It's hard to believe we are talking about a lack of off the ball movement and a National team in the same sentence. Give me chemistry, cohesion and intelligence any day over the All-Star mentality.
Devils advocate here....these are all great attributes of an effective midfielder. Who do you currently see as a better option?
Actually, I've complimented Carter-Vickers defensive game. I think he's a helpful player to our NT right now, but with his limits. If thats how we look at his contribution, I think he's a helpful player. Also, I think Trapp undoubtedly is a big reason for our defensive success. Under the Arena and Klinsmann regimes, we had defensive structures right down the middle of midfield that had no structure, and no one knew their roles. There was no leadership, no problem solving on the field. Everyone would just run around, and make mistakes. With Trapp back there, players know their roles, they are positioned in the right spaces, there is leadership on the field, and its showing in our defensive results. You need a player to organize your defense. Trapp does that. If there's a better option than Trapp, lets see it. For Berhalter's system, it won't be Adams. He doesn't have the passing to play Berhalter's system as a #6. Berhalter's system requires a deep-lying playmaker who starts the buildup and organizes the defense. Thats not Adams, not yet McKennie, not yet Durkin. Certainly not Bradley. I don't think Canouse has the style of play for that system.
Yeah sure, but am I wrong in thinking that Amon + Robinson would do much better? More range at the very least.
The next games are November 15 and 20, 3-4 weeks from now, and 2-3 weeks after the claimed hiring timeline. I could understand a co-coach or Sarachan sideline/new coach in stands if they had 1 week or the coach is from abroad. But signs suggest an insider like Berhalter or Ramos, and Ramos coached the U20s, and Berhalter's assistant was in this last camp. Do we really need to pretend like any insider that might get hired is so out of touch with US MNT they practically need some on ramp period? If an insider needs to play catchup on the team we hired the wrong person. If they are already USSF or in MLS they know enough to call a team and line it up 2-3 weeks after they are hired. If they do this theorized transition period, either with the coach in the stands or co-coach with Sarachan, it's really to kiss up to Sarachan -- which is unnecessary for a caretaker -- or to separate the hiring of the coach from accountability to the results we start to get. Personally I don't get trying to avoid the practical realities of what we've done. I want to see the guy we pick go over to England and either win, draw, or lose, and we start to know what we got. I also think it's absurd to drag this out months? years? and then not even use the coach for another two months til January.
I don't know why the Trapp debate is done as this odd abstraction. He has plentiful tape. It's very mediocre. He is not our midfield maestro. He is not the defensive clean up crew. It's all kind of meh. C'mon, move past the lame, distanced debate, get to the real meat. The real meat is, is he going to be the coach's favorite foisted upon us in spite of what we already know, and will there be accountability to what happens if he jumps queue into the A Team but has a Bornstein Problem, and the coach loves him, and do the blinkers come off?
Pre-programmed or holistic, whatever. He plays poorly in Sarachan's 4-1-4-1, like just about everyone. Need a new coach. Trapp was best, or least bad, against Mexico after the switch to the 4-2-3-1 with Adams next to him. We haven't seen Trapp there again. But we have seen a lot of Trapp. Nobody else has really had a chance. A player can be good for a club, in a system, and not be good in a National Team where everything isn't practiced out repeatedly. A player can be good in MLS and not be good against Peru. This can happen to players in Europe (see Chandler, Tim). Alyssa Naeher was anointed as the #1 GK when Solo was fired. She gets all the minutes pretty much and even when she plays poorly, she is right back in there. Ellis must have reasons, but fans can think others have not had a fair shot. This brings extra criticism when fans perceive a player has not fairly won their spot (see Bradley, Michael). Trapp is under scrutiny because it seems Sarachan decided in January we were going to build everything around him and has not deviated from that except on rare occasions.
It's the player types being used. You go out and get attack minded players from the pool instead of a pile of DMs and you will magically get the missing touch/passing/movement.
What a waste for the national team has been playing Wil Trapp there repeatedly. Adams not being a dmid is a silly as Pulisic not being able to play centrally. Adams would be well served to learn to sit in front of the back 4 and read the game in that role. It would help him develop a better understanding of the game and probably his best role, at least initially, at a higher level. The US team would benefit greatly from having a guy in front of the back line with his ability to cover ground and snuff attacks. We may lose out on his ability to cover ground going forward, but we already have McKennie and dont necessarily need two or more midfielders running all over the place. I think we would be better served with Adams mastering that role, Mckennie as a box to box guy and playing CP centrally or a guy like Hyndman if he get some momentum going in his career. We could also play TA and WM as a double pivot or in time have them develop the understanding where it is one of there main roles but they can go forward with the understanding the other will cover in that situation. If a Canouse or Durkin present themselves as a real option, I'm still not sure having mckennie and adams in front of them is that best approach for our midfield. Isnt that one of the things that everyone hated Klinsmann for in 2014?
