I don’t care about black or white but I do believe in calling a spade a spade. do yo think that Berhalter has a different standard for MLS and other players? I don’t care why but I want to see what you think.
Btw, The introduction of brian McBride is going to be interesting because he was not down with the garber commissioner pick ass kissing In this Interview back in July 2019, when asked his preferred/best lineup, he leaves out both Bradley and Trapp from the starting 11 and even from the team, when most others were too afraid to do so. The berhalters might have just saved their legacy if they allow McBride to do his job. Summer 2019 Lineup at 3:33 (and this is not including the later emergence of players like Dest and Reyna, etc. ) July 2019: Weah ------Altidore-----Pulisic Pomykal---McKennie----Adams Cannon--Brooks--Long----Yedlin --------------Steffan----------
Went under the radar (understandably), but Weston McKennie came on in the 60th min Tuesday, Schalke down 2-0, & helped them win 3-2 in extra time.Appears he hurt his ankle on this play, 3 mins after he came on. Played in obvious pain the remaining hour.https://t.co/eST2QWs2VO— scuffed (@scuffedpod) February 6, 2020 Nasty from McKennie.
Absolutely. The truth is there weren't many guys playing in Europe. It's been MLS-heavy because we haven't had enough guys good enough to play in Europe. It's going to start tilting more away from MLS these coming months.
A lot of the non-calls in the last two years have been due to injuries too. Actually, I can't remember another period in our soccer history where so many of our guys in decent Euro leagues were out injured on and off that often and for that long.
There were injuries but nowhere near enough to justify how few European based players were in Berhalter's pool.
Just to point out that here are three players who were pretty much ignored by Berhalter: ARobinson - almost went to ACMilan based on his play in the Championship Chandler - straight up playing as well as any B1 player (other than Haaland) Holmes - one of the better players in the Championship Morales - B1 starter who only got to a late camp These are the players that he is "familiar with" but yet not familiar enough to realize that they're simply not international level Daniel Lovitz Nick Lima (who's not bad doesn't have best in B1 ceiling) Roldan Trapp The first and last two were transferred within MLS for effectively nothing. What's the point of familiarity again?
I gave you my answer. You're like my ex-wife, or my older brother. Always trying to force a simplified answer so that you can use it against me later in the argument. Not gonna do it.
Also, as someone who actually watches our guys in Europe, I don't rate them half as high as most people here. Frankly, outside Pulisic, Adams and Dest I'd be hard-pressed to say any of them looks like the type of player good enough to make a clear difference with the average American MLSer. And I don't even rate MLS highly.
That's because that's not my answer. I see mostly a tendency, in 2019 at least, for him to go conservative with his selections and stick largely to players he's familiar with from his time coaching in MLS. I'm hopeful that he's figured out what works with his tactical implementation, and that the European-based youth contingent will continue to rapidly develop. We all knew they needed time, and now they've got a year under their belts and some are breaking into first teams (with varying degrees of success as of now, mind you).
I'm not sure watching 7 screens at once counts as actually watching....and I'm guessing you really don't watch MLS if you think the levels are comparable. You're welcome to your opinion of course but there's no way that the following are close to average American MLSer (I assume you mean average MLS player for the USMNT, not the average American playing in MLS). Reyna/Dortmund FJ/Gladbach (when uninjured) Chandler/Eintracht Brooks/Wolfsburg McKennie/Schalke Yedlin/Newcastle Morales/Fortuna Düsseldorf Steffen/Fortuna Düsseldorf A recent MVP of MLS is about the Yedlin level. Here's a list of guys who could be materially better than the average MLSer. Holmes/Derby County Miazga/Reading (when uninjured) Robinson/Wigan
I dont think people rate them that, but just better than the crap we saw in 2019, which is a pretty low level. It is also interesting how important form is for foreign based players but never discussed for MLS players. I think each of the following would an upgrade... Robinson > Lovitz/Ream Alvarado > Long/Zimmerman Holmes > Roldan Weah > Arriola Sargent > Zardes I dont expect an of these players to more than role players now, but they eliminate or reduce weak links. Robinson is much better going forward with very good service (late sub vs mexico) and his defensive issues are way over blown. Alvarado is an athletic CB who is strong on the ball and solid all round defender who has cleaned up the issues we saw when he was 22. Holmes is another athletic, all round player. Weah is injured, but when back will see he is more athletic, combined better with teammates, and significantly better finisher. Sargent is struggling in a very tough situation for a striker.Even if he isnt scoring, his holdup and combination play is much better. I'd personally rather Sargent helping Pulisic get into scoring positions than Pulisic feeding Zardes. This of course doesnt include Reyna (who should be in the 23 now), Llainez who looked raw but clearly more skilled than the MLS players not named Ferreira, and bunch of other young players close to breaking through. Lovitz, Roldan, Arriola, and Zardes are very limited players. Zimmerman is somewhere between another Gonzo and a very poor man's Brooks without the ability on the ball. Long is the most bizarre to me. It seems many people have him as a starter. Why arent they discussing his form? He went from Defender of the year in his second season to not being one of the 5 finalists in his third season. Why arent his defensive mistakes highlighted like the foreign based players? Why do people ignore his night mate vs Venezuela, being included in many of the goals vs Mexico, getting spun easily vs Uruguay, and losing his man against Canada?
