The fact that we're reduced to this conversation, when Tyler Adams is probably already one of our 5-10 defensive/central midfielders ever, with the ability to surpass some of Jones, Reyna, Bradley, Mastroeni, Cameron, Harkes, etc. relatively soon at the club level, only emphasizes how irritating the old Bradly/Trapp over Morales/Williams debate is. Tyler Adams is sitting right there, currently better than all of them, and probably approximately as good as peak Bradley.
You notice that nobody answers any questions? "Do you think MB can earn minutes on a BL team?" "wellllll, Bundesliga isn't an english word, and he has so much value for his community service off the field, but Germans don't do as much of that as Toronto and MLS does, and tactics change, and Klinsy used him as starter in 2011, so all in all, i just think that's a dumb question." More excuses than I had in 8th grade when my teacher asked where my homework was.
Yes, Adams should be our starting 6. Nobody arguing Morales being better than Bradley would disagree. The other side? Well here you go..."Egg has a system, and whatever you think about it, he's the coach, he's smarter, and he's using Adams as an RB. Adams is also injured, so no use in wasting our time talking about him. Adams might be a good player to pair with McKennie just ahead of Bradley". Again, these are all rationales I've read over the last few weeks...
Yep. Bradley at 35 cannot be a starter at Qatar 2022 (assuming U.S. qualification). Morales, at 32, could easily be on that roster. So, Morales should be a solid backup to Adams/McKennie for now, and a guy who might help avoid the typical Central American road game meltdowns in WCQ. Morales has got to be called up in September.
Egg was going to play Adams at RB to keep Bradley on the field. And he had Trapp in the 23, while leaving Morales out of the 40. That roster mismanagement of talent right there probably cost the USMNT the Gold Cup. But as you know, there was a lot more.
Very likely, however since it didn't happen it's not worth debating. I'd argue that the dearth of attacking talent outside of Pulisic and Altidore on our 23 had a worse effect than the Trapp over Morales decision. He chose Mihailovic over Sargent; that's the REAL crime if you ask me.
Just another of many. Imagine what somebody like Roberto Martinez could do with the USMNT player pool. Obviously it wouldn't be like Belgium, but it would easily beat Mexico's B team. Other than nepotism and/or extreme cheapness, I do not understand the Egg hire.
The Bradley / McKennie partnership doesn’t work. Full stop. A McKennie / Morales partnership is likely to be far better on both sides of the ball. It’s not because Morales is Kanye (strawman!) but because Morales is better than Bradley and more importantly is a better fit with McKennie.
8 ********ing years ago: http://www.espn.com/sports/soccer/n...-bradley-answer-midfield-jeff-carlisle-soccer
Or, you know, Adams as an inverted RB could have worked. It's worked for other teams. Or, perhaps it didn't work, and Berhalter adjusted. That's also possible. We've played the inverted FB roll only 3-4 times period, and Adams has only played 90 minutes for Berhalter. People are very certain about how things would or will go.
Which teams play an inverted fullback? Off the top of my head, I can only think of Pep’s team. More specifically, what national teams use it?
I don't follow enough national teams to know. But it's not incredibly hard to learn or to do. It just takes a really talented player there. It's a creative way to overload the midfield. It's not rocket science. It has its strengths and weaknesses. But if it created a situation where I could get CP, Paxton, McKennie and Adams all in the midfield, I think it's worth trying.
Which club teams other than Pep’s play that way? In particular, given that the bulk of our pool ranges from low major league to upper minor league, what teams in the mid/low level major leagues or high-level minor leagues use an inverted fullback? Thank you. What if there aren’t any comparable national teams that do that? Does that change your opinion or is it good for us to be a trail-blazer? What if any national teams that do use have elite talent like Pep does?
I don't mind us trying things that are new to national teams. But I'm also not a walking survey of national teams -- or for that matter, a survey of lower level club teams. I've seen Barca do it, Chelsea do it and Bayern do it, even post Pep. Dortmund would do it at times with Guerrero. I don't know of too many teams that do it religiously, but a) I don't want a lot of teams regularly, and b) it's pretty clear Berhalter is hardly married to it. I don't think we'd see it against better competition without Tyler. And he's not mid/low level major leagues. I will go back to this: why are you so scared to try it? Before the Gold Cup, no one seemed to care about Gold Cup results. It was all about the World Cup. During the Gold Cup, no one cared when we won. We lose a close game to Mexico and suddenly anything is a disaster. If McKennie were the 6, Paxton the 8 (or whomever you like) and Adams the RB/CM, are you opposed to just seeing how it works?
Marsch said after the 2010 World Cup, that him & Bob spent 2 years trying to find the best partner for Bradley, but couldn’t.
Which amazes me that we're still pretty much doing this. Instead of finding a partner to compliment Bradley why are we not finding a player in Bradley's position who can compliment the rest of the midfield? Bradley used to be a pretty good player but I've never thought he was good enough to build the whole midfield around. He's definitely not good enough to do that anymore.