Moise Bombito

[VinceA]

34 minutes ago, Obinna said:

Anyone what the game? How did he do? 

He had like a 7.2 or something on Fotmob so it seems he did well.

[BearcatSA]

Playing at fullback (for stints on both sides), I thought he looked good. Big guy, good mover, took guys on in the attacking third, physical.

Hopefully the new Colorado coach in 2024 will be able to get him up to the next level, preferably at CB.

Edited September 28, 2023 by BearcatSA

[Obinna]

I liked what I saw from Bombito last night. I didn't watch the full match but what I saw I was impressed with. He's going to factor into our selections regularly moving forward, be it CB, FB or DM.

Speaking of CB, @Bigandy and I just had a pretty in-depth debate in the Zator thread and something I brought up was how I saw Zator as a pretty good Johnston replacement if we needed a RCB. That was based on Zator playing RB for his club and being a natural CB. He doesn't have the attacking knack that Johnston has, but positionally I see him as cover.

Well, I should also bring up Bombito here as a Johnston replacement. Natural CB who is clearly comfortable as a full back and has more attacking chops than Zator does, plus he is younger. That's not to say Zator has no business in the convo, he does, but may the best player win the minutes.

Right now for me I think Bombito as a CB, RCB, FB backs sense and the fact he can play DM if needed/desired is a bonus. I think am ready to say he's number 2 in the depth chart behind Johnston.

[BearcatSA]

I didn't feel like he had the possession maintaining instincts of a DM, and if you are not playing that regularly at club level, you certainly are not going to develop those simply with an NT camp.

The best thing for him at Colorado next season?  Play one back line spot and hone his craft there in what will be only his second year in the professional game.  Hopefully it is at CB.

[Ansem]

1 hour ago, BearcatSA said:

I didn't feel like he had the possession maintaining instincts of a DM, and if you are not playing that regularly at club level, you certainly are not going to develop those simply with an NT camp.

The best thing for him at Colorado next season?  Play one back line spot and hone his craft there in what will be only his second year in the professional game.  Hopefully it is at CB.

When Herdman took upon himself to make him into a #6 in the middle of the Gold Cup is where I lost complete faith. That should be done at club level - 100% agree

[SoccMan]

10 minutes ago, Ansem said:

When Herdman took upon himself to make him into a #6 in the middle of the Gold Cup is where I lost complete faith. That should be done at club level - 100% agree

It looks like even at the collegiate level he was mainly a CB , i maybe wrong and maybe there are cases but  you don’t go from a level like NCAA playing as a center back then turning into a midfielder when you reach the pro ranks especially not at the national team level . So yes a very puzzling decision by Herdman.

[FreddyCanuck]

2 hours ago, BearcatSA said:

I didn't feel like he had the possession maintaining instincts of a DM, and if you are not playing that regularly at club level, you certainly are not going to develop those simply with an NT camp.

The best thing for him at Colorado next season?  Play one back line spot and hone his craft there in what will be only his second year in the professional game.  Hopefully it is at CB.

Agreed, he's good technically. But it's one thing to be a technically adept CB and another to be a technically adept DM/CM. You can see when he plays regularly that his off-ball IQ and other attributes improve. Then he gets taken out of the XI or doesn't play and then he regresses to the mean. Vital that he gets those opportunities next year because he has such a strong foundation already.

[Kadenge]

Are Colorado's CBs that good that they are pushing Bombito to FB?  How was he defensively and is he a strong tackler? As @FreddyCanuck stated a CM needs to be very good on the ball even as a #6 to be effective. JDG ,Atiba & Staq were/are able to play through a high press because they posses that skill.

[FreddyCanuck]

1 minute ago, Kadenge said:

Are Colorado's CBs that good that they are pushing Bombito to FB?  How was he defensively and is he a strong tackler? As @FreddyCanuck stated a CM needs to be very good on the ball even as a #6 to be effective. JDG ,Atiba & Staq were/are able to play through a high press because they posses that skill.

