Pitt's best movie for my money. Walz is awesome in it too. But, the Bear Jew.....I could have been him if I was a Jew in the 40's Europe.
If GB had been concerned about newbies needing time to 'settle in' then he could've forgone the 'false 9'. He could've also used Reyna in a manner familiar to the player.
He is entering his prime. This is going to be his best years. He has a chance to be a leader for this group. If he can take his game to 100% till 2023, he might just shock quite a few people. For WCQ, this is likely the core older group ( players like Chandler probably wont be called due to personal agendas). John Brooks (27) Lletget (28) Morris (26) Altidore (31) Long (28) Zardes (29) Arriola (25) If we make the 2022 WC and its November 2022. John Brooks (29) Lletget (30) Morris (28) ----------50/50------------- Long (30) ----------- Cut/moved on----------- Altidore (33) age/ talent overmatched him Zardes (31) Talent overmatched him Arriola (27) Talent overmatched him Outside of Brooks, it looks like a bunch of 90% ers. Not the Dempsey/Donovan/Jones class. But its really Lletget and Morris Chance to really make a difference and take it to 100%.
Based on needs, I'd take Zardes over Lletget. We have lots of options in midfield and few underneath.
I would happily move on from both. I agree there are plenty of other options in midfield. We have plenty of options up top that are a better fit for how we want to play.
just quietly competent until he loudly scores goals. a swiss army knife of a midfielder who gives the better players around him the space to look better.
Funny enough, I actually thought today was one of his worst NT performances prior to the goals, but I do agree, he consistently puts decent to good performances in for The NT. He will get minutes in qualifying and very well could in Qatar
I disagree with this. He was all over others’ space in the first half and didn’t combine well. He’s a vast dropoff from every other attacking player that played against Jamaica. My opinion, of course.
Yeah I agree, I thought he looked a step below the level for most of the game but he got his brace so you can't argue with the results. GGG loves the dude, he is cemented in the 23 for sure.
Any consideration to the realities he was in his preseason & this was his first down game for the NT unlike others on the field who'd struggled more often? Also, in their bad games they don't score a brace. When they do, it's not considered a bad game.
It's such a weird "feature" of this board, where people just get so butthurt all the time over whether a group of fans likes or dislikes a player. Why is it a problem that many/most want a 28 year old, who has played 18 minutes of competitive international soccer, and has never even been an MLS standout, to be a bench/backup option? Nobody hates the guy. He's an ok player. He works hard, and seems like a nice enough guy. He's very handsome. What's the big issue?
I think he brings a great example in maturity and work ethic that our young guys in this current group can look up to. Well done for me.
That’s completely fair. He is in preseason form. But he’s also a player we’ve all tracked for over a decade since he was trying to break into West Ham. He’s a known quantity, and there’s nothing I’ve ever seen from him as a player for Club or Country that would make him more than a roster guy on our 23 (which, mind you, is a very high level achievement) versus what seems to be an auto-starter for Berhalter. I don’t think two goals in the last 10 minutes of a disjointed friendly against Jamaica B changes that.
I saw it differently. I saw him in Dest and Pulisic’s way multiple times. It seemed like toward the end of the half he started to wise up, but he mucked up a lot from my view. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but that was my takeaway.
I'm literally re-watching. He's not. He's in the box sometimes, but he actually does a pretty consistent job of pulling his man away. He made maybe 3 errors all half, and didn't do much great, but he didn't bog down the game at all. Early on, Dest and Pulisic were both overdribbling. They both got out of that. Later, we were absolutely dominating but couldn't finish. That also had nothing to do with Lletget. He was Lletget. Steady, makes his moves to the right places. Finishes at a pretty decent rate. Which is more than the rest of the team can say.
Fair enough. I haven’t rewatched. And you couldn’t pay me to watch that first 30 minutes again. My initial impression was that he crowed space, provided nothing useful/proactive for the first 80 minutes (barring one good through ball I recall), and was very poor in his set pieces. But again, I have not rewatched and will give you some benefit of the doubt that I am overly harping on the negative. Edit to add: some of it might be that I’m grading on a bit of a curve since the guy should be in prime(ish) age right now, so future improvement is unlikely. Whereas someone like Reyna (proactive and disruptive, no end product) and even Cannon (pretty abysmal throughout) have a different bar as we build for the future.
The set pieces is pretty justified. But we have not found anyone to really do that. He wasn't massively impactful in the first half. He made runs that were ignored or decoys, and mostly just played as a recycler -- which is what those 8s are meant to do. He just wasn't the reason things weren't clicking at first, IMO I'd give the whole team a bit more time together -- they really did start to click. Someone on this team needs to learn to finish because we had a TON of chance.
He's done a lot to stake his claim. If he's healthy and others aren't (McK and Adams both could've taken his spot in theory) he's in. In a 26 man roster he's in. Hope he does make the final 23, he deserves it.
I doubt that Cannon's bar is even at Lletget level. And no way he prevents Gio from starting, or Wes and Adams. So on a healthy team he is a sub, and not a bad sub to have.