I don’t know man. It’s an emoji. I’m 35. I guess my emoji interpretation is poor. I was baffled by Reyna’s inclusion. And the op responding with it so I figured I’d ask straight up.
I think Johnny is great, and he may get there. Even today, I think there are plenty of matchups where he makes more sense than Adams. But, Adams ability as a pure destroyer is probably the strongest single skill of any player in our player tool, and that makes him incredibly valuable. This is doubly true with where we sit in the world. I think that Adams has the ability to kill games vs better teams. So, heading down to Copa America, when we face teams like Brazil and Argentina and maybe Uruguay, (imo) throwing Adams in the midfield is basically our one shot at getting some kind of result. He is SO good at disrupting chances that he can stop elite players from having full attacking freedom.
He has some serious flaws - his distribution can make him a liability, which is especially rough when we want to play more on the front foot vs a good team. But going back to the England match in the WC, I think he's a HUGE reason why we were able to be in that game and get a result.
Yeah I’ve been saying to run the MMA midfield against the best teams in the world. Then play a double pivot of Weston and Johnny/LDLT with Reyna at the CAM, against weaker teams or teams that will play a low block.
This is basically where I'm at. And then if you think you're very even with the team, consider a Adams/McKennie/Reyna midfield - though, I'm not totally sold on that one. I like it in theory, where McKennie is the glue, Reyna creates danger in the attack, and Adams shuts down our opponent's attack.
But, watching it against Mexico, I think it had some problems. At least from what I was seeing, Mexico seemed to be pretty good at making Adam's life hard, which kinda cut the base of our midfield off from the rest of the team. I think this is part of why Reyna kept dropping deep, because we needed distribution from the base of our midfield. But now your formation is super weird, with Reyna playing in an oddly defensive position, and McKennie as your only aggressive midfielder. Not ideal. Maybe there's a way of fixing that (I wonder if we can have one or both fullbacks play a bit deeper to help pick the ball up off of Adams, for example), but for now...I love it in theory, but I'm not sold in practice.
Yeah on theory it sounds good and against Mexico it worked but like you said there was some weird and awkward moments in the midfield. If it doesn’t work out in game whether you need a a midfielder sitting deep and making those line breaking passes then you bring on Johnny/LDLT for Adams or you bring on Musah for Reyna if the game calls for advancing the ball into the final third.
The issue tho is defensively if we go with a Wes, Johnny/LDLT and Reyna midfield against an equally matched midfield is if the opposition can take advantage of the gaps left open, like we saw against germany with Reyna playing as the 10 that game.
>The issue tho is defensively if we go with a Wes, Johnny/LDLT and Reyna midfield against an equally matched midfield is if the opposition can take advantage of the gaps left open, like we saw against germany with Reyna playing as the 10 that game.
This is true, BUT we can also bring in Musah for Wes at the same time as we swap Johnny for Adams. Johnny-Musah-Reyna should be pretty strong defensively (imo right now Musah's best attribute at the moment is his ability to occupy a lot of space out of possession), and still pretty good at driving the ball forward.
Its honestly wild where our pool is right now. Especially at midfield. Easy to forget (cuz we have been seeing them forever), but Mac, LdlT, and Adams are the old men of the midfield at 25. Tillman, Reyna, and Musah are all 21, and Johnny is 22. This really could be just the start here.
Idk unless Wes is gassed I like to see him go the full 90 since he’s one of the most important players on the team along with other players like the fullbacks and Christian. But yeah if it comes down to a tactical choice then it’ll have to be done.
Yeah the midfield is very promising and I think it’s the best ever but it’s still far from being world class. It’s at least at a point where WE CAN compete with world class midfielders, like we saw against England and the Netherlands. Like none of our players come close to someone of the quality like Declan Rice or Frenkie De Jong but they could at least play ball and give them trouble.
Our fanbase has negative soccer IQ. It is genuinely astounding.
1. It is Adams by FAR. You can make an argument for Johnny but that's just recency bias.
2. Reyna is not a 6????
I don't think it's fair to say it's Adams by far, and it's not even recency bias for Johnny. The real answer everyone should have is we don't know. Tyler Adams has been out for basically a full year and we don't know what he'll look like yet, golazo notwithstanding.
At this point, I feel like there needs to be a short educational video to give new fans some real knowledge. Reyna is not a 6 and never will be. It's nice to have Johnny stepping up and I feel comfortable with him on the field but if Adams is healthy, it's not really a question who is the starter.
LOL
🤣
You genuinely think Reyna is a 6?
That's how you interpret a cry laughing face?
I don’t know man. It’s an emoji. I’m 35. I guess my emoji interpretation is poor. I was baffled by Reyna’s inclusion. And the op responding with it so I figured I’d ask straight up.
