Nice joke, but honestly Schalke has not done too badly since the '99/'00 season when they finished 2nd. The exception was '10/'11 when they finished 14th. Otherwise, they have been 8th or better and in the top 5 nine times.
If he's good enough to get regular starts for Schalke, he's good enough for OUR BENCH. Does anyone have a problem with that? If so, then why? Fit is not a good reason considering the outfit we have now is so dysfunctional. Why is he not good enough for our bench right now? There is no reason he can't be on the bench.
I thought he played his best game by far, good enough to be excited about his future if he can play like that at 19 against a good opponent. It's progress, hopefully he can keep it going.
In other words, the Schalke coach chooses our USMNT players? I do have a problem- right now he looks "Ok", nothing special. I am optimistic overall but I trust my eyes. He hasn't shown me anything except he can hang as a 19 year old.
Consider Mckennie's competition on the USMNT. Consider that he is playing as a midfielder in the Bundesliga at 19. This is a bigger accomplishment than what Pulisic did in 2015/2016 season.
Not sure WM's "competition on the USMNT" has anything to do with anything, yet. Even less certain that I understand how you could possibly arrive at him having accomplishing more than CP did in 2015/2016.
Yeah, but I'm a bit of a Dortmund fan and hacking on Schalke and the 70 years - and counting - since they last won a German Championship (in 1958, pre-Bundesliga) is part of the package. My personal favourite is one from Jurgen Klopp himself: a Schalke fan met him and they struck up a conversation, with the topic eventually turning to what it feels like to win a championship. According to Klopp, he had to end the conversation on the spot because "how can you describe colour to a blind man!"
Also, McKennie is one month older than CP, he's comparing CP's age 17 season to McKennie's age 19 season.
agreed pulisic far more impressive but surely there something to be said for the fact weston plays a much more difficult position for a younger player and that defensive responsibilities are far more difficult to pick up than pure attacking instincts
While I agree with your comments, in general, CP is far far from a "pure attacking" player. Although he has great attacking "instincts," his defensive contributions and understanding are also really, really good.
I saw him play several times. What are objective criteria? Goals and assists? I am a die-hard USA fan and the fact that he plays in the BL at 19 is cool. Now what I have seen is just "OK", nothing at all special. Maybe he will develop. But the idea he has to be called up for the USA because the Schalke coach likes him and is grooming him, simply turns the job of USMNT coach over to Schalke's coach.
If this is the forum for it, I'll add why not? It's not like whoever we pay to do the job is worth a damn.
I'd contend McKennie may prove our most important player next cycle. In modern soccer, the greatest blessing is to have a complete DM. But that depends on how he develops from this point forward.
Defensive middie is the hardest spot on the field to develop in the modern game. Mcknenie taking a hold of that position in a good league with a good team is greater than Pulisic's 2015/2016 season. It's just my opiniong of course.
Kicker ratings: Fährmann (2) Kehrer (4) Naldo (3) Nastasic (3,5) D. Caligiuri (3,5) McKennie (3) Oczipka (3) Goretzka (2,5) Harit (3,5) Konoplyanka (3) Embolo (4,5)
He's looked better in each game to me. And I still expect 5 or 10 more games before things really start to click. Is Bentaleb injured? As much as we want to debate his ceiling, Schalke view it as high enough that they are willing to go through the growing pains and to do it right now.
Does Schalke usually have this approach with young prospects? I'm admittedly surprised that Weston's been getting as many starts as he has. This coupled with the fact that they have three of our top youth prospects signed in total makes me wonder....are they trying to cash in to the American market? I understand that in European football all that matters is performance and production...but I can't lie that the thought went through my head. He seems to be a favorite in terms of Schalke official media attention. I hope it's because the kid is actually that damn good. You can already tell that he seems like a coach's dream in terms of personality and professionalism so that definitely helps in terms of marketability.
I think you answered your own question. Coaches trust guys that have proven reliable and professional on a day to day basis in practice and training. This is true in any team sport, maybe save baseball, which is more of a team sport played by individuals anyways. If Weston executes the game plan in practice, shows a high level of professionalism then he'll be a guy his coach trusts to start and play in league games and big cup games. Obviously he has to have talent as well, but most players that struggle to break into lineups have talent, what they don't have is the necessary training level to prove to their coach they are capable of consistent, strong performances on game day.
I doubt the fact he is a yank has much to do with anything. My novice eye sees a guy that has pretty good technical skills and looks as if there may be a player in there. He does not offer a great deal yet in terms of going forward, but the ability is there. He isn't costing you any games and he is allowing his partners to go forward while providing adequate cover. All of this while adjusting to game speed and first team footy. As an aside when talking about improvement. I think it is an accepted maxim the most improvement happens from year one to year two with nearly any endeavor we undertake. .
Funny thing is that Schalke is one of the few clubs in a top league with no links whatsoever to American companies. They're sponsored by the Russian state oil corporation Gazprom, and the Chinese electronics giant Hisense (if you but Sharp or Hitachi products in the USA, chances are they're made in China by Hisense but using the Japanese brand names).
No. Not at all. They're looking for good talent at a cheap price (they're not the richest team in BL1, let alone as rich as an EPL club) that they can develop and play for them, and if he turns out to be ass good at DM as, say, Pulisic is at RM they will sell him for megabucks to Spain, England, etc. If the kid helps them become sufficiently better-known in the USA that it moves the neddle commercially, well and good, but the returns from that would be less and, because they'd be based on fan identification with individuals, less long-lasting than becoming an established CL side.