And if we remember him at the Gold Cup, he did have his (understandable) struggles on the ball as a DM. Then the one time he played CB (I think it was the first half vs. Guatemala?) he was way more comfortable in those situations.

He also entered that tournament with a handful of pro minutes on top of adapting to a new role, so that didn't benefit him either.

[Bigandy]

2 hours ago, Ansem said:

When Herdman took upon himself to make him into a #6 in the middle of the Gold Cup is where I lost complete faith. That should be done at club level - 100% agree

Although I agree with you, its quite remarkable to have a college CB come back from injury, play 5 games at WB,FB and CB, get called up to canada and start in a new position. He deserves alot of props for how well he did given the hand he was dealt. If you compare his debut to watermans, who had experience, playing against a baaaad team in his favored position, then you can really appreciate how well MB managed. 

[Bigandy]

3 hours ago, Obinna said:

I liked what I saw from Bombito last night. I didn't watch the full match but what I saw I was impressed with. He's going to factor into our selections regularly moving forward, be it CB, FB or DM.

Speaking of CB, @Bigandy and I just had a pretty in-depth debate in the Zator thread and something I brought up was how I saw Zator as a pretty good Johnston replacement if we needed a RCB. That was based on Zator playing RB for his club and being a natural CB. He doesn't have the attacking knack that Johnston has, but positionally I see him as cover.

Well, I should also bring up Bombito here as a Johnston replacement. Natural CB who is clearly comfortable as a full back and has more attacking chops than Zator does, plus he is younger. That's not to say Zator has no business in the convo, he does, but may the best player win the minutes.

Right now for me I think Bombito as a CB, RCB, FB backs sense and the fact he can play DM if needed/desired is a bonus. I think am ready to say he's number 2 in the depth chart behind Johnston.

100%. I hype up MB alot on this board because of his player profile. His actual ability doesnt actually deserve the hype I give him. 

MB can play WB, FB, CB on either side. He can do a messy job at DM. He also has height and pace. Assuming he handle his job, he is the perfect guy to free up our "bigger players". 

At RCB we can play AJ at RB/RWB.
At LCB he can run channels better than every other CB (except maybe kennedy?) and free up AD to attack at LWB
At DM he frees up staq and kone to have freedom.
At RCB in a 4, he could arguably cover miller for height and pace. 

Zator could honestly have the same things said about him but at a lower level.... not quite as fast, or as good attacking, etc. 

[InglewoodJack]

Would love to get a Bombito interview somehow. The way he's been developed at his club and especially for Canada is absolutely insane to me. He plays like three positions for his club, played a position has practically no pro experience with for Canada, his underlying numbers aren't great and despite this, you have Herdman starting him on the national team in important games, you apparently have Atiba telling Besiktas to go after this guy, absolutely none of this makes sense, and I'd love to hear about what his vision for his career is or how he feels about how he's been utilized over the past year.

His career arc this year feels like when you play FIFA career mode and start this super low rated young player because you know if you just grind for minutes, his rating will go up linearly and he'll be 90 rated within 3 years. I think there's a glitch in FIFA where if you convert your CB to a striker at 16, it'll max out his stats because his defence is already high and scoring goals is easy, so that'll bump them up to 99 quickly. Feels like that's more or less the plan with Bombito, but I'm not sure if that's how things work in real life.

[Obinna]

26 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

Would love to get a Bombito interview somehow. The way he's been developed at his club and especially for Canada is absolutely insane to me. He plays like three positions for his club, played a position has practically no pro experience with for Canada, his underlying numbers aren't great and despite this, you have Herdman starting him on the national team in important games, you apparently have Atiba telling Besiktas to go after this guy, absolutely none of this makes sense, and I'd love to hear about what his vision for his career is or how he feels about how he's been utilized over the past year.

His career arc this year feels like when you play FIFA career mode and start this super low rated young player because you know if you just grind for minutes, his rating will go up linearly and he'll be 90 rated within 3 years. I think there's a glitch in FIFA where if you convert your CB to a striker at 16, it'll max out his stats because his defence is already high and scoring goals is easy, so that'll bump them up to 99 quickly. Feels like that's more or less the plan with Bombito, but I'm not sure if that's how things work in real life.

