Lovely tangent on club names, can we take a moment to reflect that in the past 3 weeks Richie has returned to appear for Jong PSV and the first team in both a cup and Eredivisie match and sign a new contract. Well done young man, can't wait to see what the 2nd half of the season has in store. An Eredivisie title perhaps?
So for the USMNT is he best suited as the midfielder furthest forward, or one of the outside forwards?
Dream matchup in the World Club Cub someday. Another favorite was a team from Andorra in the European Cup back in the 90s named "Charlie's Bar." That's some great sponsorship payoff right there (official club name was CE Principat but was commonly called "Charlie's" in those days - club has since folded)..
I think there is best suited, in my head and how I’d do it, and best suited in the current set up. Current set up = likely outside forward a la reyna with national team.
OK. Hopefully in these next few months he has the kind of breakthrough to really give the USMNT manager something to think about.
On the bench for the first team today Maxi’s 🇦🇷 first start in the @eredivisie 🇳🇱#GROPSV— PSV (@PSV) January 16, 2022
Not to be a pessimist or anything, but RL has quite a ways to go before playing a significant role w/ PSV. Gakpo, Doan, Gotze, Bruma, Vertessen, Madueke all seemingly ahead of him at AM/W. He's clearly super talented, but I don't see him cracking the rotation this year unfortunately.
There are several playing now in the first team who had been written off a few months ago by severa; pundits. The team needs rotation to keep players fit with the intended fast pace play of Schmidt. So I expect Richie to show up on the pitch to get his experience enhancing minutes.
He was an un-played bench player a lot last season before finally getting some minutes. Being part of the squad is a good sign IMO. I expect to see him get some minutes down the stretch.
After an injury like that, I doubt they - or he - expect more than a few cameos this season. Depending on the specifics of his injury we could see 6-8 months of easing him back to full fitness by building up his ACLs, plural, by giving him 10' in a game and then testing the ligament's response for a week or two before another appearance, followed by another period of testing. Rinse and repeat. And I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't get a run of games with the U-23 side towards the end of the season, not because they don't think that he has a future with the first team but because they do. That's why they gave him a 2.5 year extension. Lille did the same with Tim Weah and that's worked out pretty well so far.
Nobody expects much from him this season or even in the first half of next season. In the normal course of events, about half of those will have been sold or be concluding sale agreements by this time next year. Once those decks have been cleared, we'll see where (a hopefully fully-fit) Ledezma stands
Is it good for him to just sit on the bench for the first team? I’d almost rather see him play for Jong PSV.