US DEPTH CHART COMMENTARY
This started as a comment on the US Depth Chart analysis post by TrueCrew but I decided to make it into a post instead.
Where to begin . . .
Outside Backs: listing Beasley as a starting outside backs leads me to believe he didn’t actually watch the only game that Beasley played at left back . . . or TrueCrew is on drugs. Granted we aren’t deep at left back, but Gibbs, Bornstein, and Spector will get the start if healthy. Knowing that Hejduk is still in the discussion at right back makes me die a little inside. Yes he’s made some big plays as of late, but that was only after fucking up 90% of the balls he touched. Not to mention he gets torched by the man he was marking. Lucky for him he has tons of energy and recovers from his mistakes. Bottom line, Hejduk isn’t good, never was, and it is too late to except anything more. Wynne, Simek, Dolo, Spector are my picks for that spot.
Center Backs: Nevin Subotic sounds pretty good right about now.
Outside Mids: Landon Donovan and Dempsey sounds pretty good. Saying that there is a huge drop off after Donovan, Dempsey, and Beasley reminds me that TrueCrew was on the pipe when he wrote this. Beasley licks balls. Torres is a much better player than Beasley and a better pure midfielder than Landon. Kljestan is young and inconsistent, i can’t wait until he has another amazing game and everyone says how deep we are at the midfield position. Bottom line, the kid is good, and at his best produces more than Dempsey.
Center Mid: Michael Bradley is a lock. I think the issue in the center mid is not picking the best player to partner Bradley, but picking what type of system you want to run. Edu, Clark, and Mastro bring similar defensive minded qualities. Klejstan and Adu are more of an attacking option, while Feilhaber and Torres are more possession type midfielders. Personally, I’d go with a more attacking or defensive option and take the possession type out of the equation. Possession is great, but if you insist on having guys like Hejduk, Beasley, and, well, Michael Bradley, your possession game really isn’t going to go anywhere. Might as well have some defensive guys in there to recover the ball when Hejduk blasts meaningless balls out of the defensive third.
Forwards: I’m not as comfortable with our current forward situation as our resident crack fiend TrueCrew. Altidore hasn’t “proven himself.” TrueCrew does qualify his statement, but I don’t think he goes far enough. He showed he could finish and have moments of brilliance but he also showed that he can’t put together a full ninety minutes of good soccer. Luckily for Altidore there really aren’t many challengers for his spot. Davies, Donovan, and Cooper look like the best options to me. Ching is a great role player, but we need more. I know Bradley likes the work that Ching does but I want higher expectations of our strikers. Hustling and winning balls should not be enough. So right now we have a young inconsistant prospect in Altidore and a limited role player in Ching starting up top. Yikes!!!!
Goalkeeper: This one is easy, Howard all the way.