Most CAM's in MLS are not American. Quick, name the American MLS equivalents that play Green's role! Rowe? Nguyen? Feilhaber? Am I missing anyone? Two of those guys are on the same team. And none of them are 23. I'm not a big fan of Green, but I don't think we have a load of options at his spot.
23 is irrelevant. Green is a finished product. Besides we played for many years without that magic AM. Two forwards + 2 attacking wingers, with 2 central midfielders. We just need to drop stupid 4-5-1 as we don't have good target forwards anyway.
Green isn't a CAM either. He's a secondary striker. He plays the game very differently than a CAM. I'm not saying that there are many great options, but I don't think Green should be an option.
Rowe was last seen playing LB for NE. MVLee and Benny play DMs for LAFC in theri 4-2-3-1! While he has not been spectacular, Green has been one of the best performing AMs since Sarachan has brought him back to the team. He holds up the ball very well, keeps possession and circulates the ball very well even if unfortunately slower than we should play. He is consistently dangerous on the ball and again led us in fouls suffered, earning us free kicks in good areas of the field. He has more than held his own of the defensive side of the ball with outstanding work rate pressing from the top of our shape. In the last match he had more tackles than Acosta and Bradley combined and led the squad in distance covered. There are players we could be complaining about over Sarachan's tenure but Julian Green is just not one of them.
Nope. If Green is really the only option we’ve got at the 10 then we should play a system that doesn’t need a 10. He has no ideas going forward other than to occasionally have a shot. I don’t think Weah is a 10 either, but no way in a million years could Green play or even see the pass Weah played against Colombia. He’ll eventually score one if he gets to play long enough and people will overreact, but it won’t mean he’s any good at the position. He has 5 goals and 2 assists in three years as a first team player, mostly in the 2.Bundesliga. He’s just not very good. Here’s a helpful gif thread that illustrates my point.
The only idea that is illustrated by that thread is that Wil Trapp is not an international level player.
I want to see a 3 CB look in this type of setting but being isolated 1v1 and winning those duels is absolutely a critical requirement from a fullback and Robinson has been exposed individually for not being good enough. He's young but at some point that excuse ends and the blame shifts.
Green was the least of our problems. Actually, he was one of the better performers against Colombia and has been in most of the games he has played under Davey S. I swear some of you guys will never forgive the kid for accepting a spot offered to him by Klinsi. The Green hate is irrational based on his performances for the US this year.
The biggest problem is when you have a plan to use attacking fullbacks but the defensive mid or wide midfielder in front of him doesn't cover for their runs. Since generally the idea of the attacking fullback is to overlap the wide mid and flood that side with an extra player then it seems obvious the plan would be for a defensive mid to cover. Bradley just isn't mobile enough to do that so pairing him with Robinson was a recipe for disaster. Bradley is now only able to be a guy when the defenders are all mostly stay at home and he just dinks the ball around.
I appreciate that he hustles back and saves some goals. However he also costs you some. Immobile is probably exaggerated, relative to some of the stick figures like Gonzo who have worn the shirt. However, relative to the sort of Boca/Pope player I prefer, he is in fact less mobile, and easier to beat off the dribble. Both him and Brooks have the "but I am marking him I am 3-5 yards away" problem. I want a marking back bodied up and athletically able to dominate an opponent physically. I think we have gone in the unfortunate direction of skinny technical backs. To me I want dominant athletes with a knack for defending who could handle themselves on a 1-on-1 or even 2-on-1 island. Right now they are often vaguely in the right spot but either not close enough or unable to defend man to man consistently. The ability to mark a forward out of the game has been deprioritized so it's this question of who could actually do it at this level.
People act like MLS is some bastion of domestic mediocrity when it's really more like, most teams now start 6-8 foreign players and predominantly attacking ones. The level of play is pretty good and the ball stays on the ground much more now. But when you go scouting for the NT, at any given position, what are your options from MLS? It's a lot thinner than it used to be. Many teams have no one to offer or at least no one at a position you need. If you want to test it sometime, get on something like Wikipedia and go down MLS rosters for each team and think about it like, who would I call up. It's an education.
