Now I don't know in TFC's case but as a person who has worked in places with rotating staffs, the only thing I can figure is that they knew they were going to try this youth movement thing and it doesn't set the best example to kids if any team member is allowed special treatment (missing training for personal businesses). People have said on here how Oso must be mad MB makes more. Now imagine a young guy running tons of KMs on a Wednesday in training while Lawrence is off doing business trips and also getting paid way more then he is. Then he shows up Saturday and we still look a mess at the back. I've seen these types of situations in a few workplaces my bosses own and it usually has lead to clean outs of staff by choice or dismissal and restarting from scratch.
The time spent at Real definitely would have Insigne impressed. And guys like Insigne don't need lessons about tactics anyways, he's seen and done it all, just give him the ball and get out of the way...)
Anyways, he'll surface somewhere. Observing clubs like Real day to day with the master Carlo Ancelotti is invaluable. And the one thing I do respect about Perez he tried to change things up and really, had the cojones to take off MB and give Priso a shot. Priso looked very good until unfortunately got hurt.
Ema Boateng's option was not picked up in New England despite four goals, six assists in spot duty.
https://www.thebentmusket.com/2022/1...-number-higher
But to be fair, in quoting his passing numbers alone isn’t a complete picture. The things people are pointing out re: limitations in his game today, are also observed in the wider statistical set.
The interpretation of statistics by professionals to build rosters are different than the ones laymen like us use to discuss things and it’s changing all the time. Baseball went through this, basketball went through this, and soccer will go through iterations of it too. You can still point to a baseball that bats 400 or a striker who scores 30 a year. But who is great / effective at the margin? That’s always evolving.
So I don’t think we can look just at passing stats and say Bradley is one of the best midfielders in MLS today. Not saying he is terrible but if we were to ask “is Michael Bradley a leading midfielder in MLS today?” I think it’s fair to say answer in most quarters would be no.
I don't think he is one of the best mids in MLS today but I still think he is a guy that can do a job in a smaller role. He will get paid a lot for that role but that's how it goes sometimes. We've paid others more to barely play when we actually needed them to. Thems the breaks.
Here's the scouting report on MB over the last year compared to the rest of MLS. https://fbref.com/en/players/fd5e3a7...couting-Report
He has very strong passing numbers - and they arent just side to side passes, he's very good at progressive passes and passes into the final third.
His defensive numbers leave a bit to be desired - although he is good at successful recoveries, his number of recovery attempts is quite low.
The players he's compared to are also quite good as well. Although, nearly all of them are paid less than Bradley. It's also not Bradley's fault that he's getting paid what he is.
A midfield with Bradley, Kaye and oso is incredibly balanced and effective, has everything.
If oso leaves they need to add another attacking, creative CM this summer (and another cm regardless).
Nelson is a fairly able deputy for Kaye, but we have no one who can do anything close to what oso can in the squad.
Last edited by leedsandTFC; 10-14-2022 at 12:48 PM.
In his interview with Gareth Wheeler BB says we need to add depth in the midfield around the 18:10 mark https://www.torontofc.ca/video/lates...podcast-ep-244
If he wants is key.
But everytime Bradley was in a position to put ball on target, make key pass, recover turnover off press or push up the field when down goal or two the backwards passing or lateral passing showed up
He is useful but also question the whole situation with father and son coach.. how can anyone be comfortable to speak their mind regarding tactics and lineup if it goes right to the coach when should be internal discussion with the team.
We also don't know their dynamic in person. For instance my Dad was my coach for a while back in the day and he treated me worse, harder, and way shittier than every other player and I hated him for it. Not saying this is their way but BB doesn't seem like the pinching his boys cheeks and telling him good job when he did something shit kind of guy.
people keep talking about him "publicly blaming pozuelo", so i finally went back and watched it.
he doesn't, he said "ale gave him a tough ball", which was entirely true (a vertical backpass with a CB sprinting at him), bob was the one who actually brought up michael losing the ball and that he'd be kicking himself over it...
tough ball isn't even a bad ball. the expectation is to be able to take tough balls...
Last edited by leedsandTFC; 10-14-2022 at 03:41 PM.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
When talking about the goal he twice calls Pozuelo out by name, once for giving him a pass in 'tight area', which it wasn't, and doesn't attribute any wrong doing to his son directly. He didn't call Pozuelo awful or anything like that, but he bent over backwards to infer the goal was on him (which is laughably wasn't anything close to even 1% on him) to deflect away from his sons mistake. I doubt anybody else would have been afforded this attempt to completely spin something we all just say but will hold my hands up if there's other examples. Why is he bringing up Pozuelo at all?
Nobody else on this team would cost us a goal from a fuck up that badly and have the manager try to shift the blame (By naming them) to someone who wasn't at fault at all, or have the manager try to tell us a pass was sent into a tight area which is just untrue. It's an *awful* look for a players dad to do this
The manager hasn't named any other player for costing a goal.
This is the closest he's come to all season (other than admitting tfc hadn't been getting the goalkeeping they needed after about 8 Bono howlers).
He said MB would be kicking himself for "losing a ball" that led to a goal.
The way it's talked about on here you'd think he publicly crucified pozuelo when in reality he's literally said that mb lost the ball leading to a goal.
And he brought ut up himself...
Last edited by leedsandTFC; 10-14-2022 at 03:48 PM.
Spin it however you want. His son was respoinsible for an embarassing fuck up (which happens, even the best do this, it is what it is) and his dads post match comments on it spent more time talking about Pozuelo sending him a ball in tight space, an excuse comically detatched from reality which is evident to anybody who watched the goal, than on his sons part who he never directly says did anything wrong. That is not a good look for a father, not at all.
It's not just the public calling out of another player by name and spending more time directly talking about what he did vs his son, but how absurdly poor the excuse was, that are telling here.
Nobody else got excuses like that made for them in a post match presser to my knowledge.
Last edited by JoesphNdo; 10-14-2022 at 03:57 PM.
This is true. I watched most of BB's pressers and I was waiting for him to throw somebody under the bus because frankly, some of them deserved it but he never did. That was the closest and by saying MB will be kicking himself for giving the ball up is assigning MB blame. Yes Pozuelo for giving MB a tough ball but he mentioned MB for the loss of possession. Not sure how this can be interpreted as blaming Poz 100% and waiving all blame for MB. That's just not what happened. It's like following a Twitter politics chat on here when dealing with the Bradley's.
But I am still a bit disappointed in BB not dumping on Bono after that Miami goal. I would have.