It's time to stop playing Freddy out of position

Wow, the red mist is think in this thread.

I am absolutely not an Adu hater at all, if fact, I really like Adu. The issue that I have is that to be on the USMNT, you have to be committed year round, constantly working to improve your mental and physical fitness. He has made quite a few mistakes including trading playing time for money. He had the ability to drop levels when his play was not up to par for euro teams, but he didn't due to the pay cut he would take. Please note, this is only a partial take on his whole situation, and I realize i am taking bits and pieces for this summary.

Fast forward a few years and he is here in the mls to rebuild his career, lets look at some qualifications for being on the USMNT:

Did he become a leader? No.
Does his team want him next year? No. (and please do not think they only do not want him because of $$, read the articles from the coach about the locker room issues)
Did he regularly play 90 minutes? No.
Was he productive in the mls this season? No.


Quote from Philly Coach:
"He might have wanted a different role, you'll have to ask him, but he was given plenty of opportunities to play, and play a significant role for us, and be the player that we expected him to be when we signed him," He also referenced things that "need to be kept within the locker room"

Yes, he does have moments on brilliant play, but saying he deserves a spot on the USMNT is a joke.

Feel free to label me a hater and blow off the current real situation for your hope in Freddy. I really hope he continues to develop into a productive player for the US, but he is not there yet. And unless he fixes his mental game, he will never be.

Also, please quote whatever and state that I do not know what I am taking about, I really couldn't care less about validation from someone on the other end of a key board, but ill leave with this note from Jurgen:
"“What we expect is that you put your stamp on your team, and there needs to come more,” Klinsmann said. “Freddy is not considered in that group because we need to see more. We need to see killer passes. We need to see goals. We need to see really creative elements because you’re an attacking midfielder"

 

It depends how you look at it.

Klinsmann has called up some very "fringy" guys to squads during his tenure. I mean, I can't really explain Brad Evans to anybody and feel confident about my explanation.

Plus, may I add..............

"Deserves got nothing to do with it"

Often coaches simply like the skills sets of certain players over the skill sets of other players. Certain players simply fit better into a coach's scheme than others. Klinsmann obviously feels like a guy such as Graham Zusi has more of the qualities that he's looking for. And that's fine. He'll ultimately be judged on results, and if he gets results..................then the ends justify the means. If we look devoid of any sort of creativity in the attacking 3rd in these upcoming qualifies, then questions must be raised. Why didn't we call up guys such as Corona, Adu, and that type of player?

 

I will reiterate, Is winning the goal?

 

Btw, just to be clear...

Yes, I am a Freddy fan (I'm accused of not being one at times too, but despite my constantly pointing out his flaws and complaining even when he *has* played fairly well, e.g., Benefica and Aris, I do still hold out more hope for him than most).

The honest truth, though, is that I'm *not* sold on him as a USMNT player.

I just haven't ruled out him, either. My actual stance is "I don't know".

(And, quite honestly, I'm not entirely sold on most of our playmakers not named Landon or Clint either. While his USMNT portfolio alone is more suggestive to me than convincing, that's honestly good enough for consideration, imho, given our current player pool.)

 

I wouldn't agree with that at all. Perhaps the numbers are in the same region, but that means less to me than to most it seems. Holden has done a lot more when playing with the US team.

I don't even know what the world cup roster looks like right now, we're a year and a half out. I certainly don't think Adu can be relied upon, I don't know what he's done that's shown you he's the guy. If he had this quality that he just makes things happen, I'd imagine he wouldn't have had the club career he's had.

The sample size for the US isn't big enough to say he's such a consistent difference maker like the people on your side of the debate like to claim.

 

If Gatt, Mix, Corona, Juan, Brek, Zusi, Clint, Gyau, etc. played that exact game, folks would be beside themselves, giddy w/excitement. They'd be going *nuts*, imho! Since it's Freddy, though, they point to his failure at the club level and applaud his lack up callups, when they'd crucify JK (or whoever) were it any other player.

You could quite fairly come back by noting that any other player on his 9th club in 9 years would be universally written off by now. You'd be correct, imho, but that would also be missing the point.

