at withdrawn forward, Donovan as a central mid, Dempsey on the right, Beasley on the left, and start one of Bradley/Clark/Edu at d-mid. Ultimately looking at those two after SA, I think they both created a couple of very dangerous opportunities for themselves or their teammates (Adu to DMB comes to mind). Adu will make better decisions with more caps and more PT. Dempsey is solid, but not spectacular and isn't good enough in the air for us to play Route 1 soccer with him alone. That being said, they linked up ok with each other and are very creative as a duo.
I think Dempsey is wasted up top. I hope Altidore can become what we are dreaming about. If Altidore emerges as a key striker for us, I do think Adu could be sucessful playing off him. I also think that among the other US players sniffing around at the job, that Chris Rolfe might be a dark horse as a great partner for Altidore. Rolfe has quick feet and can shoot from distance. I think Rolfe could play of Altidore very well. I much prefer Dempsey in the midfield. Adu I could see in either role.
HELL YEA Donovan------------------------Beasley ------------------Adu----------------- -------------Altidore--Rolfe------------ Wonderful And if is U-23 Holden------------------------------Alvarez -------------------Adu---------------------- -----------Altidore----Findley--------------
This is an odd descent to greatness. Dempsey = Eh, Adu = Yeah, Findley = Bring him on. Odd. Anyway, my two cents is that so long as we don't have competent strikers, we use who we have. Our midfield is overloaded to just have them sit on the bench while players (like Findley) run around and amount to nothing. As your screenname suggests, you'd like a Alti-Adu pairing, which is why I found your suggestion for no-name Findley an odd suggestion. In reality, if Altidore makes it over to Real Madrid or if Jose (the other Jose), ends up coaching the NY Red Bulls and Altidore stays, I imagine Jose will grow enough for one of EJ or Altidore to amount to something by 2010. A few years abroad for both should make one of them able to play up top. The only thing I fear is that we'll probably have to end up playing a 4-5-1 of sorts in reality, as we're not going to produce two quality strikers by 2010, but we will have five quality midfielders. My thought is thing will probably end up looking like: ------------------------Altidore/EJ------------------------------ -------------------------Donovan------------------------------- -----Beasley-------------Feilhaber----------------Dempsey------ --------------------------Bradley------------------------------- or, if neither Altidore or EJ progress enough by then and Adu actually develops into a quality veteran player, not just a flashy "potential" 21 yr. old: -------------------------Donovan------------------------------- ---------------------------Adu---------------------------------- -----Beasley-------------Feilhaber----------------Dempsey------ --------------------------Bradley------------------------------- And, no, unlike most people, I'm not rushing to judgment based on today's game. By 2010, Feilhaber will be back to old form (and most likely even better), Adu will have spent three years at Benfica, gradually working his way into the starting XI (a few players are getting to retirement/transfer age) or be transfered to a club where he will start, and Beasley and Dempsey will continue to progress so that they'll be out of reach for Convey, Mapp, and Rolfe to think of catching up. Bradley is Bradley. Some like Clark, but already Bradley's shown that as an 18 year old, he's better and has more potential. Clark will be a wonderful asset to have for qualifiers, much like Twellman, but given his delay in moving to Europe (and his recent outburst) any chance of him knocking of Bradley is (given current form/information/performance) slim.
Am I the only person who think Dempsey could become a very good Central Midfield player as long as there is someone beside him like Bradley who can do the dirty work? I would like this line up in February if Altidore makes a move in the window. ----------Howard----------- Dolo----Boca----Gooch--Bornstein/Pierce Donovan-Demps--Bradley--Beaz ------Adu---------------- -------------Jozy-------- That is a very proven lineup with people who are very solid in their club teams. Subs could be Guzan, Bornstein/Pierce, Subotic , Edu, Holden, Ching, Johnson. Didn't think very hard on the subs, just throwing some names out there.
Adu continues to play with confidence and flair. With Donovan out, I liked his placement up front with Dempsey. Depending on the rest of the line-up for any given game, I think Adu would work just as effectively in midfield- for example: .....Ching ........Donovan Beasley... Adu... Dempsey The Fulham successes notwithstanding, I still don't think Dempsey is best-utilized at striker. One thing that Clint earned us as an attacking mid was a lot of free kicks. At forward, he's up against tougher defenders, plus he's more often in the penalty area, where it's far more difficult to earn foul calls. With our relative weakness at creating good shot opportunities during the run of play, we need those free kicks where Dempsey, Onyewu and Bocanegra can come up and score with their heads. Didn't see much of that in this RSA match.