The NT caps...the multiple positions...the recommendation from Atiba..all of this can be explained by the fact he has a very attractive profile and tons of potential. 

The thing which seems to not add up is the lack of games for Colorado, a pretty bad MLS team. I don't watch them so I don't know, but I would love to know how Colorado fans view him. Based on what we've seen, known and heard of Bombito, I would have thought he'd be a regular starter, especially given the fact his club are clearly willing to play him in multiple roles, just like Canada. Is it a case of not trusting a young player, or was he injured for stretches? 

[Aird25]

53 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

Would love to get a Bombito interview somehow. The way he's been developed at his club and especially for Canada is absolutely insane to me. He plays like three positions for his club, played a position has practically no pro experience with for Canada, his underlying numbers aren't great and despite this, you have Herdman starting him on the national team in important games, you apparently have Atiba telling Besiktas to go after this guy, absolutely none of this makes sense, and I'd love to hear about what his vision for his career is or how he feels about how he's been utilized over the past year.

His career arc this year feels like when you play FIFA career mode and start this super low rated young player because you know if you just grind for minutes, his rating will go up linearly and he'll be 90 rated within 3 years. I think there's a glitch in FIFA where if you convert your CB to a striker at 16, it'll max out his stats because his defence is already high and scoring goals is easy, so that'll bump them up to 99 quickly. Feels like that's more or less the plan with Bombito, but I'm not sure if that's how things work in real life.

Not to be overly cynical, but if the Besiktas rumours only came out of Turkey, I might not give them a ton of stock. Their rumour mill is very active. That being said, Herdman giving him minutes before he was proven in MLS is interesting. We'll see if more established pros are more preferred under the new regime

[Bigandy]

24 minutes ago, Obinna said:

The NT caps...the multiple positions...the recommendation from Atiba..all of this can be explained by the fact he has a very attractive profile and tons of potential. 

The thing which seems to not add up is the lack of games for Colorado, a pretty bad MLS team. I don't watch them so I don't know, but I would love to know how Colorado fans view him. Based on what we've seen, known and heard of Bombito, I would have thought he'd be a regular starter, especially given the fact his club are clearly willing to play him in multiple roles, just like Canada. Is it a case of not trusting a young player, or was he injured for stretches? 

He started the season injured and then you can see he was eased in with end of game sub minutes and then short starts. After august 30 he has played 4 games for 90 and sat the bench for 2.  Not terrible stats given that the 2 sub games were within 3 days of playing a 90 (load management). 

With such a start/stop season, I kinda understand why he plays so many positions. Get him on the field as much as you can to get up to MLS speed of play. He has to learn alot more game IQ if he plays multiple positions compared to having the game in front of him as a CB. That will help him develop at all positions. 

I understand the desire to have him locked down to one position to really develop, but I think this constant switching will develop his IQ better, while playing one position will improve his form better but won't improve his IQ to the same extent.  

[Kadenge]

Herdman has generally been pretty good at spotting "young" talent and not being afraid to quickly put them on the big stage. Kone, AJ, Ahmed etc. So he must have seen something in Bombito's few games at Colorado to call him up to the GC and give him significant mins. With Kone he said he had attributes to his game that were different to the other mids in the squad. Perhaps its the same with Bombito. In the first half of the game vs VW, he didn't get the ball a lot at LB even when he was open. I'm as confused as everyone else as to why a team that low in the standings wouldn't play him at his "natural CB position" or certainly where he played at NCAA.

[Bigandy]

12 minutes ago, Kadenge said:

Herdman has generally been pretty good at spotting "young" talent and not being afraid to quickly put them on the big stage. Kone, AJ, Ahmed etc. So he must have seen something in Bombito's few games at Colorado to call him up to the GC and give him significant mins. With Kone he said he had attributes to his game that were different to the other mids in the squad. Perhaps its the same with Bombito. In the first half of the game vs VW, he didn't get the ball a lot at LB even when he was open. I'm as confused as everyone else as to why a team that low in the standings wouldn't play him at his "natural CB position" or certainly where he played at NCAA.

