They will run into trouble because Dest wants to play like Marcelo, but US will have to park the bus against most big teams.
US Men's National Team Discussion
- Thread starter TheReligion
- Start date
On reflection, this has been a great month so far for the National Team. 3 of the 4 up for grabs positions in my mind are now much more settled.
GK: Steffen
LB:?????
CB: Brooks
CB: Richards: He has looked rock solid the few times I have been able to catch Hoffenheim
RB: Dest
DM: Adams
CM: Musah
CM: McKinne
RW: Reyna
LW: Pulisic
CF: Sargeant: He is on a bit of a scoring run now and has looked good doing it.
I guess that GB can move Dest to LB and play Cannon at RB, but for me that removes one of our best players from his best position. The best part is that in the above set up, only Brooks is over 22 (well Steffen is 25, but that's like 19 in GK years).
Antonee Robinson has been pretty good for Fulham at LB this season from what I've seen, fairly sure he's got a couple of caps already.
US really has feel of Belgium from just over a decade ago, need to get the manager right for 5 years time.
GB's original formation had the LB staying at home, almost making it a back 3, to allow the RB to move into the midfield as a DM. That philosophy sucked and did not work, but I think he could adapt it to let Dest bomb forward on the wing. There is no real attacking LB option that is a "need to play" right now, so he could play a more defensive minded LCB/LB.
That being said, I would push back on the US parking the bus against big teams. The midfield may not (now) be as technically proficient as those teams, but they will be one of the best pressing midfields in the world.
He has a decent number of caps, but he has really struggled defensively for the National team. Part of that is the formation/backline partners, but most of it is lack of concentration. Will be interesting to see him in the next camp. There are so many games this year, especially this summer, that lots of guys are going to get caps.
Why talk about 2026/2030? Last cycle was an embarrassment. Focus on qualifying for 2022 first
Agreed. 22 will be a great opportunity to measure where the US is at. While the bulk of the starting 11 will be u-23’s, qualifying and then getting to the first knockout round should be the goal. Anything else is a bonus.
That being said, 26 is the promised land. The bulk of current starters will be in their prime, plus any upcoming players. The US will be the hosts. I am not naive enough to think we can win it, but a quarter final should be the goal.
This is where it will be fecked up by USSF. Probably hire another American MLS puppet coach.
Wonder if Marsch would leave club football for four years or so? What about Wagner?
You probably could not find many people who were more upset with the hiring of GB than me, especially b/c of the nepotism factor and the bs "search" that was conducted. That being said, he has not done much wrong since taking the position. For me the first big hurdle was his quick pivot away from his ridiculous RB becomes DM tactic. It showed he has a dose of humility which, after Arena and J.K., is a welcome thing. I am willing to give him this year to sink or swim. There is something special forming with all the young players coming through and I hope GB can continue to evolve to put tactics in place that fit those players. Wales was a good example of this as he set up the MF to press and maintain possession, an they did it really well.
Anyways, I am hopeful and very much ready to get the horror of 2018 out of my head.
Hey @Hansi Fick
I wanted to circle back with you on Richards. Life has prevented me from watching much of Hoffenhein, but from what I have read his loan seems to be going well. It looks like we may get the Brooks - Richards pairing on Thursday vs. Jamaica, so I’m pretty excited. What have you seen/heard?
I wanted to circle back with you on Richards. Life has prevented me from watching much of Hoffenhein, but from what I have read his loan seems to be going well. It looks like we may get the Brooks - Richards pairing on Thursday vs. Jamaica, so I’m pretty excited. What have you seen/heard?
JFC, Dest is the best fullback in the world.
Not really, but he's on his way.
What a goal.
Not really, but he's on his way.
What a goal.
Now I am going to need to watch the first half later!! It is a pretty decent team on the pitch. Difficult for them to be polished as they have not really played as a unit for a year.
Goal aside he has been the best player on the pitch. The improvement in his game is amazing. He's playing on the left too.
It was a peach of a goal.
So how could a future US team look like? Pulisic, Reyna and Dest are the types of talents you can build a top team around. Those aside I know there are some decent talents in the Bundesliga, like Adams, Brooks and Sergeant, but I don't really know how it looks in other leagues. Heard of Opara through FIFA though.
Wont really matter with the european contingency, coaches just have to squeeze every mls'er they possibly can. No reason really any should see the starting lineup with the most abundance we have ever had of high quality players in top leagues. Believe it when i see it of a full best starting 11.
