Jozy AntiScore   

was a beast in fifa 09   

Jozy should just go back to the MLS. He isn't good enough for Europe.

VendettaRed07 wrote:Jozy should just go back to the MLS. He isn't good enough for Europe.

Implying Netherlands is not a part of Europe

Lets try to put things into perspective

Altidore 20 games started 1 goals 1 assist on 21 shots, 9 shots on goal
Fletcher 18 games started 3 goals 0 assists on 28 shots, 9 shots on goal

Thats the Definition of being on an Island lol, Sunderlands 2 strikers barely average 1 shot per game.

Suarez the leader in scoring in 17 games has 22 goals 5 assists on 96 shots, thats over 5.5 shots a games lol, 48 shots on goal.

Should Jozy Altidore gave more goals, yes, how many ? Around 4, but when you only take 1 shot a game, and 0.5 shots on goal a game it is hard to score lol.

On a tangentially related note, if you can't even take the time to properly spell the name of the club or player, or learn how to properly refer to the league then you probably ought to think twice before commenting on it as you clearly lack a proper knowledge base to do so in an educated and/or productive manner.

Addressing the topic more directly: This is a clear example of a situation where the dreaded "statistics" actually illuminate the topic much more clearly. Rather than cherry picked specific numbers to support your point, you really ought to look at the figures together (as Mono) has done and use them as a framework within the context of observation. Altidore has performed poorly, but so has Sunderland as a whole. He's on par (in statistics and performances) with the other forwards at the club, including one who's an established PL striker. In fact, by and large he's been more involved with the team's play than their other main striker when he's on the pitch, as he contributes more off the ball than Fletcher does.

It's not just his goalscoring return that's terrible, though.

He's struggled with the basics, he loses the ball 2/3rds of the time with his first touch, he can't hold up the ball, positional sense is dire... it comes down to either him lacking in confidence or he's not good enough.

And hasn't Fletcher been injured for most of the season?

Except he HASN'T been as bad as you're attempting to make it sound. You're exaggerating in an attempt to make it suit your point. And Fletcher hasn't played with injury; he's made a similar number of appearances so it's readily comparable.

Just ask Niall or any other S'land fan and they'll tell you he's been horrid. I was in the belief he was getting terrible service, but he's not getting the basics done at an individual level. Reminds me of watching a passed his prime why am I still playing Heskey...

Fletcher is injured, he has been carrying an Achilles issue for months. As well as the other injuries he has had during the season.

I know its easy for yanks to blame Sunderland for his short comings and lay it on this mythical "poor service" fallacy. Yes we haven't picked up points but we haven't been playing that bad, the issue we have is our forwards not being able to hit a barn door, from point blank in Altidores case.

But ultimately the bloke is about as much use as a chocolate fire guard. My goldfish would be more of a goal scoring threat.

His first touch is useless, his ball control is none existent. He loses the ball far too easily and is too slow to get a shot off. As for his positional play im surprised he manages to find his way to the stadium.

At first I thought his physicality would be his main asset. But considering how easy he goes down and gets the ball taken off him by defenders I don't think he actually has any assets.

The size of him you would think he would show up in set pieces and at least be able to win the odd header. But he gets beaten to the ball by the likes of O'shea or Giaccarini (a midget).

I think his confidence probably is lacking at the moment but you cant say we haven't stuck by him and gave him enough chances.

Give him his credit though he did do one good thing a few weeks ago and was involved in the build up play to create a goal scored by Johnson.

Hoping we see allot less of him now we have recalled Wickham.

Or maybe even play him with Wickham, see if they can build some kind of partnership.

I don't think any of us are disputing that Jozy has had a very poor campaign by USA standards and by his own standards. I do agree that he may be low on confidence, which is a form killer for any striker.

However, it's not unrealistic that Sunderland should get some blame for this. That side utterly lacks in creativity, something that Jozy thrives off of. Why is he even the scapegoat anyway? Plenty of other players should be getting the brunt of the blame, but all I seem to see is Jozy getting it.

At AZ, he had dynamic forwards like Johansson and Maher around him to link up play and create chances. Who does he have like that at Sunderland?

With the USA, he had Donovan, Dempsey, and again Johansson up front and Bradley in midfield to provide plenty of link up play and service...who does he have of that caliber at Sunderland? Hell, who did he have like that at Bursaspor and Hull City?

The only place where I think he truly flopped was in Spain with Villarreal and Xerez. That style of play simply doesn't suit him and it showed.

I've said this many times before. Put him around dynamic playmakers and forwards adept at linking up play and he'll thrive. Put him around static movement and zero creativity and this is season is what you're going to get from him. Perhaps that's a weakness in his game, but much more popular strikers have that about them as well.

M99 wrote:

VendettaRed07 wrote:Jozy should just go back to the MLS. He isn't good enough for Europe.

Implying Netherlands is not a part of Europe

What l meant was European leagues that are really a step above MLS, overall at least. l know most, even the less popular ones have teams like Ajax and Celtic, etc that are better than an MLS team, but outside of those few top clubs a lot of those leagues like the eredivisie ld say aren't really that big of a step up. lts more worth it to just come back to the US, and play for a team that will pay them a lot more money, be a feature/star player etc.

l heard someone say Jozy has the worst second touch in the world. Maybe thats extreme but l agree with the overall idea. He can score if he just hits it the second the ball falls to his feet but its a disaster if hes asked to do anything more than that. He just doesn't have the skill to play well, or at least have a starting role on teams in the top european leagues.

He'd be a great fit for the portland timbers or maybe the Galaxy though.