Got it! Yeah it seems to me Modric has a wider lower body/thicker legs which helps him shield the ball but I get what you’re saying. It seems to me that is less body type more how they use their brain nonetheless I like the reference.
I still don't really get it, but whatever. It's pretty awesome. You'll get a bunch of goofy people here saying "the market is inefficient", but Biesla (or Leeds' mgmt, or both) demanding to keep increasing offers for Aaronson is amazing. Frankly, I'd rather have him be top 1% at through balls or key passes or something more tangibly related to goals being scored. But he's still world class in fitness/work rate, and combined with a decent EPL team (and world class manager) making him their #1 target, means he's doing a ton right. His move to Austria and his progression is maybe one of the bigger, and most enjoyable, surprises.
I would add in addition to what he's trying to say with body shape (which I do agree with he seems to be a very durable type) is that the same vision they both display lets them avoid messy contact. These are the types of guys who position themselves to win balls that either don't get possessed or are errantly passed out of duels.
Maybe top 0.1% would make someone in the discussion for "world-class". There has to be about 50,000 professional soccer players, right? 1% would be 500, and there aren't that many "world-class" players. 0.1% puts that around 50 players, and that's still probably too many for "world-class".
It's really cool that he is in this category, and he deserves kudos for it, but let's not go calling him world class because of it. That's too weighted a term. People could be covering a lot of ground for any number of reasons, not all of them good. (...because they make lots of mistakes and have to track back to cover for those mistakes, ...or because they make foolish, unnecessary runs, ...because they don't know where to be and just run around a lot. ...)
I still prefer Aaronson out wide. He doesn’t seem to me to be quite the creative distributor that Modric is.
At the national team level I feel like he’s definitely looked much better out wide. But at his club I feel like when he’s played centrally he’s looked pretty good at it.
Looks like he played 60 minutes of a 120 minute friendly against Admira Waacker - they lost, 2-1. Looking at a little bit of it on Youtube, he played some attacking midfield, frequently pretty central. Probably the right amount of game time for pre-break preparation, frankly. Oddly, RBS have a match next Saturday during the international break. Of course, he could be in a relegation battle in a different country by then anyway.
Alright, just saw Salzburg's goal. After an opposition corner, release pass finds Aaronson at the left edge of midfield, quickly double-teamed. Beats the double team, diagonal dribbling run into Admira territory, releases it wide to the right. Pass-cross-header about ten seconds later. Tertiary assist, but a hell of a play to help set up the goal. He'll be ready...
At most people are saying he's world class in ground covered. Nobody is suggesting he's a world class soccer player.
Apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere, but how would they handle the logistics of an Aaronson transfer while he's away with the USMNT?
They'd have to do the medical with a trusted doc in the US (probably). The window will be too tight to fly to the UK & back.
Brenden Aaronson transfer 'off' for Leeds United as worrying financial issue comes to light (teamtalk.com)
Turning down 20 million for Aaronson is a bit shocking to me. The article states that they have a big CL Draw with Bayern and they don't want to weaken their side... but Cmon... I hardly think that matchup is going to be all that competitive w/ or w/o Aaronson. Heck... you could add Haaland back to the mix and it would still be unlikely that RBS could knock out the German Giants. But I guess it bodes well for Aaronson getting a good transfer fee in the summer... especially if he continues to improve. I sure would like to see him playing for Leeds though... It seemed like a decent fit for him.
I understand the concept of being a selling club, but when your team is in the midst of the Champions League knockouts and you unload top players ahead of that, it just looks bad. It's like - here we are, the big time, the pinnacle of the sport, this is why people buy big players - to get here. And then they sell? It looks so unserious when you do that. It is a slap in the face of your supporters. If you sell now, you are never serious about winning.
I think it has a lot more to do with Salzburg's valuation of Aaronson than wanting to keep him for the games against Bayern. Though I'm sure that beating Bayern would be worth many millions on its own.
1. They can probably get just as much or more in the summer (though nothing in life is guaranteed) 2. They may be a selling clubs but do they really need the money? I have no reason to think so. Some clubs really really do need the money at some points but I don't think that's as pressing a concern for the Red Bull clubs.
Sort of like - are you a Brand for the owners or an actual football club? The line is blurred nowadays.