The Official Jeremy Ebobisse Thread

When Jebo scores from open play, not set pieces, I’ll give him the props he deserves. Good he’s among the top goal scoring, in the league, but it looks like window dressing...this team needs a W.

 

You know that 2 of his 5 goals are from open play right? (I believe).

 

Didn't he go like 12 games or something w/o scoring a goal?

I now kinda get what he's good at. He's got a good left foot but can't shoot with his right and wastes a lot of chances trying to get it on his left foot. His medium to long shooting accuracy is not great. He can score with his head but doesn't generally rise up over CB's to score. He's got better than average speed but does not have elite speed. So what's he good at? His movement in the box is very cagey - he's quick and slides into position and scores a fair amount of close range goals.

 

So you are saying he’s a Wondo in the making? That sounds promising

 

I think the end result - getting on the end of close finishes, could be similar (though I don't expect Jebo to be as prolific a scorer as Wondo was) but the "mechanism" is different. With Jebo I think it's more physical quickness and with Wondo it was more of the mental game. But the more of the mental game Jebo can pick up from Wondo, look out!

 

So long as he receives consistent service, it looks like Ebobisse will be able to convert goals. He's got good awareness and confidence in the box. I get why he's the furthest forward in the lineup. I've voiced my opinion about this many times, but if the other players can keep feeding Ebobisse the ball and he can keep getting in his flicks, then I won't have too much to complain about on the offensive side of things.

 

Now let's do goals/$ and get the intls out of there altogether .

 

You might not like that math when Tati Castellanos is sold for 15 million.

 

Meanwhile, Portland, who was happy to offload Jebo, doesn't have a more productive player than Tuiloma, at 5g, 0a in comparison to Jebo's 9g, 1a.

 

I don't think anyone could ever make a "favorite foot" accusation about Wondo though

 

I know this comment is from over a month ago, but it seems really misguided to me. Ebobisse is scoring at an extremely high rate right now (likely unsustainable, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts). I'm not really sure I understand what scoring from open play vs. scoring from set pieces has to do with anything.

As of this month, he has been scoring from open play. Secondly, the Quakes were notorious for their lack of scoring on set pieces. I feel like the best thing their opponents could do was kick the ball out for a corner kick when defending because there was a practically 0% chance the Quakes would convert. Being able to convert those chances into goals is a huge improvement.

We all want the team to win, but criticizing your primary goal scorer for scoring goals, no matter how they accomplish it, strikes me as strange. And I'll go on the record as having criticized Wondolowski many, many times. He always scored goals and my criticisms were really more about how the rest of the team was organized around him, but I'm happy to say that my criticisms back then were misguided, or at the very least, incomplete.

And besides, Ebobisse is far more mobile than Wondolowsi ever was, and so offers things that he couldn't. The issues the Quakes face with regards to getting wins is not because they aren't scoring goals, it's because they can't defend. I think very little of that is because of Ebobisse. Unless you expect him to score on literally every opportunity he gets, the Quakes are going to struggle. They'd have to score three goals a game minimum to get wins given how poorly they defend.

 

Fully agree. He is doing a lot of little things well which is leading to the goals. I really like how is checking into the midfield and moving the ball around. He is working well with both Cade and Espinoza. His control in tight space has been better and is making faster decisions.

On a side note, I agree with your comments on Wondo and the Quakes. While it's not a direct criticism of Wondo, I think it's fair to say that Wondo's success came at the detriment of the Quakes success (or lack there of). The Quakes were too built to getting him the ball rather than having a diverse attack. When Wondo was off or the service wasn't good, it impacted the Quakes. Other than 2012, no one was there to step and take the load.

 

OTOH you could argue that the Quakes current attack is designed to get the ball to Jebo. He's the lone forward - the only one playing centrally. There are no other "goal scorers" per se on the team, just guys that occasionally score goals, like Monteiro, Cade, Espinoza, and Yueill. Wondo often had the benefit of a "target" guy to play off of - Lenny or Gordon, etc.

I guess you could argue that by playing Wondo and a target guy (generally not super mobile - except for Lenny), you are committing to 2 forwards who are not all that mobile, and you sacrifice a chance to win the midfield. We now have 1 forward and a bunch of mobile midfielders, and our 1 forward is also mobile.

But whatever we're doing now, it's somehow working. I'm kind of surprised to be honest because we looked so anemic at the beginning of the season - lots of "purposeless possession". Hate to say it, but I think getting Grey Goose out of the lineup has helped. He's primarily a "purposeless possession" guy.

 

Yeah, that's really what I was getting at. The Quakes just expected Wondolowski to score all the time (which he mostly did), but it really limited their imaginations on how to improve the team overall. That's no Wondolowski's fault, it's the fault of the GM and ownership.

But as you mentioned, Ebobisse is active in more parts of the field more often and in different ways, which should help other Quakes create and convert opportunities. I do expect that the Quakes will start to score less often any game now. Ebobisse has been the biggest goal contributor by far. So we'll see how they cope there. And, as much as I hate to say it, Ebobisse's history of head injury does raise questions about his longevity in the game. Without him, they will sure struggle.

So I'm a bit nervous that the Quakes are putting themselves in a position to rely too much on him as they did with Wondolowski. I have to hope that Leitch is more conscious of this kind of stuff, but of course he's got more important issues to deal with regarding the roster.

 

Taylor Twellman redux.

 

With 9 goals in 14 games, Jebo (now 25) is on track for a Wondo-like season. But looking at his past record, jebo is not even close to accomplishing what Twellman produced between 2002-2005 at age 22-25. Jebo has to do a lot more convincing to make the USMNT before the WC, and it might just be too late. His concussion susceptibility alone could be enough to keep him off the team. Think of what a Sergio Ramos or Rafa Marquez type might try to do to him on the field...

 

Maybe he’ll get another shot at some point - maybe a January call-up, but it’s OK. He can be one of those players like Wondo who rakes for his club team but is not all that “rated” by his national team. That means less games missed and more goals scored. Jebo did join Cameroon at least once though. Don’t know if that will become a regular thing or if he’ll become cap-tied, etc.

I think Jebo’s holdup / combination play is as good as or better than guys like Ferreira, Pepi, and certainly Zardes. His main weakness is that he is too one-footed. He’s always trying to maneuver to his left foot when he’s got the ball in the box and many opportunities go wanting. If he could fix that he’d be a better player and have a better shot at nats minutes.

 

Hopefully he stays off Berhalter's radar. The Quakes offense would probably implode without him and it's hard for me to imagine he comes back a better player, anyway.