Does Jozy stay in the EPL next year?

Yes, I think he stays at Sunderland.

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I would like to see him at Celtic or another club that would qualify for Europe on a regular basis. I think the only way he can improve his situation is to net 3 goals in the WC.

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He might as well play in the MLS

The SPL and Scottish Football has gotten worse since Rangers went down. The league lost a Champions league spot and Celtic winning the league by 30 points does it no good.

Celtic most the times in Europe does not even make the group stages.

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I don't see Jozy coming back to the MLS. I would like to see him be the best striker on the best team in the top league of a country. Celtic was a bad example, but I'm a little biased. Leagues that he could go to and play for a top team that are better leagues than the SPL- Portugal, Netherlands, Ukrain, Belgium

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He would be better off playing in the Championship.

Top teams is Holland and Portugal have better quality strikers. Ukraine league is already in shambles with Donetsk having a fire sale with war pending or leaving the country altogether. The Belgium league is meh.

I wish someone would go get him from Sunderland. They have no idea how to use him effectively, such a waste. Hopefully he and Bradley have a good WC and they get in with some clubs that will properly utilize them.

Jozy didn't do himself any favors this season. His confidence dropped, his work-rate fell, and he seemed aimless on the pitch. Then the Newcastle game happened and he played really well, and he played around that level the rest of season. He was overshadowed by Wickham, who played amazing after he returned from loan. In fact, I think Altidore is sometimes afraid to use his massive frame and athleticism like he should. There were times where he could absolutely bully defenders but other times he was afraid to even receive the ball with his back toward goal. At this point if he can be a poor man's Emile Heskey then he can carve a PL career out for himself. I think his upside is a little higher, but he has to be more physical.

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At this point if he can be a poor man's Emile Heskey then he can carve a PL career out for himself.

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This might be the most depressing thing I've ever read.

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This might be the most depressing thing I've ever read.

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It's not that bad. Heskey was a superb target man who gets scoffed at because he didn't score. But Heskey was a battering ram and was always a handful for CB's to contain. It's super hard to be a targetman and a goalscorer. Drogba might have been the best at it, and his goal return in league play other than two wonderful seasons wasn't overly impressive. We complain about Giroud but it's a hard, thankless job, akin to a 2 gap defensive tackle, where the biggest responsibility is to open up space for other players. If Jozy becomes a superb targetman, he will score by virtue of the number of chances he can create. He doesn't have to be a particularly effective goalscorer, as we've seen with Giroud, to score on chances he helped to create.

Jozy has to improve his offensive work-rate. Let's look at this clip for example. LINK

It's a 31 pass move by Sunderland against Man U which ends with a Borini shot off the post. This is excellent possession football. Colback receives the ball just outside the center circle and drives up the field. We see Jozy looking back at Colback, as if he doesn't know what he needs to do, which is to run wide. By the time he runs wide enough, the pass angle is gone, and Colback has to stop, and Sunderland has to reset possession. Because Jozy delayed the run a split second, the counter-attack opportunity is lost, and he just stays wide, instead of moving into the space in front of the CB's to help offer an outlet, or to help move possession backwards. As they are resetting, we see Mannonne split the press and play a ball to Colback, who moves the ball wide to O'Shea, who looks upfield for a first station pass to begin the attack again. Now as he makes the pass, we see that Man U is playing a very deep defensive line, thus giving a lot of space in front of the defense. There is plenty of space for Jozy to move back into midfield to receive the ball, but he doesn't do it at all. Instead when Giacherrini receives the ball between the midfield and defense, Jozy begins his run in the same exact space where the CB's are, instead of to his left, where there is a small bit of space. This is compounded by the fact that the right-sided player, Borini, has moved into the same space, and thus when he receives the ball, he has no outlet for a pass, leaving him no option but to shoot. If Jozy had moved left instead of right, there would have been an option, possibly, for Borini to play Altidore in.

So in a 31 pass move that ends in a scoring opportunity for Sunderland, Altidore doesn't touch the ball once. That is absolutely piss-poor, and it's no surprise that he was dropped, because that is thoroughly dreadful. His movement is wrong, he doesn't know how to use space, he doesn't come back to the ball, he doesn't offer an outlet, he doesn't complete a triangle, he doesn't bend his run, he doesn't seek out space, he doesn't drag the CB's wide, he doesn't do anything useful. He might as well not have been on the pitch. I also seriously doubt that Poyet told him to go out there and stand around until an opportunity is created. In the modern game, everyone has to work to create an opportunity. The days of having two strikers sit upfield to do nothing defensively are gone.

I realize that I might be hard on American players, but this is bad any way you cut it. I think this points to a real lack of tactical understanding on Altidore's part, which may be due to his technical education, as he doesn't have terrible technique, but he consistently shows low soccer IQ. This can get better, but it's not promising.

He has played better after getting dropped, but he's a limited player. He has to get better if he wants to stay in the PL.

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It's a 31 pass move by Sunderland against Man U which ends with a Borini shot off the post. This is excellent possession football. Colback receives the ball just outside the center circle and drives up the field. We see Jozy looking back at Colback, as if he doesn't know what he needs to do, which is to run wide. By the time he runs wide enough, the pass angle is gone, and Colback has to stop, and Sunderland has to reset possession. Because Jozy delayed the run a split second, the counter-attack opportunity is lost, and he just stays wide, instead of moving into the space in front of the CB's to help offer an outlet, or to help move possession backwards. As they are resetting, we see Mannonne split the press and play a ball to Colback, who moves the ball wide to O'Shea, who looks upfield for a first station pass to begin the attack again. Now as he makes the pass, we see that Man U is playing a very deep defensive line, thus giving a lot of space in front of the defense. There is plenty of space for Jozy to move back into midfield to receive the ball, but he doesn't do it at all. Instead when Giacherrini receives the ball between the midfield and defense, Jozy begins his run in the same exact space where the CB's are, instead of to his left, where there is a small bit of space. This is compounded by the fact that the right-sided player, Borini, has moved into the same space, and thus when he receives the ball, he has no outlet for a pass, leaving him no option but to shoot. If Jozy had moved left instead of right, there would have been an option, possibly, for Borini to play Altidore in.

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I agree with all of this, but I wonder what role, exactly, Poyet is asking him to play. Apparently Poyet made a point of telling him not to come back to the ball in midfield.

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He has to get better if he wants to stay in the PL.

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No question. It would be nice if he got a move to Italy where he could really work on the tactical side of his game and hopefully improve his soccer IQ. I think Bradley improved in this way while in Italy.

His movement at AZ was so much better. I really don't get it.

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NYCFC

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No.