Samuel Piette (we haven't seen the best of him yet!)

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

I looked, but we didn't seem to have a proper Piette thread
(anyways, at least since that time he posted that joke in poor taste on social media http://www.thevoyageurs.org/forums/topic/25563-samuel-piette-wtf/)

Anyways, interesting stuff from Marca a few days back. It seems he rates Floro Sr. and is sad to see him go + Floro Jr. helped secure his move to CD Izarra.

http://www.marca.com/futbol/america/2016/09/19/57e00506ca4741f6388b4635.html

 

Edited September 23, 2016 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[Moldy9]

We surely haven't seen the best of him or have we? Cause what I've seen wasn't a whole lot I ask myself what's he doing there ? I think he's too slow and doesn't provide much. 

[gator]

I am really hoping he develops into the player we have seen small glimpses of, he could fill an important role in years ahead if he does!

[rightback]

I like him as a DM, don't know why he gets so much grief on this forum.

[Kent]

Well done. I vote all future thread titles rhyme.

[Vince193]

Meh. I was more impressed with him when he was 18-19. He left Germany, couldn't make Deportivo's first team and now he's in a small club in the third division of Spain, which isn't even a fully professional division. What does the future hold for him exactly? I hope he eventually makes it to a bigger team, but he's not a prospect anymore. 

 

I can see him joining the CanPL when it launches.

[Obinna]

To put it in context, Osorio was completing his second season in MLS at Piette's age.

[finchster]

Piette is not a good player unfortunately 

[Oranje]

3 hours ago, Vince193 said:

Meh. I was more impressed with him when he was 18-19. He left Germany, couldn't make Deportivo's first team and now he's in a small club in the third division of Spain, which isn't even a fully professional division. What does the future hold for him exactly? I hope he eventually makes it to a bigger team, but he's not a prospect anymore. 

 

I can see him joining the CanPL when it launches.

Just goes to show how how much can change in 4-5 years, especially with hyped up teenagers. But hey, we need to cap tie Talba eh?

[Obinna]

For me, it's not even that Piette is a bad player. You can see some of the tools that he has.

For me, he twice found himself in an situation where he could launch a proper pro career, and both times he failed. First with Dusseldorf in the 2.Bundesliga and then with Deportivo.

It's a tougher nut to crack breaking through at a La Liga club, but this was his second go around, you'd think he would have learned enough from his first failure to make it work.  

I'm critical of Piette because I believed in Piette. With Henry, I never really believed he'd be a regular with West Ham, though I was hopeful.

Henry is exactly where I thought he'd be - loaned out at a respectable, fully professional level. Blackburn twice and now the Danish Superliga, that is moderate success considering who he is as a player, and had Piette "made it" at Deportivo, he'd have a chance to get loaned out to a respectable level also. But alas, he never convinced them enough even for that.

[yothat]

he sucks ... haven't seen anything that inspires confidence consider on the national team camps n playing time 

[Obinna]

4 minutes ago, yothat said:

he sucks ... haven't seen anything that inspires confidence consider on the national team camps n playing time 

He's sorta played out of position this cycle. I like his toughness, passing, low centre of gravity and ability to shoot from the outside. Scored a few crackers at the U20 level.

Needs to play in front of the back 4 tho, not very versitile.

Edited September 23, 2016 by Obinna

[Floortom]

11 minutes ago, yothat said:

he sucks ... haven't seen anything that inspires confidence consider on the national team camps n playing time 

Kind of agree even though unnecessarily harsh. He's one of those players I just don't "get". He seems to have plenty of fans here and in the program for reasons totally beyond my comprehension.

[Fullback]

To be fair I don't think I've ever watched him play with the nats and thought he looked out of place or had a bad game. I get the frustration because there was a large amount of hype after that 2012 olympic qualifying tourney. I still have faith he can turn it around club wise

[Obinna]

5 minutes ago, Floortom said:

Kind of agree even though unnecessarily harsh. He's one of those players I just don't "get". He seems to have plenty of fans here and in the program for reasons totally beyond my comprehension.

Care to elaborate why you think Piette sucks? I agree he's not good as an advanced midfielder or even a box to box midfielder, but is there any complaints about him as a DM that you can give us?

[kohanz]

1 hour ago, Oranje said:

Just goes to show how how much can change in 4-5 years, especially with hyped up teenagers. But hey, we need to cap tie Talba eh?

I don't get this argument. What exactly is the horrible downside? No one has said he's a sure thing. It's a risk/reward scenario.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

1 hour ago, Fullback said:

To be fair I don't think I've ever watched him play with the nats and thought he looked out of place or had a bad game. I get the frustration because there was a large amount of hype after that 2012 olympic qualifying tourney. I still have faith he can turn it around club wise

I think it was the Azerbaijan game in June where he was pretty terrible and people mentioned it on twitter and he "liked" those tweets. Besides that game he has been decent but never stellar pretty much every game I've found. Very average.

[shermanator]

6 hours ago, rightback said:

I like him as a DM, don't know why he gets so much grief on this forum.

I would second this. I think Piette gets a lot of grief because he hasn't really been played in a position where he can utilize his strengths at DM. I think he is great at the destroyer role, but he's not at all suited in a more advanced MF role, which is how Floro often utilized him.

