We are tactically, technically, and physically way behind top teams. Gone are the days when great goalkeeping, a determined defense, and Reyna/McBride/Donovan/Dempsey/Jones could keep us in the game. We were better in '94/'02/'10 and even '14 than we are now. Significantly better.
Trapp- he looked fine at what he's good at. problem is, he gets exposed at this level. brooks- made a few line cutting passes. but also looked silly a bit in defence. Mizaga- idk if you can play those two together yedlin- meh going forward. ugh defending. much of the same. really would like to see cannon next week jorge- limited ability, but he does well for his level. lets hope bello gets >1500 min next year as a 17 year old. weston- plays better pushed up as an 8. calmness on the ball is there CP- sancho absolutely made his first half performance look laughable. perhaps why he's playing at BVB. but he looked better in the second. PLAY HIM CENTRALLY WITH THE USMNT Weah- looked at least alive in the second, once he was able to play a bit further up green- is actually pretty good technically... but he has not position. will always be a tweener. he definitely isnt a 10 wood- meh. hopefully sargent is healthy next week GK- ?? who knows. steffen, horvath, klinsy, idk ?? Adams- needed his play break up ability in the first half. overall- a 4-4-2 with weah and CP asked to defend, will get torn to shreds, Dave was inept. Gregg's 4-2-3-1 will be interesting if/when he finally gets announced.
I think it’s best to not overreact negatively toward any of the players at this point. The bottom line is they’re all being managed and lead by a guy who has no business managing at this level. We don’t know what we can do until we actually get a guy in here who has had success actually putting together a decent game plan. So that said, I won’t make any over arching claims about any of our players just yet, because I believe the cart is only as good as its driver. What really bothered me is just how soft we came out to play. Within the first three minutes, we were sitting 10 yards back in our own end asking England to just come and do whatever they want. England didn’t even do anything crazy or interesting tactically. They hardly had to break a sweat. The bottom line is when you are defending against professionals you can only bunker so long before it’s just not going to work. The only player that I feel like dropped his stock significantly today is Bobby Wood. He’s just so unreliable and inconsistent. He doesn’t offer anything other than occasionally decent hold up play and a crapshoot goal every now then. I would just prefer to play Tim Weah up there to give him the experience than to have to watch Bobby walk around the field and contribute nothing offensively or defensively
Pulisic looked like when I play soccer with my 8 year old nephews. Playing at 90% and making it look mostly easy but also with a general lack of caring. When he put his foot on the gas his thinking was way too fast for his teammates and he’d have to slow back down again.
First half stunk except for Pulisic's effort. Team must have been chewed out at the half. They came out with a lot more vigor, interest and self confidence. There were well created, decent attacking opportunities. That happened before Adams subbed in. I find Brooks hard to watch. Fifty percent of the time, he does not quite know where he should be when an attack comes at him. It must be incredibly difficult playing along side him. Brooks also does not hit his passes quickly or firmly enough. This reduces the team's attacking opportunities enormously. There is a lot that's good about this team, but there is a lot that needs fixing. The average skill level is better than it has been over the past 4 yrs, but the level of team organization is much worse. To be expected, especially with such a young squad. The biggest problem for me is the lack of an in-game manager who links defense with attack. The ball does not circulate enough. The first half included way too many backpasses that did not have to be made. I don't know why and I suspect this was addressed in the half time locker room as they midfielders especially did much better with this issue in the second half. To paraphrase what somebody said on the in-game thread, Wood is a specialist in killing attacks. Weah did well; Pulisic confirmed what we already knew. He's the engine of this team and was fun to watch in the second half. The contrasts with Sancho are interesting. I felt that CP came out distinctly ahead today.
isn’t it hilarious how everyone here knows that CP is so much better in the middle and but Tyler Adams is our best center midfielder, but the actual professionals who are in charge of running the team don’t know this? And that they actually think Julian Green is our number 10? We all pretty much universally agree on a lot of things that just seem to completely missed the professionals. It’s insane. I’m not saying this as an overreaction or anything, I am 100% genuinely honest when I say that I would trust 75% of the people on this board to make up a better game plan for the game against Italy and than guys we have in charge.
