He's quick, but his dribbling skills are not good enough to be a strong dribbler from a relative standstill or against numbers. His top end speed is definitely not EPL winger speed. Wingers at that level either need to be able to beat guys with the dribble OR beat them with straight line speed. That's why Brenden's not really played at winger there.
What the metrics tell us about Aaronson isn't necessarily top sprint speed. Although that's not bad. Its motor and engine. Its the relentless work. While others are tiring, he's not. He's still flying. I remember this metric from a few years ago. There was that famous Leeds versus Liverpool match. Brenden Aaronson covered more distance in that match than any other player in a game that Premier League season. Something like 13 km. These are the types of metrics that made Aaronson such a good fit in a pressing system. Which, of course, is what Pochettino uses. Pochettino being a disciple of Bielsa, the guy who had originally identified Aaronson as a target for Leeds Brenden Aaronson proving he should start for USMNT in World Cup - NBC Sports
He clocked 34kph while at Berlin. That’s a respectable speed for a winger. It’s not Alphonso Davies speed but it’s in the normal band of wingers and really fast for a midfielder.
When you have an elite motor you don't need elite speed. Second half of the match and those elite speed legs are tired and your elite motor is still humming along is when the most damage can be done.
He's not reliably fast for an EPL winger. You can watch the games as see it. I'm sure he's hit a nice top speed once or whatever, but he's not going to get separation from his foot speed against an outside back with any reliability. The concept of being able to beat an opponent one on one in some way, or to create separation or to force help defense is a fundamental skill set in almost every team sport. It's what teams are looking for from their attackers. Aaronson simply doesn't have that level of speed on the wing. That doesn't mean he's slow. That means he's not going to create offense via speed on the wing very often. And that's one of the primary ways wingers create danger and put pressure on the defense. Is it the only way to create offense as a winger? No. But he's also not Phil Foden or something skills-wise. And he's not a particularly good crosser. He's better off in the middle of the field, creating some havoc, getting loose balls, making incisive passes on the break, making runs into the box. That's also where his work rate can kill others, because there's very little hesitation in him when these opportunities hit. It also puts his speed up against defensive mids and center backs rather than outside backs.
Yeah, in qualifying he was just a part of the walking wounded from those early windows: Pulisic, Weah, I think Musah, and Reyna all out, those things definitely played a role in the underperformance in 4 of the first 5 qualifiers (only the Jamaica match, if memory serves, was a strong game from beginning to tend, @ El Salvador, Hosting Canada, the first half @ Honduras, and @ Panama were all nightmarish performances to varying degrees). My big takeaway back then was that that version of the team anyway could play w/o Pulisic and be fine, it just couldn't sustain said form if every key guy was out: Pulisic, Weah, Reyna, Pepi etc. We could and did build quality teams without Pulisic, but there were certain guys who had cascade effects when missing, and to my view, they were Adams (for the defense), Dest and Weah on the Right for the attack, and Jedi for the attack, Reyna centrally, and that was really it. We could deal with pretty much anyone else being out, but if we lost a critical piece on the Left or Right Wing, that would cause a collapse in the efficacy of the attack full stop, no Reyna meant a lack of creativity period centrally which is what lead to so much xG, and assist opportunities folding in from Jedi, Weah, and to a lesser degree what Dest did in opening up channels for others etc. Pulisic wasn't critical in any of those areas, which is why his impact wasn't as deleterious, in its absence, as Reynas, or Jedi's, or Weah's etc. Today, honestly, its kind of similar, we need Tillman or Reyna for central or we have to pray Wes brings his assist boots, we need Jedi on the left, and Dest/Weah on the right for that verticality and cut in threat from both Dest and Weah as needed, and we need Adams to provide cover for a lackluster central defense....All are simply more important to my mind than Pulisic, even though Pulisic is such a HUGE, piece and obviously are best player. Even as such, his absence doesn't cause as many problems as Weah and Dest being out on the right, or Jedi being injured and out on the left, or Adams injured or ineffective while gimpy, or lacking a creator centrally. Pulisic creates magic, but we don't have domino like cascade effects when he's gone, the way we do with others.