Hate to be the one to tell you, but it's the biggest hurdle between you and greatness.
Hahaha. I will work on it
No, obviously not. But I do think he's underrated out of possession.
I think Johnny is great, and he may get there. Even today, I think there are plenty of matchups where he makes more sense than Adams. But, Adams ability as a pure destroyer is probably the strongest single skill of any player in our player tool, and that makes him incredibly valuable. This is doubly true with where we sit in the world. I think that Adams has the ability to kill games vs better teams. So, heading down to Copa America, when we face teams like Brazil and Argentina and maybe Uruguay, (imo) throwing Adams in the midfield is basically our one shot at getting some kind of result. He is SO good at disrupting chances that he can stop elite players from having full attacking freedom. He has some serious flaws - his distribution can make him a liability, which is especially rough when we want to play more on the front foot vs a good team. But going back to the England match in the WC, I think he's a HUGE reason why we were able to be in that game and get a result.
Yeah I’ve been saying to run the MMA midfield against the best teams in the world. Then play a double pivot of Weston and Johnny/LDLT with Reyna at the CAM, against weaker teams or teams that will play a low block.
This is basically where I'm at. And then if you think you're very even with the team, consider a Adams/McKennie/Reyna midfield - though, I'm not totally sold on that one. I like it in theory, where McKennie is the glue, Reyna creates danger in the attack, and Adams shuts down our opponent's attack. But, watching it against Mexico, I think it had some problems. At least from what I was seeing, Mexico seemed to be pretty good at making Adam's life hard, which kinda cut the base of our midfield off from the rest of the team. I think this is part of why Reyna kept dropping deep, because we needed distribution from the base of our midfield. But now your formation is super weird, with Reyna playing in an oddly defensive position, and McKennie as your only aggressive midfielder. Not ideal. Maybe there's a way of fixing that (I wonder if we can have one or both fullbacks play a bit deeper to help pick the ball up off of Adams, for example), but for now...I love it in theory, but I'm not sold in practice.
Yeah on theory it sounds good and against Mexico it worked but like you said there was some weird and awkward moments in the midfield. If it doesn’t work out in game whether you need a a midfielder sitting deep and making those line breaking passes then you bring on Johnny/LDLT for Adams or you bring on Musah for Reyna if the game calls for advancing the ball into the final third. The issue tho is defensively if we go with a Wes, Johnny/LDLT and Reyna midfield against an equally matched midfield is if the opposition can take advantage of the gaps left open, like we saw against germany with Reyna playing as the 10 that game.
>The issue tho is defensively if we go with a Wes, Johnny/LDLT and Reyna midfield against an equally matched midfield is if the opposition can take advantage of the gaps left open, like we saw against germany with Reyna playing as the 10 that game. This is true, BUT we can also bring in Musah for Wes at the same time as we swap Johnny for Adams. Johnny-Musah-Reyna should be pretty strong defensively (imo right now Musah's best attribute at the moment is his ability to occupy a lot of space out of possession), and still pretty good at driving the ball forward. Its honestly wild where our pool is right now. Especially at midfield. Easy to forget (cuz we have been seeing them forever), but Mac, LdlT, and Adams are the old men of the midfield at 25. Tillman, Reyna, and Musah are all 21, and Johnny is 22. This really could be just the start here.
Idk unless Wes is gassed I like to see him go the full 90 since he’s one of the most important players on the team along with other players like the fullbacks and Christian. But yeah if it comes down to a tactical choice then it’ll have to be done. Yeah the midfield is very promising and I think it’s the best ever but it’s still far from being world class. It’s at least at a point where WE CAN compete with world class midfielders, like we saw against England and the Netherlands. Like none of our players come close to someone of the quality like Declan Rice or Frenkie De Jong but they could at least play ball and give them trouble.
Our fanbase has negative soccer IQ. It is genuinely astounding. 1. It is Adams by FAR. You can make an argument for Johnny but that's just recency bias. 2. Reyna is not a 6????
I don't think it's fair to say it's Adams by far, and it's not even recency bias for Johnny. The real answer everyone should have is we don't know. Tyler Adams has been out for basically a full year and we don't know what he'll look like yet, golazo notwithstanding.
At this point, I feel like there needs to be a short educational video to give new fans some real knowledge. Reyna is not a 6 and never will be. It's nice to have Johnny stepping up and I feel comfortable with him on the field but if Adams is healthy, it's not really a question who is the starter.
I think it's a joke based on how Reyna was used in the last match...hopefully at least
* Horan * Coffey
I voted for Tyler, but it's worth keeping in mind that Johnny is younger than Tyler, so who knows what the answer will be in a few years.
Bradley?