Just to play devils advocate on the one natural position argument. 

What are the pros of only playing one CB position. 
1. fine tuning the upgraded tactical demands and reading of the game for an MLS CB. (Obviously this is a big one)
2. more reps of the common types of technical demands. - Ex. Playing a ball from CB, skipping lines, into strikers feet
3. Easier to find consistency which leads to better form. 

What are the pros of playing multiple positions.
1. Receiving the ball in poisitions with more pressure. 
2. More 1v1's both attacking and defensive.
3. Increases his versatility.
4. Has to read the game quicker and in a different way. 

This year is clearly a developmental year and I think you could make a case for either arguments on whats best for his development. 

EDIT: I think hes only played one game at WB. Is alternating between CB and FB really a huge hinderance for him? Pep does this with ake, gvardiol, and akanji all the time. Ramos, Tanganga, alaba, Hernandez, pavard, kounde, araujo, all do this semi regularly. 

Edited September 29, 2023 by Bigandy

[Kadenge]

2 minutes ago, Bigandy said:

Just to play devils advocate on the one natural position argument. 

What are the pros of only playing one CB position. 
1. fine tuning the upgraded tactical demands and reading of the game for an MLS CB. (Obviously this is a big one)
2. more reps of the common types of technical demands. - Ex. Playing a ball from CB, skipping lines, into strikers feet
3. Easier to find consistency which leads to better form. 

What are the pros of playing multiple positions.
1. Receiving the ball in poisitions with more pressure. 
2. More 1v1's both attacking and defensive.
3. Increases his versatility.
4. Has to read the game quicker and in a different way. 

This year is clearly a developmental year and I think you could make a case for either arguments on whats best for his development. 

Hopefully the highlighted part is what we are seeing in Colorado. It took Tajon 2 seasons to emerge at NER. Bombito is a bit older than Tajon when he was signed by NER, but in any event lets hope Colorado stabilize his position next season.

[Bison44]

I havnt seen many of his Colorado games, but against VWC he got forward from a FB position very well on both flanks.  Maybe having him at CB restricts that aspect of his skills??  

[Kadenge]

2 hours ago, Bison44 said:

I havnt seen many of his Colorado games, but against VWC he got forward from a FB position very well on both flanks.  Maybe having him at CB restricts that aspect of his skills??  

I sure hope for the sake of the CMNT program that LB/RB is not where he slots in on a permanent basis. Our promising forwards are converted to FB/WB by their clubs and now a potential CB with height, speed and skill on the ball is being played out wide 🙂. We are truly blighted!

[VinceA]

23 minutes ago, Kadenge said:

I sure hope for the sake of the CMNT program that LB/RB is not where he slots in on a permanent basis. Our promising forwards are converted to FB/WB by their clubs and now a potential CB with height, speed and skill on the ball is being played out wide 🙂. We are truly blighted!

It was years of prayer in the 2010s asking for FB options that unfortunately have been answered a little too well.

[Bison44]

Oh hell, if he keeps going like this, and we keep running a back 3, he'll be able to slot into a RCB or LCB for us. But he's only had..umm less than a dozen games, 500mins??  Lets just hope he continues to get on the field ANYWHERE with colorado, because he prob wont develop into anything unless he gets consistent PT.  

[BearcatSA]

9 hours ago, Bigandy said:

This year is clearly a developmental year and I think you could make a case for either arguments on whats best for his development. 

And I think he'll make signiicant progress next year if he sticks in one position area to learn the many nuances of the craft in that spot.  I like his potential as a CB in a back four or back three.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

40 minutes ago, narduch said:

Bombito not in the line up.

Suspended.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-disciplinary-summary

He should be well rested for the Japan friendly.

[narduch]

Chris Armas might be his new manager

It's behind a paywall so I'm not sure who the other 2 candidates are.