My memory is poor, and checking player ratings from various sites agree with me on the Swiss game (he got 4's and 5's, although the whole team got horrible grades so there's that). Nice correction on the Haiti game though. Honestly I don't remember it much at this point, getting old sucks, but yeah, sounds like he played well in that one. The good news i all this, is Aaronson at least for now, seems to be rediscovering that '21-'22 form, or simply improving with experience after a really rough run of years '22-25 (I remember him having a good last half season in Germany before going back to Leeds in Spring of I think '24), we need all the help we can get and Aaronson playing well after a long dip is a huge asset, and I already borderline had him on the plane because I really, really like him as a super sub option.
A Clint Eastwood-style fun fact: the starting wingers for our opener at El Salvador were Gio Reyna and ... Konrad de la Fuente. I believe Brenden might've started in the midfield, but I'm doing this off the top of my head. Gio got hurt in the waning minutes and we basically never saw him again. Pulisic was coming in hurt but played against Canada and Honduras, IIRC. Weah was missing that window. I do think Musah was there -- I seem to remember him against Canada. Which was actually not a terrible game by us except for the goal we gave up. We play a different CB and there's a good chance we come out of that game with three points. Musah was also terrible as a starter at Panama -- then again, I'm not sure I remember Musah ever being more than solid at any time. I think it's different than the '22 cycle. The fact that we have probably 4 CAM options (or more) everyone is okay with, or that we've been able to have good games without Dest and Jedi ... even Adams is not irreplaceable. I don't think we can miss a LOT of guys -- so the field hospital that was our injury list in WCQ would still affect us now -- but we're far better off if we miss a couple. You basically say it -- if we had gone into WC22 with Weah OR Dest out, we were in trouble. Now, if our right side is Weah and Freeman or Dest and Freeman ... I'm not nearly as worried.
He started basically every game down the stretch for Berlin, he then kicked on and had a fine Championship season and has maintained his position in the XI even with formation switches. He’s one of the few players we’ve ever had who’s been a consistent starting attacker for top league clubs. If he finishes with 5-7 PL goals for a newly promoted team, that’s a huge achievement.
I realize I've been arguing against Brenden a bit here but it is interesting to see how little support he gets amongst the USMNT fanbase even compared to other players who haven't been performing for the US or have their entire cases be about their club play or even club level. Brenden just turned 25 in late October and he's more than holding his own in the EPL. He's got a .42 npxG+xA / 90, which is not bad, especially on a team like Leeds. It's basically the same as Tillman (.44) and much better than Reyna (.15). But he definitely doesn't seem to have the people beating the drum for him like they do Johnny or Musah or Sargent. And he does have 9g and 7a for the US, which I imagine is like double the combined numbers for those three. I know he's not been doing much recently, but still ... Sargent basically scored against Cuba in 2019 and people hold out hope -- most of Brenden's goal production is more recent and against better teams (only two of them are against Cuba-level opponents). He's not even really popular amongst the defend and counter crowd, even though he's made for that game.
