Gold Cup 2019

[Kadenge]

1 hour ago, Aird25 said:

David has been lights out for Canada. 4 goals and 4 assists now in 5 appearances. Most of those with limited minutes. You have to think that a big tournament will see him sold to a bigger club next season. 

and yet he does not start for us!. David should see lots of playing time in the pool games with heavy rotations, but then it gets interesting in the knockouts especially if he performs well in the group stage.

[WyattTaylor]

They have to find a place for David in the starting 11. He's too good. May very well be the most talented player on the team. Would love to see him in a central attacking role.

[dyslexic nam]

Yeah, to me the idea that David doesn't start (aside from the need for rotation/rest) is a non-starter.  They guy is absolutely lethal.  Sitting him?  Not an option for me. 

[Snowcrash]

26 minutes ago, WyattTaylor said:

They have to find a place for David in the starting 11. He's too good. May very well be the most talented player on the team. Would love to see him in a central attacking role.

Watching videos of his games for Gent, David is an extremely underrated passer.  In the attacking zone, he has such a good understanding of where the other players are and flow of play that he sees the options before he receives the ball so there's no hesitation with the pass.  Very rarely does he recycle the ball. 

Also, I noticed for the second goal, as soon as he lays the ball out on the left wing, he immediately makes a run into the box, bringing defenders with him.

Lille can do worse than dropping maybe 15M+ Euros on David with the money they'll get from selling Pepe.

Edited June 12, 2019 by Snowcrash

[narduch]

Maybe for the Mexico match we play 1 less attacker?

But why would we not play him against Martinique or Cuba?

[CanadaFan123]

It’s tough because David is a stud, of course, but you look at our last match against French Guiana and we’ve now added Arfield and Davies, arguably two of our top 3 players along with Hoilett imo. 

So who gets dropped?  Obviously we’ve moved Hutch back to CB so that opens up a spot for Arfield.  But then we have to drop someone for Davies - so it’s either Kaye at LB, Hoilett or David .. obviously we don’t want him at LB and he’s not taking Hoiletts spot.  So that leaves David the odd man out - unless he can move into midfield, but why would we risk that when midfield is our strongest and deepest position? 

[Alex]

It should be:

Cavallini up top with David, Davies and Hoilett on the wings, Arfield in the middle. If Hutchinson is in fact CB then Piette can be defensive mid. 

——cav——- David 

Davies—- Arfield—— Hoilett 

—— Piette—— 

kaye—- Cornelius—- Hutchinson—- ZBG

This is the same starting 11 as the t&t game except I replaced Osorio with David. Also, I’m not sure if Kaye was a left back or not. 

Edited June 12, 2019 by Alex

[WyattTaylor]

I like Jonathan Osorio, but I think he has to be dropped for David. Alternatively, Piette goes to the bench and you have Osorio, Arfield and David as your midfield trio. 

It isn't absolutely necessary to have a deep lying DM sitting in front of the back four.

[Obinna]

11 minutes ago, WyattTaylor said:

I like Jonathan Osorio, but I think he has to be dropped for David. Alternatively, Piette goes to the bench and you have Osorio, Arfield and David as your midfield trio. 

It isn't absolutely necessary to have a deep lying DM sitting in front of the back four.

I would have said the same thing, but now I am considering who has the bigger impact off the bench? Surely it is David, right?

Does he deserve to start based on talent? No doubt! However, it may be more advantageous to keep him in reserve in order to surprise teams later on in a match. 

Just a thought.

[SkuseisLoose]

54 minutes ago, Obinna said:

I would have said the same thing, but now I am considering who has the bigger impact off the bench? Surely it is David, right?

Does he deserve to start based on talent? No doubt! However, it may be more advantageous to keep him in reserve in order to surprise teams later on in a match. 

Just a thought.

No Liam Millar is a strong option off the bench currently we don’t need both. We should start are best squad against Martinique which I think has to include David. Anyways here my starting 11

———————————-—cavallini——————-––———

Hoilett————Arfield—————— David————Davies 

———————————Hutchison————————————

kaye—————Cornelius—————Henry————— ZBG

—————————————Borjan————————————

if Henry Isn’t available drop Hutchison back and put in piette at DM.

