My sentiments exactly when I urged Berhalter to take the Galaxy job. In any case, when somebody really wants something, he will not be dissuaded.
Lemme put it this way, Trapp should set off an alarm. If he starts ahead of Adams, that's not on demonstrated play. Heck, I am not even sure he should be on the entire A team (including bench) on merit. If Zardes gets called in for an A team game, that's not on demonstrated play. So if in March and beyond Trapp starts and Zardes is bench something is already wrong. I think Steffen is nominally the #1 keeper and for a while was earning it but if you watched the playoffs he looked a little sketchy in their elimination round and then wasn't healthy for the internationals. That may just be a blip and I see far more raw ability in him than the others. I think we have some really strong young elements like Sargent and Pulisic and sometimes Steffen. But as it is we missed Russia and haven't been winning games just by putting the kids out on the field and playing soccer. So at least near term wins will be earned and we need to be running at high efficiency. I don't think we can afford to have the few truly good players dragging some Bornsteins behind them.*** Are we going to beat Mexico or CR playing favorites? I am more skeptical, historically MLS coaches have in fact played favorites when given the Nats. I would have more confidence if he'd coached more than one team here and had to build a winner over and over. He's had one team and hung his hat on a particular group of players he probably overrates internationally. If you've gone into battle with these three many times it creates a distortion. But "Colorado at home" is not "now we're playing Mexico away." *** And worth remembering that since we have usually hired a more proven coach if they played favorites it was off a title contender, not some midtable team. Has Columbus' trio objectively earned 30% or so of the XI or 12% of the 23? I don't really think so. Put differently, if you had the NT would you reach halfway down the table and take 3 players off those teams?
Of course it means something - they were competitive games (not low-intensity friendlies) against quality opponents. And you might have noticed that our failures in the "real quali" occurred without Zardes on the field. Odd how those supposedly accidental goals that Zardes helped create in the past seemed less likely to happen to other players in his absence... So after declaring the entire Centenario to be meaningless, you declare that scoring stats from 145 minutes of friendlies tells us a lot? That doesn't make much sense. Zardes has clear limitations, but we're hardly such an offensive powerhouse that we can brush off a guy who led all MLS Americans in goals, and who has had some impact in competitive matches against decent opposition. We can hope that Sargent's emergence or an Altidore resurgence or something else will make Zardes unnecessary, but at this time it would be foolish not to keep him in the picture.
I tend to agree with most of what you are saying in above post. It seems to be human nature to go with the familiar. I hope GB does not get sucked into this way of thinking. I would not have a problem with him trying out some of the same players, playing in different configurations. However, I would expect him to realize his mistake (and admit to it) early on. He has already seen what a lot of the players did in the last few friendlies. I would hope he does not repeat mistakes made. If he does, then I will be very disheartened...and be calling for a new coach...as will most of those on BS.
It's expecting too much for him to admit a player submission mistake. It's almost never done, and personally I don't care. When Berhalter puts his team on the field for his first meaningful match is when we'll be free to judge his choices. It'll probably be 50% laudatory and 50% criticism. The more things change, etc. I think we've already seen GB's Trapp test. I suspect he's been in contact with Sarachan for some time, and more than that, I hope he has been, so the last few months haven't been a total loss.
Of course it is on "demonstrated play". Adams is much more valuable running thru mid than playing as the stopper at the 6 and long diagonal passer out of deep mid. Think molecule not atom. molecule definition: a group of atoms bonded together, representing the smallest fundamental unit of a chemical compound that can take part in a chemical reaction. atom definition: one of the minute indivisible particles of which according to ancient materialism the universe is composed Do you want some chemistry or not?
It's nice you give us this little nugget of science to help us learn the fundamental concept of team play, but it seems beside the point. Does Trapp really add to more cohesion of the 2 center backs w/ the center mids and forwards than Adams? It's a hard position to learn because of the requisite skills of anticipation, vision, and organization. So it's in Trapp's favor he is more experienced than Adams at this moment. But Adams is on his way to the Bund where he'll at least train with high quality backs and midfielders. Trapp will go a January camp and then warm up for the next MLS season. Trapp's physical limitations won't improve, but Adams' vision and anticipation will. By time the Gold Cup rolls around, I think Adams will be ready.
But my point was that we don't want to lose what Adams can contribute when the shackles of the 6 position are removed - ie. when he becomes an atom who can combine to form a chemical reaction in other areas of the pitch. The 6 is way too restricted a position for Adams. One of the oversights in respect of Adams' game is how good he is, naturally speaking, along the touch line. Making the pitch big is crucial in Berhlater's game. The other side of that coin is making the pitch small for the opponent. Adams is crucial in that strategy and putting him at the 6 makes him useless in executing that strategy. He becomes an atom in isolation rather than one which combines with other atoms to create the chemistry reaction we want.
Here's a great breakdown of how the Crew played and a educated guess as to how GB will implement his tactical approach with the Nats. https://www.starsandstripesfc.com/u...smnt-gregg-berhalter-coach-tactics-formations
Zardes personally scored a decent amount of goals for the Crew. The Crew as a team did not score a lot of goals. The Crew as a team, created many more Expected Goals, than they scored actual goals. Zardes missed more clear chances than he scored goals (I think I heard 20 or more); his finishing was quite terrible. The Crew had to create more than 2 Clear Chances (very high xG) for Zardes to get one goal. Now, did Berhalter create Zardes reborn? Did the Crew budget not allow them to get a better option than Zardes? Did Berhalter over estimate how good Zardes was and stuck with him too long? Using Zardes as a reason that Berhalter is a good coach has lots of logical problems based on the stats from last season. I think Berhalter will be fine as USMNT coach; especially since the bar is so low. But I don't think he worked miracles with the Crew or Zardes.
