Corazon

I think your assessment is right- although I think that Rabiot will start ahead of Kondogobia, but I think Marseille see Kone as a bit more of an AM than CM which bodes very well for us. I think if he steals anyone’s starting spot it would be Harit, though he’s had a very good start to his season. I think Marseille eventually want to get into a place where behind their striker, it’s Henrique-Kone-Greenwood. As we all know with Kone, there’s going to be some moment this year where he has a game completely out of this world, looking like one of the best mids in Europe, and that’ll likely get him a string of more consistent minutes. 
I figured that the plan was to have Højbjerg as the Dm and have Kone play as a pivot, figured that the DM-AM-DM mid 3 was by virtue of roster not strategy moving forward, but you may be right. Doesn’t Rabiot play as a pure CM? I would think he’ll take Kondigobia’s spot, not Harit.

OM fans seem to think he might be able to wrestle significant minutes from Harit. He'd never be competing for minutes with Kondogbia as he's a pure defensive mid now. Before Rabiot the starting mid looked like it was gonna be Harit Kondogbia and Hojbjerg with Kone having a real chance of taking over from Harit but it'll be harder to lock down a place in the 11 week in week out now.

I think he will only start when there are injuries- I can’t see him supplanting players like Harit or Rabiot, both who start for very strong national teams. I would prefer he had less competition; OM are already absolutely rolling without Rabiot, and you consider Kondigobia too who is very good- they have a lot of very good mids and very few minutes to play them all, especially without any European ball on the calendar this season.
That said, RDZ already came out and said recently he sees Kone as a central part of the club’s future and also that he’s a player he can play at the 8 or the 10, so I don’t think this is an indictment on Kone or a threat to the long term plan, I had hoped that he could fight for a starting spot and play a year as a starting midfielder at a club that may win the title. I would take consistent starting minutes in his first year over a bit of extra veteran guidance and a better chance at winning the league, but regardless, his club situation is very good, and I would hope that like at Watford, he turns that corner in his second season, takes another leap and doesn’t look back.
 

Don’t say that, now I’m noticing this thread was created in 2017, and now I’m thinking about what if Bombito was a known quantity on a pro deal back in 2017…

Would be cool to see him get back into MLS proper and make an impact. He's the same birth year as Bombito.

Hopefully this isn't geoblocked in Canada, but good highlight package of McGill over the weekend against AFC Wimbledon (and Goodman). Made a couple of really good saves and none of the goals he could've done anything about. I'm cautiously optimistic that he will become more than just an occasional call up for us. 

It’s blocked in Canada, but I see he made 5 saves. After 6 games:
- 2nd passes per game
- 2nd pass per game % 
- T-2nd for clean sheets
- 3rd in goals saved/game
- 4th in saves per game
- 4th fewest lost possessions per game
- 5th in SofaScore rating
- 1 of two keepers to have generated a big chance. 
Dons not looking great to start the season off- 2-0-4, so putting up those numbers behind a relatively weak team means he’s one of the best keepers in the league at this point. If by season’s end his numbers look anything close to what they look like now, his time in Milton Keynes will be quite short. 

It's sad that the lowest common denominator is the basis for talking points about a player.
He's ageing, and then his club has been suffering for a few years. And not getting too much better. So that is not going to help the individual show his upside. For Canada he usually plays a nice role, there are moments like the goal in Azteca that are truly amazing, he also has some skills that are enviable, he has some smooth movements with the ball, and can slip between lines, and is a thinking man's player, and that stuff can still really help the national team. He is also a leader, a veteran, and has captain qualities.
Please accept that if I've been hard on him here, it is mostly because of a lot of BS that was said about him (he never had any serious offer from Europe despite that lie being repeated naively, he just leveraged it for a better TFC contract), and also because of the Caps-TFC rivalry (to be fair, last time I saw him, in the Voyageurs Cup final in 2022, Tiebert was in fact quite a bit better than him and he flopped, but of course he's a far better player than Tiebert).
Like many here, I think his injury, and its longer-term effects, should be taken into account. We were surprised at that moment he was taking so long to get back. Now, there is a question of how hard he can train or work to improve himself, or at least take that step into the final years of his career. There are plenty of mids out there who have prolonged their careers by working very hard into their mid-30s, Modric being the most exemplary, there's Busquets in an even more physical spot, Kroos could have kept playing. I think if Osorio wanted to work like a demon to get even sharper physically he could do the same, unless there is some impediment. 
I personally believe he will be on our 2026 squad, depending on squad sizes, because TFC is likely to get better over the next 2 seasons and that will benefit him in Marsch's view.
 

Was just going to post that too. Agree it's a huge signing, though a lot of pundits are saying he's gotten worse, is overrated... He's also halved his previous salary to go to Marseille. At 29 he's still got a few good years, though I agree Kone will still get minutes, maybe less than previously imagined. 
Going to be interesting to watch who might challenge PSG with a notably inferior roster, if Marseille emerges as the clear candidate, and a good challenge for Luis Enrique to keep the trophy. 

Hard to imagine that it doesn’t affect every midfielder there.  That’s a big signing for a club like Marseille.

Hard to imagine that it doesn’t affect every midfielder there.  That’s a big signing for a club like Marseille.

Hard to imagine that it doesn’t affect every midfielder there.  That’s a big signing for a club like Marseille.

Portugal
Eustaquio remained on the bench for Porto’s 2-1 victory over Farense.

Netherlands
Brym came on for Sparta Rotterdam at halftime.  Sparta score one in the 2nd but end up losing 2-1 to GA Eagles.
kulenovic is starting up top for Heracles against Almere City.  Game just started.

Similar experience to Tani. Hope Woobens has the same trajectory. He definitely has potential.

Hattrick of Woobens Pacius vs Altanta United 2.
His 5 goals in his last 5 games fro Hunstville City FC.

Bassong starting for KC v Seattle. 
Afrifa on the bench. 
It's on TSN3

Not the worst mentor and honestly will push him forward. Don’t think Kone just gets benched, the paid for him they have a plan.

I checked carefully, the ball just bounced off his foot.  He shouldn't even get credit for it.

See, Anthony, I would be prepared to agree with you on some points (Choiniere deserving of a call earlier than he got one) but you won’t get any respect insulting people here for their opinions and not dialing back your dislike of Osorio. We get it, you don’t like him… but the depth of it sounds personal and makes no allowances for others to disagree. I liked Teibert back in the day and thought he was useful in certain ways. Others really didn’t. But nobody accused me of being a symptom of Canada’s failures over it. That’s not having a conversation and debate. That’s just unfriendly nonsense. 

Quite frankly you're all over the board or to use another cliche you constantly move the goalposts.
You accuse Marsch of favouritism and blocking the young midfielders by playing Osorio yet you just admitted that Choiniere played both friendlies. So who is Osorio blocking? Sigur? A 20 year old who just joined the NT and had to be integrated into the new system and on top of that was nursing a knock.
Jeeze, man, make some sense. 

I love how every rebuttal is a long winded version of "nuh uh!"

Hard to imagine that it doesn’t affect every midfielder there.  That’s a big signing for a club like Marseille.

Seems he played 90 in a 1-3 loss to Zulte Waregem, they got a red and lost it late. His pic on the Instagram post.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C_8LMzbATnV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
 

I like the drive, the aggression and the hunger to push the play forward, it's what caused the ball to fall to Osorio, and yes, it was a lucky bounce but, you have to make things happen for those bounces to go your way so full kudos to him. 
@Obinna, yeah, I think if he goes on like a five game tear, scoring and contributing to his teammates' goals, he should be called up next.