Nobody's beating the drum for Sargent anymore, well, maybe 1 is, Johnny's got 1 fan left, and Musah doing the Hajj this past summer of all times was just a self-own in terms of his international career, I don't think many are on that train either. W/Aaronson its pretty simple, his club career went south after his move from Salzburg, and his international form has never been as impressive as it was in 2021 and early 2022 ever again. Personally, I don't have Aaronson where you do because he's always been worse, to me, anyway, in central mid, as compared to on the left side, has gotten little brothered for eons in central midfield, and doesn't touch the ball enough, those two critiques have been around for five years maybe six, w/regards to him as a CM, and I'm not aware that anything has ever changed there. I still have him there as an option because he's versatile, like Reyna, or Tillman or Pulisic, or Luna, all those guys can be moved in a pinch into multiple areas, and if desperately needed I could play Aaronson there, but I think his best position for us is a super sub option on the left side for Pulisic, Luna is the need a goal supersub LWF and CM type, wheras Aaronson's for me is more valuable in two specific roles: killing a game off through creating transition generating turnovers, finding a goal for the team through his defending, and pressing/buzzing. Luna's more straight forward. He defends, he playmakes, and he scores, he is valuable against teams that are more organized defensively/harder to break down, and/or play in a low block, I think Aaronson is more valuable in open loose games late, where we're trailing, or where we're trying to hold someone off (like Wales or Iran last time around). It may come across as gobbledygook but I have a feel for why I'd want him or Luna on the bench if I were Poch. For me, Luna makes more sense against Paraguay and Australia, if Aaronson makes sense, it would be against the Euro qualifier Turkey, probably less so with Kosovo or Slovakia. Knockouts would depend, but yeah, it's a mix of the opponent (I want Luna against the more athletic/big teams, I want Aaronson against teams he's more likely to not get beaten up against), and game state (what do we need that supersub to do: do we need him to kill a game, or spring transitions, or do we need a goalscorer/playmaker who can work in open games, and in low block, congested areas, which is more Luna's thing?
I'm not saying there's not a rational case against Aaronson. I've made it enough. I just think it is interesting that in general, he doesn't have his strong fans. And that's across a larger subset than Big Soccer. Generally, just being rostered in a Top 5 league means a good 20%+ of the fanbase thinks you should be guaranteed a spot. You don't even have to play or be good. You can literally never have been good for the US. Remember, this is the fanbase that clamors for call ups for dudes who get a cup of coffee at this level and goes nuts for dudes like Matt Hoppe. So here's a guy who has been good for the US at times, who is performing decently well in the best league in the world, week in and week out ... and like, yeah, there's the usual rational group but I just find it funny there's no one that is like "He's scoring in the EPL. He has to start" even on Reddit or something. I don't do twitter so maybe they are all there. It's not an opinion I share but I thought there'd be a lot more of it. I think it's probably that the crew that generally makes those arguments doesn't like Aaronson because of his hustle profile -- there's a lot of overlap of the Badge FC crew with the crew that thinks trying hard is gauche or something. But it's just curious.
Aaronson is playing better, at a higher level, more consistently than Reyna. Pochettino has to live in reality.
I think we often spend a lot of time focused on what Aaronson doesn't do as opposed what he does exceedingly well. [By we I mean the fanbase in general.] We bring in the most accomplished coach in the history of our program, and he's used Aaronson a lot. He brought him in right away for his first camp, and has continued to use him. Aaronson is a pressing coach's analytical wet dream. Leeds' scouts aren't fools. They didn't watch Aaronson at RBS and think he was the second coming of Dennis Bergkamp. They knew what they were getting, and they paid a high price. Still the 4th largest transfer ever for a USMNTer. They paid more for him than Milan paid for Pulisic. Leeds knew they were buying this motor player. That's the modern game. Teams need players like this. Brenden Aaronson's first cap was the first game after re-opening from COVID.. February 2020 against Costa Rica. Now he's up to 56 caps. I'd be very curious how many players have more caps for the USMNT in the post-COVID era than Brenden Aaronson. It can't be many. If any. He's been a consistent contributor. And yet, I totally agree that he's not appreciated by the fanbase. Yes, its true, that he hasn't impacted as many goals as we fans want. But USMNT coaches keeping picking him, and they do for a reason. He has scored a criticallly important goal for the USMNT. 2022 WCQer against Canada. A 1-1 draw when we weren't playing well and missing a ton of important guys. The game McKennie was suspended for. We started Lletget and Acosta in central midfield. Pulisic at the time wasn't on form [I forget the reason. Just back from COVID? Injury? Can't remember.]. We started Pefok as the center forward. Aaronson did Aaronson things. The USMNT didn't play poorly in that game. We were the better team. It was just not happening for us in terms of scoring (as it seemed for much of Berhalter's tenure). That could have been a disaster of a game for us. We slogged thru that Canda one, and the next one was against Honduras during which we turned the corner.