I'm just saying to let actual USMNT performances help you decide who can help the USMNT, as opposed to relying on seemingly every predictor but that at times.

If folks do this and then feel like Ghosting does, I've got no problem w/ that at all. I've got my opinion (he's worth looking at) and they've got theirs. They may be biased, but I'm likely biased too (see my first paragraph). At least we're trying to use good criteria.

(Like Clint E. noted - he'd make my USMNT posting team, btw, if that team existed and I was its manager - managers, of course, also have to consider how folks fit with their systems and preferred player attributes. Hopefully the point is still who they think we help us win USMNT games, rather than who's "earned" callups by eating right or playing well against Chivas USA. I still submit that the best predictor of this is how they perform in actual USMNT games.)

 

This is a good point, imho, and is exactly why I, personally, classify his track record as suggestive as opposed to convincing. (This plus the fact every manager has different systems, preferences, etc., meaning past evidence may not neatly generalize.)

It is still a more direct kind of evidence than any other. So maybe that's the tradeoff: a smaller sample of more direct evidence vs. a larger amount of indirect evidence.

 

Yes, definitely. That's the balance. Although considering the things people have to stay about his training when in the US system, that's some more direct evidence.

Overall, the evidence (direct and indirect) is pretty overwhelming.

 

Winning is the goal.

The problem is Freddy does not help.

If Freddy helped - he would have a club.

He has no club - no one in the latest round of transfer window wanted him (much to the Adu fan boys despair).

 

Your right the sample size is small but I mean you have to admit he HAS played well when given the opportunity. Thats more than guys like Brad Davis, Wondo, Brad Evans, etc. who keep getting callups to camps but haven't really done anything on the field for us.

 

Your right the sample size is small but I mean you have to admit he HAS played well when given the opportunity. Thats more than guys like Brad Davis, Wondo, Brad Evans, etc. who keep getting callups to camps but haven't really done anything on the field for us.

 

No chance a creative, natural left footer could have been useful on the left side when we needed a goal in the second half today. But it's cool cause we could play an out of position, right footed Kljestan there instead. - said nobody ever

 

Bring him in. My god the national team needs something.

 

How about even more fitness work and even less practicing soccer?

(How about someone - me, now - hijacking a Freddy Adu thread, instead of Freddy talk doing the hijacking of a non-Freddy thread? Can't have that...so, bringing it back, did that JJ pass look familiar? While defense is clearly an issue, could we maybe use more of that? Off track again: I miss Landon. Up now is JK's presser. I highly doubt we hear anything unexpected.)

 

I'm not Adu's biggest fan but he I know he can do better then what Zusi has been doing.

 

It's ironic, because it's posts like this that are the problem. I pointed out he has two goals and three assists in his last 540 minutes, and you reply with this guano.

 

My post was more based on your, erm, posting history than that one specific post buddy.

However, I apologize for hurting your feelings and will play nice now.

 

All I know is that in the June 7 USA friendly verse Spain Freddy Adu was the only american that gave Spain FITS!!



This is the type of player we disparately need.

 

Not saying Graham should or shouldn't play, but I gotta admit that after a few flat yet floating, off-target, flaccid crosses/corners, I was thinking "Freddy's not here, Stu's been hurt, and JFT's on the bench, but at least we have *one* guy on the pitch who can put in decent, as opposed to worthless, crosses/corners (Zusi)".

 

The guy doesnt even have a club right now. Once he gets on a team and is playing then he can be discussed.

 

The other guys have clubs and on top of that start for said clubs. Discuss how bad they have been over qualifying.

 

Whoosh...Point missed.

 

Did you miss the game this afternoon? We just got beat by a bunch of MLS and Honduran based players. $%^& Europe and the so-called prowess it provides. WE STINK and have been for some time.

 

So if he gave Spain fits - how come not one club in the world is interested in signing him?

 

Did you see the Czech game?! They beat Turkey in Turkey and looked very good! It was such a good game. I was happy we won. We look very strong.

I can post completely unrelated things too.