[Obinna]

14 minutes ago, SkuseisLoose said:

No Liam Millar is a strong option off the bench currently we don’t need both. We should start are best squad against Martinique which I think has to include David. Anyways here my starting 11

———————————-—cavallini——————-––———

Hoilett————Arfield—————— David————Davies 

———————————Hutchison————————————

kaye—————Cornelius—————Henry————— ZBG

—————————————Borjan————————————

if Henry Isn’t available drop Hutchison back and put in piette at DM.

I like your line-up. In theory it looks great.

Problem is that David has yet to line up centrally for Canada, it's not going to begin against Martinique. The time to experiment was on Monday. Sorry but this won't happen I am afraid.

I am fine with David starting, but Herdman is not going to drop Hoilett or Davies to make it happen. Now, if Davies starts at left back then I would expect David in the starting 11, but that's a different conversation.

I get that you want the best line up out there. Well all want to see the strongest team for the opener. Osorio for all his strengths is not a better player than David, but the team is probably better with Osorio in the middle. At least the coaches seem to think so. I'll trust their judgement and I will look at the bright side if David starts from the bench.

We should consider ourselves lucky we have the depth to bring on a 19 year old attacker who has scored 4 goals in his first 4 caps. This could be an advantage, not a disadvantage. 

Edited June 12, 2019 by Obinna

[Lansdude]

We have pretty good betting odds for this tournament.

32:1 to win the tournament, 1.38:1 to beat Martinique. The latter looks like great value and the second looks like free money.

So psyched for this tournament.

[Lansdude]

16 minutes ago, Obinna said:

I like your line-up. In theory it looks great.

Problem is that David has yet to line up centrally for Canada, it's not going to begin against Martinique. The time to experiment was on Monday. Sorry but this won't happen I am afraid.

I am fine with David starting, but Herdman is not going to drop Hoilett or Davies to make it happen. Now, if Davies starts at left back then I would expect David in the starting 11, but that's a different conversation.

I get that you want the best line up out there. Well all want to see the strongest team for the opener. Osorio for all his strengths is not a better player than David, but the team is probably better with Osorio in the middle. At least the coaches seem to think so. I'll trust their judgement and I will look at the bright side if David starts from the bench.

We should consider ourselves lucky we have the depth to bring on a 19 year old attacker who has scored 4 goals in his first 4 caps. This could be an advantage, not a disadvantage. 

Agree, it's tempting to work it so that our eleven best guys are on the pitch regardless, but I think it would require playing guys out of position a bit too much. We also don't have a huge drop-off in quality for guys outside of that top 11 in skill. So some middle ground between tailoring the formation to get our best guys on the field and making sure we have a coherent and balanced attack/defence is going to be required.

And as you say guys we can't shoehorn into the starting eleven can come off the bench early if we need them once we know how to use them.

[Corazon]

I think both Osorio and David have the ability to alter a game coming off the bench.  I am okay with either one starting as long as the other comes off the bench early.

[dyslexic nam]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

I would have said the same thing, but now I am considering who has the bigger impact off the bench? Surely it is David, right?

Does he deserve to start based on talent? No doubt! However, it may be more advantageous to keep him in reserve in order to surprise teams later on in a match. 

Just a thought.

I understand what you are saying, but I don't agree.  To me, David has shown he deserves to be in our best starting 11 (squad rotation issues aside).  Sure, we could bring him off the bench to run at tired defenders.  We could also do the same thing with Davies, Arfield, Hoillet, etc.  I don't understand what it is about David, aside from the fact that he did this sometimes for Gent, that would suggest it is a more appropriate tactic to use on him than on other players.  To me, there is just one issue: has he demonstrated that he deserves the start?  I can't think of an argument against that idea. 

The game against Mexico may be another story if we are planning to rest some players and potentially sacrifice that game, but insofar as Martinique and Cuba are must-wins, I see no reason to leave David on the bench.

 

[Obinna]

8 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

I understand what you are saying, but I don't agree.  To me, David has shown he deserves to be in our best starting 11 (squad rotation issues aside).  Sure, we could bring him off the bench to run at tired defenders.  We could also do the same thing with Davies, Arfield, Hoillet, etc.  I don't understand what it is about David, aside from the fact that he did this sometimes for Gent, that would suggest it is a more appropriate tactic to use on him than on other players.  To me, there is just one issue: has he demonstrated that he deserves the start?  I can't think of an argument against that idea. 

The game against Mexico may be another story if we are planning to rest some players and potentially sacrifice that game, but insofar as Martinique and Cuba are must-wins, I see no reason to leave David on the bench.

 

Perhaps Herdman can get more from David off the bench than Hoilett.

