How’s Klinsy Doing So Far?

November 17th, 2011 | by: DAS | View Comments

I was only able to watch part of the Slovenia game yesterday. I have been saying for some time that I like Altidore, but he is not good enough to be a lone striker. In theory Klinsmann’s 4-3-3 should put more guys forward, but the reality was that the wingers played more defensive roles and Altidore was left to do the attacking work himself. That explains the lack of goals. Switching to a 4-1-2-1-2 made a huge difference.

Johnson had a very promising debut, but we’ll see how he does over time. I agree that Bradley was excellent and demonstrated why he should be in the starting 11. I also agree that Beckerman shouldn’t be there. He is a fine MLS player and a decent player to have on the bench. But if Donovan was there I’d think Bradley would start as the CDM and even without Landycakes present it seems to me to make more sense to put Edu there.

I still don’t understand why Omar Gonzalez isn’t getting called up. And Klinsmann seems to have reiterated in interviews that he isn’t likely to call on him soon. OG is exactly the player we should be grooming to replace Boca and bringing him on as sub in games like these would be a great start.

I guess the bottom line question for me though is whether this is any better than Bradley. Honestly, right now I don’t think so. I said at the time that I didn’t see much point in firing Bradley but that sometimes change for the sake of change is good. And I do still think the change in coaches may be worth it just for the shakeup. But Klinsmann has yet to prove he was worth it and only time will tell if he is.