Anyone you could think of. And I am serious on that. We know what Bradley brings and doesnt bring. He is too slow to play against the faster teams in Concacaf. Struggles in possession, and his passing has degraded. He can still hit the occasional pass but it gets more rare and they arent as crisp as they were. All that can be said for Trapp as well. So why not bring someone different, and if they are the exact same as Bradley and Trapp you dont call them in and move on. We have a deep player pool, maybe not as talented, but there are numerous players who could play CM. So heres a few we could try. Not saying they would be better or worse, because we dont know: Morales Canouse Cameron (if were okay playing older players to try and win) EPB could be tried as a CDM Delgado Acosta Williams and more And as far as winning the Gold Cup, I think thats the rub. This roster really isnt built towards developing or winning. So Id honestly be okay with trying anyone not named Trapp and Bradley just to see what the team would look like in games that in the grander scheme of things dont matter, since the Confed is no longer.
I flat out disagree with the last part of your statement while adamantly agreeing with the first. In my mind there was no question that our best defensive triangle would have been Brooks and Besler at center back and Cameron at the 6. It's just rewriting history to not act like Cameron was getting significant playing time at the 6 in the EPL for most of the last cycle but it's done here all the time. If we must play Bradley, and at the start of last cycle I didn't have a problem with it, he should have been the 8. That team goes to the World Cup. I don't always know what to believe because I heard a lot of rumors that Bradley insisted on being the 6 so I don't tend to cut him much slack in that regard. But to your larger point, if he'd been used properly with the defensive triangle I proposed, Bradley at the 8, and four actual attackers up front (aka not Bedoya and Graham Zusi), we are having a very different conversation right now. At this point, it's obvious that he can't be a 6 especially as a solo operator there. He's not a good tempo setter and his long balls are not good enough to make up for his other deficiencies.
Keywords in my question were "mediocre player" - why mediocre, already past his prime 4-5 years ago player still is the core of the team, why coaches are building the team around him? Bradley Sr was his Dad, so that's fine, no need for explanation. Then Klinsmann came, and press started painting Bradley as our best player ever, reading the praise of Bradley in those years you would think it was Bradley + everyone else, no Bradley - no team. Arena replaced Klinsie, gave Mikey his captain band, and under Bradley's steady captaincy we went into deep WC run in Russia, very-very deep, deeper than ever.
Then the coaches need to tell him to just pass the ball backward which are the vast majority of his passes anyway or spray the long diagonal because most of the time he makes a short pass forward or lateral he passes it right to the other team and the counter is on We've always had better 6's than Bradley.
I will take Chris armas, Richie Williams, Pablo matroneni, Brian maisonneuve any of them at this point. These guys knows how to defense and play #6 .
I need to re-watch the game but I swear the MB90 does everything humanly possible to avoid any physical contact during a soccer game.
In fairness, I thought Bradley made more effort on defense than we had seen from him in a while - certainly he was a bit bit more aggressive at times. He's still too slow for what we need, unfortunately.
i had the realization this morning that michael bradley is now basically a luxury player minus the high potential rewards. he will try a dozen or so high reward hopeful long balls a match and convert 1 or 2, defend lackadaisically, give little protection to the back 4 on the counter.
I think Bradley used to be straight line fast once he got going but never very quick. Age and injuries have taken away whatever quickness he had and now he's relying on experience which doesn't work a lot of the time.
MB should be the backup 6 at this stage of his career. I remember another MB that the usmnt kept giving starts to in spite of constant complaints by the fans. He also must have had connections like the current MB. That older MB is of course Mike Burns, who played right back. Burns did not protect the near post on a Germany corner kick in our first WC game in France 1998. Watch the first goal.
Anyone have any links to Gold Cup stats? I'm having trouble coming up with them, A whole host of really obvious reasons... the coach is in a results-oriented business, and this isn't a bunch of friendlies but the regional tournament, and teams are comprised of lots of things including players with experience rather than just fast young people... and I'm sure many more reasons beyond merely those. Even this version of Bradley, while not what he once was, remains a guy with massive experience, who has seen and done it all as a US player & captain, and on top of that has expressed his particular skillset pretty well in this cup run so far.
We missed the World Cup for a host of really obvious reasons as well. It doesn't have to be fast young people. Geoff Cameron at this stage in his career is a far better player than Bradley if you're looking into older vets. Danny Williams is superior he is experienced. Morales is better. McKinnie would play better there, and theres plenty more but those 4 are definitely better than Bradley. Too slow, his passing is nearly gone. He is constantly jogging because his stamina is gone. Bacuna took it too him pretty hard the second half. And he is not going to look good against Jamaica if they counter. I appreciate all he has done, but he is nowhere near someone who should be on the field at this stage of his career.
He's showing why he's on the field in this cup... he's doing fine. I'm only 13 mins in on this semifinal, but since there's no stat tracking I can find for the Gold Cup I'm having to do it myself -- so far he's had 8 touches, he's 6/7 passing, 1/2 long balls and the 1 was the ball which was turned into the first goal. And he got caught from behind in midfield, Jamaica took it off him. He could really shit the bed from here, who knows, we'll see. The tactical change to have more people in midfield is obvious even this early, McKennie and Pulisic are never far away, and on top of that they're giving Jamaica lots of different looks in midfield... which the the proper use of McKennie... the improper use of him would be to have him play Bradley's role... but that's neither here nor there, really. I'll check back in with my final stats!
He hit a wide-open fullback with little pressure, I have seen even trapp do that muliple times. He has traffic-coned 2 times before the rain delay and had his pocket picked. His one pass he missed, was a pass that you want and hope to see in stats, not simple side passes.