Adams may very well morph into that role over time. I don't see him optimally as a dedicated D mid. The individual will only be as good as the sum of the players around him.
I am really surprised nobody has focused on Green's involvement in the Peru goal. If anyone other than Yedlin deserves a major share of the blame it is Green. The final sequence stemmed from Green failing to make either an effective reception or a touch away from a defender coming in with a tackle. Green changed his stride as he approached, taking a shortened extra step, or he scuffed the ground with his toe when trying to poke the ball away. Regardless of what he was attempting, it failed when a simple toe-touch from a running stride would have shut the play down before the cross ever came. I re-watched it and reached the same conclusion as I did the first time. The Grumpy Pundits on SiriusXM FC also placed primary blame on Green this AM. This was one of at least two times that I felt Green made minimal effort and did not fully try when he should have. I'd also like to remind the pessimists that the US made a lot of passing errors in the first half, but also had some great chances. In the first part of the second half, the US play was quick with many accurate passes and altogether quite excellent. I could be wrong about the timing, but it seemed to me that the late game trouble started when Sargent was subbed out (@69 min followed by Acosta@78 min and Cannon@84 min. Sargent made some magnificent defensive efforts. Acosta was so-so. Cannon did well. What occurred was pretty typical loss of late game organization.
Projected: - EPB, Roldan, McKennie in pressure tactic - Trapp, McKennie, Lletget in possession tactic - Canouse, Adams, McKennie in counter tactic - Adams fb/wb on either side when not needed in cm, fill in 1-2 of Robinson, Cannon, Yedlin at other fb - Delgado and Villafana as depth types That's how I would manage the cm and fb questions. There is some overlap, which is why I conflated the two problems. I think there are no shortage of solutions here with an astute manager (someone much better than Dave).
The odd things to me about the DM discussion, besides that Trapp gets so much of the focus, is the lack of apples to apples distinctionmaking or practical necessity driven thought. In plain English, we have to have at least one player in the dedicated destroyer spot, it would be wise if they were good at their specialty, and they are competing to do that job. How do they stack? And re practical necessity, it has to be at least one. You can talk down most? all? LBs in the pool right now. If you have a game Friday someone goes out there nonetheless. Ditto DM. If player x is more suited than the others, then we set aside he's not Jones, or an ideal 6, or the like. All you have to be is the least bruised peach in the pile. By this approach, I think Adams has been the best DM-like-substance, I think Delgado has shown the best passing out of the spot but also been erratic at defending the position, Acosta has given some offense and crunched players and then also disappeared. I think Lletget if he was playing like 2 years ago would be near the top, but he can't stay healthy and I'm not sure where he fits in now. I think Canouse is a wild card as well. I think Trapp is mediocre mush who has done less to stand out than each one I already listed, and I think a lot of the others, including McKennie IMO, are simply not 6s. Roldan goes below Trapp because Trapp is quietly OK but Roldan has literally looked over his head like Sweat did at his position. I think the position is wide open for a dual national, surprise player, or youth player to come in and take. Ditto LB. Ditto the bench keeper slots. As with CB last cycle, if you find the usual suspects fairly frustrating, hmmm, maybe quit fishing in the same pond each time. However, I think Trapp gets all the discussion and top of the heap because he's been the pedigree choice forever, he is "supposed to be the best," not unlike his coach who may get the NT job. Which is part of the reason I keep bringing things back to performance.
Trapp has been an excellent fire-fighter for the NT. Though not any sort of tackling maestro, his timely interventions in the defensive third have underlined some decent US performances during this interim period. Players like K. Acosta and Adams were brought up in systems that prioritized dominating space rather than keeping the ball. There would likely be an adjustment period needed for either to successfully play the deep-lying role. Canouse, on the other hand, would likely do more than well there. D. Williams, who started against Portugal, has already played well there. Both are strong passers from the d-mid positions. In league play, Canouse is 88% passing from the d-mid position while Trapp is 89%. There is no reason Trapp should be on a lock starter in the team.
