Luca de la Torre

Phenomenal performance. He has to hsve upended Roldan and maybe lletget in the depth chart. He does everything they do, better. Love his fight, love his showing for the ball. He’s a player

 

Phenomenal?

 

Never has a nice but hardly gamechanging performance, at home, against an eliminated team in a knockout tournament with a goal differential of checks notes ... -17 ... been so overrated across a fanbase.

Do people remember that Roldan and Lletget were very good against Honduras in Honduras?

I don't even think they really play the same positions fundamentally, but I'd take Luca over Lletget right now, but there's so much overcompensation because people don't want to see Lletget and Roldan.

 

Overrated across a fanbase or overrated by Gregg Berhalter who gave LDLT his MOTM??

Gregg Berhalter said Luca de la Torre had a MOTM performance against Honduras last night 👏

Here’s what he did.

(via @dis_possessed)

pic.twitter.com/ayRDnXNqJ3

— USMNT Only (@usmntonly) February 3, 2022

Gregg Berhalter says Luca de la Torre was the coach's MOTM. #USMNT

— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) February 3, 2022

Fire Gregg for not giving the MOTM to Roldan or Lletget who were very good against Honduras in Honduras!!

 

Granted, the competition was weak, but Luca was progressing the ball, connecting passes, and using space in a way I’ve never seen from the other players mentioned. It was refreshing, in a big way.

I don’t know if we could do it against higher level competitors, but I’d like to see more from him. I hope he’s called in for the next window.

 

I'm not entirely sold on Luca as far as his overall quality to be honest. He's a bit lightweight and doesn't really create a ton or provide a threat to score. That said, he may be the type of player this team lacks. He is a guy focused on connecting play, making smart passes and filling space. We lack all of those things in many games. And he seemed to get around the field a bit better and releases the ball a bit quicker than Busio, who I would classify as his closest competition that brings similar traits. For a team that plays with the ball too much and looks to make the big plays too often, he was refreshing. He looked forward but not at the expense of overplaying. But, this was against a really poor Honduras and his first touch on the ball saw him pushed aside pretty easily. I fear a lot of teams will body him off the play and personally, I'd like to see him against an opponent that actually puts up a bit of a fight before he can be fully convincing. But he definitely earned a chance for more minutes and a longer look.

 

This is so weirdly forced. Do you want to try again?

Well below your usual trolling.

 

Sure.... maybe? I'm not sure if we're agreeing. If you think it is rare we've had people play a basic connector role where they make the simple, correct pass quickly, then yes, I'm with you. We don't have a lot of guys like that in the pool.

But I've also seen people claim that we have no one else who can create advantage in the midfield through the dribble and that's patently insane. It's literally Musah's #1 talent and a big strength of McKennie. Like I read that, and am truly wondering if people are watching the same thing.

Before the match, people were screaming we needed chance creation from the midfield. Luca de la Torre did NOT provide that. He provided nice connection, and his simple style of play is refreshing. But I'm just not sure where "phenomenal" comes from.

Well, I'm sure. It's because he's positioned against players who people hate.

But that word is usually used for someone who creates or scores goals, or dominates the midfield, not a dude who mostly made the simple pass to a winger or fullback against a team in full bunker.

 

Luca did a good job of shuttling against a bad and beaten Honduras, it doesn't call for hyperbole bb that he's better than Lletget or Roldan at everything. He doesn't provide anywhere near the goal danger or aerial threat of either Lletget or Roldan fot example. Roldan probably had more Xg in 7 minutes.

For context. Luca has 1 goal in 54 Heracles games and over 4 k minutes.

 

I think rather than it being about Roldan or Lletget, it’s about a guy that wasn’t getting called in/only had 13 minutes in qualifying. I was happy to see LDLT start, mostly because I could finally see whether he belonged. I think he does.

 

You can’t call out LDLT for a perceived lack of goals and then bring up Roldan in comparison. He has 0 goals in 30 appearances.

 

This post is pretty spot on with the way I see it. Big question in my mind with him is the physicality issue. Another thing that struck me was that it seemed like the weighting on some of his passes were bit off last night. I'd probably give him the benefit of the doubt with that though in that field and conditions probably had something to do with it. In any event, he looked bright last night to me even if it was against a poor team that was going through the motions.

What he has 100% earned in my mind is at least a chance to prove his worth against better competition. I very pleased GGG started him, he needs to continue to add players like Gio, LDLT, Busio, and Ledezma to his midfield tool box. Not every problem calls for the blunt force of an MMA.

 

Precisely, and I think this Mexico team needs a surgical scalpel, not a sludge hammer

 

Luca is a refreshing view because US fans tired to see backward passes. He controlled ball and driving forward kind of like Musah or McKennie but a little different.
Musah is more powering off defenders to drive forward, Luca is more half-circled around defenders to drive forward.

 

I think most of us just wanted to see some alternatives tried. Busio and Luca have a bit more to offer at the international level. I would say the same of a healthy Eryk Williamson. I was impressed by his performance in the Gold Cup final.

 

You can only play the opponent in front of you. On a squad whose principal weakness (for > 1 year) has been progressing the ball through the midfield and connecting with the forwards, it is little wonder GB called Luca MOTM.

 

That's fine.

I want to see Paxton Pomykal. But if he plays and does a nice role player role, I am going to say he was good, and I'd like to see more. But I'm not going to claim he played phenomenal when he didn't or start a "Pomykal! What A Performance!" thread on reddit or claim that he played amazing defense because he had a few recoveries.

I'm happy he got PT and think his style of play is sorely needed. But I'm still going to point out where it was Honduras, that he doesn't solve creativity issues and that I'm still concerned about his defense against a real team.

If you have a good argument, there's no reason for hyperbole.

 

I'm glad you mentioned Pomykal. I still hold out hope he could return on his pre-injury trajectory.

 

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I have reason to believe that Roldan can and will chip in his share of goals as he's done it for years in MLS.

I can give a string of Roldan goal clips. You can't do the same for Luca because he has 1 senior professional goal.

 

I'm worried about the short leg thing because he is a talent. He was my second favorite player from the U20 WC after Weah.

 

True.

To be fair, LDLT hasn't had a stinker of a performance yet, and that's encouraging.

 

Pull up 1 video of Roldan scoring for the US. How do a bunch of clips from the most consistent MLS team the past ten years supersede 30 appearances?

 

Um this is false please stop spreading misinformation... it's now 31 caps for Roldan without a goal!