Review: Start criticizing and holding players accountable

If Phillip Lahm had never written a book the MLS fan boy/JK critics wouldn't know who to criticize. Groupthink rules the day so now every soccer writer and MLS fanboy with a twitter account lashes out at JK for poor tactics.

If they accept it isn't just the coach, then they realize the problem is rooted much deeper and takes years to correct.

The same folks blaming JK and eviscerating him for not playing Nagbe also did the same with Mix, and it turns out Mix is absolute God awful trash.

Oh, but lets play Lee Ngyuen, and then we'll over run a midfield manned by Mascherano, right?

There's lots of holes on this team, Guzan is the worst GK in 25+ years. Bradley's lost it. Our forward pool is laughable minus Dempsey and even half of those players are always hurt. Jones has always been the most heavily criticized player, but he's one of the only Champs League caliber players on this team, and when he's healthy he makes the rest of MLS look stupid.

Yea, I wish to God Wondo wasn't on this team. Even so, the shift he put in vs. Argentina was embarrassing. A 30 yard bad touch/pass straight to Argentina resulting in him fouling Messi giving him the pk was one of the worst plays I've ever seen. And I've watched every bad touch Zardes has made with the USMNT. The whole reason JK picked him was to hustle and not screw things up, and it's actually all he did on the night. And he's still one of the best players in MLS.

 

Uninformed! OK how did Jermaine play against Argentina? He wasn't there and why was that? What about his long suspension?

JJ is fine for now but we should be moving away from him because of his temper and stupid card decisions. Instead we are more dependent on him than ever because our coach refuses to develop a proper contingency plan.

Sent from my STV100-1 using Tapatalk

 

Tell that bit of nonsense to Stu Holden, Herc Gomez, and now Landon Donovan. But hey what do they know?

 

Jones needs to go? Come on, dude. You say "to replace JJ, you have Kjlestan" who, himself, is over 30. I'm not arguing for or against Bradley. I don't think he's as bad as people say and at the same time he's not very good most of the time. He's just...average. Why are you looking to replace Bedoya with Danny Williams? Bedoya is only 29 and still does a lot of work for us. Danny Williams could potentially replace Jermaine Jones if he shows better for the NT than he has in the past. Kjlestan has had the same issue...better for club than country. Trapp is just insanely average.

 

His card record for the NT doesn't match his reputation. Seriously.

 

It's not just one bad game, imo. Any time I've seen him play against a more athletic, pressing team he has issues. He doesn't think fast enough and he's not good enough at ball retention. I would rather have Hyndman right now than Trapp.

 

I really wish we there was a viable alternative to Jermaine Jones. But, right now there really is not.

 

We'll have to agree to disagree.

 

Nope sir. I watch only MLS and college soccer. The american way is the best way, screw Klinsmann

 

How droll. It was well known that Low handled tactics and Jurgen did the big picture. I wanted Peckerman for that reason (who has taken Colombia from 27th in Elo to as high as 4th).

People know the players aren't the best, that's why they care about how they are coached.

 

You can think of someone who can instill more chaos?

 

Except that the points being made about Nagbe and Nguyen aren't about those players being saviors. For the most part, we've seen intelligent discussion of what they bring to the table and where they fit tactically. Also, note the nature of the discussion of why playing Beckerman, Zusi, and Wondo was a tactical blunder -- none of them except possibly Wondo was a "wrong" answer individually, but playing them together exacerbated their weaknesses and neutralized their strengths. The JK fanboys are arguing against straw men.

Who exactly attacked JK for not playing Mix Diskerud? I've literally never seen that. However, sticking with him after he was benched by his club -- and not benched for a foreigner, but benched for Mikey Lopez who was in the USL a year ago -- seems to be the exact opposite of what JK is preaching.

 

If people just understood that first paragraph I could be more productive.

People wanted to see Mix in Brazil. He has also generally played better for the US than NYC. I also said he was better than Corona coming out of the Olympic qualifiers but that's neither here nor there.

 

I took that as you saying that's his only purpose or skill. If not, my bad.

 

I still want to see Mix. He's almost always a net positive for the NT and yes, he plays better for country than club. The anti-Kjlestan.

 

Fear of?

 

You don't know/watch MLS.

Expansion has nothing to do with fear.

 

Re: JJ

Who is saying chaos is necessarily a bad thing? I don't think it was meant as a criticism. We really needed someone to be a disruptive presence against Argentina. They sliced and diced our midfield all night long.

I think that's why JJ really shines brightest for the NT against top competition and a bit less so against weaker CONCACAF squads: his disruptive presence becomes more valuable when we have less control of the run of play.

And I'm not saying that's all he brings to the table, just that it's a valuable quality that we have a hard time replicating when he isn't available.

 

My argument is that we have a hard time replicating because we try bad experiments. JK has tries to put square pegs in circle slots then pronounces JJ as hard to replace.

It is like when you dad is looking for something in the bedroom and calls your mom and she finds it right in his closet. Was he really looking or just killing time to call your mom and pretend he couldn't find it?

Sent from my STV100-1 using Tapatalk

 

Is it possible to disable the function on your phone that tells us that every f*cking post you make on here is "Sent from my STV100-1 using Tapatalk"?

 

Reyna did too.

 

When people say that college soccer hurts us with development some people shout "Dempsey!" or insert any good player that has played college as if it proves that college soccer does not hurt us. This is such a silly reply but it requires a rebuttal. Dempsey or Yedlin or any other USNT player that went to college would have been better players if they do not go to college. If we ever have a super star player that goes through college he will be an outlier. College soccer stunts a players development. Period. This is true on the aggregate and true with individual players.

 

On the other hand, Freddy Adu might have been a better player if he matured in college rather than getting thrown into the meat grinder at age 14. There is no la Masía here, and no economic incentive for clubs to develop players, without the MLS compensating clubs for development like the rest of the world.
Everywhere else, it is clubs who develop players, not confederations.

The argument is a silly one. We don't actually get to choose what path players take, they do. And considering the state of pro soccer here, college may be the best long term career choice for many.