I'm not @grandinquisitor28 , and I like Taylor Booth, but I wanted to chip in. One, I think Booth has been good, but I do think you are overstating his impact a bit here. For one, he did win player of the month. But it was a two-week month right before the World Cup. He hit a couple of goals and snagged an award for a half month. Two, since then, he has one assist in the Eredivisie. That's it. He had two assists right before his two goals, but since the World Cup break, he's got an assist against AZ. He's been playing winger mostly, as well, not central mid. So the 2g and 3a in 1,000 minutes is absolutely good, and his .37 npxG+xA not quite as good but still pretty good for a winger, he's not actually having that great a goal production round. Now, I've only watched here and there; so maybe he's doing a lot more, but he's also fourth in G+A on the team, and no one has a ton more minutes than him. As for international play and higher levels, he's just 21 (22 in May), so that's good. He's not big -- which is one of Tillman's edges -- at 5'8" and pretty skinny. But I do think he's actually pretty fast and quick, so I could see him moving up. But I think it's probably important to note that he's playing much closer to goal recently, and so expectations have to shift that way in terms of production. But don't take this as me thinking he can't move up -- he can. I just think that perhaps the case is overstated. Agree that beating up on Ross County with Rangers teammates isn't all that impressive. And I don't know that he'll reach a $30M valuation. But note that he's a year younger and just more physically impressive than Booth, so his upside is higher. I think he'll absolutely be Bundesliga starter caliber. Alfredo Morales and Carlos Gruezo were Bundesliga starters. But I think he's a player who still needs to find his game and his niche a bit. But a big reason I really like him is your first sentence on him: he's not a central part of the team but he doesn't have to be to contribute. I like players like that -- players who can add a flash of brilliance and contribute positively without having to be the focus, because you can only have so many guys as that focus. He's a team player in that he makes the quick, smart pass. He gets into dangerous areas. He converts. He's got a lot of McKennie-like attributes with more skill and a more offensive focus (and less defense, toughness, athleticism, etc.) but yes, that comes with the question on McKennie -- where do you play this guy and can he do a baseline position well enough to bring those other pieces. Is he good enough at an attacking position to play him there? I think Paredes is very much slept on across the board. Again, he's likely to end up at winger, and it remains to be seen if we can wishcast him to LB (I'm pretty sure he could handle LWB). Winger is a point of massive competition both for the USMNT and the world at large -- you've got to be productive there. But he's two years younger than Booth! He's got the speed and quickness. He doesn't have Reyna/Pulisic skill, so he needs to play a little differently, but that's alright. Just needs time. None of these guys are likely to end up near Reyna and Musah, frankly.
Why are we ranking Tillman vs Paredes vs Booth again? Weirdly there was a similar tweet just recently, asking people to rank I think it was LDLT, Mihailovic, Booth, and Tillman. Edit: found it Rank these USMNT players from best to worst. pic.twitter.com/Tiw5fpoV3J— Takes 🇺🇸 (@USMNTTAKES) January 29, 2023 So adding Paredes to that.... Right now: LDLT, Booth, Tillman, Paredes, Mihailovic Long term ceiling: Paredes, Tillman, Booth, LDLT, Mihailovic Yep... those are the only two young guys in our current pool that have "world class" as their potential upside.
The Athletic: Malik Tillman: The U.S. international excelling at Rangers and proving critics wrong Tillman is on eight goals and five assists in his first 35 appearances, averaging a direct goal involvement every 183 minutes. I don't want to be accused of bias, so here's an Athletic article on Roldan as well: Cristian Roldan at a crossroads: How good can he be for Sounders, USMNT? The parts of soccer that Cristian Roldan most excels at are difficult to quantitate.
The headline on Roldan is a bit misleading compared to the substance of the article itself (which is mostly about whether Roldan’s ceiling is as a foundational player on a good MLS team).
