Nice work. The players paying the biggest price are Dempsey and Altidore. With no other attacking outlets, they are on an island trying to create something out of nothing. Somehow, Altidore still managed to look good tonight. Dempsey took himself out of the game. I would like to see a half each of Jones and Bradley at the 8 against Slovenia, with Johnson playing out right.
To be fair, Williams is being played woefully out of position. As is, in my opinion, Edu. Or at least the expectation for him as a #8 are out of line with his strengths as a player.
Stats prove nothing! We have posters saying Edu played error free today. Must be true. Quite depressing when our #8 and starting RW the last 3 games have combined for a grand total of ONE pass in the final 3rd. Why Klinsy played Williams at RW is beyond me. Fabian didn't look that good, but looked much better then Williams.
Unpossible. Williams was going to be our 1st choice RW for decades and be the answer to our anemic attack.
It is true that every offensive pass found, without mistake, either Nothing or a Frenchman. Edu is an error free Sartrean.
No issues with Edu as he's not there to provide creativity. Starting Williams on on the right however has been a head-scratcher especially if Edu is going to start in the middle. I'm looking at the chalkboard from today's game and see that Williams has completed two passes in the attacking third but the general point is taken. Also think the first paragraph is unnecessarily snarky and tendentious which detracts from the overall quality of the article.
If Edu is going to play the 8 role, he has to be able to provide some forward distribution and connect some passes in the offensive 3rd. If he's playing the 6, then the same applies to Beckerman.
Indeed and absolutely. For being all alone and completely isolated tonight, Altidore managed some of the best hold-up work of a US forward since the very best days Brian Ching, and almost managed to be dangerous on the dribble as well a few times. Dempsey was playing frustratedly. That moment when he had Buddle wide open on the right and instead attempted to dribble both center backs was cringe-worthy. Edu plugged the holes and pressured pretty well in the first half, but lacked the ability to send in a good ball to start the transition game. With Jones at the 6 doing some of that work, things got a little better. Things got quite a bit better with Johnson on the right over Williams. Shea is really looking like a guy who will be dominant in CONCACAF exploiting athletic mismatches, but when going up against other big strong guys, he looks like a totally different, lesser sort of player.
Did you read the article? Edu hasn't completed a pass in the final 3rd in 2 games. How is it then "he does that"?
Did you read and comprehend the post? I wasn't addressing the article; I was addressing another poster.
Statistics!!!!... what was the off the ball movement like... !!! Those final 1/3 passes are the hardest because it is when the defense are most alert...
This was what you replied to You replied, "he does that". My comprehension is just fine. If Edu plays the #8, he has to be able to provide some forward distribution and connect some passes in the offensive 3rd. In responding, you said yes he does that. Yet, he doesn't. Pretty damn clear.
If Klinsman wanted to play a 451 he should have brought in an attacking midfielder. Otherwise just stick with 442 and get real attacking players in the wide berths.
I am confused. You have done quite a job defending those same choices by Klinsmann in the past as changing our playing philosophy. Why the change?
He's provided forward distribution and connected some passed in the offensive 3rd. Has he done both in each game of the past two games? No. Maybe there was a misunderstanding over the text which is cool. Hopefully that clears things up.
This article is spot-on (I didn't realize Williams/Shea/Edu have been so bad in the attacking half). Why does anybody think we'll have anything going forward with three d-mids? It's a complete impossibility. My problem is that while we haven't let up a lot of goals, I just think it's been more due to being a bit lucky, rather than some sort of revolution of tactics. That and the fact that we have THREE d-mids with high work-rates in the midfield busting their ass. BB tried that once I think (he had the 4-3-3 with MB, Edu, and JJ). That didn't work, even though MB and JJ are much more proactive going forward. How on earth is it going to work with Edu, Beckerman, and Williams? We are relying on the trio of Shea/Dempsey/Jozy to score. How do the tactics change when Donovan gets healthy? I don't know. Klinsman talked about moving Donovan to the center, but we all know that Donovan fades in and out of games way too much to have him pull the strings for 90 minutes (dempsey is much more consistent, but he's not a 10, which is why we need one of Feilheiber/Kleijstan/Holden/Torres on the field; btw that is the order in which I rate those players). Yet JK has shown over 6 games an almost inane stubborness in his roster selection. Yes we haven't let up goals, but we are producing nothing going forward. Our passing game, outside of a couple of moments, has been abysmal. My problem isn't that we aren't scoring. My problem is that we have not improved one iota since the tie against Mexico (which was JK's best game by far). That midfield of course featured MB and JJ with Beckerman (who are the best d-mids we have), but also Torres (who again of the four "a-mid" type players is the least capable in my opinion) to pair with LD and Buddle. JK needs to get his head out of his ass. He's wasting precious opportunities with these friendlies to try new tactics and players.
playing Williams as our first choice winger boggles my mind. I wouldn't mind seeing him given a shot at LB to move Chandler to RB. He's not being put in a position to succeed on the wing, though. As for Edu, he's had a couple bad games, and we have some capable replacements. Seems like a no-brainer to give someone else a chance.