Totally agree. That said, Cade is such a speciman compared to Lenny. He has a height, strength, speed combo that I would bet puts him in the 99th percentile of professional world footballers and he just doesnt use those gifts enough. He plays like he is a much better dribbler than he is, even if he is a pretty decent one.
80 percentile for sure. If he can hone in on his gifts, he will be 90th. I don't think he's a world class soccer player and probably never will be. He should shift into a 9 and he would be EXCEPTIONAL
I'm talking pure athletic horsepower here, nothing to do with skill. He would crush the 40 yard dash, 40 inch vert and bench press, in other words #nflexplainstheworld.
To me, the biggest diff between Cade & Lenny is that Lenny was fearless and reckless to the point of being stupid. That shortens your career but really helps your goal-scoring.
Lenny's and Cade's game are totally different, though, at least so far. Lenny played CF, back to the goal more like Jebo, but more physical and reckless than Jebo. Cade is at least trying to be more of a winger / take-you-on-with-the-ball cut-in guy. He's not a box crasher like Lenny. The Jordan Morris comparison, which I made almost 2 and a half years ago is closer. Even though he doesn't play recklessly thru challenges, I don't think Cade's getting credit for kind of powering thru threm. You see him sometimes try to play thru one or two guys, and at the end of it oftentimes he's still got the ball (and then he plays a poor final ball - oh well, baby steps).
After watching Haaland over the last couple of weeks, I am thinking that's who Cade should model is game after. He has the speed and the strength to play in a similar way and just be a frickin' battering ram in the box. He tries to play too cute when he's on the wing. Not sure what that would mean for Jebo if they played Cade as a #9.
That’s how I remember Lenny, a reckless battering ram in the box who never played cute. Obviously tho Lenny is no Haaland.
I don't think Cade wants opponents to get mad at him, whereas enraging the opponents was an art form for Lenny. That's what made Lenny a fun player to watch, whereas Cade is so often disappointing.
He was a battering ram but also not w/o skills on the ball, and surprisingly good pace. I ran into him on the beach one day in Santa Cruz and he was with his giant dog. And this is when he couldn't really play anymore because of his knee. But he was dribbling a tennis ball with his bare feet running full speed on the sand.
Lenny was such a great well rounded forward. It was all there, his awareness and ability to read the game were top notch...he was so much more than a physical presence. his ability to bait CBs and use their momentum against them was a real skill. they all wanted to kill him, which was very predictable...and expected by him..... to over commit themselves...really opened up so much space for Wondo and others. I was gutted when he had to shut it down early. Cade's situation is a real puzzle. Imo, it's mostly between the ears for Cade, the mindset and decision making. It is frustrating, there are sequences or reads where he nails it, which would lead you to believe he's finally starting to mentally put it together, then the next 3 similar situations, he makes abysmal reads or decisions on the play, well below what is necessary. I'm racking my brain trying to figure out why his learning curve has almost flattened out over the last year or so... why he can't learn from his mistakes and start to consistently make better decisions. His game with the nats against Serbia was completely different from what we see with the Quakes. Like the lightbulb over his head finally turned on. He looked really dialed in....that might possibly be due to the different tactics with the nats. even though he was on the wing he played very high like an old fashioned wing...less defensive expectations to back track deep defensively. that seemed to suit him better...a simpler proactive role. I don't think flank attacker with more defensive responsibilities suits him well. Luchi is having Cade and Espinoza occasionally make more inside runs...but I'm in the camp he would have higher potential playing as a 9 without having to track back deep. He definitely needs to work on his skillset to play the 9, but I'm beginning to think he needs to focus on a simpler game to be successful...work on his hold up, work on his heading, work on his runs and finishing...and be the one receiving the last pass instead of being part of the build up and delivery of the last pass....but like previous convos, it's a catch 22, because Jebo is firmly in place at the 9.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevep...ifferent-from-the-rest-of-us/?sh=546a350e3bf1 Ran across this and thought it was an interesting read. How some teams are trying to quantify and identify players with elite soccer intelligence.
This is pretty interesting, and could enable a team that's able to use it effectively and innovatively to get a competitive edge. And apparently they have some promising data: Through research over 2014-19, they found that youth players in the top third for cognitive scores when initially tested had an average market value that was around seven times higher than the youth players in the bottom third for cognitive scores. The other interesting thing about it is that the article implies that it's something you have or you don't. IOW it's not something you can necessarily train into players. This runs at odds with Jesse's "cognitive dominance" idea where we were going to train our players to be smarter soccer players than the rest and thereby "cognitively dominate" our opposition. Of course coaching to do the right thing is part of the deal, but I never took Jesse's idea very seriously beyond that. All teams are trying to do that.
I do believe it is innate. I guess you can slightly improve decision making performance through repetition...muscle memory in certain game situations. But some players can process information so ridiculously fast in any given situation...the combination of raw athleticism with the high end processing takes you to highest level...you can't get to that level without it. I'm curious if the Quakes staff is moving towards this type of testing...hope so, seems like a great tool for assessment.
If comes down to “vision” essentially doesn’t it? There’s the processing of information but also the ability to imagine what’s going to come next and to make the right decision based on that. I hate to say it but based on what I’ve seen I’m not sure Cade would score well. :-(
I didn't want to go there, but I agree. I think the article states, they have a pretty good idea if a player has it or not by the age of 15.... Niko on the other hand, imo, would be on the higher end of the scale...probably Medina too.
True, but he is not as good as Ebo, so he would sit. His short game is average at best and his finishing needs a lot of improvement. However, as others have noted, it's mostly in his head. Unless he solves the head part, his career is not going to go much farther...
Well, i think we've already found him...a certain fellow named Christopher Wondolowski...if he had anything approaching international level athleticism, he would have been world class...sharpest mind on the field, same level as LD...
Interesting thing about Wondo, for me anyway, is that I thought it was all innate with him. But he wrote this excellent piece on his thought process back in 2015. And there is a lot of calculation about it. But I think it's both (and in fact part of the article is about visualization) - he had the innate sense and also the logical thought process to give himself the best chance to succeed. IOW for him I think it was both art and science, and that set him apart.
It would be interesting to see a comparison of Wonderlic Contemporary Cognitive Ability Test scores for Wondo and Cade.
I used to think that tennis players were the smartest athletes I personally knew, until I started playing soccer. Then I realized that the best soccer players were really smart. Those are both games where the ability to anticipate and figure out the next couple of shots or passes helps one excel. As an example, I read once that Pulisic watched soccer all the time and could analyze a game he was watching at age 9. Apparently he is also a good chess player.