Oh don't be ridiculous. Yedlin is a solid FB performing ok for a middling EPL team, and one of the best American fullbacks currently. Even if he weren't a FB, he wouldn't be close to MLS MVP material.
Part of it is we grossly overvalue experience and as The Athletic article showed MLS was paying top dollar for that type of player. I love Tim Howard to death but his last few years were that of a below average MLS player who was the USMNT unquestioned starter. Lichaj has always been better than Zusi or Villafana but has had little chance of showing it. Of course, this is nothing new and we've had the problem for decades.
LB is a huge problem. Only striker is probably a bigger problem. Frankly at this point we could be forced to use a guy like Ream at LB. Robinson is not good at defending. I know people are going to mention the Milan almost-deal, but from all I've read it seems obvious to me it was a short-term loan with an option to buy, the kind of deal many big teams make when they need someone for a few months and don't really plan to use him, so the buying clause is never activated. Alvarado just came back from injury, so he may be an alternative, but I'm following mainly our guys in Europe. Someone else will have to inform us about Liga MX. Brooks has lost his starting spot in Wolfsburg too, and Miazga was riding the bench in the Championship even before his injury. In short, CB is about to become a problem, because neither CCV nor EPB panned out. I've never been a fan of Brooks for CONCACAF games, the man is a tronco (no cintura, that is no agility to turn and follow a dribbler). The fall of Miazga is what worries me the most. At this point Long/Zimmerman is possibly our best bet in defense, for C-CAF matches that matter. Holmes has improved and deserves a look, but he's playing in a league that is comparable to MLS for the most part. People here get excited too fast: some consistency is needed. Gio Reyna was already anointed our #10 after a single game where he had a single good move (his goal). Weah is still injured. Nobody can tell where he'll be after returning, it's been a long time. One of my big three names, Adams, doesn't look the same post-injury to me, either. He's lost mobility, IMO. He's only playing 70 minutes and keeps getting rotated to a spot where he requires less lateral movement (RB). His latest ratings have been low compared to what he was scoring before (he used to be 2,0-3,0 last season, the four games he's played this season he's been in the 3,0-4,0 range). With long-term injuries, you have to be a bit lucky to return the same guy you were before. I'm not sure that will be the case with Weah, who (let's remember) didn't exactly tear it up with Celtic. I have faith in Sargent, and I think he has a higher ceiling than our other options (not a high praise, to be honest). But if I wanted a goal against CONCACAF competition right now, I'd take Zardes. Josh looks lethargic, out of it, even bored for his club, and for the NT he's only scored against a depleted Cuba, in games that matter. Gyasi has scored against Canada and Trinidad recently, two much stronger rivals (also, games that matter). Lichaj is a player that people only remember to bash the USSF. He's been perhaps our most consistent Championship starter over the longest period, among active players. I've advocated for him before. But, truth be told, he's never looked extraordinary with the NT. Could he be an alternative in LB? Maybe it deserves a look, but keep in mind he's been playing RB exclusively for a long time. Another guy who has never looked that great for the USMNT is Morales. He has the enthusiasm and it's obvious he's trying, which is more than I can say of others who have played DM for us recently (Bradley, Trapp). But I don't see someone better than Yueill in him.
