YNT-eligible MLS players: 2020 In-season thread

We're all guilty of wishful thinking
Shame on Houston...

 

I believe '00, Lemione is eligible. Also on the bench for Hou.

 

Fred Emmings is the back up goalie today for Minnesota. They must have injuries.

 

Busio is playing as a deep lying playmaker

 

Ridiculous gameplan & utilization of Paredes. 352 w/ 3 true cb's & a destroyer 6 against a worse opponent. That's a bunker/counter setup. Tough to build-up or press.

Paredes is playing the wing back. Picking the ball up deep and w/out much space. As a result is struggling. It's a microcosm of why players underachieve w/ DC typically.

 

Tyler Miller is out for the season.

They've recalled Dayne St. Clair but I think he's not eligible to play yet because he has to quarantine for a bit.

 

dallas over the last three matches would qualify as one of the worst teams in all of mls to watch. ghastly

 

I DM Ben Olsen on Instagram before every DC United game asking to play Moses Nyeman. He at least throws me a bone with giving Kevin Paredes minutes

 

Such a disappointment Nyeman still got zero minutes for DC. He is a better prospect than either Paredes or Yow. ******** Olsen, his team is so boring to watch.

 

I'm curious why Nyeman is a better prospect than Paredes? I agree that they are both better prospects than Yow, but I'm not so sure about the Nyeman/Paredes comparison. Similar to how I started to question the Kayo/Nyeman comparison after watching Kayo in USL last year. Is Nyeman still a better prospect than Kayo? Last year, I would have said that is questionable. Recency bias, might have me leaning toward Kayo (but then I would have to consider the 1.5 year age difference).

Nyeman succeeded in USL last year, but he didn't show that he was "too good" for the level. Given his size, I think it's perfectly understandable that he's still not playing much for DCU. He's still just 16 until November. For me, I'd like him to start getting some cameos over the next couple of months, but I'm not expecting anything more than that until hopefully a relative breakout season over the course of next year (which would still expected to be somewhat of a slow burn as a small 17 year old kid).

 

I hate having to repeat myself a bunch, but Olsen's problems haven't been "getting young players playing time." They've always been that he has no system and throws players out to sink-or-swim -- a problem that results in young players not developing and getting benched.

 

And DCU will end up in the bloated playoffs, lose in the 1st round, and that’ll be fine for DCU management to keep him for 2021. Rinse, recycle, repeat.

 

You guys are being complainy again.

Since the end of the MLS is Back tourney:

8/12
NSH - Derrick Jones (97) 75 minutes
DAL - Reggie Cannon (98) 90; Jesus Ferreira (00) 59; Paxton Pomykal (99) 31; Ricardo Pepi (03) 31; Tanner Tessman (01) 16

8/17
NSH - Jones (97) 24
DAL - John Nelson (98) 90; Cannon (98) 90; Pomykal (99) 56; Ferreira (00) 34; Pepi (03) 17

8/20
NYC - James Sands (00) 90; Keaton Parks (97) 70
NYRB - Kyle Duncan (97) 90 (and a goal); Omir Fernandez (99) 11

CHI - Mauricio Pineda (97) 82; Djordje Mihailovic (98) 61; Brian Gutierrez (03) 8
CLB - Sebastian Berhalter (01) 24

PHI - Matt Real (99) 76; Mark McKenzie (99) 90; Brenden Aaronson (00) 89
NE - Henry Kessler (98) 90; DeJuan Jones (97) 26; Justin Rennicks (99) 4

8/21
DC - Donovan Pines (98) 90; Kevin Paredes (03) 75; Griffin Yow (02) 4
CIN - Frankie Amaya (00) 90

KC - Jaylin Lindsey (00) 90 (and an assist); Gianluca Busio (02) 90; Cameron Duke (01) 18; Felipe Hernandez (98 (15)
MIN - Hassani Dotson (97) 82; Mason Toye (98) 8

DAL - Nelson (98) 90; Cannon (98) 90; Ferreira (00) 63; Pomykal (99) 21; Brandon Servania (99) 21; Pep1 (03) 1
HOU - None

Eight games featuring American teams and only game did one team not play an American USYNT player.

I dunno, maybe it's just my sunny disposition after seeing the Democrats have a strong showing this week and thus making us that much closer to ending our four-year old national nightmare, but I think this many players getting minutes is a good thing and a big sign of improvement.

 

IMO, coaches don’t deserve credit simply for playing young players. It’s such a distraction when people talk about this type of thing at the expense of the substance. I wish all American players well, but some of them are going to be of no use for YNT’s or the USMNT. I want all of them to succeed and you can never predict with certainty who will be able to contribute.

However, this stuff isn’t that hard to figure out. We usually know the caliber of the players. Sometimes we’ve seen them play more often than their MLS coaches. I’m going to judge these coaches on which players they do and do not use, not if young players get minutes. Seeing certain players get minutes advanced the interests of our NT much more than a general playing of young players.

 

SKC:

- How was Busio last night? I only saw a couple minutes, but he was playing in a deeper role and of course mls.com giving rave reviews.

