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Antonee Robinson ruled out of USMNT’s November friendlies

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The U.S. Men’s National Team will be without first-choice left back Antonee Robinson for the November friendlies against England and Italy.

The England-born defender, who is currently playing for Wigan on loan from Everton, will miss out on facing his country of birth and is set to miss four weeks with a right ankle injury.

Since the USMNT has Jorge Villafana, Reggie Cannon and Shaq Moore as fullbacks on the roster, and with the England game being a day away, no replacement was named for Robinson.

Comments

  1. Who said anything about dibs?? I never said they’d be given their spots back, but that they be back in the team. But to be honest, i don’t think anyone has done enough to be considered a starter if we had cup game tomorrow aside from Weston, Tyler, Pulisic, Brooks, Yedlin and maybe Wood! That’s 6 spots up in the air, so no, nothing is settled and it’s not even close. You have every right to stay made because we failed to qualify, I’ve however decided to be mature about it and move on, and that means not continuing to hold every players feet to the fire who was on that team. Some will weed themselves out, while others will stick around out of necessity and performance, it’s just the way it goes on every team around the globe.

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    • “Veteran players were always going to be brought back into the fold at some point…..it’s the right time to start bringing in the veterans who management believes will still be able to help the program out over the next 3-4 years(Guzan, Nagbe, Villafana, Williams-when healthy, Lleget, Jozy, Ream and Lichaj)and with the Gold Cup and Concacaf Nations League approaching it makes even more sense that they be reintegrated!”

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    • the notion of “management believes” is half the USA’s problem right now. you try them out for a pair of friendlies like everyone else and they either earn it on the field or not. handing them spots because someone “believes” they can help is basically dibs based on rep. this team needs to flee “rep” and play the people who leave the performances on the field.

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      • You have to first call them in for there to be a try out! Your comments tend to be more out of anger, than logic and sense! And who in the last 5-6 friendlies can we even remotely say has earned a spot amongst this young core, other than the aforementioned names? The answer is no one, so again, this idea that none of the veterans from the last cycle should be anywhere near the team is using faulty logic and showing fandom out of emotion. It’s a good thing managers don’t manage with their emotions but instead with their brains and coaching acumen. Have we had the best managers over the last 2 cycles, no, but hopefully we hire one that can get the best out of the group going forward!

      • No, it’s actual uber-rational to say that if Nagbe — who will be in his 30s next WC — wants a job, he should get 1 or 2 games and it be show me something right now. The bunch from the last WC cycle didn’t earn any rep. They deserve no dibs. I think the ones who will age into their 30s should just be gone. But even the ones young enough should fight for a job like a 20 year old. This is not a life tenure professorship. This is a role on a team you should earn constantly. If I can find someone better than you now, or even if I think it’s wasting my time because you will age out too fast, good bye. That’s rational, not emotional. Emotional is let’s try and squeeze two more years out of Guzan and Bradley and Nagbe even though they couldn’t make the last WC as leaders and this time will be well into their 30s.

  2. After the recent rough going we should have been looking at other options anyway. And Dave can now have an exciting millionth look at Villafana. I think we should be sending anyone home with a knock because these games don’t count.

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    • Robinson definitely needs more growth/maturing defensively and had a few pretty rough games and rather naive positioning at times, but that said, I also think he’s been a little bit hard done…………. let’s consider that it was against some of the very best in players in the world and he was left isolated / hung out to dry w/ zero help from his manager/formation and teammates. Had we seen his first games against the usual CONCACRAP, I’d venture to guess folks would be overdoing it the other way and have anointed him our LB for the next decade. Sarachan has done admirably given the ridiculous circumstances but….. this is one of the reasons we need a permanent manager w/ a more firm, sophisticated grasp tactics. A run of games like that can ruin a players confidence for a while. Players- especially young ones need to be put in the most optimal position to succeed. Ain’t happening right now.

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      • This was a poorly calibrated set of summer and fall games for assessing players. You bring up an interesting point, which is that what might suffice in CONCACAF might not for this level of game. So should we play this level and panic about half the roster? Or should we play a lower level team and have an easier job sorting out who can handle international soccer well? Personally I’d err on the side of easier at this stage because I want to know which players can handle anything international level, and weed out the ones who “can’t even,” and only then see which ones can handle Brazil. The way Robinson got handled we don’t know what level he can handle (though we know it’s not Brazil yet), and no one else got a real chance. What have you learned. To me if you start out more calibrated I at least know Robinson could handle Jamaica or El Salvador (or not), and that the problem is more specific.

    • Veteran players were always going to be brought back into the fold at some point, as they should be, so i really don’t get the consternation with some of them being called in little by little over the last few months. Let’s face it, there are still a lot of these younger players getting call ups who haven’t proven anything at club level, many are still in reserve teams or are playing in lower tier leagues, so this idea that USSF needs to continue calling nothing but young players is absurd because the NT is not where players are developed, it’s with their clubs. I also have a hard time agreeing with this sentiment that we’ve seen what the veterans can do, so let’s keep calling in younger players. Well, the younger players have also been given ample opportunities in the form of 8-10 games since the WC failure to stamp their presence on the team and a lot of them haven’t done it. Again, it’s the right time to start bringing in the veterans who management believes will still be able to help the program out over the next 3-4 years(Guzan, Nagbe, Villafana, Williams-when healthy, Lleget, Jozy, Ream and Lichaj)and with the Gold Cup and Concacaf Nations League approaching it makes even more sense that they be reintegrated!

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      • A lot of the people you’re listing stink. There is a reason we missed qualifying. Some should age out of the program and others should be given a tryout like the next player. But you’re taking this idea they are incumbents entitled to their seats back. We missed the world cup and they aren’t very good, where on earth did they get dibs from? Dibs the way we have handled it has come from player and team success such that it’s earned. The veterans come right back to their jobs because we lost in the round of 16. If you want to qualify next time the veterans have zero dibs this time. Otherwise you’re effectively letting the last team crowd out some increment of success.

        I also think you’re neglecting that so many players are simply ageing out that there is little real core to go back to. Howard? Done. Dempsey? Done. etc. etc. The small handful you are mentioning are about all the holdovers are, and most are unimpressive mediocrities. So with a team that missed the world cup it should really be like open tryouts not the kids clearing out of their dibsed positions.

    • Who said anything about dibs?? I never said they’d be given their spots back, but that they be back in the team. But to be honest, i don’t think anyone has done enough to be considered a starter if we had cup game tomorrow aside from Weston, Tyler, Pulisic, Brooks, Yedlin and maybe Wood! That’s 6 spots up in the air, so no, nothing is settled and it’s not even close. You have every right to stay made because we failed to qualify, I’ve however decided to be mature about it and move on, and that means not continuing to hold every players feet to the fire who was on that team. Some will weed themselves out, while others will stick around out of necessity and performance, it’s just the way it goes on every team around the globe.

      Reply

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