El Floppo
Footballguy
Fwiw, all reports are that Juve is moving on from Weah and looking for wing back replacements.Agree with everything except Weah. He is no where near the level of top US guys when at club. He is mostly just a squad guy. He could be replaced instantly at Juventus and no one would notice. He plays so much better for US than club.Was thinking about this last night, and our program is just not where the public perception has us right now.
There's zero question that CP, Weah, McKennie are among the best players to ever put on the US jersey. Legit top-5 league players who matter for their teams.
I'd put Adams in that category too, but he's been hurt so long it feels like there's an asterisk. I'd also put Jedi in that group, but I think he's underrated by most people. Ream too, but he's 36.
So that's 3 legit and 3 maybes by my reckoning.
On the flip side...
We don't have a 9 getting minutes that's proven he can score in a top league. Balogun arguably, but he's not playing right now. The rest are doing it in 2nd tier leagues. Certainly not better than we've had in the past.
Our 2nd CB spot is weak, compared to historical US quality. I love Miles, but he's limited. Richards is not that guy IMO. Quality drops after that.
Our best GK is ok, but also limited and a spot starter on a bad team. Huge step down from the Trinity of Friedel, Keller, Howard.
Dest is sexy, but gets cooked in almost every 1v1 defensively. Which is kind of a problem for a defender. Scally is a mystery right now. And at this point I'm not sure RB is the strength we thought it was in general.
Reyna is so talented, but we have a lot of coaches now all telling us... something. YMMV on what that is, but the "it's a Berhalter thing" ship has sailed.
Musah does some good things really well, but is not well rounded and offers nothing in the final third. I'm biased in favor of physical tank shuttlers, but IMO you still need something in the G/A column from an 8. And he's not a 6.
Cardoso may have some promise, especially if the US switched formations.
Bottom line is that I'm not sure this team is as good as the hype from a year ago, and may not really be all that much better than past versions of the USWNT. And suggesting we should be top-10 in the world is a pipe dream right now.
When everyone is healthy and in form, we can beat anyone in the world without fluky stuff -- we have some ballers -- but it won't be consistent until we have CP, McKennie level players at every position and they fit together as a front 7 in clear roles. Compared to the quality and depth of the actual top 10 teams, we're a long way off right now.
Jedi belongs in the top group. Plays every minute of every game for a solid mid table team in the best league in the world and has a chunk of top teams wanting to sign him. This is night and day difference from Weah.
We needed both Reyna and Balogun to ascend this year and it did not happen. Balogun took a big step back and Reyna face planted at club level. Adams on shelf for so long was unfortunate as well.
I think you could go all the way back to 1994 and find guys on each cycle who could slot into this team, quality-wise across the field.
Yeah, we have guys doing bigger things for bigger clubs.. but so far, the top end of this team doesn't show me much more than other teams in history (but dammit- I do see extended glimpses of it). These next couple years will determine if they've genuinely progressed past previous heights.
But again, there's never been a team anywhere near this deep. The level of talent since the academy setup creation has pushed our high, not top, level guys way up so that you can look at replacement players like Johnny and say... Sure, it's not going to kill us if any of the next 11 have to play.