As a leeds fan who now watches a sort of red bill football week in week out, the sort of skills players need to succeed in a red bull team vs a possession based team are radically different.
Bradley looked terrible under armasball (as did most our players), I have little doubt amaya would look bad in a possession based team
I also believe its time for Osorio to take over the captaincy 100%
The midfielders they let go weren't getting minutes at Colorado lmao priso was in the rapids B team.
Fraser is in Belgium duv 2, okello is nowhere.
Strange conspiracy theory to believe that these midfielders, who have been ignored or underused by 4 consecutive coaches and are now all playing at a lower level thN MLS , were ditched so Bradley could play more.
I also follow Leeds.
He was a forward and attacking mid in college; he's very good with the ball at his feet.
You have "little doubt"? Dude, you don't know him well enough as a player to make that call. That's evident. He's very good in possession.
He's not Tyler Adams, but he's not a whole lot off Marc Rocca, based on how the latter has been playing this season.
Seriously, it's just the NYRB Gegenpress being so out of control that makes him look like a psychotic hardman.
EDIT: Plus, he's TWENTY-TWO. He's a commodity now. Michael isn't.
Last edited by leedsandTFC; 01-06-2023 at 03:24 PM.
you keep throwing jabs like this in most of the posters who disagree with you -there is no conspiracy- we seen it first hand that all mid-fields were moved leaving bradley- to play 90ms - they preach youth movement but then get rid of a young priso, fraser, and rarely used okello- cmon man- you dont see the moves that stripped TFC midfield -
That's not really accurate. He started his first two games there and in both cases, was taken off early. In both cases, his defensive numbers were superb but he did something that pissed of Fraser. There was speculation from their regular blogger that he was ignoring responsibilities going forward, as Fraser when asked about it said there was more to his role than playing defence.
It's been a regular discussion among Colorado fans as to why he wasn't playing, simply because his DM numbers were so good and he looked so assured going backwards. But it really sounds like there are attitude issues, or problems rounding out his game. It was NOT the case of him not being good enough to start. There are other issues there.
Yeah, he's already out of our league financially. He's rated at $2M and playing regularly, so if he goes anywhere it'll be to a TAM deal at Red Bull or to a team overseas. Given his age, I can see La Liga in Mexico or Ligue 1 in France coming in for him.
The English teams will be scared off by his short stature. They think everyone should be built like a brick shithouse to play in Britain now.
He started dome development games.
And he cost tfc the one game he started with a horrible giveaway vs columbus.
Anyways people have their opinions so I'm gonna stop trying to argue.
I thought people would be excited at us signing multiple top end mls players in position of need but instead this bizarre obsession with Bradley persists.
Brainworms.
He has huge, league-leading, top level playing potential. But young players with unfulfilled potential is practically a lower league roster trait these days.
He's so good at reading and breaking up passes, and getting to the tackle early, that as long as he has his youth and speed, he'll find work somewhere, even if he doesn't make it in MLS or above. But if he doesn't, it'll be a fucking travesty of waste.
Or, you know, the humility position might be that every other commentator watching him isn't wrong.
Many of us have been playing and/or watching football for decades. You're not seeing or recognizing something in him we're not.
WE had the worst transitional defense in MLS last year by some margin. It's not a small problem. It's a major, major problem, with concerns about nepotism involved, and he's the captain of the club and defacto locker room leader.
It's a significant issue, whether you choose to accept it as such or not.
And that's end of my piece on Bradley until we find out if we're getting any midfield depth.
Fraser took a risk going to Belgian Second league to a club that was seeking promotion, in a move to get consistent playing time in a top league to make the World Cup squad. The team failed to get promoted (but he did still get to go to the World Cup)
Delgado was another player (first played out of position by Armas) who was moved, despite having performed solidly in the DM role in 2020. I know there are mixed opinions on Delgado, but the Delgado/Osorio double pivot in 2020 when Bradley was out was the best midfield play we've had in the last few years.
I love Bradley and what he's done for this team and still feel he has a role. But as the no doubt first choice DM, he's not at that level unfortunately anymore. But frankly, it's not that he's managing to beat out competition for the role, there is no competition for the role. If depth is brought in and he beats out the compeitition, that's one thing, but there is not depth that has been brought in
Last edited by rydermike; 01-06-2023 at 03:38 PM.
