I was wondering what the team would look like if we decided to field the lineup that has the best touch & passing skills while paying little attention to stuff like defense, roles, set plays, etc. Here's what I came up with ------Davies-----Cooper------ Donovan-------------Dempsey --------Torres--Feilhaber----- Spector-Gooch--Edu----Dolo-- I excluded Adu, even though he probably has the best ball skills on the team because he is a poor possession player (because, right now, he gets knocked off the ball too easily and doesn't think fast enough on the ball so all a team has to do to gain possession from Adu is press him and knock him off the ball). Anyway, this is probably a moot point, since I don't see BB fielding this lineup (or any lineup without his son when available) in a million years, but I would like to see what this team could do against both minnows and top-level competition.
---------Davies--- Dempsey---------- Donovan---Torres---Feilhaber---Adu Spector--Onyewu--Demerit--Cherundolo or ---------Davies---Dempsey---- Donovan------Torres------Adu --------------Jones-------------- Spector--Onyewu--Demerit--Cherundolo These guys can and will all play on the ground.
a mixture of third person and first... strange. I'd think something like: ---------Davies------Cooper------ Donovan------Feilhaber------Dempsey --------------Jones-------------- Spector--Onyewu--Demerit--Cherundolo
Still.... ...........................Altidore......Davies...................... Feilhaber..... Donovan.................Bradley..........Dempsey... Spector.....Onyewu...............Demerit..........heydude... Our offensive on Confed Cup should not be mess with...Why fix it if it not broke...?
No way you can have Onyewu and Demerit as your CB pairing for this team, it's a stretch to even include one of them. If you want ball skills and possession go all out with it: --------------Howard-------------------- Spector----Edu----Marshall----Cherundolo ---------------Torres-------------------- ------Feilhaber---------Holden----------- Adu-----------------------------Donovan ---------------Dempsey------------------
Hahah my thoughts exactly. -----------------------------Davies----------------------------- Dempsey--------------------Donovan---------------------Holden -------------Torres----------------------Jones------------------ Bocanegra--------Edu------------------Onyewu----------Spector ----------------------------Howard-----------------------------
I like this. I would switch Donovan and Dempsey due to the fact Donovan would get lost in the middle of a possession lineup. The last thing I want to see is Donovan trying to score goals while the box is full of defenders. Plus putting him on the wing would help the counter. I would also put Feilhaber in place of Torres, but that might just be because I haven't seen Torres play very much.
You need good tacklers and ball winners in the midfield to play possession soccer as well as players who are strong on the ball. Also you need players who can make the field bigger and wider. Most of the lineup's posted here are not any better than the current lineup.
--------- Davies ---- Casey ---------- Donovan---Torres---Feilhaber---Holden Castillo---Marshall---Demerit---Spector -------------- Howard ---------------- Davies up top is our best forward at the moment. Holden's touch is golden even in high pressure. Same with Donovan and Torres. Feilhaber has shown the same in many cases, but he needs to improve his consistency. Lately Dempsey has been erratic in midfield. He's been a little better up top, but Casey has been on top of his game lately. Marshall has been stellar and about 90% of his headers in the Gold Cup were to his teammates -- retaining possession! Of course, Gooch is just about automatic in the back, but the question was about ball skills and possession. Spector and DeMerit in the back as well and, for the lack of a regular left back -- of course Bocanegra's stone touch and propensity to hoofing the ball out of bounds disqulalifies him -- I selected Castillo for wishful thinking and his "pedigree".
Dempsey is not a winger. Donovan cannot play in the middle at the international level. You should watch Torres play. So what, you want is us to play with the bucket huh? If you want a ball winner you need Jones. That is all. Stopped reading when I saw Casey.
------------Davies------Dempsey------------ Donovan------Torres-----Jones------Holden Spector---Marshall---Onyewu---Cherundolo
Why because some of us would actually play people where they belong Bob? Or is it because some of us understand that a physical team with no technique gets you nowhere? Tell me Bob.
It's funny that you think I am some sort of Bob fan-boy. I just wonder if you have ever read my posts. Back to the topic at hand.. the lineups floating around this thread are lineups that would get absolutley destroyed. First of all, I like Torres and I have watched him play probably more than most USA bigsoccer fans. He's a good player and I have him in my WC 23 man roster right now. But the expectations people have for Torres on these boards are getting to be out of control. Just by merely inserting him into our lineup, people all of a sudden expect the USA to be this incredible possession team. That's just not going to happen. Also, I see some people putting Edu into CB. He played there in the Olympics for a few games and that's it. That's no basis to expect him to compete in senior World Cup matches. Freddy Adu should no longer be in any sort of lineup. Who even knows how good he is right now. A guy who has played a handful of games in 2 years is not a guy I want to play important games. Some people had him at RW.. when has he played that position in a meaningful game?
You need to be a little more open minded. If you stop listening every time you disagree with something, you're going to miss out on a lot of good information. I haven't seen his play since, but Casey's performance in the MLS All Star game was very good.