Like I said yesterday Maloney is unlikely to impact qualifying but if he can use BVB's injury crisis to showcase himself a Bundesliga level player...Well there's no such thing as having too many of those. Hopefully Maloney can get more minutes and become a regular. I don't think racking up minutes for BVB reserves is going to be enough to make the squad over a La Liga starter or Celtic starter who are already on the fringes.
By the time a player is starting ten or so matches in a big 5 league, they really need to be getting called in over fringe MLS players. The reality is that players are going to look a whole lot better playing against weaker opposition. THey just do. Even if you are starting for Alaves, you're honing sharpness against the likes of Benzema or Luis Suarez. Obvious points, but worth remembering when boosting MLS stars. I honestly think that the days when MLS will play a meaningful role in the national team are coming to a close.
MLS is probably going to be like the Eredivise for the Netherlands; it’s long term function is probably as a selling/development league, but even the Dutch league sends a few guys to the World Cup for the Oranje.
It's usually more than a few. For instance, the majority of the Netherlands' Euro squad this year played in the Eredivisie. But that's because they have clubs like PSV and (especially) Ajax that are easily top 5 league quality.
Player call ups should be based on merit. Eredivisie supplied 10 players to the Dutch 2014 WC team. 12 were supplied to the 2020 Euros. I doubt MLS supplies that many to US major tournament teams, as so many players have been moving to Europe.
The youth player movement in MLS right now is kinda like running the AC in your house but leaving all the windows open. There's no shortage of destinations for players to go and so there's little tangible quality improvement. Eventually that could change, with so many players produced that they can't all leave, and the quality of replacement level player will improve. Personally I think that the barrier to entry for the MNT will continue to rise so callups directly from MLS will be less common outside of camp cupcake.
Mendez starts today vs Benfica 📋 𝕃𝕚𝕟𝕖 𝕦𝕡 Suplentes: 𝗜𝘃𝗼, 𝗕𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗼 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝘀𝗼𝗻, 𝗥𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗮𝗲𝗹 𝗚𝘂𝘇𝘇𝗼, 𝗞𝗶𝗸𝗼, 𝗭𝗮𝗴, 𝗢𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗶, 𝗔𝗹𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗼, 𝗧𝗼𝗺á𝘀 𝗲 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝘀 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗻 #AlmaRomana #FCVizela #FCVSLB pic.twitter.com/eooiiCWoqY— fcvizela (@FCVizelaOficial) October 24, 2021
19 y/o Amir Richardson(CM in 442) got the start in Ligue 2 Le Havre's win. 4/4 tackles, 2/3 dribbles, 4/4 long balls/ 7/11 duels Sofascore(7.3)3rd
How you think it should be and how it is are two different things, unfortunately. Klinsmann never gave Williams another call up (iirc) after he gave an interview stating that play in Ch/ship was faster than BL. Euro chauvinism runs rampant. I prefer a 'skills on the pitch' approach to selection personally, but that's just me. It's why I thought Dest/Araujo---Scally/Antonee really had the bases covered for us. Even if Scally/Antonee were both out, we could play Dest left and Araujo right, etc. etc. Scally's character is accurate passing and clean tackling; Antonee has a stronger crossing game from the left. Also I could see using Miles at RB in a pinch (if we have injuries mid game, say) because he has pace and covers 1v1 well. As you extend the idea of skills on the pitch, let's have one CB who covers man to man well (vide Robinson recovering v. Ruiz in CR game), one that can pass really well (Brooks or ?)and one that knits the defense together well (Long, Sands). A good example of how one can go astray is the MMA midfield where reviews said it looked good in many ways but we didnt have passing and that was from some who were all gungho on MMA. It will be interesting to see how Berhalter solves that one.
After watching most of the Man United games over the last few weeks, I’m convinced a McKennie-Adams or a Musah-Adams double pivot would be a big, big upgrade over whatever has been passing in those roles the last few games.
I'd be interested in seeing this, with Reyna in front of them ideally. Who would you start as the creative mid?
To be fair, I was talking about that for Man United. If the USMNT did this, Reyna would be in the 10 ahead of them.
Same thing goes for Brazil. Every roster they have several players from their domestic league, and not just super super young players either.
Mark McKenzie DNP in a 3-0 loss for Genk to Gent. Genk is in a bit of a free fall and our guy can barely get off the bench. He also hasn’t released a podcast since before the Jamaica game so who knows what’s going on there.
I worry about him not finding the ball enough, but he is probably our best option other than Reyna. A healthy Richy could have been it too
He is severely overrated. Probably there are 6-7 CBs that are better than him, but he is still somehow starting for the MNT.
I read Genk were first looking to sell some of the other CBs. Genk are 3W1D2L with McKenzie in the starting lineup. His WS of 7.09 for his 6 starts at CB ranks 4th in CB average among the 56 players with 5 or more CB starts. But he's been shaky for the NT. Miazga likely has moved ahead of him.
This! Miazga has been better in a much better league. Miazga has to be called in. Philly fleeced genk.
Not a perfect day for Yanks. Dest missed a good chance vs. Real Madrid, and Konrad missed a chance vs. PSG.
At least Dest assisted on the Aguero goal, so not terrible. Agreed that we need some people scoring goals. It's not coming from our strikers, it'll have to come from our wingers/midfielders.
Players miss chances. Don't miss the forest for the trees. So much to be optimistic about with the MNT, including both Euro and MLS team members.