I think Tillman could. Size, athleticism and technique with him is excellent. I don't know if he does that, and as I mentioned yesterday, if I'm assigning projections, I'd probably go: 20%: Big 5 League rostered player, solid, that's it. 60-65%: Big 5 league roster starter/mid table side, above average or better. 10-15: Roster player on elite side in big 5 league, semi-regular for them. 5%: Starter on elite side in a big 5 league. Something like that. So I give him basically a 20% chance of sticking to a top 3-4 side in a big 5 league. I don't think Paredes or Booth have any chance at that ceiling. That being said, Booth has laid down a marker this year, and clearly seems a big 5 roster player with big 5 league starter as a distinct possibility. Paredes upside is higher than that, though his floor might be a bit lower (simply because he hasn't played as much as a starter in a legit league, yet, but today he played 30 minutes for Bayern Munich so this spring will wipe away that reservation. As I mentioned before though, what makes me ecstatic is that we are watching 3 different players here that weren't a part of the 2019-2022 full scale rebuild of the national team from the failed '15-'17 side. All 3 of these guys are now legit players for Wolfsburg, a Europa League Finalist, and about to move on to a legit club after this year with Utrecht. They all can walk into the top 25-30 for the roster pool already. And whats exciting to that is that not only are these guys like 21, 20 and 19, but they not only ramp up the floor of guys that play CM, WF/Striker etc, but they also ramp up the bottom of the pool by shoving guys down who just made or nearly made the WC roster by the end of '23 if not earlier. It's super exciting because it drastically improves our depth and our ceiling when we can turn guys like CM #5 or WF #5 and make them #7 or #8 respectively because these guys are walking in, potentially for the next decade or more. Whats wild to me is that these 3 guys alone are more than Canada, Costa Rica and El Tri combined have sent to Europe the past year. We are lapping our confederation. Its telling that the next best guy in El Tri WE DEVELOPED (Araujo) and that other guys they were laying bets on like Lainez are slinking back (I still like Lainez and am confused at how thoroughly his career has gone sideways). While the Federation continues to implode AGAIN, the pipeline just keeps chugging along.
Roldan needs to be irrelevant. Lets be honest here. How many more caps need to be wasted on him at this point? Give him assistant coach reps, give him some sort of minutes toward his class licenses for coaching, but lets stop wasting minutes on the guy. I can't tell how many caps or minutes he has because transfermarkt doesnt credit what he did in Gold Cup '21 for some reason (2 assists in 5 games, against Martinique and Jamaica), but he's somewhere between 32 and 37 caps, 1550 and 1750 minutes, and 2 total assists apparently (transfermarkt gives them to Gold Cup '19 but then shows them in Gold Cup '21, does anyone know if he assisted in '19? He played sparingly and US soccer lists him with just the 2 assists as well). Anyway, I'm not here to say he isn't a great glue guy, he obviously is, but he's a zero on the field and since he first started grabbing minutes we drastically rebuilt wing forward and Central Midfield. It's night and day to what it was circa 2019. LDLT, McKennie, Musah, Ferreira, Booth, Tillman, Reyna, Mihailovic, and I'm 100% sure there are guys Im forgetting centrally like Aaronson (don't want him there) or the gazillion Wing Forwards that are ahead of him now. Would you play him on a wing over Paredes at this point? It's just crazy. The Will Ferrell Crazy pills meme applies. Roldan would have been helpful in raising the floor for the '14 and '18 cycles, in '22 we didn't need him, and in '26 it's a borderline cruel joke and ridiculous. We need to infuse greater depth to some positions for sure? More LB's please, more like for like 6's please, more strikers we can actually believe in please? But CM and Wing Forward? Other than a playmaking #10 where we still are struggling to figure out to handle considering our MMA skill set, there's no need for Roldan period, he can't do what Adams or Musah give us in any universe, he's not remotely close to McKennie, and he provides zero cutting edge in terms of playmaking at the front of the CM and at Wing Forward, at this point the depth chart