I'm not really a conspiracy guy, though Bradley being named to Best 11 Team of the Gold Cup has me teetering a bit. With the exception of Brooks/Yedlin (injured) and Morales (not that big of a deal) everyone I mentioned there was either on the 40-Man or with the U-20s. Berhalter isn't ignoring everybody that's not in MLS.
Yep. I agree with many of these posts, and some of the starting 11s and rosters look downright awesome. But what gives anyone the idea Egg is going to do any of this? He's had 3 camps, 3 years from the World Cup. All he's done is called in MLS guys with the couple Euros he'd be criticized for ignoring (just kidding, he'll never be criticized by US soccer media). I hope he pulls the actual, real Brucie excuse "I promise, I was gonna turn over the squad once we qualified, i swear!", and actually does it, but I'm not optimistic.
Respectfully, 18/25 of our best players in the pool are not from MLS. Furthermore, last night players were 10/14 from MLS. This is simply a continuation from Arena’s selections and I don’t expect much change going forward sadly.
did I say that? "If he stays" is not the same thing as "he should stay". I do believe he played well offensively. I think he had a relatively good game defensively (still lacking) against Mexico. I am not convinced that Berhalter is ready to get rid of him. I am convinced that with the team we put out yesterday (even with Bradley, Morris and Zardes) we are in the top 3 in CONCACAF right now which would be a bad place to be in 2022 but not so bad (in my opinion) in 2019, considering the ages of our best players and the ages of our up and coming fringe players. I gave a suggested lineup that I believe would better compensate for Bradley's major weakness. I did not say that was my preferred lineup.
One more thing regarding Bradley: I don't believe he should be starting or a backup. I do believe that he gets less credit than he deserves offensively but the problem is that he is a defensive liability. He needs someone else to be on the field that negates that weakness. If he were the backup to Adams, for instance, we would have to find another player to cover Bradley's defensive holes...we would automatically be weaker in at least two positions. (I hope that makes sense)
There was a thread for "review" of the Gold Cup which I passed on but this thread seems appealing. I think the review of the GC was actually in Berhalter's post game presser when he said that the team played well to start and created many chances but the kind of game they played (his system, i.o.w.) couldn't sustain energy and they faded for that reason. In essence, Berhalter is saying that he has to have more play in the middle third and he intends to play with 3 mids - I presume - going forward. So what does that mean for the Arriola-Pulisic partnership that created so many chances if Pulisic moves to left wing and pushes Arriola out of the picture? One possibility is 352/3142 variation. That would make sense from the point of view of adding Brooks to get passing out of the back - he needs help in defense. It adds more heft in mid and if Jozy isn't playing, we don't have a good hold up guy anyway. a) ----------------pulisic + 1(morris, boyd, jozy, etc) ---arriola--pomykal--Roldan--lima ---------------------adams -------------long--brooks--miazga I don't know how the cb's would be ordered. b) diamond anybody? ------------jozy---morris ----------------pulisic -------pomykal------roldan -----------------adams --arriola--long------miazga/zim--cannon/lima p.s. edit: think of couva but play pomykal, Roldan, adams instead of ------------------jozy------wood ----------------------pulisic ----------------nagbe-------arriola ------------------------bradley
Weah has got to come in as LW ASAP. The only place where Arriola should be considered a possible starter is at LB. With his work rate, he might actually be useful there.
Does anyone know if Nations League games cap tie players? If so, we gotta look at more of the dual nationals for those games.
Weah has some ways to go. Lots of promise but need to see it regular basis with a team like Lille. At u20's he showed a lot of promise but one wanted more/better from him, too.
Yeah, but he is an upgrade over Arriola right now. I thought he looked pretty good against some of the best young players in the world, which was better competition than Guyana, a horrible T&T team, and maybe even Panama's B team.
I think too many people are downplaying Arriola's role after the Gold Cup. Not saying he's an XI lock; hell, I hope he gets unseated because it means the overall talent level is rising. But every roster needs that Bedoya type workhorse who fits all scenarios. He is that.
Then Mexico did us a favor - GGG will hopefully shelve the Adams to RB and put him where he belongs in CM.
We could also have Bedoya instead of Bradley......it's not one that I'm clamoring for but it would never happen as Bedoya is looked at as an outsider for some of his criticisms IMO.
FWIW Tyler Adams still injured and training individually. https://t.co/yQGnaKFuTv— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) July 9, 2019 Sounds like he's holding out on the team just like he was for the USA because he hated Berhalter, right guys?
These certainly seem to be the most talented players moving forward, and it's a midfield I want to see, too. I do have questions, though. Since Berhalter is determined to play out of the back, is Adams a good fit for the six? Clearly, he's going to provide better cover, and he's a good passer, but is he the type of passer that the position wants? (Someone who will sometimes circulate the ball rather than trying to slip killing passes in tight spaces.) I haven't seen him play for Leipzig, so I don't know what role he plays there. Maybe Berhalter puts him into the role Roldan was playing in the last two GC games? I'm not advocating this. I'm just wondering if Berhalter is going to see Adams as the natural fit to the six that everyone else does, given the style he's committed to.
I think its a mistake for Berhalter to continue to overlook Kellyn Acosta: He's only 24, he already has some big game qualifying experience (started at Azteca last cycle), and he's a notable upgrade on a key limitation of all of Bradley, Roldan, and Trapp -- their athleticism. Moreover, worries about his MLS form are hollow. He's been a key contributor to the Rapids winning 5 of their last 8 games -- that's the same number of MLS games Columbus has won all season and just one fewer than Toronto.