Jimmy Conrad: Michael Bradley was a “super alpha male know-it-all”

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"I don't think we should be playing any of our older players from here on out...Michael Bradley, for me, should absolutely not be involved with the team from here on out. He's done his service, thank you very much, you've had a great career for the national team, you've had over 100 caps, but the guy is, and I'm being completely frank here with everybody, he's a super alpha male know-it-all and we don't need that vibe in the team anymore. Plus, we need the younger players to solve these problems on their own so that new leaders can emerge from this younger group. As opposed to them always deferring to the other guys."

"If he came into the team, then everybody would be like 'Michael was the leader'....when you have those types of [alpha male] personalities, they're filling the void and then some...so none of the other guys can step up or feel appropriate or feel comfortable in stepping up and saying something."

"I remember I had a former defender who played in the 2014 World Cup with the US, came up to me and was like 'I don't know how to talk to Michael Bradley during a game, can you help me figure out things I can say to him that's going to get his attention'...that's a problem, because if you have your leaders that aren't listening to their teammates...that's a big problem and I'm sure we can dissect what that means in the bigger picture why we didn't qualify if our captain isn't being someone that is open to his teammates and being able to listen."

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