What about if we use Cooper, EJ, Jozy, Findley, Jaqua, and other forwards lets give them more playing time. They should do well for the US, and I rather they start playing up front instead of Dempsey, Adu, or Donovan these guys are meant to play the Playmaking, and Attacking Mid. They excel there lets use them in there best position let them create for the forwards, and occasionally score some goals.
I think we have a lot of people that are in between a "pure" stricker and a "pure" mid-fielder. We should not try an peg any one person into a role, but instead be as flexible a possible. Who lines up in a particular position on any on day, should depend on the other teams strengths a weaknesses. Here are the people I think fit in between the stiker-midfielder role: Donovan, Adu, Dempsey, (some-times) Beasley. We should take advantage, by having them switch around during the game, or be free to make runs from mid-field.
Add me to the list of those unconvinced by Dempsey up top. I haven't seen Fulham games to know how he plays for them, but I thought it was torturous to watch him play as a "target". He's not a target. RSA was able to focus more attention to Freddy, and the fact that there was no target to speak of made it so that our mids kept passing the ball backwards. It was like they had studied footage of PassBack Pete Vagenas.
I feel that this was his first game so I won't jump about it a lot but, I felt he needed to do more in the time alloted to him. If he is a lone striker he needs to learn how to be one. I really feel he's useless without a partner comming in either support or a fellow striker. But I feel it is his first game so I won't go ANALyze about it.
for 35 minutes out there today, i saw good medicine of these two. Would much rather have Adu than EJ in there. He actually makes clever passes and runs at people, we made an insta-upgrade today. I think altidore would have done well if he wasnt playing center back for us today at times , just not good when your center forward is falling back to play D. Dempsey has been a mixed cup-o-tea. Theres times i think he makes a great forward, and other times im thinking he needs to play support at right or center mid.
I think many of you (us, we) need to separate promise from performance. It seems the younger the player is, the more promise he might have, but that doesn't always translate into performance. I like Freddy and Altidore and the all of others, but until these players are at the top of the world's game (playing/starting in Europe?) then I think they will just be a bunch of guys with nothing more than some good old promise. Beast_Ed
Adu and Altidore need to play another round of the U-20's and try again when they grow up. They are good kids with lots of potential but they do not belong at this level yet.
This is true and a point I overlooked. Dempsey always seemed to find a way to be productive out of midfield and while I still maintain that he can't cross worth a damn he does seem to get us deep freekicks. Still. Ching has done little for us and I'm as tired of him as I am with Twellman and Johnson. Altidore looks promising but I don't think we can scratch him down as a starter yet. The only reason I think Adu qualifies over Altidore is that he is in Portugal scoring big goals and has shown flair in the two matches he's appeared. -------- Help us create accurate reports of national team rosters and lineups at: http://p067.ezboard.com/fnatteamrostersfrm9 Any oppinions welcomed.
I think his effectiveness as a guy who can break down defenders, earn fouls, link with others, make great through passes (the more I watch him, the more I realize how skilled he is at that), etc, more than makes up for a lack of crosses. I strongly disagree. We've been discussing this in some other threads lately. Ching has done a lot of things for us this year that his counterparts Johnson and Twellman have not, but because he's not a flashy, high-scoring speedy dribbler, some people don't recognize a lot of his contributions. When I think of Ching, I think of his strength, field vision, intelligence, and overall efficiency. When he's not the one scoring, he's often getting assists.
dempsey is not a strike. he should play on the right or in amid- we need to play our best players at EACH position, not our best 11 regardless of their proper placement.
But shouldn't we adjust the positions (formation) based on who our best players are? ---------Altidore--------- -----Adu--------Donovan --------Dempsey-------- ----Bradley----Edu------ --------Back Four------- Imagine Beasley's pace, energy and defensive harrassment as a second half sub. Or as a offesive replacement for one of the D-mids if we need to get a goal. Just a thought. By the way, in this formation I think Dempsey can provide the same transitional, passing and defensive skills that Feilhaber could while adding a much greater offensive threat from the top of the box or crashing the back post late.
Thought the main problem was that there was no creative spark in midfield with LD's absence. You need someone who can make those medium range passes to open up defenses. Beez can't do it. That isn't Bradley's or Edu's game either. Feilhaber hasn't show he can do it from the flank. So there was really nothing for the forwards to work with.
One obvious thing that often gets overlooked is how important it is to have some speed at forward. Adu, Dempsey, Altidore, and Ching all bring useful qualities to the table at forward, but speed (international level speed) is not one of them. These guys need to be paired up with a faster player, ie Donovan or EJ. Sometimes that fast player is not available or in poor form, in which case the coach has to make do without a fast forward. But when Donovan or EJ are available and in form, one of them needs to be in the lineup at forward.