- How was Lindsey? Thought he struggled a bit last year (or was that two years ago...) before his injury. The own goal was unfortunate, and his assist was as unnoteworthy as as assist can be.

Anybody watch?

 

Half watched, so my impressions are based on when I was paying attention.

Offensively, Busio looked pretty impressive. He controlled the tempo well, rarely made a misstep and his passes, while generally not devastatingly effective in breaking open opportunities, were super impressive to me in the sense that they were moving forward and passing defenders a significant % of the time compared to a lot of CDMs I've seen recently.

The ball moved forward, got past people and got to his teammates in spaces where they could do something. Minnesota's defense is not bad, either.

Defensively, I didn't really notice him either way -- SKC was on the front foot for most of the time I was paying attention. He won a ball or two in the air but I can't actually remember a tackle.

Lindsey looked decent in attack. Nothing special, but he was pressing up high and creating danger. Definitely got caught out on defense a few times.

 

Imo we shouldn’t really be highlighting 97-99’s as youth players anymore. If you’re 21-23 you should be getting minutes in the MLS consistently (unless you have injury issues) and if not then you shouldn’t be on the ynt/mnt radar anymore.

 

Busio looked the better of the two. Busio was decent offensively. He made the right passes which I really appreciated. Defensively he made a couple good interceptions and tackles but you could tell that Busio isn’t a 6 when Minnesota had the ball. You want to see some bite in your 6 and that just isn’t Busio’s game. If Busio is going to make it I think it has to happen with him becoming an 8, he has all the right tools that you want to look for in that position. Busio’s ceiling as a 6 is Wil Trapp in his 2014 season, great player in MLS but not much more than that.

MLS.com is giving him rave reviews because of an agenda let’s be honest. Matt Doyle was tweeting clips of basic plays and making them seem like it was exceptional when in reality they were pretty average. You can tell they have an agenda with him because the non MLS media guys for the most part are all questioning him as a serious prospect.

Jaylin didn’t have the best night. He was okay offensively and pretty shaky defensively. Minnesota’s goal was entirely his fault because he did not close down the attacker in the box and gave the attacker 6 yards to make a decision on his shot which eventually deflected off Jaylin for an own goal. It would be nice to see Jaylin actually play on his right side where he is significantly more comfortable

I think Cameron Duke should be getting more time. That kid is good and in my opinion is the best of the current SKC homegrowns

 

Look, I know you don't like Busio but this is a ridiculous comment. He's more athletic than Trapp and has a strong skillset. His ceiling, which he may or may not reach, if far higher than Trapp's at any position.

Plenty of non-MLS guys like Busio as a prospect. And Doyle has questioned Busio before.

Disagreeing with you does not equal bias.

 

There's been a lot of praise about Busio since the game last night, which is acceptable, and bound to happen after pretty solid game at a new position (especially after his disasterclass of a tournament). Some of the praise you mentioned have been from MLS media types (with some tongue-in-cheek hyperbole), but most analysis of his performance have been pretty reasonable. Not sure there's much of an agenda here other than highlighting the fact that a once-dismissed prospect actually looks decent in a different position/setup.

 

Here's his all touches:

https://streamable.com/j3m3qa

There's nothing spectacular in there, except maybe one cross to Pulido, but here's what I really liked about Busio compared to most players in this position:

• The majority of his passes and movement are forward and get past defenders. I see so many deep lying CMs who reflexively pass back or sideways even when not under pressure or before even testing out going forward.
  
• Related to this, Busio seems to have a good sense of when he's being pressured and when there's space behind him. He didn't just pass forward but eagerly moved into space. One of my biggest pet peeves is the deep lying player with twenty yards ahead of him who sits, waits for someone to try and get open and then passes, under no pressure, to a CB.
  
• Busio only lost the ball a couple of times and all of them were going forward/in the attacking third. No giveaways in his defensive end. No back passes that were easily intercepted
• He's extremely confident with his dribble which also keeps him from panic passing. Did someone mention a Nagbe comp? That's what he looks like back there but he seems bigger.
• From the all touches, he was more active on defense than I remembered. Obviously not a ravaging destroyer, but not a bad defender yesterday.

It's enough to make me want to see more. One game is just one game, but Minnesota is one of the better Western Conference teams. He should have done better on a couple of attack opportunities, but his steady pacing, which I think a lot of people hate in the attack, actually works much more nicely back farther.

 

Reminds Reyna.

 

Claudio, I assume?

It's been so long since I've watched him play that I can't comment, but that would be high praise.

He obviously has to do it more often, and eventually at a higher level. And it'd be nice to do better when forward. And he'll have to prove more on defense.

But that was a nice game. Nice is a good word. Promising as well.

 

Why? Is it because he's 18 years old? That ceiling is one of the best players in MLS at his prime at his position and a regular starter on the National Team. I understand that the National Team will probably be harder to make when Busio is trying to make it than Trapp, but thats still unlikely for any player to reach. Most of these players talked about in a thread like this will not reach Trapp's ceiling or anything close to it.

 

busio is on a development trajectory where wil trapp would require really turning things up. peak wil trapp is a really good consistently influential player and busio as of right now is not