I agree, it is better to have a real #9 that allows your wing forwards to run free. There is a reason why France kept running out Giroud while Griezmann and Mbappe scored the goals. If you have a spare Bobby Firmino then you should play him but I would rather have Jozy or the like wrestling with CBs and spraying passes to the runners than asking our best player to be less effective,
I understand this side of it but Jozy is not a good pressing forward so it effectively eliminates the ability to press our opponent’s defenders, which could be very useful given the rest of our talent.
I don't see JA as being useful to the Nats at this point. I don't know who the answer is, but I know it should no longer be JA as plan A. I would rather just take a couple of MLS strikers on a good run of form. Hell I would rather have the cyclops than jozy. CP is not a 9. He is a 10. He is mostly bipedal so he can play either of the two wide attacking spots in a 4-3-3, or any spot in the 3 line 4-2-3-1. The less defense we ask him to play the better it will be for the nats offense.
I thought we were more direct on offense -- including simply clearing out danger -- and tougher on defense, the last two games of NL. Time will tell if that was desperation or a tactical shift. There is also the question of whether J. Berhalter and Cordeiro leaving, and Stewart being punted upstairs a notch from being right over the MNT, leads to more accountability and tactical pragmatism or change. I can't believe Parlow and McBride are as into this missionary thing as bad as the prior brass were. McBride was a tough old school target man who played in Germany and England as well as here. Unlike Stewart he is not wedded in his bones to EredivisieBall. These two strike me as more practical and the women specifically have a long history of tossing overboard unsuccessful experiments. But we won't know until they start again.
If you don't want to play Pulisic as the 9 -- and to me he's the next Landon/Dempsey -- well, who else then?? I like Wood, but he's forgotten. Siebatcheu might fit the bill but hasn't been capped. Morris could perhaps slide over, but then you lose some of the right wing play. After them, well, Sargent and Soto -- under construction IMO -- and Jozy and Zardes. You're basically back to the same old loop. If Sargent seems green and Soto isn't really a senior player yet........and you won't try my out of the box ideas above....... ......you're back to Jozy vs Zardes. Personally I think a frustrating conventional choice hints it's time to get out of the box. A team with a QB controversy, often enough, should just draft a new one. But to me you either need a Landon/Dempsey type up top who can run at the net and shoot accurately, or you need someone who can hold a ball with a man on his back and play second fiddle to the runners behind him. And even then they need to be able to finish. Personally I think it's in our best interests this cycle to rehabilitate Wood. Or to come up with some different idea. But to me Sargent, while technical and a finisher, looked nervous and unfit. I don't know know how many of those Cuba goals were someone sends a ball into the 6 basically in Sargent's direction, he doesn't get to it, and McKinney finishes back post. Sargent at present requires precision service, ball to feet. I think that team may grow around him as the prospects accumulate. I don't think we have it yet. That being said, I want Sargent around because I think he's the future, and like Green, is someone I see as a classy big game finisher. Off the bench we need an Aron Johannson type who ball to feet tucks it in a corner and gets the needed goals. Not the hustle players GB sticks out there late -- I mean, isn't the test of the Preki supersub role that you produce and get results in that role? Why have the same subs over and over if you never get that goal you want, or the win?
I think Sargent is the future but as discussed above, he is not a burner and needs ball to feet service. I do not see that right now. If right now this is more of a speed and "in the neighborhood" crossing team, you need a runner or a target guy, someone who can mop up a cross a few feet from where it was meant. I am actually a Sargent fan but he would need a more pure attack lineup of the guys with some touch, Green, Reyna, Pulisic, maybe Robinson wide. Ball to feet, turn, shoot in the corner. But to me Cuba was telling, endless half-chances and it was McKennie mopping up the wayward crosses. if the wing play is Arriola, Boyd, Roldan, he lacks the foot speed to run in and catch up to a pass. But if we went ahead and committed to the kids, there would be some technical players in there who could hit an accurate ball. No matter what Green and Sargent belong in the 23 as players who have proven they can finish against top notch opponents. To me the hustle player bench of recent years was a negative -- lack of talent -- not a positive. We need to get back to subs with special qualities, heading, speed, crossing, finishing. Tactical subs instead of go out there and run hard.
I don't know if you've been watching Sargent recently, because you are talking a lot about a game against Cuba, but he's been starting/playing well for what has effectively been a mid-table Bundesliga team for the last 2 months...His hold up play is excellent, he's a good passer, and would be the perfect compliment to speed guys running off him like Morris/CP. He is pretty clearly our best 9 at the moment, and that gap will likely widen rather than shorten.
The role does not come independent of the supporting cast. The USMNT has been fairly scattershot in sending chances in. Werder barely missed automatic relegation and still has to play the playoff game with the 3rd B.2 team. Sargent had 4G 4A as a CF this year. This does not strike me as a template. He has promise.
I see you haven't been watching. Because Sargent only became a starter since the break, when the team's form improved markedly (4-5-1, +1 goal differential). 4/4 for a 20 year old is just about as good as you'll find in the Bundesliga (i think 3 players have done more by that age). Trying to rehab Bobby Wood, who can't get a game in B2, while saying Sargent is just the future, and looks tired and nervous, is a bit odd.
