re: WOW, Gyasi Zardes is a good player, but can he not receive a pass?

It is definitely group think.

Go back and reread the last game thread. It's totally absurd the way this board was piling on Zardes.

having him on the wing is the biggest issue

i think his defensive cover for yed was weak and i'd rather have bedoya out wide starting and then zardes as a sub when the defense is tired. or just put him up top in a 4-4-2 with dempsey so dempsey can roam and zardes is a threat to break out against an over-extended D

i get that he provides space and workrate, but bedoya provides workrate and a slightly less threat of speed (but on the flip side, his cover allows our most explosive space-creater in yedlin to move up)

playing out wide also requires that he dribble the ball more to create an attacking threat, b/c he's further away from the goal. his touch issues will be far less noticeable if he's waiting to impose his speed on a defense creating holes

I think Bedoya just spent an entire season at Nantes playing as a defensively minded central midfielder, and we're only a few days out from him playing an outstanding game in that role for the US. I also think he's set up in the correct position, and that moving him anywhere else would be doing him a serious disservice.

Is he capable of playing out wide, of course he is.

All of that to say, this place would be awfully boring, if we all agreed with each other.

pvilleguru from the internet thinks that he would have been just as valuable eating oranges on the touch line for long stretches of the match, while the guardian, writing a column on the same match, called his performance "impressive."

I get it. Groupthink can run wild on a sports message board. It's just the nature of these things.

LINK

All you have to do is watch the game against Costa Rica. He was our worst player.

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Can anybody offer up if this is correctable by him? Maybe some EURO time and he gets that aspect of his game righted?

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It's not likely to change much at his age. However, if he does get in a good run of form then confidence can certainly help.

Playing/practicing against top competition in Europe absolutely sharpens players' games in so many ways.

However, controlling the ball smoothly with the first touch is bit more of a technique that's learned and reinforced at early ages.

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which I have to admit makes him look near retarded.

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So much groupthink on this board

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FIFY

Stubear just brought up the bad touch video on Copa Tonight

And he thinks Zusi should start over Zardes for the next game, but it's just groupthink right??

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Zusi

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He would not be an improvement. Zardes provides more to this team, even with his many faults, than Zusi would. If Jurgen were to bench Zardes, Zusi shouldn't even be in the conversation to replace him IMO. He's not nearly dynamic enough. We have better options. I'm dying to see Nagbe and Pulisic get more minutes.