If Valencia stinks next year and Musah does what he normally does for us he’ll get sold in the winter window. Accepting that 15 mill low ball from Fiorentina would be the height of idiocy. They should be able to get double that or more in December/January.
Yep, the goals against #’s mean ———— all w/o the context of quality of opposition, classification of game (friendly, off year gold cup match, qualifier etc) and I say this not knowing how we’d look w/and w/o Adams without looking it up besides knowing we shut out everyone at Gold Cup ‘21 w/o him in the run of play.
I feel like this is a good reminder of why we should dig in Saban 101 recruiting tactics in perpetuity w/our seemingly hard to retain Mexican-American players. It definitely seems as if England took Musah for granted, "its not like he'll play for someone else, we're the three lions" etc, and w/all the talent they had and have coming up, kind of didn't work the recruiting angle hard because they're England, kind of like the Netherlands took Dest for granted and then a few years later we see first Dest and now Musah bubbling up from teens into potentially world class level talents. I don't know who, if any, of our Mexican-American elite prospects have that kind of ceiling, but it should be a reminder that we shouldn't simply take it for granted like England did with Musah, and the Netherlands did with Dest, players can either want to play for us or not. Our recruiting pitch worked with Musah and Dest, and we should work hard on building quality recruiting pitches to build bridges to young Mexican-American prospects like Santiago Munoz, and Jonathan Gomez and really any of the young talents. It may not work, but as Musah reminds us, it's always worth trying. There's little logic to why we should've been able to get Musah beyond a log jam of talent in England. He's played on all of their youth teams, captained some of them if I remember right, moved there when he was young after some early formative years in Italy that sowed the seeds of a love for the game, and yet somehow, inexplicably, he decided to join us, despite so few ties....It's a great reminder that we can and should work hard at recruiting and selling players on the experience, from the marketing potential of playing for one of the Worlds two largest economies, to being a part of a team like no other (nearly all players born between 1996 and 2004), and to be a part of building a world power house and having fun w/o the pressure of insanely brutal fan bases like an England or a Mexico etc. We got Musah, not sure why, but I think because honestly, we're more fun, let's sell everyone on that. It is not hard to imagine Musah being a world class player by '24, that's a huge win, lets win some more.
@xbhaskarx, thank you for this as well as all the great media bits you share with the rest of us on a daily basis. It's really a great service.
McKennie was moved around a lot because nobody could figure out what his position was. He didn't seem able to affect the game at any position. Allegri finally came upon the 'mezzala' position which was perfect for McK. We don't play that way which is why I never have him on the roster. Musah plays so well at what he does well that it's easy to find a 'position' for him. He really is into the game offensively in a fairly mature way. He needs to start reading the game when facing his own goal and make the pitch small for the opposition, moving on cues from his 6, while reading where the danger is and moving to put out the fire, because that is what a good 8 will do.
People are really worried about McKennie? lol Jack Grealish leaving a nightclub in Las Vegas at 4am. pic.twitter.com/vIkpCln6aI— Drunk Jack Grealish (@DrunkGreaIish) June 21, 2022
That’s some absolutely terrible escalator technique (and it looks like the woman is struggling w/the whole left foot/right foot thing as well lol).
Maguire and Grealish aren't exactly the models I want for our players. Party after your career is over (easy for me to say).
I used to think he was a little overrated too - I think you'll see the light like I have. No one is better in our team at controlling and advancing the ball in traffic and at speed. Well except for maybe Reyna. He's going to get better at the attacking side.
Musah is fast becoming my favorite player. Such an infectious and joyous personality, combined with potential world-class skills. I can't believe how lucky we are as fans that he chose to represent the US.
"nicest player on the team" - Musah says Reggie and Aronson says Musah. Yunus seems like the nicest guy. Could not agree with you more. Berhalter has to be thanking his lucky stars with Yunus. Kid is going to be a star.
i know its musahs thread, but i wasnt mentally prepared for the sheer amount of times brendan says bro. its not only every sentence, its frequently the alpha and omega
In the video above, I was glad to see some (very little, but some) discussion about his struggles out of possession. This is where he has the most growth potential. If he sorts that out, he'll be an all timer for the US, he's that good. Particularly on the turn, I don't know if we've ever had anyone better. I think McKennie is strong in this area, but Musah is even better.
Positional awareness... especially when out of possession and knowing when to get rid of the ball after beating a guy or two one-v-one. Those are the two aspects of his game I am hoping he continues to improve on. But I will add that he seems to play better for country than he does his club. Now, I have seen him play great for Valencia too.... but sometimes I question his motor/desire to get back on D. For some reason he really seems to hustle more for the USMNT. As such, I would like to add consistency as another trait I would like to see him to improve on. But he has come a long way since appearing for the US for the 1st time. He has that "it" factor that you can't teach. It means his ceiling is sky-high IMO. In short... he could be World Elite.
I agree. He plays better for the national team than for Valencia. It is interesting to speculate why. I think one reason is he values his national team matches very highly. Another is Valencia uses him in a scattershot manner. This is not a bad thing for a young developing player. But with the GNats he has a much better defined role.
I'll speculate and say he likes his US teammates more. It's obvious this is a great group that has a lot of fun and works hard together. You can't let them down. I guess I'll go there even though I probably shouldn't and say it's a very comfortable bunch for black and mixed black players from different backgrounds - Holland, England, US, Germany etc. They hang out together even during summers off. I din't know what they go through in their club environments but they have a blast with the US.