Very insightful article about Donovan's last two stints abroad. Very good stuff on his stint at Bayern Munich. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/raphael_honigstein/05/19/donovan.bayern/index.html Disclaimer for mods: The Landon at Everton threads were all locked, so I started a new one. Maybe a good place for LD transfer-rumor discussion.
In Everton, he was as Moyes described, a "missing piece of the puzzle". In Bayern, he wasn't. Klinsmann thought he'd fit into their style but most teams bunkered against them and Donovan's weakest part is his ability to play in tight quarters. Plus, he was not mentally tough to overcome a lot of the locker-room negativity toward him. In Everton, he was accepted and gave a "run&gun" team an added ability to "run". I said before his stint in England that Everton was going to be the best choice for him and, while I definitely underestimated how well he'd blend in, I was right about the reasons for it. Donovan is not a "Spain - hold and dribble" guy. He needs space. Moyes understood it perfectly and exploited this angle of Landon's game. Which is why David is still employed and Jürgen is not. As to further moves, some rich teams may bite but no one plays the run&gun quite like Everton.
I thought the quote of the Bayern amateur team coach was revealing, as well as the fact that Donovan was the only guy that Klinsmann wanted to transfer in. And finally, the confusion among Bayern players as to why Donovan was being chosen ahead of Podolski. Talk about heaping the pressure on a guy. And as we all know, Bayern is not exactly the most nurturing environment to begin with.
an american in germany will always have more of a hard time than in the epl where he doesn't have a language barrier. i'm convinced he would have done well at any mid flight team in the uk and perhaps some (sub-) top clubs even.
Bayern is a dog-eat-dog atmosphere and has been for ages. The whole Stefan Effenberg-Thomas Struntz debacle was par for the course there. Klinsmann was strong mentally to handle it when he was there. Donovan couldn't. Gerland didn't have a bad thing to say about Landon personally. Höneß was just being .... well, Höneß. Donovan had less of a language barrier than half of Bayern ...
It is never a bad idea to agree with your boss like Gerland did in that power struggle, especially if you value your job. Some of the things he said are utterly ridiculous. He said he never saw Donovan outrun anyone in training, yet there were reports of Donovan being on of the fastest players on the team when they did their fitness tests. I would take anything that guy says with a cargo ship full of salt. Donovan was just a pawn in a political power struggle at Bayern and he was always going to be used against Klinsmann if he did anything besides win the golden boot for the Bundesliga in 3 months. This should give Donovan a little extra motivation (if he needed any) in the WC if teh US meets Germany in the second round.
LD will have a hard time with Bayern and all the other big clubs who need their wingers to beat defenders 1v1 in tight spaces because most teams bunker against the top clubs. LD's playing style just doesn't translate to the way most top clubs play, that's why I think he shines for the US(& would shine for a Europa League challenging squad in a top 4 league), all his strengths are magnified because we depend on it. His speed on the counter. His passing, vision & obviously his PK/FK/Corners.
jacques is going a bit overboard, but you have to admit donovan was treated with a lot more respect in liverpool than he was in munchen. germans aren't evil, they are getting rather fond of dutchies lately, supposedly their arch rivals when it comes to soccer.
Yup. Yup. I mean, seriously, if Gerland didn't actually see Donovan outrun anybody in training, he wasn't watching training. We can debate the more complicated points of Donovan's skill set and mentality, but it hardly takes a friggin' Fußball genius to notice that Donovan is faster than most professional soccer players, with or without the ball at his feet. And Gerland didn't even have to watch training to see that. He could just have watched a DVD of Donovan running past German defenders in South Korea.
That's an unfortunate picture of Donovan in the pink and black road Everton kit rather than the blues in the SI article. Those kits should be burned.
Nothing would please me more than to see the USA advance and face Germany in the 2nd round. When Donovan puts the ball in the back of the net and sends the Germans home packing, I would pay good money to see the look on Uli Hoeness' face. I would slap that Bavarian knucklescraper so hard his head might actually escape the tight hold of his rectum. What an imbecile he is. And when Inter rape Bayern on Saturday, I will shout for joy as Louis "I died 20 years ago" van Gaal and Uli "Is your mom still a" Hoeness go crying to FIFA about Ribery. What a joke that club is. It's not FC Hollywood. It's FC Trailer Trash. Gesundheit!
I think I already mentioned this on another thread, but I would really love to see the US play Germany again (mostly for 2002 payback). A win would make me unspeakably happy. But it would be especially sweet if Donovan were to drop a hat trick on them and then say in the post-game conference, "Well, I think Löw's biggest mistake in the game was not fielding Bayern Munich's reserve team. Like Uli Hoeness said, those guys were all way better than me." And, yeah, I'm gonna be rooting for Inter. And it takes a lot to keep me from rooting against Mourinho.
I think there's some merit to what your saying, but I would say that in this point in LD's career he could manage on just about any team if given a fair opportunity. The LA Galaxy are the big dog in MLS and Landon has been able to produce in tight spaces against teams that bunker down etc... I think he would excel at Liverpool, Chelsea or Everton he's just that good
Of all the things to criticize Landon for - he's very technical and has all the basics, but is not fast enough? My god. Nice of Gerland to give some quotes, but he comes across as an idiot.
No, it means he never outran anyone ... or perhaps, never tried to beat anyone off the speed "Aaron Lennon type" dribble ... but I guess it's easier to cast aspersions on people ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Gerland
It is a ridiculous quote, and it was an unfortunate situation. It had nothing to do with being "mentally tough enough" (speaking of aspersions!), it was a no-win situation that thankfully was overwritten by a good experience at Everton. As for Donovan not being able to play in Spain, I know some in the league, now, who would disagree.
We'll, you're the one who says that dead coaches would make better in-game adjustments than Bob Bradley. Look, nobody's saying that Gerland lacks a solid resume. We're not even saying he's a bad judge of talent. We are saying that on this point he has little credibility because he's saying things that serve the party line rather than match reality. I mean, I watched those BM training videos when Donovan was there, and even in that small sample I saw him outrun a few guys in the limited space of small-field scrimmages.
To compare MLS teams to mid/low level EPL, German, French, Italian teams is insane. Bunkering down by MLS teams against the Galaxy is not even close to Wolves, West Ham, etc against Chelsea. Everton was obviously a perfect fit. I would rather watch him on a team like Everton, Aston Villa, Tottenham playing a Chelsea/Man U/Arsenal.
Whats Next For Donovan After a succesful World Cup i could see him at Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool or Valencia Not so good World Cup back to Everton for a loan or bought by Fulham Or America (Mexico)