Ali Ahmed

[The Beaver 2.0]

3 hours ago, Obinna said:

I agree with that. Absoulte top tier those two:

1. Davies 
2. David*

The USA have at least half a dozen players just below that caliber, 2nd tier if you will:

1. Pulisic
2. Reyna
3. McKennie
4. Balogun
5. Weah
6. Adams
7. Musah
8. Dest

I tried to order them in terms of importance/level. I also think we have two players in this 2nd tier:

• Buchanan*
• Eustaquio

There's a very big tier below that for the Americans (3rd):

• A.Robinson
• Pepi
• Sargent
• Wright*
• Cardoso
• De La Torre
• Parades
• Aaronson*
• Tillman
• Scally
• Richards
• CCV

And Canadians I would put in that 3rd tier would be:

• Kone
• Larin
• Johnston
• Millar*  

*Most debatable (could be pushed down a tier) names for me in italics 

This ^ does a great job of illustrating the gap in depth we've still to close. Lots yet to do!!

[Bigandy]

17 hours ago, Obinna said:

I agree with that. Absoulte top tier those two:

1. Davies 
2. David*

The USA have at least half a dozen players just below that caliber, 2nd tier if you will:

1. Pulisic
2. Reyna
3. McKennie
4. Balogun
5. Weah
6. Adams
7. Musah
8. Dest

I tried to order them in terms of importance/level. I also think we have two players in this 2nd tier:

• Buchanan*
• Eustaquio

There's a very big tier below that for the Americans (3rd):

• A.Robinson
• Pepi
• Sargent
• Wright*
• Cardoso
• De La Torre
• Parades
• Aaronson*
• Tillman
• Scally
• Richards
• CCV

And Canadians I would put in that 3rd tier would be:

• Kone
• Larin
• Johnston
• Millar*  

*Most debatable (could be pushed down a tier) names for me in italics 

Great list that I agree with. 

You could also put some usa names in italics to move up a level. Is pulisic not in the same category as david? Robinson is being linked with big moves. Ream could be added to the list. etc. 

I'm not sayin that's my opinion because I think your list is spot on, but there is a massive massive gap in player pools.

[Obinna]

39 minutes ago, Bigandy said:

Great list that I agree with. 

You could also put some usa names in italics to move up a level. Is pulisic not in the same category as david? Robinson is being linked with big moves. Ream could be added to the list. etc. 

I'm not sayin that's my opinion because I think your list is spot on, but there is a massive massive gap in player pools.

I considered putting Ream in that 3rd tier group, but just left him out due to age because I think he's almost aged out. He's certainly deserving, though. 

For that second tier, I tried to rank them and Pulisic unsurprisingly ended up at the top of the list. I also have David italicized because as you allude to he is certainly debatable. If someone swapped him and Pulisic I probably wouldn't argue to hard against it, but for me I think David deserves being just ahead of Pulisic right now.

For me it's the sheer amount of goals for club and country, along with the amount of games he's already played. Despite being almost two years older than David, Pulisic has played only about 50 more club games, just over a season's worth. So the trajectory of experience is right up there with some of the best of his cohort, like Davies (285) like Haaland (288). David has played 257 games and Pulisic 312. For context, Eustaquio has played 289 and McKennie has played 237.

Anyway, it's certainly debatable for sure and David hasn't played at a top club yet like Pulisic, but we do know it's coming so I am front running that in my assessment. 

[BearcatSA]

24 minutes ago, Obinna said:

Anyway, it's certainly debatable for sure and David hasn't played at a top club yet like Pulisic, but we do know it's coming so I am front running that in my assessment. 

I am curious where David goes and, more importantly, how it turns out.  Pulisic, along with some others, seemed to be stuck on the bench a lot at Chelsea (a concern that some posters have with Buchanon at Inter for next season), and I hope that circumstance doesn't happen with David.

[Bertuzzi44]

7 hours ago, Obinna said:

For that second tier, I tried to rank them and Pulisic unsurprisingly ended up at the top of the list. I also have David italicized because as you allude to he is certainly debatable. If someone swapped him and Pulisic I probably wouldn't argue to hard against it, but for me I think David deserves being just ahead of Pulisic right now.

 

This stood out to me as well. Pulisic is just as - if not more - important to the USMNT as David is for Canada. Also, his relative league/team strength has always been much higher (Dortmund/Chelsea/AC Milan vs Gent/Lille).

At the very least I would probably put Pulisic in the same tier as David, until David can prove he can be just as effective in the Bundesliga/Premier League/Serie A.

[Joe MacCarthy]

 

[Vasi]

On 4/4/2024 at 12:48 PM, Joe MacCarthy said:

 

This was a good interview. Really likeable guy. He fit well with the degenerates(i use this term out of love for them. Love the podcast. ) on FP. 

Talking about FP. I'm very happy to hear that Kevin Blue has reached out to the three alums on the show. Gives me hope he actually surrounds himself with football people. 

[Dominic94]

He’s top notch, great passer too. I think this will be his last MLS season.