Forget Arfield and Davies because one is not playing the same position and the other is, for all intense and purposes, undropable.

For me it comes down to David versus Hoilett. You honestly can't go wrong with either. Is there any argument that David deserves a start over Hoilett? Possibly. That said, Junior is in his prime and has seniority on the squad and I suspect we can get more from David off the bench than Hoilett, because that's a different (probably more difficult) conversation if you are explaining to Hoilett why you want to start him from the bench, right? David is the talented rookie here, starting him from the bench is probably more managable, if you know what I mean.

[dyslexic nam]

I guess I misunderstood.  I don't see Hoilett giving way to David - I see it being Osorio.  To me, David as a roaming attacking mid playing behind Cav (rather than on a wing) makes the most sense - precisely because Davies and Hoilett are such elite players.  I guess it isn't where Herdman sees him - to be honest I am not a formation geek (and I say that with respect) - but given the players' various strengths it makes the most sense to me.  

[CanadaFan123]

https://twitter.com/coachpassy/status/1138842686129991680

St Kitts’ Mexican coach with high praise for Canada and Herdman.  Says we’re a team to pay attention to.  Also says that Herdman is meticulous and knows the squad like the back of his hand.

Months back I also saw him talk about our squad on Twitter.  Called the Canadian squad our best ever and once again said to watch out for us.  Bottom line, Canada left a lasting impression on him from November and this is a coach who was nominated for concacaf coach of the year last year. 

Interesting that he seems to also imply to another user that we develop managers better in a way because we don’t worry about their origin I.e women’s football.  It is true really.. we have a manager who has been trained in the international game for years at major tournaments without the big $.  

Edited June 12, 2019 by CanadaFan123

[Obinna]

16 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

I guess I misunderstood.  I don't see Hoilett giving way to David - I see it being Osorio.  To me, David as a roaming attacking mid playing behind Cav (rather than on a wing) makes the most sense - precisely because Davies and Hoilett are such elite players.  I guess it isn't where Herdman sees him - to be honest I am not a formation geek (and I say that with respect) - but given the players' various strengths it makes the most sense to me.  

David is certainly an attacking mid, but he is doing it from the wing. Same goes for Hoilett. Both have the freedom to drift inside and find the game.

This is working for us right now and is probably why we don't see David lining up directly under Cav at the kick off. The team plays with 3 center midfielders, but none of them is tasked as the primary creator. The creation mostly comes from the flanks.

Davies and Millar are more apt at using their pace to get in behind and whip in crosses. Junior and David can beat men in the same way, but both are quite intelligent and can drift inside to combine with the midfielders and/or target man.

I really like the balance of our 4 wide attackers. 2 are more pure and the others are more hybrid.

Therefore, I expect to see 1 of Davies/Millar and 1 of Junior/David. That gives us one "field stretching" option and one "playmaking" option on the other flank. The exception to that would be Hoilett and David at the same time with Davies at LB.

Edited June 12, 2019 by Obinna

[Shway]

Hey are there any watch parties being organized? 

[ted]

Just now, Shway said:

Hey are there any watch parties being organized? 

Yes, by the Voyageurs: https://www.thevoyageurs.org/forums/topic/33294-viewing-parties-wwc-gold-cup/

[Shway]

7 minutes ago, ted said:

Yes, by the Voyageurs: https://www.thevoyageurs.org/forums/topic/33294-viewing-parties-wwc-gold-cup/

Might just make my way dt for the day. A nice reason to be day waste and  watch some footy. 

[Admin]

1 minute ago, Shway said:

Might just make my way dt for the day. A nice reason to be day waste and  watch some footy. 

Which day and where?

[Obinna]

The crisis in American confidence ahead of the Gold Cup continues unabated. 

Instead of viewing the Reggie Cannon call up as an opportunity for a promising player to gain Gold Cup experience, the focus is squarely on the absence of Tyler Adams and what it means. I'm not saying they should celebrate the loss of Adams, but where's the "next man up" mentality? Their reaction is surprisingly considering their superior depth, but unsurprising considering how irrate they get at every little setback since their WCQ failure.

A look at the Mlssoccer.com headlines kinda sums up their desperation. There is the reggie cannon headline, then a few headlines above that is an article how julian gressel is considering joining the usmnt. No offense to julian gressel, but is that a dual national worth getting out of your seat for? I guess so if you got tickets to the American soccer circus!

[badname22]

will gold cup be on onesoccer?