Quote:
Originally Posted by flere-imsaho
Let's be honest, there is no U.S. player who can provide WC-level creativity on a consistent basis. Bradley can do it somewhat from a deeper-lying position. Dempsey can do it somewhat through his fits of unpredictability. Donovan can maybe still do it, but given his own admissions on fitness you'd expect that to have lasted maybe 45 minutes a game in Brazil. That's it. Oh sure, other players in the side can be consistently creative on an MLS level, but not at a WC level.
And let's say you had Donovan. And let's say he's the most consistently creative player available to the U.S. Well, then you have a team that would act like Portugal - dick around and wait for Ronaldo / Donovan to make something happen. Except that Donovan is just barely good enough these days to shine Ronaldo's shoes.
Which leads to the change in approach. Again, you must adjust to the quality of your opponent.
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Just because we don't have creativity on the level of the top sides in the world, doesn't mean we should only bring campers with a defensive mentality.
Donavan may not be the be all, end all anymore, but he's better going forward than most anyone else on our squad from the midfield, other than maybe Dempsey. Even if we play him as a reserve to inject life, he brings value. And his experience at this level would have been priceless. Toss in that his inclusion moves Bradley back to a more comfortable position for him, and you're really creating two valuable positions in the side. As for his fitness, I suspect had Donovan been included, he would have manned up and been out there, even if we had to take him off at 70 or something like that.
As for the much talked about "waiting for Donovan to act", that's on Klinsmann to fix. He is the manager. If his players are waiting on Donovan, then Klinsmann didn't do enough to inspire confidence in those players to do for themselves what they're waiting for Donovan to do. And the reality is that most players would have put Dempsey ahead of Donovan anyway, on that scale, and Donovan was left off of the side last year, so it's not like the team isn't used to playing without relying on him.
I understand that you need to adjust to the opponent, but not to the point where you sell out your whole identity for it. The US's usual advantage is in being athletic, fit and hard workers. Make THAT work for us. Don't take all that away by bunkering for 90.