yeah the good seemed pretty good...but tactically and decision making from the coach...revealed a real disconnect from reality, no? A poor coach can waste talent extremely easily. So yeah...the good is really good...but doesnt mean much if the leader of the team doesn't know how to get out of his own way.
Agreed. It was a friendly, you hope to show something positive from the experience, learn a bit about your player pool and see how some respond in an international game, especially those getting a first taste. All of those objectives were achieved and it was largely an encouraging performance as a team and individually. Berhalter didn't play to win and there remains too much of a desire in the casual US fanbase to get a result. Had this been something where a result mattered, of course, an actual striker would be quite helpful and I'd hope to see a better formation choice toward that goal. I'll assume Gregg understands this until proven otherwise but these are experiment opportunities for him as well. But what I saw was different than most of the 35+ years of USMNT games I've seen against decent competition. We controlled possession, we looked dangerous, there was creativity on display and even a bit of technical skill. Historically, we've surprised opponents where they find out a McBride is really good with the head, a Hejduk is a pest, a Pope, Donovan and Beasley are better than they expected. This young squad looked, to my eyes, to have some legitimate talent that needs to coalesce a team. If this is the start of a generational transition, badly needed after the debacle of 2018, I'm pleased with what I saw.....
This constant mantra that Robinson should get "a" chance.......it is as if people want to make people swallow the delusion that we don't already have a long record of deficient performance from Robinson. The other mantra is "people are judging him on one perofrmance where he was beat by Carlos who is the best player in the world...". He got beat by Jamaica, ffs. Gio was fine. He needs a new team to play with. Berhalter has to get on the ball and concentrate on creating plays for Dest/Gio combos. I want to see Gio set up Dest to dribble across the 18 yd line horizontally. The spanish broadcast was talking towards the end of the first half about Gio needing a better back than Robinson. It was after Robinson doesnt dish the ball to Gio on the sideline but insists on dribbling into a pack or red shirts instead. Robinson always looks like he is about to topple. Maybe he should take yoga or something.
Unfortunately, he is the best option we have at this point. Looking forward to some young high potential LBs coming up. Until then, I think we swallow the pill and accept what he is good at and what he isnt. Id liken the situation to Zardes circa 2015/16.
OTOH,I counted at least three overlapping runs which were missed. And,when he gets beat,you can't teach that recovery speed. Oh,and...Daniel Lovitz.
GGG obviously doesn't think so... "We’ve been following Julian at Fürth, he scored on the weekend and he’s been doing a good job. We’re just looking at his skillset compared to some other guys in the position, and how we need that role to perform, and the profile we need, and we didn’t include him on that."
I think watching MLS along with other leagues allows me to make up my own mind about players and levels. I don’t care what teams the players play for; I root for them all. I can be critical of all players and don’t have to funnel my opinions through some bought in narrative. I also like AR when playing in ‘18. I also think he should continue to get playing time.BUT I can also see that he was a black hole in the first half and did nothing offensively for us this game. Because I watch MLS (whole games not highlights) I’m aware that there are competent LBs that can take his spot if he doesn’t turn it around. SL was not playing at a different level. His touches and passes were just as clean as his peers. He’s not a forward. So he wasn’t successful as a forward. I watch GR almost every weekend. I’ve been watching him since he first joined NYCFC. I know what he does at Dortmund. The reason SL and GR were getting in each other’s way is because GR was doing his regular runs into the space SL was checking back into. I’m going to ignore the dumb statement about extra midfielders since both sides play a version of a 4-3-3. He had a poor game. I don’t have any issue with you personally, but I will push back on you when your opinions get distorted by your conformation biases. Your a poster I respect when discussing players in Europe. There’s only so many games a person can watch.
Decent analysis but that last part where it doesn't fit our pool. Seriously? Pulisic and Morris are the guys who can play wing and score. Uly looks to be like that also. Reyna seems to potentially have that. We sure can't use him as a CAM because we don't have a Haaland type. Weah is also more often played on the wing than centrally. Josh doesn't score. Seems to me we have way more mobile wings that can score playing at a higher level.