The excitement that came following Tyler Adams’ club debut for AFC Bournemouth has quickly turned to worry and frustration surrounding the American midfielder.
Adams missed the Cherries’ 4-0 English Premier League loss to Arsenal on Saturday after suffering a setback to his previously injured hamstring, Cherries boss Andoni Iraola confirmed postmatch at the Vitality Stadium. The 24-year-old originally suffered his injury last March while under contract with Leeds United, forcing him to miss the last six months of action for club and country.
Despite Adams’ injury, Bournemouth acquired the USMNT captain in a permanent deal this summer. Adams made his long-awaited debut on Wednesday in Bournemouth’s 2-0 EFL Cup victory over Stoke City, coming off the bench to play the final 20 minutes.
However, his new absence is expected to keep him sidelined into the near future.
“I don’t know what to call it, a setback, but he is not feeling well,” Iraola said per the Bournemouth Echo. “He has been out for a lot of time, so we have to reassess, to reset, to take the good decisions, thinking in everything. It is true that he is going to be out for some time, for sure.
“I think it’s the same area. I couldn’t tell you if it’s exactly the same point, but it’s true that it’s his hamstring that he is not feeling well,” he added.
Adams has missed ample time with the USMNT this year, including the Concacaf Nations League Final Four in June, and the recent September window on home soil. The October window will feature a pair of home friendlies against Germany and Ghana, while no announcement has been made on any potential matches during the November window.
Bournemouth will visit Everton on October 7 in its final match before the October break, but already know that Adams isn’t expected back anytime soon.
The Adams saga is why we need to try out new players during friendlies rather than playing the regulars. You just never know who will be available when the games count for real. It is also why we need a coach that is tactically flexible who can change his plans when misfortune hits. We are not France or Spain where we there is Option 1A, 1B and 1C just waiting in the wings who can play the exact same game almost as good as whomever the starter happens to be.
Then when the regulars get together and don’t look cohesive you get criticized for not letting the team gel. Should we be a little stronger in our getting releases for Euro players in GC sure, but the starters need to play too.
AlexH,
Friendlies, at best, come in two game sets a couple of days apart.
If you are always fielding teams of players who, for the most part, have never played together before, you’re going to get a lot of ugly games.
It’s hard to properly evaluate players that way. This is after all a Team of 11 guys and the key is you are not looking for the best 11 players.
You are looking for the 11 players that together, give you the best result.
It takes a really good manager to figure that out and make it happen. I don’t think Gregg is up for it but he is affordable, so there is that.
And those 11 players will be hard to determine if every game is a shitshow where no one knows what the other guys are going to do ( see McKennie , Weston, Leeds United).
That’s why managers often have to rely on a player’s club form. It’s not perfect but that’s why the best national team managers are really good at figuring out who plays well together. Really good or really lucky.
National teams are always going to be imperfect because it’s a team sport that gives you almost no time to build a team. But that’s okay in theory because everyone is more or less in the same boat, sort of.
The key is to have two to three times as many good/great players than the other guy (unless you are Belgium or the Netherlands who never win shit regardless of how loaded they are).
Once you have your 23 Champions League winners you’re all set. So we just have to hope that our kids keep going to Europe and becoming world class.
Our problem is we have humdrum managers and we don’t have any great players. The USMNT and its friendlies don’t develop the players anyway. Our best players at the moment are probably Pulisic, Flo, Weston and Musah and the USMNT did not make them great.
They just show them off and give them a chance to practice together.
I disagree that the point of friendlies AT THIS POINT is to find the best 11 that fit nor is it AT THIS POINT to find the best 11 players irrespective of fit. At this point we need to be finding the best 30 players so that as real games approach we can then narrow things down. I am not advocating benching our starting 11, but rather rotating in 4 or 5 subs as starters in every starting lineup, and rotating in 4 or 5 people who are in good form (regardless of their tenure with the USMNT) as subs. I doubt the wheels will fall off if we do that, and if they do that is good information to know.
