Southampton 'bid $8.6million for Antalyaspor & USA striker Haji Wright, short of $11m asking price' | Daily Mail Online
Sure. I believe that. I mean, they sold him to Coventry for $400k more a few months later, but totally, that was it. Here's the reality -- if someone bids $8.6M and the other side wants $11M ... shit gets done. They settle on something like $9.5 and everything moves along. OOOOOOR... Haji's agent leaked something to the Daily Mail, which doesn't fact check shit, and they printed it for clicks. You decide.
Not really, look at what he does after he does it. Someone who does that, with no intention, isn't looking back to see the result of the intentions, which is exactly what he did. A fair description of what he did is equal parts something lucky and something good, because that's what he did, he backward flicked it into danger, hoping for a runner, hoping for something, and instead he did it so perfectly, it just went in. As for the game. he was the the guy that made the run, another guy made the perfect through ball. I don't know about you, but I don't recall Ferreira running into space, creating opportunities with teammates, I remember him coughing up the ball 57,000 times. I would have to rewatch to see if its 2 or 3 opportunities, or more, but its at least 2 which is more than most of his teammates created that day. None of this is meant to suggest that I think he's relevant. Honestly, I think that was his moment. He'll always have his world cup goal, but that's a wrap. What matters to me is that he made himself a part of the debate, when from 2018- (January) 2021, he was not only a part of the debate, he wasn't even considered a player of any talent or relevance whatsoever. So good for him, he's got himself a legit pro career, he's got himself 50+ career goals in Europe, he's gotten call ups in the shirt, and done a teeny bit with them. That's far better than anyone expected four or five years ago so good for him. If you disagree with me about him, as you do, that's fine, I'm not married to my own perspective on him because I'm not sure what he is and I'm fairly certain he's largely irrelevant going forward as a USMNT player. This isn't 2017-2021 when we had no answers to speak of at striker, just speculation. Now we have Pepi and Balo in tier 1, and Sargent in tier 2, and a giant pile of options in tier 3 and tier 4, where Wright is situated isn't particularly relevant going forward unless he suddenly, shockingly becomes more a 20 mill player rather than an 8-10 mill guy.
Wishcasting is s fair description. We don't know the depth chart, many people want it to be the case that Jesús is way down the chart but the evidence is inconclusive at this point. I can't agree with calling Wright mediocre. He's scoring at a good rate and his npXG is elite.
It's not so much that I think Ferreira is undervalued, but I think Sargent is overvalued. He has his fans, which is fine, but Josh has not done enough for the NT to be considered our clear #2 or even #3 option. He's in the bubble, at best, at this point.
Non-PK League Goals/90 stats of every striker that has started a USMNT game at CF in the past 2 years or so Balogun - 0.43 in Ligue 1 Dike - 0.55 in EFL Championship (0.53 in MLS) Ferreira - 0.40 in MLS (but 0.53 in last 2 MLS seasons) Pefok - 0.33 in BL (0.28 in Ligue 1; 0.67 in Switzerland) Pepi - 0.47 in Eredivisie (0.51 in MLS) Sargent - 0.46 in EFL Championship (0.24 in BL; 0.11 in EPL) Vazquez - 0.41 in MLS & Liga MX White - 0.47 in MLS Wright - 0.41 in EFL Championship (0.51 in Turkey & Denmark) Zardes - 0.37 in MLS (but 0.49 at Columbus) Not sure if I had a point there, but I figured with all the CF stat comparisons in this thread, some might find those numbers useful.
You can’t count those non-league match G+A my man. At most you can get some credit when they come against fellow first division sides.
Overall I don’t think Sargent has done that well for the national team but I’d have him as the clear 3rd choice all around ST. The drop down in level has been good for his game and his confidence. He’s getting more time as an actual ST. His fundamentals and profile make him valuable (can defend from the front, can be an outlet, can drop in and combine). If we need more of a target go Pefok (who has been worse in a U.S. shirt). From a roster building perspective he provides some cover wide and can play off another ST.
I'd like to see the team try a two forward formation just to have in the back pocket in case of winger injuries.
That's why I separated them out when I was talking about it. I grant it, he played against that Furth club and another even worse side back then, so the Pokal stuff is lesser, but it's still int he shirt and in competition so I am going to acknowledge it, but also asterisk it.
A gold plated chance fell to our best player and he piddled it away. Our captain failed to play basic defense giving up an early goal and our Champion's League FB went to sleep on the dagger before half. But people want to talk about a striker.
