The nice thing about BS is that you can ignore that Steffen is in England getting his knee checked out Brooks is on the bench for Wolfsburg Dest is not a left back Cannon couldn't get offers in Europe Adams is playing rb at club Holmes is not rated by Berhalter McKennie isn't very good Reyna just turned 17 in November Pulisic is injured. Weah is injured and hasn't played a minute in a long time We'll always have Ream!!
Ream is 32 years old and the 8th best player on his Championship side. The good thing is we still have Lichaj who's also the 8th best player on his Championship side, but he's only 31! Oh, never mind.
Eric Lichaj may be done for good. #USMNT defender and Hull City captain Eric Lichaj tears ankle ligaments, likely out for the season https://t.co/ei2VoEfGu3 pic.twitter.com/cnKmdHHPgK— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) February 12, 2020
Schalke and just about everyone else seems to disagree. McKennie is a 21 year old who’s been a regular starter for Schalke for 3 years now. You could not like his style or fit in 3Gs system but to say he isn’t very good just highlights your massive bias and/or lack of talent evaluation. He’s not perfect and has areas he needs to improve but that statement is just ridiculous. Hell their talking about making him their captain. At 21. As a foreigner. But hey we got guys in the MLS that can do it right.
While I don't think Weston is "very good" (Sancho is very good , Wijnaldum is very good), I like how he plays for the NT. He's a starter for us, IMO.
He is their captain (at least he was wearing the armband in their game last weekend). You're right that he's very good but has some areas that need improvement. He's plenty young enough for that to be expected, and hopefully he's the type that can fix most of it over time. Why do people keep repeating what Bruce Arena said one time as if that applies to anyone on BS that doesn't think MLS is a donkey's turd? I've seen you do it more than once recently, as a way to belittle other people's arguments. It's a really small and bullying thing to do. "I don't like your assessment of a player. You like MLS, you're an idiot, hahahahaha!"
re mckennie- where were reyna, mastroeni, bradley at 21? it takes a special kind of willful ignorance of us soccer to ho hum a guy whos been a starter on a cl team since he was a teenager.
It might have something to do with MLS supporters refusal to acknowledge that Arena (certainly) and Berhalter (less obviously) have different standards for MLS players vs. others. For whatever reason, certain posters just can't admit it, even for Arena - we just had someone say that Arena went with what was familiar and that's total BS.
It’s not anyone it’s certain people. It’s also plain as day that Bruce had an agenda and 3G is continuing where he left off. Maybe he finally breaks the cycle this year and starts looking beyond his camp cupcake invites but I don’t intend to hold my breath after what we saw last year. This particular poster also happens to tear down McKinnie in literally every thread and has claimed that Roldan and Delgado are better options. Tho he’s been less vocal about better options of late as Delgado isn’t in the picture and Roldan (while given every chance over better players) has shown to be not good enough. It’s sadly comical at this point and that’s why I’ve attached the barb to my comment. I’m not having serious debate with him about McKinnie. Just pointing out his ridiculous claim. When we discuss other players I don’t attach that cause he’s far more rational. I just don’t get his, what feels to be excessive, distain for McKinnie. Who happens to be one of our better players.
I almost expected Adams to be out again, injured. And he is. I think it's always risky to include a player in your Starting XI when he's just back from injury.
I get what you're saying and I don't think he should've played 90 in his first game back. However, he returned from his injury nearly 2 months ago and presumably had a full month training healthy between his first game back on December 21 and Leipzig's first game back from winter break on January 18. At some point you have to think he's over his injury and good to go.
As much as we all want to make the story of this team MLS vs. Europe, or Berhalter vs. Klinsmann, or USSF sucks, etc, all valid to one extend or another. Injuries have been the big story of this team over the last year. We have absolutely been decimated with injuries to the extent that our big hopes like Weah have barely seen the field and our three cornerstones any coach would like to build upon, Adams, Pulisic and McKennie have all been out injured for significant stretches and have barely ever been healthy at the same time. Throw in Brooks out injured, Yedlin missed a stretch, Steffan's injured now and wow, you're talking about barely having any of our top 5-6 players healthy for most games. No one knows what a healthy US under Berhalter would look like because we've never had anything approaching a fully healthy squad. In some ways, its been a struggle to field 11 healthy players of any quality, nevermind a theoretical best 11 with everyone ready to go.
At the point I posted my Starting XI excluding him, he had played only in 4 games and not once 90 minutes, In fact, he was playing less in each game, IIRC.
And people here were clamoring for the likes of Williams, Chandler, Fabian, Green and Morales, protesting why they were not called, even when they were injured or back in training and still not playing for their club, or had just a couple of appearances without completing 90 minutes. I don't get people who want to call up a guy just back from injury to play for the NT. That's a recipe for breaking a player.
The question of the thread is regarding the best 11. That's the one I put out there. You're entitled to your opinions, which you make very plain in the post....things like "McKennie isn't very good", which has to be one of the strangest hot sports takes every to spring forth from BigSoccer, which is saying something.
Every time I've posted a "Best XI" people comment on it. That's why it's a public forum. If you don't want people to comment on your Best XI, you have several choices: - place them on ignore; - share your Best XI through email with your pals; - don't come back and read.
People also comment on comments that comment on comments posted as comments. And if the name Bradley is involved it's comments x 10^77.
"but to say he isn’t very good just highlights your massive bias and/or lack of talent evaluation" 'massive bias' - aren't all opinions bias? Oh, ok, you want objectivity. Here is objectivity which I posted in McKennies YA thread. It is WhoScored's talent evaluation of McKennie. Is WhoScored "biased"? What does that mean in this context anyway? []
I guess it depends on standards. I use "very good" for what people with more flashy use of the language call "world class." "Good" is what McKennie is, IMO. Although he's not a highly technical guy, and I think Excellency is more biased towards technique than against McKennie, from his opinions. I must add that while technique was paramount back in the 70s and 80s, that's not the case any more. Soccer has evolved to the point where physicality is starting to be more important than technique.
'Good' is worth a lot in Europe? Based on actual experts in the business of soccer who pay, etc for talent, 'Good' is better than about 4 or 5 American players at the moment. And yet you can't see to put him in a starting 11 for the US. Prejudice?
I won't speak for Suyuntuy, but I can see the argument for leaving McKennie out of a given starting 11 at this stage in his career. He does some things phenomenally, but plays mostly in a position that requires calculations that he doesn't yet seem to have a full grasp of. The miscalculations (such as over extending up the field without cover behind) in that position can create real problems for your team in defense. He's a really good player, but needs to learn to when to crank it up and when to tone it down. I think he'll figure it out eventually (but also think he'll always have that Jermaine Jones daring, to some degree).