I liked Adams in the second half of Mexico in that role. I think one thing people are missing about the past couple games is whether using the meh 6s like they are any good is just a waste of time. If the 6s aren't effective ball winners and the defense is meh then just start the attackers and let's play eredivisie ball. Play to strengths and let your offense be your defense sitting on the other end. Make the other teams defend. If we sit back and our defense is not going to win balls and pitch shutouts, then we're playing to THEIR strengths. I felt like my Dynamo did this at the end of 2016 under their interim coach, a former defender. We had a lousy defense. We had a good offense. The coach bunkered and the offense fizzled and about all we could do is tie games. And if we gave up a goal, game over. For a team that put 5 on Dallas earlier in the season. if the medicine poisons the patient play to strengths instead. I think we should focus on finding other people for CB, wingback, and 6 roles, in part because I agree that I wish we could pitch shut outs. But if you truly drained the pool and found no one, then commit to offense because we are the best in the hex, still, at that. it sounds contradictory but it;s basically short term churn the defensive players and see if we have anyone. If you do that and the cupboard is bare, commit the other way because we do have plenty of offense. I say this because I keep hearing people say "we should play x." To play x you need the players to execute it, and it should play to the roster's strengths. IMO styles that try and cover up a weakness at the detriment of a strength don't tend to do much. The formation tends to emphasize using players on the roster you shouldn't be using over ones with more talent. If the talent tilts in a direction let the talent take the team there. Personally I like well balanced teams that can play team defense, but you need the parts to do that. This is part of where I say, have the coach candidates explain how their intended style fits the roster. I mean what I've gotten out of recent games is a multi-6 style populated with mediocrities, who get on the field in lieu of people who can attack well, is self defeating. At least the people being tried now, no, that shouldn't be the emphasis of the formation, is to get them on the field. We give up too many chances despite the nominally defensive formation and lineup, and then the team magically looks better when the subs come in and we start attacking.
Broader question, vaguely pointed in the direction of the former forward Ramos at U20 and below him, is where are the 6s and backs who can defend and get stuck in? The Jermaine Jones types. Bears noting Geoff Cameron was a non-pipeline kid Kinnear tripped over at the MLS combine. Not a Bradenton kid who worked up the youth national age groups. Otherwise very few domestic bred players who can mark and get stuck in. They are all this calm and composed and positional type, decent on the ball, vaguely where they should be in space, good soccer IQ, but not particularly gifted at the prime directive of defending.
Exactly! It's crazy. If any other American was playing like this at 23 we'd call him one of our bright prospects!
The anti-Green position right now is a bit silly. Yes we maybe made a deal to have AJ and Green on the 2014 team ahead of when some might have thought. But AJ helped us qualify and Green had a goal against Belgium. Objectively, that should be that on 2014. I'll grant he tailed off for a bit as he struggled with his club situation, but even that argument should be tempered by, "he scored in the round of 16." At least from a NT perspective -- not from a UEFACL fanboy location -- that he scored in a knockout tells me what I need to know. He scored on France and remains at least somewhat dangerous each game. Like him or hate him, objectively, in the mix, and at least off the bench if not starting. Even if you think Wood, Sargent, and others are better, or think some kid coming down the pike is the next big thing, you roster 23 people and figuring out who the best 23-30 are is the real debate right now, and one which objectively he currently should be right side of the line.
Along similar lines, Sargent should be fast tracked. The touch on the over shoulder trap, and the finish, on that goal he had. I hear people saying he should be brought along slowly. Why? Like Green before him, he's already getting international goals. What, because he's a Bremen U-23? Are you Bremen's hall monitor? He too should be well into the mix. The serious response is not we wait until Bremen makes him first team, but rather acknowledge that the process of finding one's pro feet can get complicated, and that like Green at some stages in that journey he may be less useful to us. If he scores for us but is on their youth squad, that's their problem. By comparison, I see plentiful fanboys backing Novakovich, who presently is a creature of a forward friendly league, and when he plays for the Nats looks ok or "competent."
