Bob Bradley

judas101

Hi all.

I'm having a discussion with an American friend of mine about Bob Bradley.

He's big into US football and is raging that Bradley got a 4 year extension.

He says:I want the US to be world beaters. We have the resources, we have the funds, we have EVERYTHING, except the right coach. If we wanted to stay American, there are THREE exceptional coaches in the development program


I argued that he has done well with an average squad. After all they topped their WC qualification group, topped their WC group and lost only to a decent Ghana side in a close game.

I reckon he's about as good as they could hope for. To my knowledge there arent any American candidates for the role.

Also, the position is hardly big enough to attract a top quality foreign coach.

In my opinion, Bradley not getting the Villa job is a blessing for Us football (and possibly for Villa too)

Just want to get a few opinions on this.

BigBenRoeth

There's nothing great about him.

LuckyLloyd

Your friend is wrong. Bradley has done an amazing job with that side since he took over. They simply don't have players good enough at this point in time to be realistic contenders for the World Cup. Bradley has done what is expected (get to the World Cup, be generally competitive from one end of the year to the other), and then added some nice bonuses (give Brazil a rattle in the Confederations Cup final, top the England group at the World Cup).

It is never the job of the national coach to develop a conveyor belt of talent coming up the ranks. The responsibility for that lies with how grass roots football is structured, how the under age development squads push elite level youth players on in their growth. The US does not have the requisite quantity of quality players available at this point in time for them to achieve much more than they have.

Bradley has been very smart tactically, he's managed his options on the bench well in the big games, he's been brave enough to exclude bigger name and more established players from time to time (Adu not taken to the WC, Oeneyu dropped during it when he wasn't performing). The US had their chances against Ghana, and I think any rational assessment of their WC would conclude that they were very close to maxing out what they were capable of achieving.

In five years time they may have brought more players through (their youth structures are constantly changing) to the point where having a Guus Hiddink type coach could be the difference between contending or merely being tough to beat. That is not the case now however, and Bradley definitely deserves an extension on the basis of the work he has done thus far.

MickShamrock

I think Bradley has done an excellent job with the players at his disposal and deserves an extension.

_Bella_

^^ I agree, but I do believe he messed up during the World Cup. He didn't seem to be able to stop the US from conceding in the first 20 minutes of three of their four matches. He also made very questionable decisions which lead to him having to make very early substitutions. He also didn't seem to be able to decide Clint Dempseys best decision, changing his position up to three times a match.

LuckyLloyd

_Bella_ wrote: »

^^ I agree, but I do believe he messed up during the World Cup. He didn't seem to be able to stop the US from conceding in the first 20 minutes of three of their four matches. He also made very questionable decisions which lead to him having to make very early substitutions. He also didn't seem to be able to decide Clint Dempseys best decision, changing his position up to three times a match.

The fact that he made the change so early in to the Ghana game is something that should count in his favour rather than the reverse. It wasn't working, he made a change, and they got a foothold in the game from there.

As for Dempsey, he is versatile and by moving him throughout a game it allows Bradley to dramatically change tactics as the situation demands - something he did brilliantly throughout the World Cup.

As for conceding early, they just suck at the back. When Carlos Bocanegra is your best defender you're going to ship goals. And they did.

eagle eye

He basically comes from the Bruce Arena school of coaching. Both have never had good teams defensively and concentrate more on getting the ball out wide and over the top.

The man did a good job with the US team though and he deserves his extension unless they were going to bring in an experienced European coach.

The belief some US fans have is truly amazing, they think they should be winning the World Cup already. It won't be long though, they will go very close in 8 years time I think and maybe even in the next one.

judas101

eagle eye wrote: »

unless they were going to bring in an experienced European coach.

Do you think an experienced European coach would go near that job?

Patchy squad and high expectations are not a good mix.

dreamers75

judas101 wrote: »

Do you think an experienced European coach would go near that job?

Patchy squad and high expectations are not a good mix.

Depends on the money really.

RichTea

The United States have most of the pieces in place to start to become a real force in the game within the next decade and a half or so. The sheer abundance of youth players, GDP, facilities and interest in the sport are all massive positives.

With the right coach, the USMNT can start to make strides and real progress. I know a lot of followers of US Soccer and the MLS and the majority of them do not approve of Bob Bradley's extension. This is apparently the case amongst the players too.

Maybe it would have been better for a 'fresh face' or someone from a different school of coaching (perhaps even a European coach) to come in and rejig the team.

Mister men

Only a matter of time before the US become a huge force in World football. I actuallly had a tenner on them to get to the final of the World cup. Bradley is the right man for the job at the present time. Good luck to him.

CSF

Surely we should restrain ourselves from giving it the big heave-ho about America until they've produced 1 World Class player? Then after that we can consider that they might get the 5 or 6 they need, and the physical grafters to go with them.

Mister men

CSF wrote: »

Surely we should restrain ourselves from giving it the big heave-ho about America until they've produced 1 World Class player? Then after that we can consider that they might get the 5 or 6 they need, and the physical grafters to go with them.

Well it's a team game. England have 3-4 World class players and look what good it did them. Ditto Argentina.

dreamers75

Mister men wrote: »

Well it's a team game. England have 3-4 World class players and look what good it did them. Ditto Argentina.

Argentina have 97 just the manager chose not to play them.