Outside Backs, our biggest weakness?

[Bayard]

With the emergence of new attacking talent, Altidore and Adu, onto the USMNT scene and Ching's current injury free good form. I think the team's greatest weakness is now its defense.

Cherundolo and Pearce have both looked good going forward, but both of them can and will be exposed against quality opposition.

Cherundolo can be brushed off the ball (e.g. vs Nedved in the World Cup) and has been committing bad fouls (red card vs Guatemala and a rather cynical professional foul vs Cuba when he lost the ball). Pearce seems to have trouble with pacy wingers. He was getting lit up all game by the Guatemalan right winger. Marvell Wynne, who some have cited as the future, has always looked awkward with the ball at his feet to me.

It should be interesting to see how our defense holds up in the final stage of world cup qualifying. Hopefully Bob won't have to use two defensive/holding midfielders to protect it.

[Eleven Bravo]

I want to know what our depth chart for LB/RB are mainly. I'm guessing it's something like:

LEFT
1. Heath Pearce
2. Jonathan Bornstein
3. Frankie Hejduk
4. Jonathan Spector
5. Michael Orozco
6. Cory Gibbs

*Michael Harrington, Blake Wagner, Anthony Wallace, Nathan Sturgis, Todd Dunivant, Ramiro Corrales, Wade Barrett, Amaechi Igwe, Kevin Goldthwaite, Jose Burciaga, Ian Joy, Mike Randolph

RIGHT
1. Steve Cherundolo
2. Marvell Wynne
3. Frankie Hejduk
4. Frankie Simek
5. Jonathan Spector
6. Drew Moor

*Danny Szetela, Dax McCarty, Hunter Freeman, Anthony Wallace, Tony Beltran, Chris Albright, Michael Harrington, Chance Myers, Bryan Namoff, James Riley, Lawson Vaughn, Bryan Arguez

[Grumpy in LA]

This will sound weird, but in a way, I'm optimistic that our new "biggest weakness" is now our entire team. (Yes, yes, feel free to quote that sentence for cheap laughs.)

By this I mean only that based on a realistic goal for the USMNT--to be able to reach the group stages of the World Cup and to perform passably there--I'm not sure that we're clearly deficient anywhere on the pitch. We're probably deepest at midfield, but we have decent talent and depth in most positions now. Based on our current team on current form, I'd hardly be shocked if the team managed to pick up 3-5 points in the group stages of South Africa.

But for a loftier goal for the team--say to be good enough that failing to qualify out of the group stages would be a legitimate disappointment--we need almost universal improvement. Based on CURRENT form, the list of players we have who could RELIABLY play at that level is pretty short: Howard, Donovan, maybe Onyewu, Cherundolo, & Beasley.

But the good news is that we have a lot of young guys who show the talent needed to reach that level by 2010 and a fair number of youngish guys whose talent and professional development suggest that they could be useful at that level by 2010 also.

[Prime Time]

With the emergence of new attacking talent, Altidore and Adu, onto the USMNT scene and Ching's current injury free good form. I think the team's greatest weakness is now its defense.

Cherundolo and Pearce have both looked good going forward, but both of them can and will be exposed against quality opposition.

Cherundolo can be brushed off the ball (e.g. vs Nedved in the World Cup) and has been committing bad fouls (red card vs Guatemala and a rather cynical professional foul vs Cuba when he lost the ball). Pearce seems to have trouble with pacy wingers. He was getting lit up all game by the Guatemalan right winger. Marvell Wynne, who some have cited as the future, has always looked awkward with the ball at his feet to me.

[quote]It should be interesting to see how our defense holds up in the final stage of world cup qualifying. Hopefully Bob won't have to use two defensive/holding midfielders to protect it.

Bob only used that because once Feilhaber went down, we had no CM who could hold the ball and link up with the forwards.

Sacha is now turning into that guy which is why we're getting away from the "empty bucket".

[Maximum Optimal]

I'd say central midfield is our biggest weakness. As far as the outside backs go, I'm more comfortable with the current situation at right back than left. There is some risk Cherundolo loses his quality before Wynne develops but chances are there will be a smooth transition between the two and we should be covered in South Africa. The choices at left back are less impressive and I wouldn't be surprised if Beasley is playing there in South Africa.

[narko]

I still believe that Bradley believes this teams weakness is centerback. That's why he plays with two defensive midfielders.

[Maximum Optimal]

I still believe that Bradley believes this teams weakness is centerback. That's why he plays with two defensive midfielders.

