In a normal summer I’d agree with you. But we only have two international windows between now and the wc. If one of our starting cb’s is going to be out then we need to call in our best and figure out the depth chart. Gregg just seems to be the only person who doesn’t think Brooks is one of our top 6 cb’s.
That’s fair too but I just think Brooks getting settled and hitting the ground running wherever he ends up is ultimately more important for him and Qatar than playing Nations League. I do want to see how CCV looks with the squad also even though I’ve never been very high on him. He just never performs when called in
JAB is clearly the WC. Could be our #1…could also not be able to track a Honduran on a simple run. Ream, 100% effort but the ability isn’t there. I support Mark and Matt but they don’t have the talent of Aaron. Zim+Long is just as good as Zim+Rob.
I don't think many (Myself included) realized how good a season he's having in Turkey. I believe he's now 2 goals off the league lead in 1800 minutes while most of the league leaders have 2.5-3k. He's tied with Michy Batshuayi who has 3000 minutes.
Do you guys actually watch Wolfsburg at all? He had a bad stretch and has bounced back. They have been poor overall, but he hasn’t been bad really since the turn of the calendar year.
Call me a conspiracy theorist but I’m convinced something happened off the field during that first window as well. Too many people that would be able to hear something have alluded to it on their podcasts (Landon, Herc, Jason Davis, Tenorio, Doyle, etc).
Brooks plays what like 2 bad games and people think he's some terrible player now? You guys are just playing into what Gregg thinks. If he dumped everyone after a couple bad games half most of our roster would be different. Brooks has made 30+ appearances in a top 4 league this year. How many other CBs do we have that are getting that type of playing time in a top league? To continue to freeze him out when we just lost one of our starting CB's would be awful coaching.
This is where we disagree. We obviously won’t know unless Brooks were to confirm it but not calling him in ≠ freezing him out. If the lines of communication are open and they’re talking, that’s what matters. What Gregg said last week is right, we do know what we have in Brooks, we should be taking a look at some other guys this Summer
not sure I agree that we know what we have in Brooks. would love to see a couple of strong performances out of him in a USMNT shirt.
Even so, is that more important than him finding and getting settled in at a new club? What’s the time line on Nations League and friendlies? Could he be called in for one of them but not the other and try to balance both of those things?
fair point. I'm just getting super-anxious about the CB position. Miles' athleticism really paired well with Zim and I thought they were our best combo. even if Brooks comes back in and plays well individually, I worry about him pairing with Zimmerman and would like to see them together.
If we had Brooks, Richards and Zim in for either NL or the friendlies it would be nice to see each combo of them starting to get a feel for how it works. Then use the other to evaluate CCV, EPB, and any other fringe guys
How do we know what we have in Brooks when he's only made 2 appearances in the last 2 years? I don't think this summer is the time to be looking at new players. With how few games we have between now and the WC (just 6, 4 in June and 2 in Sept) we should be calling in our A roster and getting them minutes together. If they don't want to call in guys coming off injuries that's fine. But with this dumb WC we don't get the usual multi week summer training camp before the tournament. Clubs are required to release players by 11/14 and our first game is 11/25. There's just not enough time and games left to not be calling in all the best players that are healthy.
Saying we shouldn’t be calling in new guys is dumb. You feel comfortable with where we’re at with CBs? Why in the world shouldn’t we be getting a better look at CCV and EPB?
When you only look at stats, it seems pretty bad, but RBNJ as a team average a 44% long pass completion rate. Long and the rest aren't expected to pick out guys downfield. They're just supposed to blast it forward so we can press again.
Because I don't think CCV is anything special. That guy can only compete in leagues like the championship and in Scotland where physicality is more important then being able to control the ball. I've been wanting him to develop some on ball skill for years since he's still owned by Spurs. I don't see any reason why he should be ahead of Books on the depth chart and don't at all buy the "we know what we've got with him" line from Gregg.
I don’t think he should be ahead of Brooks and I’ve not seen anything that indicates he is. I don’t think he’s anything special, but that probably applies to every CB in the pool
I know none things about you but I would pay a moderate sum of US currency to watch you get dropped in at CB for a USMNT match.
I was looking at his numbers yesterday after his goal and basically had the thought: "Man, it's not as if he's been unproductive in his minutes." For what seems like a disappointing year it's mainly just that he's not playing a lot than that he hasn't been good.