It was a poor pass to Green. I think he was going to go for it but then tried to draw a foul (which he is good at doing and would have probably iced the game). The Ref didn't give it (not saying he should have). The ball goes wide, Sweat does nothing, Weah doesn't prevent the cross. Neither Yedlin or Delgado mark the guy. Take your pick. Plus the four times we got the ball and gave it away in our own end right before. You can go back in any play and say, well if that had happened it wouldn't be a goal. It is like moaning when someone stays on a 16 in blackjack and then you bust with the next card. It was a goal after 10 subs in a Friendly. If it is a WCQ, maybe Green goes in harder, maybe his leg is broken but we win. Yedlin probably isn't entering the game in the 88th minute. Delgado is probably not playing out of position. Do we drop Delgado because he had a defensive miscommunication playing a position he shouldn't be playing? Do we drop Weah, at 18, because he ran all night covering for Sweat, and the game before, and was gassed and didn't get to the cross? Villafana didn't defend the cross in the first half against T&T and he is still called in and pundits still put him in their starting 11. Do we drop Yedlin, is that what this is all about? The cross for T&T's first, that Villafana does not stop and turns his back on, that leads to us missing the World Cup is a goal I care about. This goal is just not important. There are people who hate Green because of 2014. Whatever you think of 2014, it wasn't Green's fault.
I think any lineup without Adams is foolish at this point. I think he is going into the HOF as one of our best CMs ever. He is not playing WB. He should never sit for Lletget, Trapp, Roldan, EPB (who is a CB). Just my opinion.
Adams plays a deep CM role for the best team in MLS. Can we stop with this nonsense? Trapp doesn't play as a lone #6 in Columbus, why is he doing it poorly for the NT at the expense of trying anyone else under the age of 28? Acosta has a poor first touch and no pressing resistance. Trapp also has no pressing resistance. By all means, give Canouse a go. Canouse was in camp with Sarachan in January and was not played.
The fact that Adams does not display deep distribution long balls does not prevent him from being a true #6. Makelele who is considered the prototype modern #6 was often derided for never passing the ball more than 15 feet. What a true #6 has to do, his first responsibility, is he has to own zone 14. Makelele did, Busquet did, JJ did, Beckerman did, Kante does, Casemiro does, Matic does,... In MLS Adams does and Canouse does. Trapp as we have seen from his international stints absolutely does not control zone 14. Adams in his couple of stints ( late v Bosnia and 2nd half v Mexico ) does.
You have to be trying really really hard to find something to blame Green for to pick that play. Green was playing striker in a 4-4-2 and dropped back to help defensively. He attempted to pressure the ball and attempted make the tackle unlike our DMs and CMs who did very little the entire match. In his 35 minutes Green had more tackles (2) than Trapp (0) or Acosta (1), or Bradley(0)
One thing I liked about cannon was that he erred on the side of caution. It was only after intermission that we saw cannon and Delgado combining on the quick 1_2 which set up the free kick goal. I doubt he has Arias type elite speed to nab the starting job in the end but he is way too young for any definitive appraisal.
I never implied he would sit in any a-team lineup. He would just fit in where the tactic called or alternatives called for him - 8/10, 10/8, rb, lb, wb on either side, etc. His versatility should be used to the team's advantage, and I don't think he's ideal in at least the possession tactic in the middle. His passing % this season in MLS is 77. Didn't even put Roldan in the middle in that tactic (but maybe I should) when his is 84. Didn't put Canouse there when he's at almost 90%. Trapp's is 89. Lletget is much more creative than Adams if you're going to play a true 10. Adams has shined even more at rb/wb, wb can be considered an especially important position in a 352/343 because you're influencing both ends, and I do like him keeping possession and creating attacks more than Yedlin who has suspect touch, moves, and passing. I want to de-emphasize from it being another case of DY90 this cycle. Maybe Cannon does that. But he may not be available or required on the other side. I want to use EPB in a similar way as Adams (although maybe not an auto-starter), only between cdm and cb. You say EPB is a cb exclusively, but he won CONCACAF player of the tourney in u20's at cdm. He's a sideline to sideline destroyer, who can empower 2 cm's to get further fw, he's evasive, and a good simple passer. But if he best serves the team in that particular game at complementing one of the two galoot cb's like Miazga or Brooks then he can be employed there instead.
Amon was involved in all the good chances and drew the foul in a dangerous area which scored off the free kick.