Following his absence for the U.S. Men’s National Team during the international break, Geoff Cameron will be unavailable for Stoke City this weekend.
The American has been ruled out for Stoke’s game against Bournemouth on Saturday. Cameron suffered a setback to his knee and will be forced to miss another week. The defender has missed the Premier League side’s last two matches.
Cameron was forced to miss the USMNT’s two pivotal World Cup qualifiers due to the injury.
“Geoff, unfortunately, won’t be available as he has had a little bit of an issue with the knee that needed calming down,” Stoke manager Mark Hughes said to the Stoke Sentinel. “”We’re doing what we usually do with those type of injures and trying to get him up to speed, but we’ve been told that he just needs to rest a little longer.”
The 31-year-old has made seven appearances, all of them starts, for the Potters in the Premier League this season.
So, let’s theoretically say Jurgen is about to be out, considering he wouldn’t do this in his lineup. Would a 4-3-3 with both a new manager and Cameron as a pure d-mid next to him reinvigorate Bradley at the international level? Say, something like:
………Jozy/Wood………..
Pulisic……………Gooch
……….Kljestan………….
…Cameron..Bradley….
Johnson……..Yedlin..
…..Brooks…?……….
The biggest question becomes, who else plays in central defense. Might be time to start auditions, since Gonzalez doesn’t appear to be the answer. Birnbaum, Miazga, Hedges, or outside the box choices like a CCV or Zimmerman seem to be options. I know this doesn’t particularly relate to Cameron missing a EPL match, but, thought it might be an interesting query.
I dont think that Brooks has the defensive leadership to leave Cameron out of the defense. My 2 cents would be to keep Cameron in the defense, and start grooming CCV, Miazga, and Zimmerman to fill in the role Cameron will leave soon. Allow Brooks to learn from Cameron’s leadership then when Brooks is ready and Cameron is slowing down, transition to CCV, Miazga, and/or Zimmerman