Scoring is AZ: Jozy at Alkmaar

I disagree, I think he's what Jozy needs right now. He cares very much about his players (see his reaction after the Ajax-AZ match in which his keeper was threatened) and so he wants to see them succeed.

Altidore has lots of talent that can be unlocked by the right manager. His previous managers have barely given him a chance and just shunted him to the side when he didnt show the immediate skill and initiative to make their first team. Now he has a manager who is giving him every incentive to want to improve and letting him know it in blunt terms.

I direct you to the greatest tretise on tough love making for better warriors ever made:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSS5dEeMX64"]Mulan - i'll make a man out of you - YouTube[/ame]

 

I agree that this is what Jozy needs. He needs to keep playing well even if he comes off the bench and work just as hard in practice. His time will come, once AZ play teams with more physical defenses. That is where Benshop will really struggle IMO.

 

You are going to have to elaborate.

The guy you just called a tool has a team that is perennially mediocre at the top of the table. Moreover, in this specific case when it comes to his strikers, he just got 5 goals combined out of Jozy and Benschop.

 

Well, Verbeek is a tool.

But that doesn't mean he isn't a great coach for Jozy. Tough love can be a good thing.............

I think Bruce Arena's a tool, and by any measure he's the best US-born soccer coach in history.

 

Actually, AZ have finished top 5 seven of the last eight seasons, including one title. They also made the QFs and SFs of the UEFA Cup in that span.

And saying "he got" the five goals is quite the stretch. I think ADO's deflated team defense gets most of the credit.

In this interview mentioned, Verbeek mostly reiterated his initial reasoning to take Jozy out of the line-up, as the interviewer was somewhat oddly pushing the question (considering Bencschop hit a hat trick). The interviewer seemed to feel (or be speaking from gathered opinion) that they play better with Jozy and kept pressing the issue, which of course made Verbeek go into his usual strange man mode.

 

In the post match interview with eredivisie live a reporter tried to provoke a response by Verbeek by suggestively telling him that "some people" (fans) questioned his choice for Benschop as a starter.

Verbeek defensively replied that rumors mean very little to him as it is his job to make team selections. He said he works daily with the players and Benshop had shown great form in practice recently, so he'd earned the right to play. He added that whoever is best at any given time will start in a game.
Verbeek then continued that he wasn't satisfied with Jozy's recent performance. His progression since the start of season has been slower than anticipated and this lack of progression was negatively affecting the team's growth. After half a season he said that a coach can't ignore bench players like Maher or Benschop who have shown greater than average development. Those players give him different options in team selection and allow for more rotation, adding that it's not just Jozy who has to compete for a spot but other starters as well.

At that point in the interview Verbeek broke off conversation with the reporter to say something to Jozy ("better get a shower quickly Jozy, we're leaving soonish"). I couldn't tell if Jozy reacted to what was said or it was just coincidence as interruptions in those interviews are quite frequent.

 

"After half a season he said that a coach can't ignore bench players like Maher or Benschop who have shown greater than average development."


Yes, and the look on the interviewer's face when Verbeek likened Maher's entry to the line-up to Benschop's was hilarious. As I did, the interviewer found that comparison laughable.

 

I am ok with Verbeek's methods, obviously he is trying to win and he wants Jozy to respond to the benching. 2 goals is a good start. He is getting time for a good team and has 11 goals on the season, nothing to worry about unless he doesn't eventually beat out Benschop

 

Yeah, I got the impression that was Verbeek's attempt at diplomacy. To show he wasn't singling out Jozy as a special case.

 

The team also seems deep enough that he needs to rotate players in...

 

That seems more than reasonable.

Question--do you believe that any criticism of Jozy is warranted? Ever?

 

We're talking about practice?

 

Regular minutes. 11 goals. Challenging environment. Demanding coach. Great league. Team tied for first. 22 years old. Why is this bad?

I am pretty happy that he is in this situation and having to fight for playing time even when playing well...last thing he needs is a coach not asking anything of him...top players on the top teams are always fighting for playing time with the next big thing coming up right behind them...

 

Of course. I criticize him. And I'm not sure where you think I just deflected criticism of him. I even called the interviewer's line of questioning "odd" there.

 

i think this benching has a positive effect on jozy. he looks hungry. cant wait for game vs italy, if Klins plays clint and jozy upfront with landon behind them, we could have a game.

 

The reality is hardly any player starts every game. Even Dempsey does not start every game now and they're next to lost without him. Dempsey had to "fight for his place" several times and he wasn't 21 with small experience. It's all really not a big deal and he'll improve from it, which is kinda the whole point of Verbeek's methods: he literally tries to get a rise out of players. It's also possible he'd always planned to rotate some - Jozy is good, but not enough to make him automatic every time at his still growing fitness levels.

People just get reactionary. We're into February and he's not been the starter all of six times since arriving. That comes out to once a month on average so far. If he's still getting 14 minutes a night the rest of the season, then we can all fret.

 

As promised, more or less, to the poster that wanted to know how Jozy measures up against the other attackers in the Eredivisie I compiled the results of the top ten of the top scorers list. Numbers are from the first half of the season.

Dost. = Dost SC Heerenveen
Guid. = Guidetti SC Feyenoord
LdeJ. = de Jong FC Twente
Malki = Malki Roda Jc
Mert. = Mertens PSV
Mata. = Matavs Groningen/PSV from play day 5
Sule. = Sulejmani Ajax
Toiv. = Toivonen PSV
Jank. = Janko FC Twente
Plet. = Plet Heracles Almelo/fc twente from play 21
Mata2 = Matavs PSV from play day 5

6;2;1 = rating;goals scored;assists
-;-;- = no play
x;1;0 = not rated


In the table below I have the ratings etc. of each player against the opponent of AZ from the Jozy table I post in the triple YA rating.