And people seem to be downgrading his current play over half of a game 1.5 years ago in a way that isn't happening to other players. Too many opinions offered in this thread don't comport with what's happening in the games.
I'm OK with folks arguing Ferreira isn't in our top 3 on the depth chart right now. I just think some folks go overboard with the criticism. Like the Pirates of the Caribbean jokes. Those are the games Ferreira has gotten for the most part. He's done well. He's started very few games that actually mattered for the USMNT. One happens to be the Holland game, in which most of the roster played poorly. As of right this minute I take Pepi, Balogun, and Sargent to the Nations League. Although there's plenty of time left for that to change. Vazquez and Wright have a case to make too. Those guys are "in season" for March, the MLS guys will only be a couple of weeks into the season when Berhalter has to select his roster. So I don't know how Ferreira makes the roster.
He's usually played well in the games that mattered. People forget that many people had him as the starting striker by the end of WCQ because of how good the attack looked with him in the middle.
Since Balogun committed, moving everybody down a peg, how many "A" team games has Ferreira started? Zero. He hasn't really been in the squad. Wasn't in the squad at all for the fall friendlies and T&T series under Berhalter So this seems like folks are arguing a lot about a fringe player. It would be like having a Paul Arriola thread at this point. Ferreira only started three games that really mattered last cycle. Two WCQers and the Holland game. The two WCQers were the perceived "easy" games in 3-game windows. We won them both comfortably. Important for sure, but at no point last cycle did Ferreira look like Berhalter's #1. I have no idea why he turned to Ferreira against Holland. Just saw something tactically, I guess. Jesus played less minutes than Sargent and Wright at the World Cup.
The fact that he scored 8 goals in 7 games in 2023 and won the Golden Boot at the Gold Cup all at 22 years old is why I think he's worth watching. He's only been active for 3 years and is tied with Cobi Jones for 13th all time in goals. The kid has 15 in 22. He’s only 2 goals from top 10.
I'm as big of a Ferreira fan as anybody. I started watching him when he was 9 years old in the Dallas academy. But when it comes to the USMNT, he's now fighting on the fringes. If he keeps scoring in MLS, he'll keep getting opportunities. We can tell where Jesus stands since Berhalter started his second tenure, though. Zero callups. Not even in the squad. What's interesting is Berhalter didn't even take a 3rd center forward to the fall friendlies. Just Pepi and Balogun. Chose instead to take extra wingers like Zendejas. Why? I'm not sure.
I wouldn't read too much into the fall rosters. There are reasons he may have been left out of each. Ferreira missed two games for FCD due to illness at the end of August, which may have played into the decision to leave him out in September. In October, FC Dallas was fighting for a playoff spot, and Berhalter has historically tried to avoid callups that impact the MLS playoff race or MLS playoffs. For the November Nations League games, Ferreira was injured. I don't think he's top 3 in the depth chart, but I also don't think he's dropped as far as some others have suggested.
I put him in low as hell on my depth chart, but I fully believe he's probably 4th-5th on Berhalters, at worst 6th (it would not surprise me if he's a bit more interested in Vasquez if for no other reason than Vasquez is blowing up too AND offers something nobody in the pool other than kind of Pepi and Pefok offers (size and the ability to play with it, consistently). I think Ferreira is probably behind Sargent, and may be beyond Vasquez, but I'm skeptical he'd be behind Wright, or Dike (definitely not), and Pefok (although people should note, if nothing else, he seemed to have Pefok higher in the depth chart than most at the end of August '22 (probably #3). I think Wright is, in the language of the NCAA Tourney, one of the first on the bubble out, maybe THE FIRST.
For as much information is out in the general public now there is still a ton that only the coaches, staff, players, and club team know. Even us board nerds only see a fraction of the information the staff uses to make roster decisions. All games but the actual WC and final round of WCQ have competing interests. All of that has to be balanced. No absolute right or wrong answers.
..................these days we have so many games and competitions that a guy who's 6 or 7 or 8 on the depth chart is still going to be getting opportunities. We have the Nations League, Copa America, the Olympics, etc. etc. There are going to be injuries and suspensions. After Pepi and Balogun, I have no clue what the depth chart looks like. Sargent and Wright haven't played a minute in a US jersey since the World Cup. As we said, Berhalter didn't bring in a 3rd forward for any of the fall friendlies or the T&T Nations League series. If everybody is healthy, and folks want to bring in Paredes and Tillman with the "core guys"..............there is a numbers crunch there. One thing I would say is this first Nations League game is against Jamaica. Who scored against Jamaica in the Gold Cup? Survey says? Brandon Vazquez