Why is Danny Williams on the USMNT?

Mkay. So if Danny Williams is some kind of right central midfielder, why would he be used as defensive cover for the fullback? Because that's clearly what he's been doing, and I can't even begin to think of another reason that Juergen Klinsmann would put him out there. The event map/heat map/whatever da f**k you wanna call it clearly shows that the majority of what Williams does happens over there on the flank.

 

The majority of what he does? I wouldn't call fifteen 0.2 second events "the majority" of a 90 minute game. (Oh wait, he played 60 minutes, but there's no way to tell this from the OPTA design.)

 

The effect has been that we beat Mexico, I think?

 

I like Danny Williams but that's a terrible argument. He had a piss poor game and had no hand in reasons why we beat Mexico.

 

He didn't?
He played 60 minutes in which Mexico didn't score. How is that "having no hand" in grabbing a 0-1 win?

 

Pretty sure Danny is really young and still learning. as he plays more and developes I think we will see better from him.

 

So you're making the case that Williams' defensive nous helped us, but you're also saying Williams didn't play on the flank, even though that's where the majority of his tackles/passes/"activity" occured, not to mention possibly Mexico's biggest threat going into that game, Andres Guardado? I'm not saying the two are necessarily mutually exclusive, but the stats and our eyes tell us that Williams happens to be, for all intents and purposes, being played as a (defensive) right midfielder. Thinking back even further, are you going to say Williams wasn't a wide midfielder for when we faced France and Cherundolo was up against Frank Ribery and Jeremy Mathieu on that flank? If so, that was tactical suicide on Juergen's part.

A lot of the diagrams we've seen are pretty deceiving. We were told that Landon Donovan was going to be in a sort of second forward role just off Gomez, with Torres behind those two. What we got was Donovan dropping back and helping out Edgar Castillo on our left/Mexico's right. That's pretty weird, especially considering Donovan had the perfect excuse to stay high up the field with a hamstring injury about 10 minutes in apparently. So, in my mind, it's not crazy to say that Danny Williams was actually a right midfielder in this match.

Either way, this is all drawing away from a point I'd really like to make. If we want to be able to defend the right flank, we don't need to sacrifice offensive ability to do so. There are other options in the pool who offer us good work rate and at least fairly good defensive ability. The problem is that Juergen Klinsmann has barely taken time in his friendlies to test players for this sort of role. The same thing is happening with Jose Torres, and for the longest time, the same thing was happening with our center backs until Juergen finally called in Geoff Cameron, who had an absolutely phenomenal match against Mexico. Imagine if Juergen had been willing to do something like that and experiment with putting someone else like Josh Gatt, Alejandro Bedoya, DaMarcus Beasley, or even Jonathan Spector on that flank. Now we're in the middle of World Cup Qualifying. Even if Danny Williams is our best option on that flank, what the hell is Juergen Klinsmann going to do if he goes down with an injury the way Bradley and Donovan have, or if a situation like Dempsey's pops up ( very unlikely, but you get my point)?

One of the biggest differences between Juergen Klinsmann and Bob Bradley was that Bob tried a lot of different players. He looked for alternatives. What he didn't change was the system in which these players were used. Juergen is happy to play a 4-3-3/4-1-4-1, or a 4-3-1-2/4-4-2 diamond (although he does try to stay away from playing more than one striker), or a 4-3-2-1, or a 4-2-3-1/4-4-1-1, or pretty much any kind of 4-5-1 you can think of. Bob's insistence on certain systems seemed to kill him. Juergen's insistence on certain players might just be his downfall as well.

 

Of course it 'helped' us, as Danny Williams is a very mature professional who's very aware of what his task is.

First of all, I can't speak for your eyes, but rewatching the Mex game a couple of times, most of the time DW is not "hugging the sideline". He's constantly shielding the back line - which is not something you would do at the sideline either.
In possession he tries to make himself available as an outlet in various position, but hardly ever "hugging the sideline". He doesn't choose advanced forward positions at the side line either (something a RW would typically do). Instead he's aware that could put his team's defensive shape in jeopardy so he carefully positions himself and hardly ever finds himself out of his defensive position (unlike J.Jones and M.Edu in the Brazil game for example).
All in all, as I've stated "Danny Williams is not being played as a right winger" is being reflected during the actual Mexico game. The same goes for (almost?) any other game he's appeared in.

Now if you want to change this into saying that I don't think "Danny Williams is being played as a defensive right midfielder" then you're simply moving the goalposts and putting words in my mouth.
As I've been saying: he's being played as a holding mid, a defensive mid, a guy who's in midfield to make sure his team has control over what going in midfield.

I agree with the rest of your post. And I agree playing someone like Danny Williams next to two or three similar players has a negative effect on our ability to create chances/score goals. So in that respect one could argue Danny Williams is not contributing to "winning", yet it's difficult to claim 'he's not contributing to not losing', which at the end of the day pretty much determine if you even have the opportunity to win.

This simply brings us back to the question: should we be playing with wingers or do we really need Klinsmann's conservative game plan?