Tyler is a ways from JOB yet.
Still, Yunus starting to emerge could not have timed that better.
Yes Yunus is emerging nicely. That Lazio and AC Milan game was nice. That muscle strength and weight gain Musah has obtained post world cup, has made him a tank in the midfield. It was awesome how he spun switched sides, used the players own weight against him to spin to get the shot off was nice.
All class! I dropped my jaw. Never seen anything like that from him before. He’s growing and going.
he was a tank before
they need to find new 2nd and 3rd 6 options because adams is increasingly unreliable. a musah sub and then a contingency. it took years to convince this coach of adams. we didn’t figure out musah as 6 until adams was hurt (and not under this coach). so maybe get a little ahead of the decision cycle of your average fanboy.
“It took years to convince this coach of Adams.” FAKE NEWS!!!!
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This coach designs the entire system around Adams versatility and engine. Starts and plays 90 in his first availability under this coach. Adams gets injured and Dest commits so we no longer need a hybrid RB that no one else can play. Adams is injured until Dec 2019. There are no windows until Nov 2020 because of this little flu called Covid-19. Starts as DM vs Wales and N Ireland. Unavailable in March because of Covid restrictions in Leipzig. Still called for NL despite missing month for injury. Plays in all but 1 WCQ. Yes that looks like the coach didn’t believe in him.
@TIV Not before the transformation, he was easily knocked off the ball before and was on the lean side with not as much strength. That was one weakness I saw that, he has now erased.
“it took years to convince this coach of adams……… ”
Narrative spinning Bullshit. The team was built around Tyler from day 1 of BerBall. He didn’t play much early on because:
It wasn’t necessary for Tyler to prove what he could do
He was hurt
“maybe get a little ahead of the decision cycle of your average fanboy.”
Bullshit. Players are ALWAYS being “decision cycled ” especially if you have an injury history like Tyler has.
Any fuckwit manager would have been aware of Tyler’s relationship with the medical team. But the manager of the USMNT ‘s hands are tied. He has to wait for a player to emerge or change the style of play to make up for the lack of a #8 or a# 6, etc.
That’s what national team managers do.
However stupid and brainless Gregg may or may not be, the player pool has been developing the past three years regardless of what Gregg does. The development of a player/players who might be a Tyler replacement has been ongoing for a few years now and is continuing.
And in 2023 the options are better than they were when Gregg first ascended to the throne.
The first time I saw Musah I immediately thought he was the best candidate to replace Tyler but Yunus was 17 then so he had some growing up and some developing to do. And I had help in thinking that because Valencia, even though they were playing Yunus out wide at the time ( I first saw him playing winger for Valencia) said that eventually he would be moved inside . They felt that starting outside is easier on young players.
Three years later? Yunus is getting all growed up and, besides, there are now a number of other ways to make up for Tyler’s retirement that were not options in 2020.
You’re implying that Gregg has a degree of control over the player pool that he DOES NOT HAVE. He’s trying to make it Club USMNT and that has some benefit. But it has its limits. National teams have a built in, inherent instability. Gregg is a control freak and the national team game favors more instinctive fly-by-the-seat of their pants types.
In the end it comes down to Gregg having to put together the best performing 23 he can from whoever is healthy and available at a certain point in time and then leading them into a tournament.
How well he does that, in that moment in time, will determine how history views him as a manager.
There is little to suggest Gregg will succeed but there is always hope and he is affordable.
Missed most of 2019, everyone missed 2020 because of pandemic, missed half of 2021, thankfully was good for qualifying and WC, now missing all of 2023. Basically played 1 1/2 years out of last four. Thank goodness he had a run of good health during qualifying because he was so good.
John O’Brien vibes starting to set in.
Yep. Good thing other CM’s are emerging. Tyler’s game is built around his ability to run and cover ground. If that hamstring continues to give him problems then he will have to alter his game.
“If that hamstring continues to give him problems then he will have to alter his game.”
If he can’t run and cover ground, he’s done. There’s nothing to alter.