He plays with two deep-lying mids, both of whom are expected to do some of the defensive work. But at times one of those deep-lying mids has been Feilhaber and Kljestan, neither of whom is a defensive mid. Szetela also brings some attacking skills, which hopefully he will get a chance to display against T&T.

[narko]

He plays with two deep-lying mids, both of whom are expected to do some of the defensive work. But at times one of those deep-lying mids has been Feilhaber and Kljestan, neither of whom is a defensive mid. Szetela also brings some attacking skills, which hopefully he will get a chance to display against T&T.

True.

[ADUEDUALTIDORE]

I am hoping we can find a better CB then boca and shift him to LB where he plays for club at a high level. Subotic declaring his intention in the next few months is a must, I have not seen enough of califf, marshall or soumare to say whether or not I think they are worth it. I don not know whether heath pearce has the defensive qualities of wc back.

[Eleven Bravo]

Bob not calling up Cooper is our biggest weakness, by the way.

[ussoccerFan12358]

I am hoping we can find a better CB then boca and shift him to LB where he plays for club at a high level. Subotic declaring his intention in the next few months is a must, I have not seen enough of califf, marshall or soumare to say whether or not I think they are worth it. I don not know whether heath pearce has the defensive qualities of wc back.

I think Boca playing LB for Rennes will allow Boca to improve his distribution skills from the back. Time will have to tell, but it's an optimistic theory of mine.

[sitruc]

I'm not saying it's permanent, but Beasley spent quite a bit of time at LB last night.

[appoo]

I don't think they are a weakness. Perhaps it would be more accurate to describe them as not a strength.

[Sachsen]

Bob not calling up Cooper is our biggest weakness, by the way.

Did you miss the thread where Bob called up Cooper for the T&T game and Cooper declined?

Beasley at left back would be a mistake on the proportion of Eddie Lewis at that spot in Germany.

Pearce is no world-beater, but he's getting better - to the point where I would call him solid. I would much prefer someone back there who plays it all the time for both club and country and is comfortable with the position, rather than trying to shoehorn a left mid in there like Arena did with Convey and Lewis. Bad idea, bad idea.

[USA2010?]

Our biggest weakness...oh let me count the ways, but it all comes down to depth.

Forward - Even if Altidore becomes the man (I think he's already the guy), one little injury and poof, we're back to Ching. How will compete against top competition, not just Cuba? 'Nough said.

GK - a lot of people think we have great depth. After Howard there's ...Guzan, who has only played in MLS. Sure, he's got a great future, but he won't get a lot of first team action for the next 2 years. If we had Freidel, then I'd say we do have depth, but he's not taking any calls these days.

Back line - Yeah, we're better than we used to be, but without Gooch and/or Boca, we are clearly a level down.

D Mid - possibly the only area with depth - Bradley, Edu, Kljestan, Mastro - but I would not call it depth with great quality.

AM - There is only one answer, Adu, and he's not getting enough time on the field these days, at Monaco or USMNT - still can't figure that out. Donovan's the best we have, but he's not necessarily the guys who can thread pass after pass through seams. Now, I'm not saying take Donovan off the field for Adu, but Adu is more of a Riquelme than Donovan.

Mid Wings - Dempsey - no way. He'll probably make the team, but I don't think he'll be starting in 2010. My fear is that he has maxed out - hope I'm wrong, but... Beasley - can go both ways and does it with speed - but his crosses are weak. We'll see about Torres, don't know yet. Lewis is out of the picture for 2010 - was a fill-in for the last few months.

The US has some skilled talent (Altidore, Adu, Torres, Donovan, Kljestan, Bradley). It's just that we don't know how to piece them together just yet. The nice thing about seeing Kljestan, Adu, Torres, Altidore, and Donovan together was the movement of the ball and the combined skill. This is the main problem with the US - we need more players who have that skill on the field at the same time. I.e. Mastro is not one of those guys.

[appoo]

Did you miss the thread where Bob called up Cooper for the T&T game and Cooper declined?


Since Cooper is not vastly superior to anything that Ching brings to the table (I don't think he would have finished that LD cross vs. TnT - just an opinion and I'd be curious to find out if it's an accurate assessment), the Cooper stuff is a bit of a red herring. It's like saying Obama's biggest weakness was not adding Hillary to the ticket, when everyone really means his biggest weakness is a lack of governmental experience (this wasn't meant to be a political post, I'm using that as an analogy and I can't think of a better one off hand).

In this instance, Coop would be Hillary, and our inability to create chances on the road would be Obama's lack of experience.

To me that's definitely not outside backs, and possibly not the strikers.

Our major weakness is that we do not have enough good passers.

