AMSTERDAM – Hindsight being 20/20 and all, it's time to understand the road Toronto FC capture Jozy Altidore traveled back to MLS from Europe at the age of 25.
Words like "flop" and "failure" get thrown around easily when discussing Altidore's various European tenures in England, Spain and Turkey, while his time in the Netherlands was certainly the highlight.
Let's quickly run through his time with each overseas clubs he played for, exploring not just his cold numbers, but also the factors that helped shaped them:
VILLARREAL
Just off the top, let's point out that the Yellow Submarines were safely among the top 20 teams (if not even top 10) in Europe during Altidore's time on their books. Villarreal finished fifth in La Liga the season after he arrived from MLS and reached the Europa League semis while finishing fourth after he returned from the Hull City loan.
In his Spanish rookie season, American-born Italy international Giuseppe Rossi and Joseba Llorente gobbled up playing time while combining for 34 goals. After the time away, the more experienced trio of Rossi, Nilmar and Marco Rubén rang up a total of 61 goals across all competitions, led by the New Jersey native's 32. 20 years old when he arrived in Spain, Altidore's play at Villarreal was generally encouraging, but he always found it difficult to crack a consistently productive rotation. He started just seven of his 22 appearances there, notching three goals.
In the end, Altidore left for a fraction of the price paid for him, so his Villarreal tenure is worth a thumbs down. At the same time, pitch time was always going to be an uphill fight at El Madrigal, and sometimes that's just how life is in pro soccer.
HULL CITY
Like most of the club spells on this list, Altidore's time with the Tigers was a large statistical letdown. While mostly operating as a support forward to a target man not used to playing with a support forward (Dutch international and former DaMarcus Beasley running mate Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink), the 21-year-old managed but two goals in 30 games across all competitions.
While that Hull edition was legitimately terrible by Premier League standards and Altidore was the team's top set-up man combining assists and successful penalty kicks won, everyone fairly expected a bit more.
BURSASPOR
Plain and simple, anyone advertising Altidore's short spell in the Turkish Süper Lig as a failure is at best exhibiting a lazy memory.
Spending the last half of the 2010-11 season on loan with Bursa holding no buy option, the US striker spent all but one of his 12 appearances stationed out on right wing. After a couple of lukewarm outings to stretch the Villarreal inactivity out of his legs, Altidore notched a goal and an assist in his last 415 minutes of action.
As club tenures go, was it a seminal page-turner? No, but considering the whole point was to get him pitch time, I don't see how the word "failure" is even slightly applicable here.
AZ ALKMAAR
For the moment, the $64,000 question revolves around how AZ managed to oversee the best European club stint of Altidore's by a few country miles. The striker netted 51 times in 93 contests for the Dutch club, who finished fourth in his first season and won the KNVB Cup on the American's winner in his second.
The answer is quite simple, and it has almost nothing to do with the familiar meme about defense being more a lost item then a found one in the Eredivisie. How did AZ do it? Well, they immediately installed Altidore as "The Man" up top and aside from a brief Gertjan Verbeek lesson spell as back-up, he remained that. Always teaching and nurturing technical skills, the manager placed him in a team attack that makes a point of putting the striker in positions to succeed.
Verbeek quickly realized that Altidore excelled off combo play and when allowed to face the area on the dribble. He got all the through balls and accurate crosses he could ever want. Some may call that catering the system to the player; the Dutch consider it Soccer 101. The No. 9 is there for a reason and AZ just utilized the guy they had correctly.
SUNDERLAND
Here's how the story ends. We all know the numbers. Fifty-two games. Three goals. Eight assists. The Black Cats paid a hefty price and reportedly ended up swapping Altidore straight up for a 32-year-old forward that isn't interested in much more than receiving the ball and shooting. So yeah, this was a nightmare.
Plenty of of the blame falls squarely on Altidore, who never turned aggressive enough with his limited touches and a few times too often was left with head in hands when the rare served chance came. He was also generally poor in the air – a big EPL also-ran no-no – during his first season at the Stadium of Light before vastly improving to win 62% of his aerial duels this term.
Despite all the misery under glaring lights, with the English tabloid press always eager to hammer the easy non-UK target, Altidore was a team player and a model citizen. His overall play for Sunderland was actually a bit underrated. He consistently occupied multiple defenders so his often selfish teammates could fire wild shots from everywhere short of the corner fish and chips shack. He created a chance every 74 minutes and put two of every three shots on target, but finished 12th in the squad in shot attempts per game.
One can note the obvious rise in weight class from the Eredivisie to the Prem, but the reality is Sunderland used Altidore for little more than a long ball backboard and defender annoyance. The numbers back that up:
Despite Gus Poyet's repeated insistence they were desperate to get the USMNT ace scoring, he usually had him bothering the 'keeper on corners and never gave him a dangerous free kick or penalty (both of which fit snugly in his skills portfolio). He rarely was the beneficiary of two-man game around the box and actually drew some criticism for angrily flapping his arms after being ignored while wide open in the box or served well short when running free several times.
Some will dismiss this take as defense attorney excuse-making, but I see it as the club failing the player as much as he failed them in this case. Nobody was helping anybody in the situation. At some point, the question fairly could have turned to asking Poyet why he couldn't get any goals out of a proven Eredivisie and international striker (or stay out of the relegation fight with the eighth-highest EPL payroll).
It never did, but now that's over and Toronto FC can know what not to do with Altidore. And how to build around a guy who knows exactly how the Dutch like to play.
