Well, I don't think we'll see much more of Eddie, but Jewell's had another week to look at the squad in training and we're at home against another struggler. Maybe something for Benny ?
Would be a good one for Benny to start or at least get some minutes in. Hopefully Jewell sees that his offensive skills are of better use against a team like Boro and he doesn't need Oakley and Jones in the midfield trying to apply damage control.
Bywater, Mears, Davis, Moore, Griffin, Teale, Oakley, Leacock, Pearson, Barnes, Miller Subs: Price, McEveley, Howard, Earnshaw, Lewis
At this point I am starting to come to a conclusion that Benny isn't that good. He has played for different managers and none of them believe he is good enough to play for the first squad regularly. The blame is not on the managers. If he was showing well enough in practice I have no doubt he would be getting some minutes.
You must be watching different games than I am. Aside from Darren Moore and even he was trying to pass short in the second half today, we're not a kick and run team. It boils down to lack of quality, we syill have a Colaship team, not the style of play. In fact there are often times when we over elaborate around the box. Or maybe, Hamburg also play kick and run?
I'd disagree with your assessment to the extent that I think BF was ahead of what one would have expected at Hamburg. In a very deep, high-quality midfield he forced himself into the rotation at least. Given his age and inexperience I though he did quite well for himself last year there. This year? Who the hell knows...maybe he's just not good enough, maybe his coaches feel his attributes don't go with the lineup being put out, maybe it his penchant for the turnover, maybe he just doesnt' practice well
this is silly. it was a bad fit from the word 'go' and it's only gotten worse. the only happy ending would be for him to gut it out and earn his place in a terrible championship-bound side. and that's a shit happy ending. we have plenty of gut-it-out hustlers in the national team; we need to develop our technical players. come to mls, homeboy, we need the depth and a few of our clubs actually play attractive soccer.
Honest, and non-dickish question: how many managers have to effectively pass on Benny before you begin to question his abilities? Do you think the growing number of posters who are starting to question him are misguided? Three managers passing on him in one year (and we can conclude that Jewell is passing on him so far, although hopefully that will change), is--for me at least--not a good sign. My opinion is that there has to come a point where we stop talking about "fit" and "playing style" and start asking if he's going to be the player we all want him to be, adjusting our expectations accordingly.
I have seen Benny play a lot. He is a very smooth technical player. Not much for Neanderthal soccer. He was young at Hamburg so I can't comment. But I think he is a terrible match for the EPL, whch is slam-bam soccer. Just the total wrong league for him. You also need to remember that the USA coach DOES like him, despite having some other good central midfield choices. So 2 coaches passed on him and one likes him. Is that a non-dickish answer?
It also depends on the club bruce, although for the most part i agree. He doesnt fit in a Newcastle, Derby, Wigan, Middlesborough, Fulham, Chelsea, West Ham. God Reading would fit like a glove though. other teams that fit his style would be Man U, Liverpool, Tottenham, Man City, Blackburn, Sunderland, Portsmouth, Everton. It depends on the squad. And i have to emphasize that i dont think think the larger clubs would sign him, i just say they fit his skillset. Inevidably someone is going to disregard my warning though, ill just wait for that to happen
According to the BBC, Paul Jewell's post-game comments were: "It's tough when you're at the bottom of the League. "The players aren't lacking in effort but we're lacking in quality. "That's not a slight on the players, that's a fact because the League table tells you that." Must be a great place to work......Didn't he just start about 2 weeks ago? and didn't he use to be a whole lot more optimistic 2 weeks ago?
If he was as good as some on here seem to think he is, his skillset wouldn't be a problem. Down the years we've had bucketloads of so called technical players who have stood out in England, even against the tough tactics. Hoddle, Cantona, Ardilles, Ronaldo, Henry, Bergkamp, Le Tissier, Best, Currie, Bowles, Beardsley etc etc. F***in' bucketloads of the b**ta*ds!! The difference between them and up to this point Benny is that they had enough quality and strength to impose their skill in England, many of them playing in the years before skilled players got the protection they do now. Benny may well have a lot of technical skill, but in the immortal words of the song "You've gotta fight, for the right, to party."
Sadly true though Lynne, though I'd rather not hear him say things like that as it's bound to further erode the shattered confidence of the players who only last season finished third in the Colaship with an eight point cushion over WBA. We'll have to see how much the new investment deal brings into the club and what happens in the January window. It's already looking more like preparation for a promotion push next year than a realistic attempt to stay up this year.
Huh? I wouldn't disagree that this could be more about Benny undergoing an out of form spell at the moment, but the conclusions you're drawing seem oddly hasty and over-pessimistic. First, It wasn't like Benny spent decades trying to break into Hamburg, he was only on the reserve squad in 05-06 and then through some luck got a few starts on the main team, and played respectably. He was 21. He eventually went back to the bench when the original starters returned form injury. Either way, Hamburg overall was a mess management wise last season and wasn't doing well, and they went back to the drawing board in the offseason. Second, he was arguably one of the top three players on our Senior National Team just six months ago in the Gold Cup, scoring in a warm up game against Ecuador and scoring the winner in the final against Mexico. He then went with the national team to Copa America and was one of the few bright spots in those games for the US. So while I would agree with the sentiment that sometimes our favorite players may just not be playing well, to suggest that Benny is some kind of failed project is pretty silly. He's 22 and on a wreck of a team, and probably not in good form, but let's not write off his pro-career just yet.
I never said he was a failed project, nor did I write off his career. I defy you to work some interpretative magic on my post to point out where I did. What I did was to raise the question of how many more coaches have to not play Benny in order for us to start reassessing our expectations. Sorry if it doesn't suit you that I weigh the opinions of coaches, who see Benny week in, week out (and have no vested interest in the US national team), over and against fans who are still reeling from his wonder-goal against Mexico. It is not overly pessimistic to point out that Stevens, Davies, and now Jewell have opted against Benny--that's just what has happened. Please don't shoot the messenger. Three coaches is a trend, whether or not it agrees with what we think Benny can do. And it's almost irrelevant that Derby is currently redefining suckitude--if Benny were showing some form that transcended the inexorable suckitude that is Derby, he'd be on the pitch. I don't want him to fail--far from it. But it's intellectually dishonest not to pose the admittedly difficult question: this is the third coach under whom Benny has seen little, if any, of even the bench; should we temper our expectations until he's actually playing somewhere? I don't see anything wrong with raising a tough question.