 

Should have been more clear. I think he's helped us defensively as well. Not a doubt in my mind there. My fault on that one.

If he's shielding the backline, why are all of his tackles in wide positions, whereas those of Jones and Beckerman are splattered up and down the center of the pitch with very few actually coming outside the width of the 18 yard box? Again, these are just actions rather than his actual positioning but he seems to be quite active on that flank. Most of the places he is tackled are out on the right as well.

This is pretty much all semantics anyways and we'll probably end up having to agree to disagree anyways. You can take that as an admission of defeat if you want, but I still maintain the belief that Danny Williams is playing as a conservative right midfielder.

I wasn't putting words in your mouth. That's why I was saying it was getting away from the point I wanted to make. It wasn't directed at you. Sorry if I was unclear in that respect.

Right. And the question you're asking is something a lot of people have been asking, but Juergen seems to have an answer to it already, which is yes, we do need it. However, I'm not sure he's bothered to even field the question really. It never seems to have BEEN a question in his mind, because we've yet to really see how we look with someone who can make things happen offensively down that flank.

Even if we do need a player that has good defensive credentials on the right (and it's very likely we do), I don't really think Williams is the best option in that respect, but, once again, Juergen has yet to to test anybody else there, so we've no idea. I personally think Jonathan Spector could do a good job in such a role and is much more capable with the ball at his feet.

 

i wouldnt exactly call team performance (result) "totally.irrelevant".
But please feel free to explain why Williams is "bad" for us every game...

 

That's your argument? "He sucks, 'cause he sucks"?

Besides, the same goes for Gomez, Torres, Edu, Castillo, Donovan, Beckerman, probably even Cameron, Johnson, and Jones. The fact of course is, we beat Mexico with these players and I don't see how Williams was playing any "worse" than the former six names.

 

They are, and it makes sense, in possession he mostly ends up in a position where there was space for him to make himself available. With Beckerman and Jones on his left, that's more likely going to on the right. And the tackles happen on the side of the field when the winger of the opposition gets himself stuck between defenders and the sideline. That's the moment when Williams pressure and tackles.
Just to be clear: I'm not saying he plays the same position as Jones or Beckerman, but tactically his game plan is very similar to Beckerman's and in possession it's pretty much as how Klinsmann wants Torres to play, although in Torres' case Klinsmann is expecting a lot more of him when we are in possession and -more specifically- when he is on the ball. Torres is supposed to play as a false 'number ten'.

 

Because when you park the bus, no player is going to look good. That's why you park the bus, because your players aren't good enough to look good.

 

When your'e told to play on the right and defend most of the game you do just that. Why are people acting like he was supposed to do anything else?

 

This is not the question.

The question is "Why are we continuing to play a one dimensional player at RMF when it might be better to experiment with more multidimensional options?"

Williams has not proven himself to be such an integral player that some rotational change might not provide something.

 

This is funny to say but with williams at rm klinsmann keeps winning games we werent supposed to win. My guess is he is put there to absorb as much opposing attack as possible and leaves it to the FW's and faster mid guys like donovan to take over the extra workload.

 

Why is he in the team? There is the class and pedigree of the player; he is a regular in a well
resourced B1 team. Like Boyd he seems to have a very positive attitude which certainly doesn't
hurt. He offers versatility in that he is a destroyer who can also defend very well along the
touchline. He defended well in the match against France and defended and passed well against Italy.Donovan and Spector have often been unavailable. Dempsey is used centrally by Klinsmann. Up andcoming players like Gatt, Deleon, and Pontius are yet to be integrated into the team.

Imo he's helped bridge the gap between the tactics and available players of the current and
previous cycle. As time rolls on I'd expect him to move into the same sort of role Maurice Edu
plays with the team.

 

Exactly. I'm not necessarily annoyed that Danny Williams is getting chances. We're clearly seeing some results with him playing out there on the.... right side... You can call his role whatever the hell you want to...

However, clearly Juergen must see that we're suffering offensively due to his inclusion in the side. There are other players that offer fairly good defensive ability that can make things happen going forward as well, but Juergen refuses to try them.

My issue with him is that he seems to have these preconceived opinions of the player pool and he hardly ever gives players a chance to prove him wrong. We've been with him a year and we've yet to see anyone else really tried out on that right flank.

I'm NOT saying Danny hasn't had his benefits. I'm saying we've hardly/not seen anybody else played in that role, despite having at least a few options...

 

I think Gatt was a player that could have played a more offensive role at RM, although I believe he has played on the left.
So, JK was trying to introduce some new faces.

 

So he waited until World Cup qualifying with Landon Donovan and Michael Bradley surely out and Clint Dempsey looking questionable to start experimenting. Lovely.

 

Cameron and Edu on the backline at Azteca was a pretty big experiment. Klinsmann has been moving players around and bring guys all along. Donovan, Spector, Chandler, and Lichaj are the experienced players who could have offered more going forward while providing high level defensive cover. Donovan and Chandler are unavailable. Spector is in the team.