Yeah, I understand the thinking behind putting Pulisic in the middle, but I think both Arriola and Morris have gotten on the ball in space more than Pulisic. If he gets on the ball in some those situations, we might be winning.
Arriola and Morris, not good. Zardes hasn't seen the ball at all. Trapp has looked quite good, he's shut me up so far.
I love Greg h is trying to use peps formation and all but we just might not have the ppayees like man city does. We have industrial players with Weston and Tyler. I hope he sees that and make adjustment
Overall, I thought that was a pretty good half. It's clear that not everyone is entirely sure of their roles and things are supposed to fit together, and I think Pulisic and McKennie are both a bit off by their standards. But really the US has done pretty well dictating the play and should be up by a goal or two. And now with that inspiration, I'm off to play in my old men's game.
After seeing the first 45 minutes, I understand the method to Berhalter's "madness" regarding the position changes. I still don't buy Yedlin as winger, even in this system, but I can't imagine he would be worse than Morris in that spot.
This formation is not impressing me. Get Pulisic wide right and yank Morris. There's a lot of space between the lines in midfield, a shame they haven't been able to better use that.
No surprise, but the forwards were not influential in that half (save for Arriola on a couple of attacks).
Taking off Morris, moving Pulisic into his slot out wide, and bringing Lletget into Pulisic's current position in the middle would solve some problems.
Too many people overreacting to individual player performances for one half, especially miscast in a system. It's par for the course, though. Too emotional and confirming biases. Halftime changes I'd make: - Zardes out, Morris up top, bring in Lletget, move Pulisic out to the right - McKennie out, Adams to the 8, Lima in at rb - Ream out, Yedlin in at lb Hopefully that would improve width, dynamism, and finishing. Berhalter hasn't valued that thus far. Need to move the ball quicker. Defense has been solid, outside one misstep.
Man, we're primed to be negative here. I understand why, but there was a lot to like as suggestive moving forward in that half. I'll grant you, though, that as someone supposed to be a core part of "moving forward", McKennie's US performances are making me uneasy.
Weston def has had 3-4 bad touches but he’s also been very dangerous on set pieces, combined for some nice passes in tight spaces and covered ground. Not great but I wouldn’t yank him at half.
63% possession and 250 passes to only 147. Egg is managing what Klinsi couldn't do. But, gosh, it's not pretty, sorry.
First half highlights: Zardes - Can't shoot, can't pass, and hold up. He makes Jozy looks like a stud Morris - He's too slow for this level Ream - Don't trust him in the back line GGG - Trying to pretend he's some XO genius by messing with dumb line ups and players out of position. IF this was a real game against a real team, we'll be down by 2 or 3 goals already. This team/formation/line up leaves a ton of space for a good opponent to punish us.
I've NEVER seen him be very useful, I haven't seen tons of his club minutes though. I think on paper a 3 man CM a Adams, McKennie, and CP is really exciting... but unless I see more from McKennie kind of soon, I don't know how long that excitement really lasts for me personally. I get they're all young, there's lots of time. But I wish I'd seen more considering the amount I've watched him. Adams for example has already shown me much, much more, in far fewer minutes.