is beyond absurd: 1.Pulisic 2.Weah 3.Reyna 4.Aaronson 5.Paredes Grab Bag: A. Zendejas Arriola Morris Cowell P. Aaronson Tillman (I have him as a false 9/striker/#10) KDLF D. Luna There's probably a bunch of other guys. Honestly of the guys I just listed above, the only guys I'd take him ahead of are KDLF, and Luna, and that's because I have no idea where to play Luna, and he has to build a club career anyway. But honestly, there are what 11 or 12 guys minimum that probably make more sense now at WF? Less at CM, but still, he doesn't deliver anything in CM anyway (doesn't provide assists, doesn't defend effectively against strong side, doesn't deliver the pass before the pass). It's over. Unless we get yet another MLS familiar coach to head things again who knows how good he is w/Sounders (and he has been for the bulk of his career far better there) and falls back on that familiarity issue like Berhalter did in '19, the page will turn on him the same way it did with guys after Couva. He might be young enough to be relevant, but he's not talented enough. It's just absurd at this point. We need to see Tillman, Booth, Paredes etc in March, we sure as hell don't need to waste any more time on known knowns like Roldan.
This is the essence of the dilemma facing Gers that I called the game of chicken.. Thankfully informed scouts and club management don't subscribe to the league-level nonsense that was recently posted in this thread. “Rangers are in a strong position, they’ve got that deal in place with Bayern Munich, they’ve got first dibs on him. I would be amazed if they don’t try and activate that clause to make Malik a Rangers player come the summer. “The only danger, I think, for Rangers is, the better he plays, the more impressive he is, he may well get other clubs then onto his people or to Bayern Munich, saying, ‘by the way, we can give you more money than Rangers, we can offer you more money personally in terms of offering a better league, better European aspirations. “That may be the only fly in the ointment for Rangers, at the moment Rangers seem relaxed about the situation, Tillman seems relaxed about the situation and I’d be very surprised if he’s not a Rangers player come the first game of next season.” https://www.footballtransfertavern....mans-future-gers-michael-beale-loan-transfer/
I guess I just don't get why Bayern Munich would be satisfied with 7 mill. Yes Rangers have the right to buy him or get paid if Bayern pays them over top that to continue to hold his rights, but, I just expect Bayern to bring him back in and pay, or at best, to be willing to loan him one more year (don't know how that would work?). Very happy for him and expect him to make great leap forwards going ahead. It's a weird situation, i would have preferred he go to the EPL, but if the choice is an unknown there, or this season with Rangers, I'll take the latter because at this point, he seems a cinch to finish out the season with double digit goals and a chance at double digit assists which is all Bayern Munich could've hoped for in his first season as a starter at the professional level.
How many caps do we expect Roldan to get if the next USMNT coach isn't Gregg Berhalter or Brian Schmetzer? I would say close to zero outside of January camps.
O/U 1.5 to 3. I think he could get cupcakes, and get in due to injury, the clincher is probably 2024 and beyond, if everyone's healthy it will be impossible to imagine there aren't at least 6 different non 6 CM's ahead of him and 10 or more WF's ahead of him. He has no place going forward unless the coach is a completely and totally blinkered about glue vs talent.
The manager wants Tillman permanently. Michael Beale has told Rangers it’s a no-brainer to sign Milak Tillman permanently from Bayern Munich. But ideas will have to align for Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent to stay. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport...s/michael-beale-tells-rangers-buying-29134090
Well now that Roldan has signed a five year deal with the Sounders obviously Rangers have no choice but to settle for Tillman
Musah is hugely overrated here. He isn't at Reyna level and there is no reasons to believe he ever will be there. Booth, Paredes, Tillman, and LDLT are at about the same level as Musah now, their ages are irrelevant though Paredes is the youngest. They all are totally different players and nobody knows who will be at which level in a couple years.