American's are so butt hurt about a Canadian being touted as one of the best LB's in the world so now they are trying to claim Dest is the best? Give your head a shake... 
I would say tonight is probably the best XI we have now except for the missing 2 midfielders (Adams and Weston) and potentially Weah instead of Sargent. I was worried about Berhalter remaining too loyal to the MLSers, but I am warming up to him being ruthless in picking the best players.
I would prefer Dest on the right, but he has looked great on the left and we don't have a good option to fit in there.
American's are so butt hurt about a Canadian being touted as one of the best LB's in the world so now they are trying to claim Dest is the best? Give your head a shake...
Dest is a RB
Edit:
Also, I have no idea where this "American's are so butthurt" thing comes from. I love that Canada is getting better.
cannon is trash, richards should have clearly been playing with brooks tonight-pretty sure i heard one of them is leaving before next game. Acosta doesnt belong starting and really wouldnt be surprised if he or lletget get shoehorned in when neither belong. Even with all the european players we get all the possible mls'ers starting tonight, and wouldnt be shocked to see that continue regardless of who is healthy.
Essentially i will believe it when i see it. And from USSF and all the idiots in charge with this federation I have zero belief in them to not screw up this crop of players
Honestly I haven't watched a single game of Hoffenheim, so I can't really say. He has established himself as a starter right away, so that's good; and accordingly he has been playing regularly. It helps that the manager was his Bayern 2nd team manager last season, obviously.
Other than that, little I can say, except that Hoffenheim have had some poor results recently, including a rather unacceptable exit from EL vs Molde.
I don't know how his individual performances were, I believe decent; other than the horrible mistake he made after 20 seconds against Mainz, leading to the 2nd quickest goal of this campaign, and to a bad home defeat.
If I had to speculate, and if Hoeness continues at Hoffenheim, I could see Richards staying on loan there for another season while we extend his contract, and after that I think the likeliest scenario is we will sell him if there's a good option for him.
You missed my point. Acosta and Llegett are only playing because Adams and Weston are not there and I can't think of anyone else to slot in other than maybe Aaronson, but he is a much more attacking player.
Cannon is a better player than Robinson right now, so while I would prefer to see Dest on the right I understand why he set it up that way.
I agree on Richards, that was my one disappointment. I do think that both players are staying for both games. It's been confusing as the status keeps changing.
Edit: And now Richards is on for the second half with Brooks.
Thank you! Hopefully his time at Hoffenheim works out well so we can both benefit in the future!
and you are missing my point. Regardless of injuries, i feel that Gregg is going to find a way to get his MLS'ers in there. Even if others arent injured, he will prob try and claim something about familiarity with his system or some other stupid BS. He will find some way to justify it.
Excellent job by Sargent to find Aaronson for the second.
we will just have to agree to disagree. I am enjoying this game to much to argue
That does not make sense. He easily could have used Covid to justify using his MLS players because the players in Europe could not come and play without being quarantined. The opposite has been happening. He is playing what would have been home games in the US in Europe so he has the players from European clubs in his line up.
and he still had 4/11 starting lineup filled by players with MLS, even though mls hasn't played in months. So once again my point remains. I am torn because i truly think he is a horrendous coach picked by a horrendous organization, but with how World Cup goes you have to almost root for the players to do well in spite of the coach. This is an Federation that didnt fire Bruce Arena's ass the minute they failed to qualify for the last world cup, which was an utter and diabolical embarrassment. After that shit show Arena shouldve been fired before stepping on that plane back for the US.
Long, Acosta, Llegett.. who was the 4th?
Anyways, I thought all 3 of those guys played really well. Long was better than Brooks and much better than Richards when they were swapped at the half. Llegett scored twice and was tidy and Acosta was in my top 3 players for the game. If Gregg falls into the Arena habit of "trusting" the MLS'ers when WCQ rolls around then I will jump on the hate bandwagon as well, but I just don't see it happening. Last nights lineup was almost the best 11 he could have put out with the exception of maybe swapping Robinson for Cannon and moving Dest to the right.
If we roll around to WCQ and the starting lineup is not (injuries notwithstanding)
Steffen
Dest - Brooks - Long - Robinson/Vines
Adams
Weston - Musah
Reyna - Sargent/Dike - Pulisic
Then I will start to get worried, although I would be fine with Dest on the left and Cannon on the right as well.
Finally, Aaronson (a former MLS guy) looked really really good. He is going to push Reyna/Pulisic if he keeps improving like this.
