I think it's safe to say that Shea is in over his head at this point. U23 is probably best for him for now. Our midfield should be: -----------------------------------------------Dempsey Donovan------------------------------------------------ -----------------------Torres-------------------------- -------------------------------------------Jones-------- ----------------------------Bradley--------------------- For a4 man midfield, pull Jones. Williams is another good option if needed, to throw as a D mid, instead of beckerman maybe? Not great at RM, but played as a third D mid when needed with Mo Edu and Bradley were back but needed help.
In regards to Williams I almost wonder if he was meant to be more defensive minded by design. He was very good defensively, which is not surprising. But he does lack something going forward. The only issue is with the late scratches the only other person you could have played there would be Spector or maybe Bardley. Neither would be idea Bradley was very good tonight with a few exceptions. And he as improved in releasing the ball faster. My biggest knock against him is he should not be taking dead balls... Sasha proved once again he is not good out wide. And he is not good enough to see time in the middle. Which means he is not good enough to be here. Fielhaber is better.
I said this before: I think edu may have regressed a bit on the attacking side, but the US simply does not concede many goals when he plays. Any manager worth a damn reviews the stats we dont see and makes decisions based on chemistry and stats. The Edu points against stat must be off the chart.
Edu had some CLUTCH tackles tonight when dropping back. Playing two D Mids in the midfield was a SMART SMART move by Klinsi. I think he also tested Bradley by having him be the more 'stay at home' d mid to have him show his chops, same goes with Edu going up more, to show what he can do. Teo players doing what the ywere known opposite for in the last cycle.
I just really don't understand the Torres selection really. I don't understand why people are so high on him. He's a good player. Fine club player in finesse leagues like the Primera Division. I still think he is too small and light for international competition. He provides nothing offensively. 13 caps 0 goals.
you should think of the US line up as follows: --------------------------Altidore----------------------------- -------------------------------Dempsey---------------------- --------------Shea-------------------------------------------- ---------------------Edu----------Bradley---------Williams--------- --------FJ----------Boca-----------Goodson--------Dolo-------- This was a bit like the '98 french side but shea really hugged the line and WIlliams did get out wide more than he would normally, but it was of a shepherding the ball wide so that we lost it in a non-threatening spot. Bradley did play deeper at times, but so did Edu. They had for the first time in memory, CHEMISTRY. Crazy.
It is obvious that Bradley is our choice for stay at home in front of the defenders D mid over Beckerman now..... So who plays in the middle to control traffic and slot simple passes to make dangerous runs from the wings or down teh middle or to push it off to dempsey or donovan to start things off? The only guys that Klinsi' has played to be able to do this is Torres or Jones. Edu isn't that great at that, Bradley can... but he has shown how awesome of a d mid he is. Clearly our best option there. It's between jones and torres... so because of age I say torres there. You could slot donovan there... but that takes him away from his favored wing position.
This is very true. Here is Clint's quote on his responsibilities. "...But also defensively, to shadow [Andrea] Pirlo because every time he got on the ball, he was just pinging [shots] for fun, finding his men. I just tried to frustrate him a little bit because he’s a great player. At times I would do that and at times I wasn’t. It was a little bit of a workout tonight but we got the result.” http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Mens-National-Team/2012/02/PostMatch-Quote-Sheet-USMNT-v-Italy.aspx
Bradley was immense, and Edu was very good, too. Much of Italy's danger came from long through balls, and generally that's not the responsibility of the 2 central mids in a 4-2-3-1. Dempsey was terrific, even aside from the goal I thought Shea had the most interesting game of any player. He was in the right place to be dangerous a number of times. He had some clever touches. But he had some sloppy touches, too. Finally, as aaryque alludes to, I'm not sure Shea's style fits with what JK is asking him to do. I think there's a significant mismatch between the talent and the role. But Shea isn't doing himself any favors with his looseness with the ball.
No, it makes perfect sense. The alternatives are to leave Pirlo alone, or to ask Bradley or Edu to be pulled waaaaay out of position to apply pressure. We just beat Italy 1-0 on the road, you slag off three players and then say "that is all"???? No, that is NOT all.
