Eh, I think Chandler's problem has been that hes never been fully committed to the national team. I just never have felt like he was ever really engaged or invested in the team. Now, maybe it JK's coaching that turned him off, and he responds to Bruce, and all is good. But talent with indifferent effort just doesnt translate.
1. Can't assume that Bradley will always be there. 2. Can't assume the US will always play a 4-4-2, so Bradley and Nagbe can be complementary in a 3 man midfield. 3. Nagbe can carry the ball up the field off the dribble, and dribble out of pressure, which Bradley can't do nearly as well. 4. Bradley doesnt really require you to send help to defend him, whereas Nagbe can force teams to bring a second player over to help, breaking down shape and helping teammates find space. I wouldn't say any of those are guys whom I would compare Nagbe too. I think temperamentally he just lacks a really attack heavy mindset. I would describe his role in the team to be much more similar to a guy like former teammate Will Johnson. So most likely the middle-man in a 3 man midfield or a faux-outside mid in a diamond 4-4-2.
This. Chandler is high risk, high reward. I think Bruce gives him one chance to put up or shut up, and that's what any good coach should do. Question is, does Chandler respond to not simply being handed a roster spot.
Feel free to check my numbers but on WhoScored I see Nagbe and Chara playing together 23 times and Portland getting 32 points from those matches. That's 1.39 points per match, good for 8th in the league and 5th in the West.
Until this B1 season, Chandler had been fairly inconsistent and injury prone. Portland's replacements for Wallace and Villafana did not work out, a problem which was a major factor in their disappointing season.
I will have to disagree on the inconsistent point. Certainly last season TC was unavailable due to injury and only had 12 BuLi appearances almost all coming at the end of the season. The prior 4 seasons he has been fairly consistent in his BuLi play and has always been around a Whoscored 7.0 rating through his career at Nuernberg and now at Frankfurt. To steal a phrase from you, Chandler's poor ratings by USMNT fans are not due to footballing reasons. His ratings are negatively biased because early in his tenure he was portrayed as unsure about his commitment to the US. The fact that it has been explained as pressure from his club has not made a difference to some fans.
Nah man, he has sucked for the US consistently since his debut. His commitment levels and the discussion surrounding them have literally nothing to do with it.
BS. Chandler performed indifferently at best, poorly at worst for the USMNT early in his tenure. Who can forget the disaster down in Honduras in his first meaningful match for the team?
Chandler was inconsistent in terms of his quality of play. He is around 7.0 on WS and was named to the B1 team of the half-season. Did he win similar accolades the other seasons he was around 7.0? Further underlining the improvement was his manager's comment that this was Chandler's first really healthy pre-season.
I think so. Everything I have heard is that Chandler responds well to good man managers, clear role definition, and a more structured system. Klinsmann's personal approach and "figure it out" tactical system were great for guys like Jermaine Jones, but were about the worst possible fit for a personality like Chandler. We will see.
Certainly possible. I just think back to the of the stories of the cliquish nature of the team under Klinsmann and the feeling a more mercenary outlook among some players and think its hard to say what the cause was. If it was Klinsmann's management style then I think Bruce will fix that and we will see better performances from everyone. But if there is a sense among players that the US was only their choice because it was an easy ride to a WC, then Arena wont hesitate to simply cut out those players. Which isnt to say that Chandler is definitely one of those players, or that those reports were definitely accurate, just that it raises some real questions about the team in general that will be interesting to see how they get answered under Arena.
If his past stint as NT coach is anything to go by, Arena would simply place Chandler in the rotation of right backs. This contrasts withJK's 'developmental approach' of repeatedly calling up sketchy performers. In B1 games of his that I've seen before this season, his biggest weakness was in the tactical aspects of defending.
Well, Chara is a stud, he is all over the field disrupting the opponent. I wished out NT had a player like him.
Not true. Under BB he was a stud especially playing LB. Then the talks began that Germany wanted to call him and Chandler began to get cold feet and didn't allow BB to cap tie him in the G.C. The following season Chandler began to sputter at club level and we all know the rest.
OK, here's something: http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/201...-mnt-first-day-reactions-to-2017-january-camp
Chandler played in 2 friendlies (start and sub) at RB for Bradley in 2011 during the Paraguay/Argentina camp. He was highly rated by the pundits. There were no talks of GMNT interest at that point since he just breaking into Nuernberg and had zero prior German youth experience. Chandler came back to the USMNT at LB for Klinsmann (Dolo owned RB) and was overall along with with Shea the most highly rated player in JK's first 7 matches. The following season, '11 to '12 was his breakout year and that was when talks of bigger clubs (Stuttgart, Schalke, ...) trying to buy him and questions if he might be GMNT material started to surface. Chandler is only 26 and is clearly maturing from the 21yo of his first caps!
Saying this doesn't make it true, THHF. Provide some evidence. And even if the bolded was true (and it isn't), given the overall quality of performances during that period it wouldn't be saying much.
http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/201...-klinsmann-feilhaber-marshall-pontius-mccarty The first two days of this January’s U.S. camp have been an ideal combination of casual and competitive. That’s largely the result of a regime change—the departure of Jurgen Klinsmann and the arrival of Bruce Arena, who, like any manager, will have personal opinions and preferences regarding certain players. Standing alongside the artificial turf practice field just west of the StubHub Center stadium, you could contemplate retirement if you had a nickel for every time a player used the words “clean slate”, “breath of fresh air”, “excitement” or “energy”. For most U.S. players, Arena’s arrival represents a chance to regroup and rediscover a collective identity ahead of two critical World Cup qualifiers in March. For McCarty, Pontius and new/old U.S. teammates Benny Feilhaber and Chad Marshall, and perhaps one or two others, it means a whole lot more—the chance to restart a national team career they thought was dead.
I love Chad Marshall's twist on the "ship had sailed" metaphor for his national team career... “I had figured that ship had kind of sunk,” said Marshall, 32, who won his second league championship last month with the Seattle Sounders.