[ghazi]

Since Cooper is not vastly superior to anything that Ching brings to the table (I don't think he would have finished that LD cross vs. TnT - just an opinion and I'd be curious to find out if it's an accurate assessment), the Cooper stuff is a bit of a red herring. .

Really? I think Ching has better holdup ability as a target forward. BUt i'd easily give Coops the nod when it comes to 1) speed, 2) dribbling 3) positional flexibility 4) shooting (if not even).

I am not saying Coops is Fernando Torres, but he offers some of the same skilss (at a much lesser level. lol) that make Torres dangerous - aerial ability, a big target, speed, footskills, the ability to play up top our out wide and cut in.

Ching has played well for the nats but i'd love to see what Coops could do with LD and Adu running with him.

[sidefootsitter]

I'd say central midfield is our biggest weakness... Of a playmaking variety.

The defensive side is of reasonable quality.

I also think right wing could use more speed and/or consistency.

[SCBozeman]

Our biggest weakness...oh let me count the ways, but it all comes down to depth.

If you're going to play the injury card and look at experienced depth, then I think you answer "yes" to the re: line question.

What experienced right back do you play if Cherundolo breaks his leg? There are candidates (my favorite is Spector), but they're either green on the USMNT (Simek, Wynne) or old (Hejduk). All of whom have injury issues or Bradley's disregarded.

What experienced left back do you play if Pearce chokes to death on his foot? You've either got an out of position player (Spector, Beasley, Lewis, Orozco) or an unreliable Bornstein.

That is unless there's an outside back waiting to burst onto the scene or Bradley discovers you could play 3 at the back.

[OWN(yewu)ED]

its all about depth, theres places we're loaded with quality (albeit not worldclass.....but quality) in center D (Gooch, Boca, Parkhurst, Demerit, Orozco, Marshall, Califf), central midfield (bradley, edu, kljestan, szetela, clark, mastroeni, feilhaber), goalkeeper (howard, guzan, hahnemann, reis).

Its the depth aspect, and the competition aspect we should be focusing on. we know beasley is our starting left mid, we know cherundolo is our starting right back, we finally know altidore is a starting forward, we know donovan is a forward, we know dempsey is our right mid, we know pearce is our starting left back. The only position it seems Bob mixes it up in prevailent recent lineups is "Bradley plus X", whoever X is. seems like Edu and Kljestan are fighting for that spot right now, and Kljestan has the upper hand.

But we need some quality behind them to force the initiative at some of these positions.

left mid, Torres and Rogers will be left to fight for number two. Both quality, may the best player win. I think we have finally moved past Eddie Lewis, that needed to happen, im glad it did. Both have the upside to upend Beas before 2010, very good competition.

right back, i think we have the depth, its just a matter of bringing them in, getting them rounds, and them staying healthy all in one. Wynne is ready now, the Olympics showed that. Simek played his first reserve game for Wednesday in almost a year, hopefully he'll get looks in the hex. And theres the versatile Spector, not quite convinced right back and he may even have a more legit shot out left. Wynne has made his rediculous upside justified and if he keeps it up at this rate he could very well upend Dolo depending on our gameplaying posture. If Simek gets healthy and makes a premiership move it gets even more interesting. And we need to move past Hejduk already. Wynne does everything he does....better. Up to and including surfing.

forward, Davies, Adu and Cooper each need their respective looks.....nuff said. But ill walk away happy if Donovan and Altidore are our up top pairing. Just looking for an upgrade behind them.

left back, Bornstein seems to be the number two right now for that spot, he needs to get back to pre injury form though, hes got the BB favorite thing going for him though so thats interesting. Spector can also provide competition here as well. One guy i feel isnt getting a fair shake either for a very needy position thats justified it in his play is Harrington. What does he need to do to get a look?? solid on defense, solid at going forward, i wish we'd give him a run out. Left back is a depth critical position IMO.

right mid, Rogers is a guy id like to get a look out here, he has the pace to be a real factor here. Has the pace and can be a threat on either side of the fieldI hope we get him rolled on out there. We have other guys who can play the role, like Holden. Alvarez could be a dark horse here. Right mid is our second critical position.

in the end, i think we have the capacity at all the positions, they just need to be given run outs. We need competition to light a fire under some of these players. Torres finally provides beasley some direct competition down the road at left mid, and phases out eddie lewis. We need to do the same at right back; put in Marvel Wynne/Frank Simek, and phase out Frankie Hejduk. Altidore needs to be a team staple now, absolute necessity player, has been for awhile, this was a long time coming, it shouldnt have taken this long to figure it out he is already arguably the most irreplacable player on the pitch for us.