Dang kids just can't remember what it was like back when beating Italy in Italy would've been a kinda big deal. Argh! Wins are wasted on the young.
Agree with much of what you say, but anyone who thinks Brek Shea is part of a "best" anything at this point is just crazy. He isn't ready for this level yet, and I'm not sure he ever will be. Johnson is ten times the player he is. I'd much rather put Johnson at LM and let Spector/Chandler/Lichaj play LB. Heck, I'd much prefer Feilhaber at LM. My MF depth chart would look like this (in a 4-2-3-1 look): #10: Dempsey, Donovan, Feilhaber, Torres #8: Holden, Bradley, Torres, Jones, Edu, Kljestan, Spector, Zusi #6: Jones, Bradley, Edu, Williams, Beckerman #7 (RM): Donovan, Dempsey, Holden, Chandler, Bradley, Rogers #11 (LM): Dempsey, Donovan, Johnson, Feilhaber, Beasley, Shea, Rogers
In other words (assuming everybody's healthy, and Holden returns to be the player he was before getting injured): ---------------Forward--------------------- Johnson------Dempsey----------Donovan ----------------------Holden--------------- ------------Jones---------------------------
I actually think Edu, Bradley, and Williams would make a complimentary 3 man central midfield. Williams is a good square peg in a bad round hole, forced on him because Donovan withdrew and Torres got hurt. Still want to see more attacking ability in our midfield.
Going to start with some props for Edu because I neglected to do so post game because I was overwhelmed with MB's MOM performance. As good a game as Edu has played for the US, IMO. Thought Williams was much better than many seem to... Shea is pretty shaky, shame our best chances in the first half fell to him to butcher. Sacha = Tits on boar.
I hope people shut the ******** up about Kljestan now. What a joke. I hope Bradley continues to play like he did today. We dont'need him to score goals. Just be that anchor in the middle similar to what Pirlo was doing today. Bradley's composure on the ball was great to see. What I like about the midfield is that we have engines with enough grit that they will not back down when playing top teams. We just need to get the injured guys like Holden Donovan and Torres back to give us better ball retention to compliment Bradley.
That's what I said Klinsmann was doing in the France game with Williams by playing him on Ribery's side. Ribery was shut down that day by Williams and whoever the RB was on that day. Williams for me is not a Right Winger or mid of any sort but with the injuries we had he was the only option we had. In the middle I'm sure Williams would do fine. He's very similar to Jones. Great engines and play with real courage. Williams I think is more technical though.
Huh? Knock on Bradley? This isn't a Sunday beer league where the guy with the biggest leg or the pushiest guy gets to take the restart. It is sort of, you know, by design that he takes them. Maybe if he wasn't good at them or if Landon was there you can make a case, but otherwise it is a knock on the coaching staff for insisting/suggesting/recommending that he take them.
Too defensive. I'd expect Klinsi' to experiment with: ---------------------------------------Dempsey Donovan-------------------------------------- ------------------Torres---------------------- ------------------------------------Jones(edu) -------------------------Bradley--------------- Torres the pushed up 'simple' passer that will start off the 'spark' to dempsey or donovan making runs on the wing, or they themselves setting each other up and Altidore/any other forweard up there.
No it makes even less sense now using your logic. It seems Clint was tasked with simply harassing Pirlo and if you notice both Edu and Bradley also take turns closing Pirlo down when he has the ball. If our #1 goal scoring threat is tasked with solely defending the opposition's world class play making midfielder then we're using the wrong formation.
Wow, I thought it was bizarre before the game when people where wandering around here talking about how disappointing a tie would be and now we seem to have more than a couple people around who are upset that when we beat Italy in Italy we didn't do it pretty enough or playing the right way or whatever it is people are complaining about. I'm a bit speechless.
I'm seeing some confusion as to how useful Williams was yesterday. While he didn't show anything I can remember in the final 3rd, he was very effective at holding the ball. Not only that, but he seemed fairly creative when he was cornered. Lastly, he has something a few of the other players lack (Shea), the confidence to take someone on 1v1. I thought he gave a pretty solid performance.