Why was Bradley on the side with Robinson? Why is Acosta, who can certainly close ground faster, on the side with the more experienced fullback (yedlin)? Was it because Saief would provide the defensive cover of Robinson and Bradley? Well, rewatching things, Saief was a disaster. If Sarachan told Kenny to just run randomly in random directions at random times to see how Bradley/Brooks/Robinson react, it would make sense. Hard to believe he told him that so what was Saief doing? Where is the indispensable Captain with 140 caps to tell Saief to play his position? Maybe it was Bradley that got Dave to switch Weah for Saief. Not that it was that great, but at least it was better. Saief switching was Arena's big coup. He didn't play well. That is being kind as one would wonder if he was point shaving.
Ok, name a couple of secondary strikers in MLS that should be called in instead of Green. If Green was on an MLS team, he'd be one of the few attacking Americans in the league, and he'd continue to be called up, while the others would continue to not be called up.
Finished product? So, Nguyen was a finished product when he was in Vietnam, right? He spent 4 years there, from 23-27. Benny Feilhaber, a finished product at Derby County in 2008? Hardly. The point about his age is, he's got room to grow. It's very likely that he will be better in 4 years. How much better is the question, whether that is good enough to be a part of the team in competitive matches or not.
Saief looked c. GC a year ago like a finesse wing player. I thought it said more about Sarachan that he didn't stick him where he'd shown well, but rather apparently told him to run back and forth between two inside and outside slots in the formation depending who had the ball. That being said, he was quiet in the attack and on at least the James goal he got pinned wrong side of the ball by the turn. At which point I'd have considered fouling. Jury is still out. Robinson is not the only player where I am asking, was it just a one-off? To me Weah, Adams, Pulisic, and Green are the mids who have shown well regularly and produced. I am not saying they should start, but rather that for purposes of a tryout, I have seen enough to pull them and look at the marginal ones. I hope Saief gets some PT again this game, and then he does what he does and is either helping or hurting himself. To me people get worked up about why did you play x he sucks, and while for some absolute club scrub, that's fair, for players who should legitimately be up for this, the whole point is play and see what happens. Sounds cruel but if he's going to screw up I want Robinson to screw up now and not in a home qualifier against Mexico.
As you note, there is NO way SUM would go for this. They're interest is in making money, not in supporting the MNT. Opposition ticket buyers mean money. And, lot's of it, as they are more willing to be gouged. SUM has a huge financial interest in pumping of the fan bases of other Western Hemisphere teams in the U.S. Winning friendlies because of home field advantage ..... not so much. I've said it before, SUMLS would benefit wayyyyy more by developing the next great forward for Mexico, rather than the U.S. Think about that, some of the guys that run the U.S. Fed (the SUM guys) would have a personal financial interest in influencing a rising star to chose Mex instead of the U.S. So, as long as SUM is the marketing manager for the Fed (and it always will be, there is no way anyone else will be chosen next time around), home game sites, including some WCQ's, will be chosen to maximize attendance, not to maximize support.
NB: you ran gif of Trapp not Green and ran Green later but let's discuss Trapp here. Disclaimer, I 'm a Trapp defender. Trapp counts to 3 when he should count to 2 and he counts to 2 when he should count to 1...and so on. That is because he plays for Berhalter at Crew. Trapp has to be re-trained by a good manager playing with good teammates.
Corollary: When you do find someone, think of it as special and cultivate that player. Don't take the attitude of "we'll call him when/if we need him and meantime we'll help Garber keep his salary down." That leads to situations like the one we faced where Donovan isnt good enough (acc to Klinsmann, anyway) a month before WC 2014 and Nguyen can't be called up because he hasn't had a single call up in the cycle and isnt ready.