I keep trying to nudge this angels on the head of a pin discussion in the direction of this, but here: https://www.ussoccer.com/mens-national-team/mnt-stats Foward is a production position, who produced this year? 1. Wood 9 caps 520' 3G 0A goal every 173' 2. Sargent 6 caps 266' 2G 0 A goal every 133' 3. Green 7 caps 381' 1G 0A goal every 381' ---- 4T. Sapong 1 cap 45' 0G 0 A 4T. Nova 3 caps 52' 0G 0 A 4T. Zardes 3 caps 145' 0G 0 A Jozy and Morris were out hurt. I think that pretty well resolves that. Moving on.....
What direction does that post move the discussion? We need better forwards? The forwards need better service? We need to better maintain possession in order to give our forwards more opportunities to score? Our finishers aren't making the requisite runs or aren't physical enough? A single statistic in isolation doesn't help much. But go on, I'm listening.
I heard one too many lame arguments for/agin' Zardes. That debate is easily resolved by cold numbers. A year's worth of NT stats are the equivalent of a soccer season for a club. 6 Fs saw time, give or take how you define Green or Weah or the like. 3 scored. 2 scored at least twice. Though I think it is dense, we often play a 1 forward scheme. #1-3 are your pool and the others are camp bodies or cuts. If you need a 4th forward it's Jozy/ Morris/ etc. Zardes might go to camp cupcake or be in contention for 4th forward if we call that many. Otherwise, it's a lame Twellman/Lassiter/Wondo argument. There is a long history of MLS scoring NT disappointments and given what Wondo did when handed that Belgium ball we'd do well to take the lesson. If you have 3 forwards scoring goals in spite of a crap team, and then another guy who is part of a meh set of non productive forwards, you know who to call. I expect Berhalter to distort in favor of Zardes as a favorite, but I think if we were wise we'd be calling other new ideas we don't practically know for a fact will disappoint.
Lighten up, my man. Zardes played as one of three forwards in the a 3-man front line in the Copa 100; on defense he dropped into a wing position, with Dempsey and Wood in a strike duo. Forward =/= striker. Plus, he scored 1 goal in like 6 matches, hardly a sterling rate for a top striker. I'm not downing Zardes; he can ball: he's scored and / or assisted in 3 different MLS playoffs series, an MLS Cup Final, the Gold Cup and Copa America. He was also a decisive sub in the '17 GC Final. He created more chances at Copa 100 than any other American but Dempsey: that's his best role in a US shirt, IMO. He's got tremendous utility as a winger / wing-forward. Which he's really only able to do because of Berhalter's specialized system. Zardes was not in form when Berhalter acquired him. He was in the worst form of his career, including his rookie season. Except that Zardes was fit for most of the season. Not being fit and not being in form are different things.
Your first two paragraphs seem to contradict the last. With a non-elite striker, Columbus made it to the Conference semifinals to be eliminated in an away loss to the best regular season team in MLS. Berhalter over-achieved relative to his talent. Also notable is his team is able to consistently create good chances from the run of play through possession.
That's not necessarily conclusive. The guys with the fewest minutes scored the least. If Zardes scored in his next appearance, he could jump ahead of Green on this list. Still, I take your meaning: I wouldn't necessarily put Zardes ahead of Wood, Sargent or Jozy as strikers go. I think if Zardes has a future with the NT, it's as a winger.
I think the focus on Zardes being reclaimed is a red herring. The Crew had a very high expected goals. They had a very low actual goals scored. Zardes is probably a sub-replacement level MLS striker. The more interesting discussion is that the Crew scored so few goals. We are hanging our hat on "Expected Goals". Stewart is a big stats guy, so it makes sense he hired Berhalter. But it has nothing to do with making Zardes good or developing talent. To use the reclaimation of Zardes as something to recommend Berhalter, is the wrong approach. What you say is more like it. Berhalter could be good since he got as far as he did with a sub-standard striker. I also agree that the talent on the Crew is not good. Higuain is by far the only good player and Steffan excels at certain things. Trapp is an average MLS midfielder and same with Artur. But the rest of the team is terrible (at least this year as Meram really dropped off). That Zardes was actually quite awful at finishing is probably a mark against Berhalter's talent evaluation skills. But this could be a budget issue and all he could afford to bring in. Bringing Meram back to the Crew mid-season also showed a lack of identification of current talent. Many coaches make this mistake with players that had played well for them. I think Stewart will mainly be identifying the talent. Berhalter will take what Earnie gives him and get them to play like a team. That would use the strengths of both men, which is always a good thing.
Maybe, but that's our reality. He's competing with guys in the armpit of the 2.Bundesliga for a spot on the bubble for the time being.
I hope he hasn't been. That would imply some of the crap we saw from Sarachan was really crap form the actual permanent coach.
When Bobby Wood is your main man up front not sure you can automatically dismiss a Zardes level guy, even if it's just for CONCACAF depth.
Honestly, Zardes should go on trial/loan with Schalke and compete with..........Wright??? I'd say no contest.