That's not what I said. I do think Reyna is far closer to Pulisic than he is to Lletget and therefore, the odds are very small that Lletget is better than either in a game. you know, they did come up through the same academy and were two of the youngest players to debut for the senior team and make an immediate impact at the game's highest level. Last year, Pulisic was a BVB player who came off the bench more than he started so yeah, I do think they're in the same elite neighborhood while Lletget is nowhere near that level (which is not meant as an insult to Sebastian at all, not many USMNT players have ever been at that level).
The Dortmund staff is on record as saying Reyna is further long than Pulisic was at the same age. Not saying their the same now or that he will be better but food for thought.
Reyna "came up through" NYCFC academy, Pulisic through PA Classics. Yes I know they both spent less than a year in Dortmund's academy but that was putting the cherry on the icing on the cake.
not that I disagree but what's your point? They both earned minutes for one of best teams in the world and are far above Lletget etc.
My point is that you have to give their US academies some credit. I'm not sure why everyone is obsessed by Lletget. He's just a stop gap.
US academies aren’t complete trash their good up to a point then there’s a step decline compared to what they’ll receive in Europe. Overall they need to improve but it’s certainly getting better.
People are obsessed because there are many posters who want him starting over a player who is capable of starting for a top 10 team in the world. Stop gap was fine for the last few years (shoot, I'd have taken many stop gaps like him last Hex over what was trotted out there), but not over a talent like Reyna. Still waiting for anyone to tell me what adequate experience is in minutes and/or starts before they are happy starting Reyna with the US. Cuz right now, apparently that gap in experience is of greater importance than the difference in talent required to play for dortmund vs. LA Galaxy.
TBF Mexico only lost one game in the hex and it was the very shady loss to knock the USMNT from the cup. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_–_CONCACAF_Fifth_Round
i hope the US academies continue to put out very high quality prospects who leave MLS as soon as possible but I’m not sure that Pulisic and Reyna, children of professional players, are the best examples. When a specific US academy starts churning out a lot of major league players, a good case can be made - I think FCD has the most volume of good players but only one has broken through to date.
that’s actually the point - there are plenty of people here who want to start a stopgap player over a clearly better one. It simply doesn’t make any sense to me unless you’re really afraid of Gio playing far below his level. older posters may remember the One Magician Model thread that @Nutmeg13 posted. The general point was that we’re not lacking complementary players but we’re lacking special ones. Reyna is already in that category as he already had a better club achievement than all but the best USMNT players of all time. It’s one of the rare times when the eye test really holds. I’m a conservative person by nature but IMO sitting Gio for a stopgap Lletget is being paralyzed by fear and negative thinking.
I don’t think they bossed teams away but rather squeaked through like we usually do (arrgghhh - couva and arena trying to prove a point)
btw, the last 5% finishing is the difference between good and great so I don’t discount what these months have meant for players - it’s exactly what MLS has been missing although we’ll see who follows in the Adams/Davies path or if they were aberrations.
Let’s be clear. I’m a huge Gio fan. I’ve been watching him while he was growing up in the NYCFC academy. But Pulisic has proven his metal in club ball. Gio is just getting on the field. There’s a lot of hurtles yet to come for Gio that Pulisic has navigated through already. You need to be careful not to get ahead of yourself. BE patient and let Gio grow. They are not at the same level, or should I say, Gio has not proven himself to be at the same level.
but he has proven himself to be far above MLS level and again is much closer to Pulisic than Lletget. it’s apples and oranges
LOL. Reading comp. what I said is that the chance of lletget being better than reyna is similar to his being better than Pulisic in that both are very small. last year, Pulisic started less than half the game he played in for the same team that Gio is earning minutes at now. Yeah - it’s the same ballpark (BVB attacker trusted in important games) and one that lletget isn’t in. You’re trying to create a strawman that if Gio isn’t exactly as good as Pulisic, therefore it’s ok if we start a career minor leaguer over Gio in an important game.