Four out of eleven is low. It wasn't long ago that most of the players were MLS and a few from European teams. Plus Weston McKennie and Jordan Morris are rehabbing injuries.
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i had forgotten that cannon transfered from mls. And lletget really didnt play that well minus his scoring towards the end. So many wasted set pieces and poor passing from him. Same anytime i saw cannon getting forward. I fully understand what our best 11 would hypothetically be come WCQ, just have to hope the players keep playing well to make it impossible for the manager to eff it up and choose the wrong players. I would just be ten times more excited if we had a proper manager to take advantage of what should be an incredible couple of World Cup runs if we have everyone staying healthy and fit at the right time. Luck can play a huge part, ask Jurgen. We were looking good until an in form jozy went down and lost the big striker he needed. Crazy to think how much better the player pool is now than back in those days.
You and me both on this. Remember when we used to get excited by the Bobby Conveys of the world just being on the bench at Redding in the championship?
Now we have guys starting, and scoring, at Juve, Barca, Chelsea, etc. If we can just find a LB for 22.... You are going to hate this, but as a Atl United fan I have a huge soft spot for Bello. If he can stay healthy I think he has a shot of being that guy on the left.
US will be fine.
Apart from the mess up in 2018 you've pretty much established yourselves as solid last 16 team at world cups in last 20 years if you take the average performance so it's now all about kicking on and getting to quarters and odd SF if a draw really opens up. Most of these guys could be around until 2030.
Thought you should've gone further in 2010 for example but Bradley shoehorning everything into 4-4-2 disrupted things. Back then it was very solid core with likes of Howard-Onweyu-Bocanegra-Michael Bradley and likes of Demspey and Donovan were good forwards who could score in world cups.
Potential of this group is so much higher though if managed correctly.
Apart from the mess up in 2018 you've pretty much established yourselves as solid last 16 team at world cups in last 20 years if you take the average performance so it's now all about kicking on and getting to quarters and odd SF if a draw really opens up. Most of these guys could be around until 2030.
Thought you should've gone further in 2010 for example but Bradley shoehorning everything into 4-4-2 disrupted things. Back then it was very solid core with likes of Howard-Onweyu-Bocanegra-Michael Bradley and likes of Demspey and Donovan were good forwards who could score in world cups.
Potential of this group is so much higher though if managed correctly.
I think it is this last bit that has us worried. Traditionally, even when the likes of Donovan and Dempsey were at their peaks, the US was an effort/passion team. Similarly, our managers based their tactics on this "we will just try hard and score on set pieces" mentality. This does not fit the current crop of players, most of whom are European based and playing for coaches with progressive pressing/possession based tactics. I am cautiously optimistic with Berhalter because he already showed the humility/intelligence to drop his favored tactic (that he was very successful with at club level with the Crew) when it proved a bad fit for the international game. Since then he has been using a 4-3-3 (ish) formation with pressing and an emphasis on exploiting the US athleticism and growing skill advantage in the middle of the pitch. If he can keep up this fluidity of thought when it comes to his tactics I am willing to stick with him through 22.
Will we have to start calling our sport soccer if the US football empire starts dominating?
Someone please stop them before this happens!
Someone please stop them before this happens!
Hey, don't blame us! We didn't invent the term and the Aussies and Canadians use it too, so its actually the British Empires fault.
@FerociousCorgis, now this is a roster to be pissed about.
A back 3 with Ream instead of Richards? Really? WTF
Ugh.
Sucks Dike is injured, MLS player or not, he would be fun to watch.
A back 3 with Ream instead of Richards? Really? WTF
Ugh.
Sucks Dike is injured, MLS player or not, he would be fun to watch.
The sites I viewed had Ream as a CDM in a 4-3-3.
that’s not how he’s playing.
apparently they spent 8 minutes practicing this formation yesterday.
it shows.
What I don’t quite understand is this team does not play as an entire unit often. Why make changes for the sake of game time if these are players you will not use in a meaningful game? Would team cohesion be more important than getting people on the pitch?
Not impressed with Berhalter at all today.
He has very limited time to prep for this summer and he wastes a full game on a formation they will likely never use.
You can tell the players have no clue as to their defensive responsibilities
edit: also, the Norther Irish are a bunch of diving pussies.
He has very limited time to prep for this summer and he wastes a full game on a formation they will likely never use.
You can tell the players have no clue as to their defensive responsibilities
edit: also, the Norther Irish are a bunch of diving pussies.