I don't see how you can single out Trapp for those. First goal the scorer came from space Miazga couldn't shut down, while CP was kind of ball watching. True, Trapp took a risk on the double team with Yedlin against Dele, but not sure I'd fault him for that given how dangerous England looked coming off that side. Second goal the key negative moment for me was a momentary scrum where Brooks and Miazga both came up short, causing the ball find deadly space out wide. Seem like generalized team breakdowns more than anything else.
He was quality against France and other opponents. At the same time, I'd have preferred him to not start here. Trapp deserves to be in the mix, but making him captain and lock starter is crazy. At best he can be a Beckerman-type: a limited, niche player who fills a valuable role. However, the dynamics of this cycle's pool may make such a role unnecessary. My worry is that 3G may actually try to build around Trapp.
To be fair, I would take Beckerman in his prime over Trapp any day. That guy consistently punched above his weight. Trapp seems like a slight upgrade from post 2016 Bradley.
Trapp gets a bad rap bc he's asked to do things he cant do from Dave. idk if hed work in greggs 4231. BUT hed look good in a 532 with two 8's in front of him running box to box Weston---adams -------Trapp
Brooks, fwiw, was MOTM CP was Man of the 2nd half Villafaña wasn’t close to the worst on the pitch, despite the speed mismatch, and was more solid than Yedlin. I really don’t get some of the player evaluations on here. The more I see, the less credit I can give to Sarachan. I was generally happy with his squad choices and integration of youth the but, really, who would have done differently. I think he was kept on to be a yes man while the clock ran out on Klinsy’s contract payments. His lineups, tactical schemes and sub decisions have been increasingly atrocious.
I didn't watch this game. I won't until there's a real coach. The roster is what it is, but a real coach could have saved the USMNT some embarrassment. I really do not expect much better vs. Italy, another team that didn't make the WC, but who should outplay us. These friendlies were more than worthless without a real coach.
England players are just better. New coach wouldn’t make that big of a difference with the talent gap.
Trapp May have made some decent passes but his off the ball movement and his defensive positioning did not look positive to me. There was a counter by England in the 50-51st minute where Trap completely jumped behind the break to cutoff a back pass that left me scratching my head.
Even our players playing in good teams in top leagues are rather mediocre, TBH. Wolfsburg could do better than Brooks, Newcastle better than Yedlin, and Hannover better than Wood. Frankly, beyond McKennie and Pulisic, I don't see anyone who should even be on the field against Top 16 teams.
...checks to see if AO is saying anything to try and speak out against the Fed for allowing us to continue playing with an interim manager a whole year after failing to qualify .... England: 3US: 1776— AO (@AmericanOutlaws) November 15, 2018 I believe that we will win tho!!!!!!!! YEAAAAAA BOYS *coming from a 7 year member dues paying member of AO
We haven't had strong wide players since the days of Deuce and Donovan during the '10 cycle. This cycle and last, we've been weak along the flanks, and on both sides of the ball. JK partially solved the problem by playing CMs in the flank positions. He started 4 CMs against Ghana. Our best match since the WCQing failure was the friendly against Portugal. There, in midfield, we used 4 CMs. We also used a true back-to-goal centerforward in Sapong. I'm not arguing the team must play with 4 CMs. But the wide play has been too soft. Use more CMs. Try 343. Play with 3-4 fullback/wingbacks.
Exactly. That was crystal clear from objective eyes. Twellman keeps asking how many times have I said he US needs to hold the ball more etc. when is he going to bday the US needs to play teams at their level.
Hi. If you play a lone forward who is pretty good at hold-up, but not really someone who creates goals on their won, and if you have two wide players with good skills, and you don't use the wings when the opposing team is collapsing 5 into the center to smother attacks, you might not score. Just thought you might want to know, Love freisland