Being small does not mean being weak or easy to hurt. It's on a player by player basis. I'm not sure Brenden is going to grow as a player in the Championship though. His deficiencias were mainly tactical, and the Championship is not tactical at all.
Eh, Fab had never played a minute in the Championship (or League 1 or League 2 for that matter) prior to the 21-22 season. I guess...but if anything it should have seen Fulham in a worse position heading into 21-22 than Leeds will be heading into next season.
I Fulham had earned promotion, what, 3, 4 times in the past 8-10 years? Leeds has earned promotion from England D3 once, and EFLC once. I don't know how much "institutional memory" really means in these situations, but Fulham earning promotion 3 of 6 years seems like it might be a bit of a factor. But again, you and I doing some circular argument on the internet will prove nothing. I still don't think the EFLC is anywhere close to the best league for BA at the moment. You disagree. And here we are. We will either see his EFLC season/fortunes play out in real time, or we won't. But again: what do you see as a "successful" EFLC season for BA? If he stays, what metrics do you expect him to hit?
He must move away from his ball-hogging useless dribbles that result in losing the ball to a more fluid, short passing game. That change alone could probably have kept Leeds up. But, of course, that's simply wishful thinking. IMHO, Aaronson has peaked, but I also feel that it would not take too much effort for him to rise to the 50%ile level in the offensive metric side of his game. I hope someone boots him in the butt to force him to change.
You are REALLY stretching here, mate (and that's being kind). Heading into the 21-22 season Fulham had only two promotions in the previous 15+ seasons. Heading into next season, Leeds also has experienced two promotion campaigns in the last 15 seasons. Regardless, my point about Leeds being in a better situation heading into next season than Fulham were heading into 21-22 had to do with their respective FFP positions. Key contributor to a team involved in the promotion fight.
Ok. My point had to do with Fulham's 20 year history and 3 promotions. So now we can fight again. Grrrrr! lol. If Leeds are not "involved in a promotion fight" that's a huge fail. I would put a successful EFLC season for BA as one that lands him in a top 4 league. So either he promotes with Leeds and they keep him, or he does enough to transfer to a big 4. Anything else is lateral.
Now that competitions are finishing up across Europe, I'd love for someone to do serious analysis about how the winter WC affected teams and players. I'll admit I was wrong about BA but I'm not willing to write him off. He seems like a guy who, for some reason, was transformed for the worse by the WC break. He showed promise before that and really only struggled after coming back from Qatar. As noted by others, the glimpses of dribbling skill in transition made him a target of opposing defenders...and refs left him mostly unprotected so he couldn't even benefit the team by drawing fouls in the final third. Producing few assists along with his own poor shot accuracy probably began to weigh on him. In my opinion, looking at every facet of his game, the problem hasn't been physical...he's faced serious adversity for maybe the 1st time in his career and is totally lacking in confidence. I really wonder what a few goals, assists or PKs drawn for Leeds would have done for his mindset. More than that I wonder what 2023 would've been like if he'd had a more positive experience in Qatar.
I will say that the differences in refereeing between EPL and Championship are pretty stark, even if there's a common "stiff upper lip" attitude. Daryl Dike got absolutely hammered with no calls in the Championship, for example, and loads of the no-calls on Dike would have definitely been fouls in the EPL (or any other league on the planet). Aaronson needs to toughen up and keep his feet. And he needs to watch some Messi tape to see how that guy plays the game. Wherever he plays next season he's got to acknowledge the kinds of calls refs will make and what they don't care about, and make adjustments accordingly. Of course, that's the kind of thing that experience provides and has little to nothing to do with him getting stronger (which he should definitely do as well, anyway).
Dike gets beat on in the championship to the point of absurdity. It’s almost like it’s a completely different sport. You get the impression that the refs think that it is funny.
Someday when USA produced a large number of players to play aboard, then it maybe difficult to keep one Yank a team quote.
Newcastle interested in Aaronson and Adams https://www.leedsallover.com/billio...-leeds-united-swoop-for-65m-rated-duo-report/
It’s hard for me to believe Newcastle has legitimate interest in Aaronson, after the season he had at Leeds, but it would be cool if it happened.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of the teams that played against him saw his value as a disrupter and a pest and could imagine a role for him in their sides, without seeing him as a key provider of goals/assists.
He's an elite presser that has good technical skill on the ball. I don't see any of the American trio playing in the championship.
That definitely showed last night. He's become such a unbalanced player. He's shown at the EPL level and internationally that he's a pressing machine. He hounded Davies all night and was a big part of why he (Davies) had very few promising moments. It seems like he came from MLS as a potentially very creative, intelligent, high pressing guy. At the top level both of those first two seem stripped away. There was one moment that stood out for me where I think Balo was running down the right with the ball and both Aaronson and Pulisic made the same forward crashing runs. Aaronson even asked for the ball in front of him, despite angling slightly away from goal (towards the ball carrier) and not having any real separation from the defender. If he were to cut back he would've found himself in tons of space and squared up to goal and given Balo a much better, and easier outlet. Seemed like kind of a dumb moment to me and he struggled to have any real affect in attack. If he wants to build up that early rep back, he needs to really level up both technically and tactically (attacking-wise). As a defensive winger, he can hit the top level. In other roles, can he?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...ed-sign-midfielder-Brenden-Aaronson-loan.html Fulham trying to get Aaronson on loan
That would be a great move. Getting back to the Prem immediately and in a decent squad with other yanks is a better option than I thought he'd have.
He looked pretty good before the world cup and then struggled. Not shocking for a young player. Seemed like he lost his confidence on a bad team. Probably got worn down a bit as well when he was starting every game.