There you go again trying to claim a false narrative. I have said nothing about starting anyone over anyone. You said Pulisic and Reyna were the same. Are you backing away from that statement now? If so, why in the world would you bring Pulisic into a conversation that had nothing to do with him? Are you going to claim I said someone should start over Pulisic next? ( that could be a fun false narrative for you to conjure up).
I'm not sure I can recall seeing anyone at all post that they think that Lletget should start over Reyna. I haven't said that. At least, not in the sense that @DHC1 seems to accuse people of. DHC seems to want to make it black or white--either Reyna starts at the 10 or Lletget starts at the 10, choose A or B now. Lletget isn't the only possible player in the only possible position that Reyna could compete with on the MNT. Again, the kid has 180 first team minutes and hasn't been in a camp yet. There's not enough data to make dramatic conclusions about where he fits with the MNT and how much run out he should get. Top prospect, yes. Much higher projected ceiling than Lletget, yes. Starting number 10 for the USMNT if we played a game tomorrow? Hmmm...
Again, reading comprehension really isn’t your forte. the point was made that there’s a chance that lletget plays better than reyna (which there is). I pointed out that there’s also a chance that lletget plays better than pulisic (which there is). both chances are quite small albeit not zero yet somehow you’ve conjured up that I said they’re the exact same. Nice!
Let’s unpack what you’ve said. You first wrote that it’s possible that a minor league player like lletget could be better than Gio. I pointed out that the same minor leaguer (I use lletget as an example - you can replace him with Holmes or other minor leaguers if you prefer) could be better than Pulisic too and we agree that the latter example is highly unlikely. You also just wrote that Gio has a “higher projected ceiling”: what does that mean about right now? who has the higher ceiling for a game today: the player earning UCL knockout rounds minutes or the lifelong minor leaguer? Is Dortmund only playing Gio in must win games because they feel he has some future potential? Would lletget ever play for BVB? Would the guy that reyna challenges for minutes (Hazard) play for the USMNT. what data do you need from him - if he plays every game for BVB what data do we get? Does the data change if he starts or comes off the bench? What changes from now until he get the data? Will he be a different player or the same as now?
What does "high(er) projected ceiling" mean? It means that people are projecting him to perhaps reach a very, very high level of play in his career. Higher than Lletget currently. "Ceiling" is a term that refers to the highest level someone will play at in their career. It's not a game by game thing. It's possible that Reyna could start in a game today for the USMNT and be amazing. It's also possible that he completely shits the bed because he's got no experience. It's also possible that Lletget does well or poorly. We won't have any clue about any of it UNTIL REYNA GETS INTO A CAMP AND STARTS GETTING MINUTES. I'm not going to continue going around in circles answering your 20-questions surveys while my underlying thought is still the same: the kid has barely played first team soccer so far, and still has never been in a USMNT camp. I'm not trying to make silly projections about vague theoreticals.
A choice has to be based on how a player contributes to the total functioning of the team. That could lead to putting in a player on a spot who's a quality wise lower player than another one. There's a debate/conflict among Orange fans about who should play in the Orange midfield Donny van de Beek or Marten de Roon. Donny is the technical superior player. Most people think Donny should play. I however am a fervent protagonist of van de Roon in the midfield. After a not so good match of de Roon (not his fault and the whole Orange squad was not concentrated) he was replaced the next match by van de Beek. I warned that that would compromise the defensive set up of the team. The match proved what I was advocating all the time as our goalie got many shots to catch. So at about 70 minutes Donny was replaced by Marten and after that swap no shot was fired at our goal anymore. So it isnot about pure quality of a player but about how the functional quality for the team is the highest. When Cruijff played for Feyenoord with Gullit and lead us to the title, after a few matches he wanted a change in the midfield. He demanded a swap that replaced a far better player with one less technically gifted from the selection. Everybody was like "what the f..." but it worked for the better. Just two examples of the best one isnot always the better one for a team.
You said the chance was the same. Go back and reread what you posted. Then you go about making up stories to create arguments that aren’t there.