Only a risk in that it was a job, though. I mean, he wasn't coming back to TFC. (I guess the CPL was an option too, but who'd take that over ANY euro league?)
I watched some highlights of him over there. He looked assured, a decent DM. The Belgian Second Division is also a HUGE dropoff from their top league, similar to the dropoff in Norway and Sweden. Cow Pasture, 4,000 seat stadiums, a mix of players so varied in talent it could practically be a fundraising exhibition.
I thought that double pivot worked so well. It would be nice to see some flexibility from BB this year based on the roster, because it would resolve a lot of midfield pressures if we played a 5-2-3/3-4-3. Needs another fast back on the left, but makes sense if we can't get the right speed and defense balance with the central three mids.
I think this is why the Bradley comments get so many replies. It's not so much the content as the tone. There's a gap between "I hear you, but here's my take" and "I am the only one who knows this game, anyone who disagrees is objectively wrong or part of some conspiracy theory fringe"
Either way, Id bet the over on 32 starts for Bradley next season if fitness permits. I don't love it but it is what it is. If Bob fails this will be a sword he will have to fall on.
Fraser's pass to J.David was huge huge for Canada National team- understated.
Delgado + Osorio i agree- the ball never moved backwards- always moved forward and the ball didnt completely stop -to look arounf for a pass (MB has been doing this the last couple of season)
on top of that- when MB everyone seems to defer to him- I only noticed once Osorio came back they really ignored MB and played between LI+FB and Osorio.
I meant risk in the sense that it was a path to a starting role in a top league (non big 5league) via winning promotion. He probably could've gotten an MLS contract somewhere, not here, but not as a guaranteed starter. He probably could've gotten a starting role in a tier 3 league like CPL, Sweden, Norway. Huge drop off in Belgium2 thats for sure, but like I said I feel like the plan was to get to Belgium1 via promotion, it just failed.
Former Montreal attacking midfielder Saphir Taider is unattached, I noticed. Great player. Maybe burned his MLS bridges by taking a deal then asking out of it, then signing in Saudi. He only lasted a year there. Great technical player though.
The belgian 2nd division is similar to cpl yet people wanted him and okello to play instead of Bradley.
He wasn't getting minutes at the crew so dropped out of the league.
Lolol
My speculation was specifically about why he chose to go to Belgium Second Division, as that was one of the comments made against him that he wasn't even good enough to be depth. I never had rated him as a TFC starter, a bench option yes. He's above Belgium Second Divison level, but went there as a risk. He's definitely depth option quality imo
He got 1134 minutes and made 11 starts for the Crew. It's not that he's not MLS level at all. He's MLS depth level. He tried to prove he deserved more. Either way he'd have been fine for a 15-20 minute sub role, spot start role. Ideally, we'd have someone capable of better than that. But instead last year, we got Bradley 90 minutes every game. If we had Fraser making some minutes, I feel that would've helped Bradley be fresher. The point isn't that I want Fraser, it's that there is literally no one in midfield at all to spell Bradley. He's just an example of a depth piece that was gotten rid of and not replaced at all. Again, just using him as an example. Usually when you ship a piece out, you replace them. We have shipped out multiple midfielders and just not replaced them.
Last edited by rydermike; 01-06-2023 at 04:03 PM.
Hamilton also very frustrating. If you look at his goals per minute, it makes him an 11-in-34 striker over a full season in MLS.
But.... they were all in junk minutes. Anytime he had to go up against fresh defenses he was just lost. Physical tools but if he'd been able to get open and put shots on net, he'd have gotten starts.
Same over in Ireland. He played twelve or thirteen games, scored I think one goal, maybe two. I followed it for a while. They kept talking in team stories about trying to get him "up to speed" and "more involved in the play". He just didn't learn enough. Real shame that.
Virtually every professional commenter on MLS noted our transition defense was so bad because we had a ton of inexperienced players that turned the ball over in bad moments...consistently.
And apart from a 45 min spell vs nycfc, 4 coaches with varying staffs and styles all started Bradley and played him Virtually every minute
It's ok though, you're not seeing anything they're not.
Also have you ever admitted to being wrong about your ridiculous take on imsigne wages and net vs gross?
Talk about humility yet you insulted me consistently in that thread only to be completely, utterly flat out wrong