re: Jozy Altidore and the MNT

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i also think he'd be well served to drop some of his muscle mass.

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...he did, that's been well-documented and why he has been much healthier the last year and a half.

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he still looks too big to me.

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He seems to be doing just fine at his current size.

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i disagree

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Then your expectations for the american striker are severely out of whack.

Jozy in 108 USMNT appearances has scored goals at a better rate than McBride did in 95 appearances.

It cost him the 2014 WC and other tournaments. That's why he's probably in the best shape of his life right now.

He's currently second in goals in CONCACAF in WCQ for this cycle. He scored 2 pretty big goals for us in the gold cup this summer. He's actually in fairly decent form for us right now. Dempsey and Morris were two of the only possible replacement starters for him, and we saw against Honduras that neither one of them should take that spot from him presently. Only other person that's really close is Bobby

Just for research sake I looked up Jozy's goalscoring record compared to other marquee strikers:

Jozy: 39 goals in 108 caps, a goal every 2.76 games.

Thomas Mueller: 37 in 87, 2.35

Lionel Messi, 58 in 120, 2.06

Wayne Rooney: 53 in 119, 2.2

Cristiano: 78 in 145, 1.86


Before the but MUH CONCACAF argument is made about Jozy, it should be noted that UEFA players for top national normally get four games against teams like Gibraltar and Estonia every qualification round where they can score four goals against some olive pickers and third tier Finnish players.

Now let's look at Jozy's mark compared to some of our players:

Bobby Wood: 9 in 34, 3.77
Clint Dempsey: 57 in 138, 2.4
Landon Donovan: 57 in 157, 2.75
Christian Pulisic: 7 in 18, 2.5
Wondo: 11 in 35, 3.18

So he's only been outperformed by Clint Dempsey and an 18 year-old prodigy, and Landon Donovan but barely.

Nobody in our pool has the hold up play Jozy has - it totally redefined our attacking (or non-attacking) strategy when he was injured in WC 2014. He is incredible when he has someone like Wood or Dempsey (or any other good attacking MF like Pulisic/Donovan of old) playing off him. When we play better teams and have less possession he allows us to play better on the counter. We tried to get Boyd or Agudelo to fill that role but nobody in the past 5-6+ years has come close to the big target hold up striker (with hold up play and passing) and is there even anybody else in the pipeline? Unfortunately our team isn't skilled enough to run with Wood/Dempsey or someone similar combo up top. Need some strength.

It'll get you free beers at any USMNT tailgate.

Our national play is 3rd tier.

This thread is a confession.

We have hit a period that is the opposite of golden age.

I thought usa would just get better and better.
Wow. Not.

Blame klinsmann?