I loved the highlight, as mentioned above, but upon further viewing of his Stuttgart highlight the thing that stuck out most was that he virtually *never* uses his left foot. Developing that would also help him a ton in terms of navigating the final third.
As a youth coach we practice once a week using non-lead foot only. Passing, receiving and shooting. Yes the practices are less effective at the beginning but by the end of the year the kids all improve. Wish more places did that. But when youre in the pipeline a lot of it is win now. So you gotta ride strengths instead of improving weaknesses. Once you get to that pro level it has to happen on the side. I think he's u20 so he has a lot of time, but he definitely needs to improve on that aspect to really take his game to another level based on what I've seen which is mostly highlights/touch videos and USMNT games.
Musah with the most minutes for any Valencia player during the preseason, playing as a central midfielder now... remember when many people here doubted him? USMNT international Yunus Musah had the most minutes out of every Valencia player during the preseason. Could this be the year he locks down a starting spot with Valencia? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/uSXLOZlOaK— Takes 🇺🇸 (@USMNTTAKES) August 1, 2022
Me neither. From the moment I saw him play I knew he was the real deal. I can’t remember a single American player from the last 25 years who has his skill set. I’m not sure how that wasn’t obvious to everyone…
You only have to go back to early in this thread to see people justifying Gregg not playing Musah in the Nations League games... just a couple months later when Musah was playing so well for the US in qualifying, some would retcon the reasoning to "Musah didn't want to be cap tied" at least until Musah himself stated multiple times that wasn't the case. But right after Nations League there were excuses like Gregg has spent more time with guys like Yueill and Acosta, and they know their responsibilities better. Or that it's not surprising Gregg went with Lletget, a guy who has scored goals for the national team. Or more vague results-based stuff like "Gregg just opted for other attributes in central midfield for these Nations League games. And we won, so the proof is in the pudding." But beyond the usual knee-jerk "calm down you unwashed masses, < appeal to authority >" type justifications for almost every decision, some were critical at the time... Oh well at least just a few months later people could all at least agree that Musah is "old enough"?? Maybe he went to that planet from Interstellar...
bumped from June 8, 2021 a time when some were speculating (based on absolutely zero evidence) that Musah was reconsidering his commitment to los estados unidas
Some people were on the "MMA midfield" really early on, long before it had the name... this comment was from March 18, 2021:
I believe it was obvious to everyone right from the outset. I said he'd likely be a key player for us this cycle right after his debut, and that the MMA midfield would dominate Mexico.
I think I might have coined that nickname but it is pretty obvious so who knows? I do know that I was for Musah just for fun at first to make the nickname a thing. Not that I didn't see his potential but he was so young and CM is tough for the super young.
Yunus Musah also says he's had the World Cup trophy as the screensaver on his phone for two years now pic.twitter.com/YCMu0y40mI— Henry Bushnell (@HenryBushnell) August 25, 2022 On a La Liga presser with ESPN, Yunus Musah was just asked by the @AP what he thinks of the #USMNT kits for the World Cup.He laughed and said, "I cannot say...the kits are...yea they are the kits that we have."😂😂😂😂— Kyle Bonn (@the_bonnfire) August 25, 2022
Great idea. I just resorted to good old-fashioned bribery with my son. When he was 9, I told him we'd get ice cream after every game where he scored with his left (weaker) foot. I spent quite a bit of money during that season, as the ice cream was premium stuff! He REALLY tried to get cute when he scored a hat trick of goals with his left foot one game and asked me if that meant he got three shakes instead of one . . .
Awesome, it's the fun stuff like that, that really makes the game fun for families. My Dad coached us in baseball and every time we hit a double or triple we got bubble gum. So man we churned those bases like crazy. Got thrown out a lot but he was teaching us and we didn't know it, just thought we were making him buy us candy.
I'm sick of him being awesome for the USMNT and then being OK for his club team. Get your S together and start impacting games. I mean, Neco Williams is 19. He's had a great start.
Here we go. Cavani to Valencia look like #Cavani - Twitter Search / Twitter Now things are beginning to get interesting.
I took a different approach. I hit them with a switch whenever they used their dominant foot. That also worked. I keed i keed But seriously, the two of my kids who played competitive soccer could all serve in a competent cross with their non-dominant foot by age 10. It just takes a little attention and encouragement from a coach or parent. Btw I detect signs of life in Musah's left foot. But I wonder why it took so long for him to get trained up.
I'll be honest, the first thing I thought was that this was justification for Gregg insisting on playing Musah as a CM when soooo many were saying that he should be on the wing. I guess everyone has their drum to bang.
I'm not sure who you're referring to, I certainly always considered Musah a CM... even when Valencia were playing him as a winger I thought it was understood that wasn't his position long term... and then you have the fact that the USMNT already has like ten wingers, while guys like Lletget were starting at CM.
We're counting it Called off, but we can still admire this @yunusmusah8 ROCKET 🚀 https://t.co/Y2XJ0b75mk— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) August 29, 2022 They really disallowed this Yunus Musah GOLAZO because of a foul in the buildup 🤬(via @ESPNFC) pic.twitter.com/T4RbN5M9JB— USMNT Only (@usmntonly) August 29, 2022
He definitely has my permission to try to hit one from distance whenever space opens up. Kid’s got a laser beam on his right foot.