Unless he raises his level it’s likely he’s going to be phased out this cycle outside of January camp’s and possible B team World Cup’s. Hopefully some of our other 8s continue to develop so that it can be sooner rather than later. Even under Berhalter he didn’t actually get a ton of caps in qualifying or during the World Cup. Was just on a lot of rosters.
I agree w/the last sentence, not really much else, definitely a hot take. We'll see how it plays out, all these guys are basically 19-22 or thereabouts, a lot of runway.
Musah is a starter on a weak team in a strong league where LDLT is a starter on a much better team. Talking about physical attributes while ignoring total lack of vision makes him look as a much better player than he is. He's also a great kid what kind of prevents people from noticing his weaknesses. I fully believe that Tillman and LDLT are at least at his level now, while Paredes is so different that they shouldn't be compared.
Leaving aside the subjective stuff about much better league and superior opponents remember that Booth and Tillman were at Bayern together so you could compare their performances there. They both left Bayern in July 2022. Booth was allowed to leave on a free transfer to a mid table Eredivisie club with no hope of European matches. Tillman went on loan with a $7M buy option and a buyback. Here is another data point: Booth plays with a Schalke castoff, 21yo Can Bozdogan who was also mediocre in Turkey before ending up at Utrecht. Bozdogan at CM (1G, 4As) has similar stats and ratings as Booth in similar number of matches.
It's pretty much impossible to not notice his weaknesses, it's right there in the chief counting categories that people look at, 2 goals and 3 assists in 4000 la liga minutes. There isn't a soul around who hasn't noticed that in the final 3rd, not a lot is happening in terms of counting stats. Nobody's in denial about that.
More from his manager: Rangers boss Michael Beale on Malik Tillman Beale said about Tillman: “I’ve asked him to do a slightly different role. He played mostly as a striker or second striker coming through at Bayern. “I’m asking him to be a midfielder who breaks out to score goals from there because I think it adds another goalscorer. So far so good. “Wednesday was a big tick in the box in terms of an away game in Scottish football where it’s a little bit fast and frantic. Can he handle that as a 20-year-old? I think he handled it really, really well.” https://www.rangersnews.uk/club-new...hange-he-wants-in-rangers-star-malik-tillman/
On face value, sure. I think that 5% can vary based on what we're calling elite, but that's a false level of precision. He certainly is the highest upside of the three. The other fun thing about this group is the provenance. A German youth national teamer no one thought we had any shot with for years; a youth national team stalwart who disappeared for a few years at an elite European team; and a player who came almost out of nowhere at his MLS club, passing 2-3 other name prospects in about a week. I've said this a few times before, but I don't think people realize the depth that we're eventually going to have. I don't know about the absolute elite talents, but 2026 is going to be a massive step forward, and by 2030 our roster depth up with anyone even if the elite talent isn't there. Except maybe France if they continue on their insanity. Just the very tippy top of the Federation. The youth leagues and clubs are still running, MLS and USL are growing leaps and bounds and leaning in more and more every year ... even the DA is now run by MLS. Let's get a coach back in there so we can start dual national recruiting in earnest again, but I don't think the rest of this matters much to the development pipeline at this point.
Well, I'd disagree there. Paredes isn't really a comparable, but Musah is a superior defender and ball progresser over the other two. He's got very strong ball skills and the physical tools that no one can match. Will he add more to his game? That's always a question, but there's nothing visible holding him back. He just turned 20. He has the core technical skills and tools to get much, much better. I'll bet on him to either develop more long passing vision or more production in the final third. But even if he doesn't, he's already a very good player.
I have totally different opinion. For me .hHis skills aren't better than Tilman's and worse than LDLT's. Neither he is advancing the ball better than LDLT who is doing that with passing. Musah is way better defender, but neither today nor ever he will make passes that LDLT is doing now, or score Malik's goals. All three are good complimentary players and not essentials like CP, Reyna and Adams. So agree to disagree.