He's only six behind Weston even though he's 2 years younger. He's been pretty durable despite his size, and while I suppose we could see him supplanted by younger guys at some point ... to your point, coaches love this type of player. He's likely to end up with over 100 caps if healthy -- which is Top 20 as minimum. He's got 9 goals -- that's tied for 30th overall, but just five more puts him 15th. He needs 8 to be Top 10, though he's tied with Gio right now and Weston, Pepi and Ferreira are ahead of him. (So is Christian, but he's already Top 10. His 7 assists put him strangely, 30th as well, but 7 more puts him Top 10. None of that seems all that unlikely to me.
Almost the perfect encapsulation of Aaronson. Two goals and then give up they tying penalty. The most unlucky dude ever to dude.
He hasn't been ineffective for the USMNT these past 4 years, nor has he been ineffective for Leeds/Union Berlin. I guess it depends on expectations. He's not Pulisic. Lest we forget, he played 47 games for Leeds last year. 47! 3600+ minutes. He's like one of these starters in baseball that pitches 200+ innings without being an elite pitcher. Those "innings eaters" are highly valuable. 3600 minutes running like a banshee without having an injury. Aaronson is always healthy and contributing. He's been ramping up his goal contributions. He knows this has been something he needs to do. The 9 goals in the Championship last year were more than he'd ever scored in a league season. More than he scored in Austria and MLS league campaigns. So development of his game seems to be happening. He has both more goals and more assists in the Premier League this season than Tillman or Reyna do in the Bundesliga. As we know, things change rapidly in a pool. Two months from now it could be Tillman that's "on fire."
I've always had a soft spot for Aaronson. Guy never quits and can cause chaos. He's the 2.0 of Arriola and if you've ever had either on your team and watch them every match you realize more of what they bring. Even if everyone else is flat they bring it. Yes, of course neither are the most talented but I love to watch either in hunter mode when the their team has a lead. They're like a predator looking for the weak link or any bad pass, touch or dribble then they spring their trap. Brendan just did that against ManU. Think he wasn't on their back line the rest of the game? Wonder how many rushed passes he causes? To me he's a spot starter (especially in consideration for Pulisic who can't go 90 every game multiple times in a week) and a defensive sub when the team has a lead. I agree that Luna would be his competition for that role but each bring different strengths and weaknesses.
I’ve never been a fan of his particular game, the whole RB full send no breaks model and his particularly frenetic headless chicken, tiny guy gets knocked over shtick. But he’s actually taken a genuine step forward over the end of the last season of the championship and through this one in the EPL to my eye. He’s looking for and picking out passes more and seems a touch more patient and thoughtful on the ball. I still think his defensive contributions are vastly overrated, but remain an asset. CP and Tillman start over him all day every day for me still, but he’s overtaking Luna for that high defensive energy bench option attacking mid at the moment, Reyna remains in a class of his own as the we have more of the ball or genuinely need a sub to create a goal attacking mid option. Depth is a hell of a drug and none of us have any experience with this at the national team. A lot of the MLS guys looked great in those many friendlies and GC games we played because they were in mid season form and the Europeans were at the end of theirs, off and then in preseason form. Brendo, Wes and AR absolutely hitting their stride now over the next few months more will hit these higher gears, great problem to have and for once a genuinely good player or 2 won’t make our WC squad, awesome.
Those were real striker's goals. 4G2A in his last 10 starts. We have plenty of depth at cam/dual-10 with Tillman, McKennie, Reyna, Zendejas, and Aaronson able to play there.
It's okay to say the MLS players played well because they are good players and played well. It's kind of ridiculous to claim a game played on ... November 18th featured anyone in pre-season form. That's like, three, three and a half months into the European season! Even the October friendlies are more than enough time to be back up to speed. It's also kind of weird to claim that the European players played worse at the end of their season (because they were tired?) but that guys like Luna and Alex Freeman were advantaged because the last US friendlies were played ... three weeks after their season was over? Or say, Berhalter, still playing after a very long season that included the GC AND continental play? The MLS guys played well. That's all.