I hesitate to write this, for a multitude of reasons, and I’m certain by the time you’re done reading you’ll understand why. I’m on the fence when it comes to 22 year old DeAndre Yedlin, not that I don’t think that he’s talented, but because I believe Jurgen Klinsmann’s hands on him will no doubt cause trouble.
Yedlin came to my attention during “our Jozy World Cup,” when all my Sunderland mates made Jozy trend on Twitter during the United States run in the World Cup. While multitudes of Americans jammed open air parks and stadiums to watch the games on jumbo screens I sat in my chair and hoped to see Klinsmann fall on his face while Tweeting about Jozy. Bad me I know.
My history with Klinsmann’s running of the American National Team is long and jaded. I’ve long believed that the two men before him put into place something that he has taken credit for. Now he’s just running blind.
Without Tim Howard, the last World Cup would have been a complete disaster. His record number of saves in a World Cup game, just proved to me that Klinsmann had no idea of what he was doing. Leaving Landon Donovan at home also further proved that point. But hey, I’m just a writer, he’s the guy that gets paid millions to put together a team to go out there and play. I guess someone believes more in him than me.
As for that World Cup, he put DeAndre into the Portugal game in the 72nd minute and Yedlin’s pace was on display. In fact nine minutes in he set up what looked like former Tottenham and Fulham man Clint Dempsey’s winner in the 81st minute. But Varela would find an equalizer in the waning minutes of extra time ending the denying the United States’ hope of qualifying for the next round at that time.
Yedlin would come on again against Germany and play with athleticism and quickness from his fullback spot. He would also come in against Belguim in the round of 16. All of these appearances attracted the eyes of scouts who had not seen him playing in the MLS. Suddenly Premier League teams were jumping to sign him to a contract.
He made a debut for Tottenham on April 11, 2015 against Villa but it really remains to be seen what will happen in the first team for DeAndre. He’s far from polished and it’s certain that he will need time to settle in. What I can imagine is that Advocaat will put him on one wing and van Aanholt on the other wing and push the ball down the sides. Since both are pretty good on moving it forward not as good on the defensive side, he will rely on the central defenders and players like Toivonen, Catts, Rodwell and M’Vila to pressure the opposition and win the ball back so it can be pushed down the wide areas. Maybe he links up with Fab on the right side and they go down that wing, it could be a deadly partnership, flipping in crosses to Fletch.
It’s interesting because I hadn’t heard DeAndre’s name for a while, since his transfer to Tottenham and he seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle. He was big on the scene after the World Cup but it seems that Advocaat’s scouts dug deep on this one if he truly is looking for someone to play wide and play quick and force the action on the wings.
He’s still an enigma as far as the Prem and could be a Jozy 2.0 as for what Sunderland is getting. Although Jozy had already had one stint in the Prem where he didn’t prove it, I thought he would make it better. I guess his game has been suited better for the MLS where he’s scored 10 goals in 19 games played.
Prepare yourselves Mackems…the American invasion 2.0 is beginning again, “forcing themselves to be Sunderland” fans again. Don’t get me started. I’ll never make fans this way but I don’t much care. They’re still pissed over the Jozy experiment. If you can’t make it you can’t make it. It happens. I suppose we’re all supposed to agree it was because he was left all alone on his own and never got service but now in the MLS he gets all the service he needs and it’s not because he was out of his depth? Huh. I suppose I’ll grab my kicks and go line up for the Cats then I can say that I never got service when I fail to even get the ball because I’m completely out of my depth and when my shot doesn’t even get the keeper to move it will be because I never got service. Funny.
You can’t make people happy. You never will. All I know is I love this team. I’m going to support this team. I am going into the DeAndre deal with an open mind like I did the Jozy deal. But don’t ask me to always play nice, you can’t just jump on the bandwagon and then jump off when someone “doesn’t get service.”