I also think he gets a lot of grief by just looking at the club level he is playing at, combining that with his poor performances when out of position (which seems to be most times he's used with the national team). Has anyone seen him play club football in Spain recently? I ask because I haven't, and I sincerely doubt many here have. This means people don't see the bulk of his time on the pitch.

Yes, it's disappointing that he never made the first teams with Dusseldorf and Coruna, but the door has not closed on him improving simply because will turn 22 in November. I agree that he needs to move to a better quality league after this year, but for now he needs to dominate Segunda 2B as an every game starter. I look forward to seeing what he brings to the table with the national team when used to his strengths.

Edited September 23, 2016 by shermanator

[toontownman]

He is not at Haber level for me. Although Haber actually looked good from the bench twice in the past year.  A broken clock is right twice a day right? 

Certainly never been man of the match but hasn't always looked rank either. Seemed to be a lot of hype from people that I never saw but not one I would write off. He is a depth player. Seen more from Teibert! 

 *puts tin hat on and reflects how I neutralized any valid points with one short sentence*

[kohanz]

.

Edited September 24, 2016 by kohanz

[baulderdash77]

I think we overhyped Piette a bit.  I think he could be a quality MLS level defensive midfielders and that's ok. Maybe a Collen Warner type. At this point I don't think he's ever going to make the jump to the Hutch, HD level that we hoped for.  But he can be a quality piece for us.

Someone mentioned the CanPL, and I think he would do well there in a couple years if he doesn't move to MLS.

 

Edited September 24, 2016 by baulderdash77

[BradMack]

3 hours ago, baulderdash77 said:

I think we overhyped Piette a bit.  I think he could be a quality MLS level defensive midfielders and that's ok. Maybe a Collen Warner type. At this point I don't think he's ever going to make the jump to the Hutch, HD level that we hoped for.  But he can be a quality piece for us.

Someone mentioned the CanPL, and I think he would do well there in a couple years if he doesn't move to MLS.

 

Who is HD? I'm blanking here and its really bugging me. 

[Unnamed Trialist]

18 hours ago, Vince193 said:

Meh. I was more impressed with him when he was 18-19. He left Germany, couldn't make Deportivo's first team and now he's in a small club in the third division of Spain, which isn't even a fully professional division. What does the future hold for him exactly? I hope he eventually makes it to a bigger team, but he's not a prospect anymore. 

 

I can see him joining the CanPL when it launches.

2B Spain is officially fully pro, nobody does anything else and everyone lives on their football salary. 

Another thing is that salaries have dropped with sponsors disappearing with the financial crisis in Spain. But some teams are extremely powerful and many draw like NASL teams.

2B is a trap level if you are older, the only way you can go higher is if you are very specialized (striker), you team promotes and they don't dump you, or if you are young. This latter is Sam's category, but I agree it'd be great to see him in 2A within 2-3 years.

[Unnamed Trialist]

13 hours ago, shermanator said:

I would second this. I think Piette gets a lot of grief because he hasn't really been played in a position where he can utilize his strengths at DM. I think he is great at the destroyer role, but he's not at all suited in a more advanced MF role, which is how Floro often utilized him.

I also think he gets a lot of grief by just looking at the club level he is playing at, combining that with his poor performances when out of position (which seems to be most times he's used with the national team). Has anyone seen him play club football in Spain recently? I ask because I haven't, and I sincerely doubt many here have. This means people don't see the bulk of his time on the pitch.

Yes, it's disappointing that he never made the first teams with Dusseldorf and Coruna, but the door has not closed on him improving simply because will turn 22 in November. I agree that he needs to move to a better quality league after this year, but for now he needs to dominate Segunda 2B as an every game starter. I look forward to seeing what he brings to the table with the national team when used to his strengths.

I've watched him on Galician tv both on loan to Ferrol last year and at Deportivo B. 

He basically sits back in the midfield and is the transition player from the back line to the attack, the key player. At both clubs they tried to play out from the back more than long ball. He is a precise passer in short to mid, moves properly off the ball backing up his team, goes in support in defence. We have few passers with his accuracy. 

He has gotten quicker, and has expanded his range a bit, but still has to more. He is not really a destroyer in any case, he is strong but is not your classic biting aggressive DM, he is  more positional and simply disciplined.

For Canada, if we were to play possession football, he could have a role. But we really don't, waste it constantly, have all these new guys who like to dribble their way into losing the ball (Junior and Arfield), which people here seem to like, even though Ricketts does it too, and never play backwards in the mid to start again, it is just bash forwards. So all of what he could bring is wasted. But I don't want to exagerrate, we need him to step up physically, tactically and especially in expanding his role and taking more responsibility, and then he'd be more useful for us.

That would probably also get him more looks in the big leap from 2B to 2A Spain.

[Unnamed Trialist]

It seems there will be a televised game with SAM tomorrow, on TV Galicia online, Pontevedra-Izarra at 5pm Spain time

http://www.crtvg.es/en-directo/

Not 100% sure, it does appear on the schedule, but on live tv they are showing Celta B team same time, so I think Sam's game will just be online through the TVG links.