Code:

..	--------------------	---	rating J	Dost.	Guid.	LdeJ.	Malki	Mert.	Mata.	Sule.	Toiv.	Jank.	Plet.	Mata2
.1	AZ-PSV--------------	3-1	rating x	5;0;0	7;0;1	5;0;0	6;1;0	6;1;0	-----	-;-;-	5;0;0	5;0;0	7;0;0	-----
.2	FC Twente-AZ--------	2-0	rating x	5;0;0	9;3;0	6;0;0	x;0;0	5;0;0	-----	6;1;0	6;0;0	6;1;0	6;0;0	5;0;0
.3	AZ-NEC--------------	4-0	rating 7	5;0;0	4;0;0	7;1;1	6;1;0	5;0;1	-----	6;2;0	5;0;0	6;0;0	6;1;0	6;1;0
.4	FC Groningen-AZ-----	0-3	rating 6	6;1;0	6;0;0	7;0;0	x;1;0	7;1;1	6;0;0	4;0;0	7;1;0	5;0;0	5;0;0	6;1;0
.5	AZ-Vitesse----------	4-0	rating 5	5;0;0	7;2;1	6;0;0	-;-;-	5;0;0	-----	5;0;0	6;0;0	x;0;0	6;0;0	6;1;0
.6	RKC Waalwijk-AZ-----	1-2	rating 5	6;0;1	7;1;0	6;0;1	6;0;0	6;1;0	-----	5;0;0	6;0;1	7;2;0	x;1;0	-----
.7	AZ-Feyenoord--------	2-1	rating 5	5;1;0	6;0;0	6;1;0	5;0;0	5;0;0	-----	5;0;0	3;0;0	4;0;0	x;0;0	3;0;0
.8	VVV Venlo-AZ--------	1-3	rating 4	6;1;1	6;2;1	8;2;0	5;0;0	6;1;1	-----	5;0;0	6;1;1	7;1;2	8;2;1	6;0;0
.9	Ajax-AZ-------------	2-2	rating 5	5;1;0	-;-;-	6;1;0	4;0;0	7;0;0	7;1;0	6;1;0	5;0;0	x;0;0	6;1;0	7;1;0
10	AZ-Roda JC----------	1-0	rating 7	4;0;0	-;-;-	6;0;0	6;0;0	9;4;0	5;0;0	-;-;-	7;1;0	6;1;0	5;0;0	7;1;0
11	Heracles Almelo-AZ--	…	rating 5	5;0;0	-;-;-	6;0;0	6;1;0	7;0;2	-----	7;1;0	5;1;0	-;-;-	5;0;0	5;0;0
12	AZ-ADO--------------	3-0	rating 6	7;3;0	4;0;0	7;1;0	8;2;0	8;1;1	8;3;1	6;1;0	6;1;0	5;1;0	6;0;0	-----
13	AZ-FC Utrecht-------	2-0	rating 5	7;1;1	7;1;0	7;0;0	x;0;0	7;0;0	-----	7;0;1	7;1;0	x;0;0	-----	5;0;0
14	Excelsior-AZ--------	0-0	rating x	9;5;0	-;-;-	6;1;0	6;0;0	8;2;0	-----	5;1;0	7;1;0	6;0;0	6;0;0	-----
15	Heerenveen-AZ-------	5-1	rating 4	8;1;0	-;-;-	8;1;0	6;0;0	7;0;1	-----	6;1;0	7;2;0	7;2;0	6;0;0	7;1;1
16	AZ-de Graafschap----	4-0	rating 5	6;0;0	7;1;0	7;1;1	6;1;0	5;0;0	-----	7;2;0	6;0;0	-;-;-	6;1;0	6;1;0
17	NAC-AZ--------------	2-1	rating 4	7;0;0	x;1;0	6;0;0	6;2;0	6;1;0	5;0;0	7;1;0	5;0;0	5;1;0	x;0;0	5;0;0

Have fun!

 

Forgot the top scorer list:

Dost SC Heerenveen 19
Guidetti Feyenoord 17
Luuk de Jong FC Twente 17
Malki Roda JC Kerkrade 15
Mertens PSV 15
Toivonen PSV 12
Matavz FC Groningen, PSV 12
Sulejmani Ajax 11
Janko FC Twente 10
Plet FC Twente, Heracles Almelo 10

 

I'm in this camp too. While it would be great if Jozy were lighting it up and making himself an impossible to sit part of the team, this is the best situation he's been in a while.

Only real superstars like Mikey walk into this league and make themselves indispensible. (hehe...)

 

Of course, he didn't do that either. Bradley spent his first six months mostly in the reserves and then only started 5-6 games his first full Eredivisie season.

 

Yes - tongue well in cheek on that one. If Jozy can bounce back into the line-up and get a reasonable number of games going forward this can only be seen as a good year for him.

If he's benched for good/only a late game sub it's a bigger concern, but I would be surprised if that was the case.

 

AZ, with PSV, Ajax, FC Twente, have a monster run of matches coming up.
AZ has to play 7 league games, 2 Euro League matches and 1 KNVB Cup match. Twice a week, and for the National team players in the club also 1 nat team match.
This is going to stretch the batteries of the players big time.

 

verbeek has labeled benschop as the first choice striker.

jozy better take advantage of minutes off bench.

 

I agree with the notion his situation right now is not ideal for everyone but it's a chance for Jozy to finally "get it" about what it takes to be a first teamer on a top Euro squad. Hopefully he does sooner rather than later because I still have my doubts about him ever since his stint at Hull. His maestro performance against Les Bleus had me putting one foot back in the bandwagon, but he's gotta keep showing us more of that!