I believe that this is what Arena is doing. He's got a bunch of random puzzle pieces and he has a year to pick the right pieces that will complete the picture. These would be the puzzle pieces. Keepers Central Defenders Fullbacks Central Midfielders Attacking Midfielders Forward Striker Think back to one of Nutmeg's thread about building a team that had the best possible skill. We can go from position to position and not worry about running into a "skill-pothole". Well its about a year or two later and lets see where we are. Keepers - We have top level keeprs and we have them in abundance. Personally, I really don't care who Arema starts because I know we'll be fine Central Defenders - I think we have good depth and good Quality here. My personal preference is Bocanegra and Pope. But you can go any number of ways and still field a very good pair of CD. Central Midfielders - This is a sticky one. We have around 4 or 5 Central midfielders that are in the pool. Armas, Mulroony, Mastroeni, Reyna, O'Brien. Bruce continues to figure out which ones he wants out there but injuries to JOB are turning this into a major chore. Not to mention he seems infatuated with a cetain midfielder who was born in Puerto Rico. Attacking Midfielders - 2 categories here, along the sides, in the middle. Donovan might be the missing link, but so might Mullan, Mapp, or even one of our U17s who could turn into 2006s DMB or Donovan. In the middle I think we'll be OK because of Mathis and Convey, and maybe even Kyle Martino...plus both Reyna and O'Brien could do well here. Forward - Problematic, but talented INEXPERIENCED depth is availible. right now the depth chart has Donovan, Wolff and no one else. Mathis clearly no longer has the raw athletic ability to do well here since the two ACL injuries. Kids like Eddie Johnson and Edson Buddle and even Freddy Adu could be an answer. But I think this position and RMid are linked. Striker - We have McBride, Casey proved that he has the tools to do well here, RVN says that Cooper is a star in the making, you can add Ed Johnson who might be the most talented of the bunch (but I havent seen Kenny Cooper play so I won't include him in that). What does all this mean? Well, think of it in pieces. Assuming TOTAL health, RMid (unless we move Donovan there) and Leftback (unless we move JOB there) are the only holes. Assuming TOTAL health we can field a team that would be dominant defensivly, have two of the better Central Midfielders around, have some of the best pace in attack in the world, have a guy who is pretty good in the air, field a team that can Attack from any point on the field and over the field. Good Job Coach Bruce Arena...we have the makings of a VERY good squad...but we just beed to finish this puzzle. And I think people should remember that this is a work in progress before passing judgement of him being a failure
Agreed my friend. One point on RM: I think Martino is the guy here. I think Bruce Arena believes this. That's why you don't see any of the other younger guys in for apprenticeship. A few years ago I remember reading an article somewhere in which Jeff Agoos told the story of how he became the starting sweeper for Arena at UVA as a freshman. He said Arena basically stood him up at the first preseason team meeting and said: "This is Jeff Agoos. He will be our starting sweeper." Then he pushed, coerced, mentored and coached young Jeff into the player he needed to be. We saw Bruce Arena do the same in the last cycle with Landon. If this is the case with Arena and Martino, he will not bring in a player whom Kyle could construe as a true challenge to his position (Mapp, Mullan, Johnson etc.) We know Bruce is studying Arsenal quite intently nowadays. Our talent pool closely mimics theirs, so modeling after them is a good idea. Martino would be our Pires, only on the right. But he, like Pires, must consign himself to use a portion of his considerable soccer genius toward defensive pursuits. Until Bruce sees that consistently at training camp, Kyle won't even see the pitch. Just like Pires. NL
It will be interesting to see if Bruce keeps Claudio in more of a defensive posture like he did in the Poland game and using Clint for attacking. Clint did not have a very good game, but I do think we will see more of this pairing. It will be interesting who BA tries at RM. Several players do have qualities for that position but I am not convinced, and I doubt anybody is about who has a lock on that spot. I think we all know that Bruce will be playing a lot of players in various positions and formations. This is compounded by the fact theat the European season will gobble up several players during qualifying. It will be interesting with the expectations of this team. Bruce won't tolerate players who are "comfortable". In a way I am glad that the Haiti game happened. Hopefully it will or has been a wake up call.
Thats nice fantasy, but I think if Bruce really saw Martino as the right mid of the future, hed play him. It doesnt make sense to make a kid your starting right mid, then rarely call into camp and hardly ever play him. Personally I dont think Bruce likes players who hold onto the ball. I think he likes 1 and 2 touch soccer, and a guy like Martino who will take the ball and hold it to carry it at the defense arent in his vision. But then again, I havent been able to sit down with him, and hear his views, so thats just an opinion of mine.
Of course right now it's fantasy, but quite plausible. Firstly, Kyle's fitness or form were sketchy at best for the important 2003 matches. Then there's the Olympic qualifiers: Martino is barely fit but surprisingly ommited from the side. Fact is, usually when Bruce sees a no joy hole in his team, he goes for a young project player: see Landon Donovan last cycle. We had absolutely NO reasonable option at forward, so he found the best young player available and MADE one. And Landon hardly saw the pitch at all until Bruce felt he was ready. Bruce knows how to work in dribblers: Etcheverry dribbled lots, Moreno dribbled lots, even Mike Fisher dribbled lots at UVA. I believe the problem is defending, where Kyle has proven to be worse than bad. Bruce doesn't try to change the style of Senior players, just make them fit into the team. If Martino wasn't in the right mold, he would not get selected so often. When I see Mapp or Johnson or Gaven or Mullan selected then I will begin to worry for young Kyle's future. When Kyle Martino starts to defend as earnestly as he creates, he will play...LOTS. NL
That's how it happened with Pires. Until he began defending, he rarely, if EVER played for Arsenal and was always selected and hardly ever played for France. If it's good enough for one of the best in the World, it's good enough for Kyle Martino. Let's just hope he responds.