Not true. I think it's emphatically not true. I think Arena preferred the familiar, simple as that. I think Berhalter was the same. I don't think it was a conspiracy so much as intellectually lazy, comfort oriented choices, and biases against calling in players that haven't broken through yet. Reyna presents a perfect example. Wouldn't shock me at all if he'd be called into a full international camp if we had one this month off of what's happened the past month. But that begs the question. Was Reyna just not good enough August-December, or do we just have an arbitrary rule that rewards scrubs that play in small ponds as first teamers, over youngsters that challenge themselves in the toughest leagues in the world, and struggle to break through as a result? Sure we may end up making mistakes with guys like Junior Flores or Haji Wright, but we'll also find valuable assets like Reyna, Morales, Wood, Danny Williams etc as well. If you set up arbitrary rules that reward players that are fundamentally poor options because they can start in a weak league, over elite (Reyna) or solid options (Morales) because they are playing at the U19 level, or because they never made an impression in a friendly a half decade ago, and yet start year after year, you're just doing this wrong. You need to turn over all the wrongs. We missed on chances to play guys like Dest, Sargent, Reyna, Llanez heck even Yeah (although in his case, he wanted to play in the U20 WC) because Berhalter has an arbitrary rule about playing time, and playing first team football, and it makes him look monstrously stupid when guys like Dest, and Reyna then play dominant soccer just weeks later, or a couple of months later in the big leagues, or in Llanez's case, walk into a camp and absolutely dominate, as many who've watched him fully expected. We've been playing god awful wingers, and defensive minded mids for years, and continued to play them throughout 2019 despite the presence of vastly superior options playing in lower level leagues of the Bundesliga or in the Netherlands. Why? It's one thing to have arbitrary preferences that tilt towards the squad when you're loaded to the gills with talent at all levels: late career vet, prime, young, and prospect like in 2002 and 2003, and to a much lesser extent in 2008-2010 at certain positions, but when your vets suck <word I can't say> and you have no guys in their prime worth a damn, you need to get creative about how and who you are willing to call in and why, rather than just continue to push the same buttons you always did because of "veteraness" and "earning it" when the guys who did earn it caused the single most catastrophic US Mens disaster Ever in 2017, and had the worst collection of performances combined in 2019 that I've ever seen (I'm talking Venezuela-Jamaica-Curacao-Mexico Friendly-Canada away match for starters). You can't talk about "earning it" when the guys that earned it play like utter dog ---- game after game, month after month, year after year. You've got to move on and look under new freaking rocks.
The proposed Milan deal for Robinson was for an outright purchase at 10 million pounds. He received his senior caps during his first season get professional minutes at club level. He has obviously improved since then. Depth at LB shouldn't be a problem; however, Berhalter seems to favour left-footed LBs, thus limiting the options. Even so, the extant left-footed options are-- 1. Robinson---had the AC Milan. Lyon was interested. Chelsea and Newcastle are interested in a Summer move. 2. Niko Hamalainen--by all accounts, having a strong season with Kilmarnock. Has been named to the SPL's team of the week multiple times. 3. Sam Vines--had a game-high 3 key passes in the Costa Rica match. Will be a starter for the Rapids. Not bad. Strength at CB is broad; however the professional attainment isn't at the level of the other positions. Miles Robinson, Long, Zimmerman, Miazga, EPB, CCV, Trusty, McKenzie, Ream, Glad, Pines, Brooks. There is plenty of quality in the group, but player form has been inconsistent. Long has the distraction of his transfer drama. Some players have had injury issues. Others have had sophomore slumps. EPB needed to find a team on which he immediately start. We don't know his ceiling, yet. You go with the form CBs. CM pool is McKennie, Holmes, Adams, Morales, Lletget, Yuiell, Morales, and Yueill bring different skill-sets, so wouldn't be directly comparable.
Robinson, Hamalainen, Holmes, Robinson, Morales, Chandler, and Alvarado should be available for the european friendlies. Their (non)selections will provide additional data points.