Tyler Adams made his first appearance of the Bundesliga season on Saturday, starting and playing 87 minutes in RB Leipzig’s 3-1 win against Augsburg.
Sidelined since May with a variety of injuries, Adams made a successful return to the current Bundesliga leaders, starting at right back and putting in a solid shift in his first action for RB Leipzig since the DFB Pokal final against Bayern Munich in May.
Sidelined for months by a slow-healing groin injury, and more recently by a foot injury that prolonged his absence to a full seven months without playing, Adams returned to training in recent weeks and earned a start for an RB Leipzig side that heads into the winter break in first place in the Bundesliga, and preparing for a new year that will include a UEFA Champions League clash with Tottenham.
“Being back again after so long out with injury was indescribable,” Adams told Bundesliga.com. “And we’re top of the table going into the winter break and it’s just a really, really good feeling.”
“When football is your job and you don’t have it every single day, you feel like you’re missing something,” Adams said. “So now that I’m back out here playing, enjoying the team and enjoying the football again, in a winning side as well, it is very exciting.
“My teammates have helped me along the road, my friends and family,” Adams told Bundesliga.com. “It’s been an important journey, a useful experience for me to mature as a player, but I’m excited to be back now.”
Adams heads into 2020 poised to try and break back into the RB Leipzig starting lineup, which won’t be easy given how well the team has been playing this season. His versatility should help him in his fight for minutes, especially considering RB Leipzig will be competing on multiple fronts in the new year.
His return to the USMNT will have to wait until at least March, when the Americans are set to play a pair of friendlies in Europe. A friendly against the Netherlands has already been announced, and will take place on March 26 in Eindhoven.
Berhalter would an imbecile to play Adams as a hybrid Going forward. Dest is a lock for that position and cannon is a good replacement. Adams and yueil is looking like a good pair of defensive mids against better teams in the region such as Mexico and Costa rica. Excited for 2020 and it starts qualifying for the olympics. There is a lot more talent than we think of players who can make the jump from the u23 olympics to the full national team.
I agree that a Yueill Adams combination is intriguing but it leads to the next question. Where would McKennie play? As a lone #10? With the exception of the Cuba match that has not been good. That pushes Pulisic wide which a lot of people prefer but his numbers for the NT show him as far more effective as a CAM. I think we’ll see a more traditional 4-2-3-1 in March but trying to get your 3 best midfielders into their best positions without allowing the defense to overwhelm them with numbers doesn’t seem like being an imbecile.
A little surprised that he started today, but glad to see him back in action. He now has the winter break to build up his fitness & re-integrate into the starting XI.
Hopefully when he gets back with the USMNT he’ll be deployed as a CDM and not that hybrid RB crap.
Hears to a healthy and productive 2020 for Adams & the rest of the USMNT players.
He played RB for Leipzig.
Yes, RedBull played him at RB but there are differences between the 2 teams/situations.
1) RB is currently at the top of the Bundesliga table and it is easier to break a player back into the squad out wide than it is at DM.
2) The USMNT has others who are playing at a high level who play Right Back….while we don’t have anyone notable at CDM.
3) RedBull usually play Adams as a CDM…it is his best position. That doesn’t mean he can’t fill in at RB but he’ll hopefully return to the CM after the break.
Yeah, usually when a player has a long injury layoff they first give him a 15 minute run out to ease him back into the game. Having Adams start might indicate that Leipzig thinks that he is very valuable and they want to get as many minutes as possible from him.
Berhalter was 3-0 when playing the hybrid formation. I understand that involved our B- squad against two B- squads from Concacaf and one match with our A’s versus a very very bad Ecuador team.
——————————
As you pointed out some factors have changed in the last six months. Further deterioration of Bradley, improvement of Dest. I don’t know that we’ll see it in the future but with how Berhalter likes to get his backs forward it’s not a waste of Adams skill set.
LoL. Yeah- the 3-0 meant….pretty much zero. You essentially agree and have done a pretty good job of making Lost’s point better than he did. With Berhalter’s desired style of play, his skillset, available talent and depth- Adams should be our defensive mid all day long. He’d be a HUGE asset in fixing some of the issues in distribution, transitioning from defense to offense/options playing from the back. Playing time is first priority, but, hopefully he settles in the middle for club. I actually laughed when I saw him at RB.
Rico the whole idea of the hybrid is that he’d still do all those things in possession that he’d rotate into the exact space he played last season at RBL. People just freak out because he called it a hybrid RB, if they called it hybrid DM fee would care, if Tata implemented it it would be called the greatest advance in the history of US Soccer.
and he played Right Back/ RWB/ and some CM
.