!!!! I will assume this is meant to suggest that Pulisic is “two footed” rather than a were-horse or a an extremely prolific diver.
I think you misunderstand me. Wood has scored on most of our Hex opponents. I see Wood as the way out of the Jozy/Zardes silliness. As with Green, if you can score on France or Mexico, you are ready for this job. I don’t care what you do in your spare time at club then. Or are we going to make the silly argument that he can’t continue his proven NT record for lack of club form? “I know this works in practice, but does it work in theory???”. Once you succeed on the NT the scouting concerns of club form are secondary. Go look up sometime all the NT Wood has scored on. I am sorry, his disappearance is silly. His job here is to score on other NT. He does that. QED. https://www.transfermarkt.us/josh-sargent/leistungsdaten/spieler/393325/plus/0?saison=2019 Sargent’s weekly stats do not back your theory. When he came back from his injury was actually when they were struggling. Personally I would have Sargent as Wood’s understudy working towards a 2022 transition. I get the snobs think that’s backwards in terms of relative club status, but that’s confusing NT performance with club status. We have plenty of Yedlin and Brooks type players who on paper should be the superior option, but aren’t that in practice. My whole thing is get back to the people who show up in OUR shirt. That WAS Wood. Zardes hasn’t scored on a team better than TnT. Sargent is still a work in progress on that metric. Like I said, I think a lot of this is Sargent is going to need precision passers to work well. He is not going to prosper off Roldan shanking crosses a couple yards too far, because he lacks the jets to fix that. To me the crossing and passing future of the team is the ones coming up, at which point the team has the skill level to work with a Sargent. Until then, I think you need athletes to mop up athletic player crosses. To me in this environment Sargent is a bench option as a finisher. OR The way out of this conversation is start CP up top where he would be excellent. It is no longer is Wood any good any more or is Sargent ready, CP handles that job and we move on to who plays 10 or left wing to replace CP.
Alright. Since it's a CP thread I won't continue, but I doubt really anyone would agree with your take. I'm a huge Bobby Wood fan, but you need to at least be playing regularly at a high-ish level to get a call up. By your rationale, you're happy to have the team continue to be built around Bradley, since he's "done it before".
When was the last time Bobby played in a game? He's not even making gameday squads anymore from what I recall. I like him fine, but he's not likely even in game shape much less in good form at this point.
I'm not sure we've had a player in the USMNT pool with the career highs and lows of Bobby Wood. Hamburg reportedly accepted an offer from Cincinnati for Bobby in the last window, but Bobby rejected the move. Apparently, DC was interested before the lockdown. Goff has reported that they hold a discovery claim on him. But anyway, back to Pulisic. I think Christian has a great chance to win the FA Cup this year. Chelsea is in great form, and I like them to beat ManU in the semi. He'd be the first American to life the trophy since Tim Howard in 2004.
Right this very moment Greg is dreaming about one and only one thing: having 100% of his young guns together and fit for national team training. That has never happened and I am worried that it never will.
Yes. So are Wolves. However, Leicester are not and their schedule is rough. If they lose today and Chelsea win they jump into 3rd. United/Wolves will both be out of 4th by 3 points.
While understanding that this is one of his "highs", it is pretty impressive what CP has done since the break, and has really put together a quality season despite the significant missed time. I was one who was a bit down on him early on into his Chelsea tenure. Not enough to think he needed a move away like some, but was concerned he would be more of a rotation/bench guy. I think that feeling was pretty common, even. Not like that would even be that bad, as a rotation guy on a team like Chelsea is still the best the US has ever had. However, in just a few weeks, he seems to really have established himself as one of their key guys. Dangerous every time he's getting the ball. Keeps this up for the rest of the season, and it's a good, and necessary, springboard into next season, as he'll need to be on his game with reinforcements arriving. Overall - just great news as a US fan. Not like this has any impact on his standing with the US, but the fact he's looking like he can be a top level winger in the EPL is just excellent.
Honestly, I'm a bit surprised about CP starting today. He played 85 minutes Thursday, 70 minutes on Sunday, and appeared to have a little bit of a calf/lower leg issue when he came off against Leicester. I continue to be concerned about his inability to avoid muscle injuries. I figured Lampard would sit him at least at the start and either bring him on at halftime or around 60 minutes.
Gaping holes in the Chelsea D all day. Alonso thought he was playing attacking mid. Rudiger = awful in just about every way. The other two guys were less than adequate. So the Havertz focus seems weird. Again, Pulisic is the only menacing offensive player.
I think what I'm seeing is that Chelsea need good in form players in a big way and that is why they are doing all they can to get Pulisic on the pitch. They sit in the last UCL spot.
Didn't see the match, so I'm kind of commenting blind. But, the I feel like Barkley would be best as the best player on a mid-table team. He's so selfish, that he needs to be "the man." But, he's not quite at the level of being the man on a top team.