Left to Right Forwards : CP , Zardes or Sargeant (depending on form) , Morris Mids : McKennie , Lleget or Holmes (depending on form) CDM : Adams Def : Dest, Brooks, Long, Yedlin or Cannon (depending on form) The other option with the fullbacks, which our moron of a coach will never do, is finally call in Lichaj to play LB (Like he should have been for the last 2-3 years) and leave Dest at RB. One other possible variation in the midfield is to pair Adams and Weston as the 2 mids further up the pitch and use a true CDM like Yu, Morales, or Poly. To me....that's our best lineup and group of players. Lleget is severely underrated by many on this board in my humble opinion. If I were coaching the USMNT he'd rarely come off the field.
Who is a candidate to start that can deliver those balls? I've seen Pulisic do it at times but he also is pretty good at scoring with his noggin all of a sudden.
I don't know! I have a long list of players who shouldn't take those kicks but an empty one of those who should. It would be great if they were a shorter attacking player (maybe Dest?) but I haven't been blown away by Pulisic as a dead-ball taker. I recall watching young Uly and thinking he's pretty good at those but he's not ready for the seniors. Thoughts?
Pulisic can dunk a basketball. He has big 'ups', which allow him to dominate on headers. Strong dead ball takers: Altidore Sabbi Mendez Ream
You don't buy that our lack of talent now means that our expectation should be to hope to Hex qualify? And you think that that Top 15 minute earners Trapp, roldan, '19 Bradley, Zardes, Lovitz and Baird are better than our historical teams? Apologies, I'm still salty that my Eagles lost to the Dolphins. Serenity now. Serenity now
Brooks would be good, but that would be as dumb as having Harry Kane take corners... Boyd has hit some good ones. Lletget is iffy. I don't see why Dest couldn't do it. It is the same problem with Pulisic, he just doesn't (or hasn't) done it much at club level yet. Some guys like Altidore are good from one side of the field but not good from the other. It will probably be a committee and more set piece plays like the opener against Canada. We do have great aerial players and teams from most of CONCACAF have to overplay them. That is usually using lots of players and fouling. But that should open up space around the box for Adams or Dest.
I would expect that they never be called in but here we are, a year later. Still called. I wouldn’t expect anything at this point.
I like Lichaj but let's be honest: he's never looked very good with the NT. Not when he was looking very good with his club, so I doubt he'll look any better now that he's just ok with Hull. Neither Yedlin nor Dest are defensive types. With Newcastle, they play 3 CBs with Yedlin there. Dest in Ajax has the advantage of a very strong midfield. If we stick to the 4-4-2, we cannot have fullbacks who cannot defend well, unless we stick both Adams and Weston into DM roles, which would be a shame (and hard for McKennie, who loves going forward). I think we need to see more of the 3CB + wingbacks formation. Dest and Yedlin would benefit from it. As for the "lack of bite," all our strikers in Europe are not exactly scoring: Sargent 2 in 553' (BuLi) Wright 0 in 982' (Ered) Siebatcheu 0 in 370' (Ligue1) Novakovich 1 in 583' (SerieB) Johannsson 0 in 420' (Sweden) Wood 0 in 152' (2.BuLi) Gall 1 in 517' (Sweden) Boyd 9 in 1028' (3.Liga) Except for Boyd, who's playing in a third tier league, the rest looks quite weak.
Not indefinitely. It's a small, deep muscle that is strained so not serious but needs time. They will use winter break and December games to get him back. My strong recommendation to Brainhalter is to stop calling him up and leave him in the hands of real pros at Bremen so he can be ready to go when we really need him instead of stumbling along in the clueless system and needlessly jeopardizing qualification.
Sarge is on schedule as long as Brainhalter doesn't call him up for his stupid "time for the back up to Donkey to put some in vs. Cuba". Yedlin is strictly for "running league" as this guy terms English Prem https://tunein.com/podcasts/Soccer/Total-Soccer-Show-p435741/?topicId=135665128 We have Morris + 1 (Jozy/Donkey/Sarge) with Pulisic at the 10 running thru midfield and with Dest at rwb we have a strong attack. At lwb we can try various like Arriola, Ream, Weston which has the advantage of getting Wes out of cmid where we need an IQ boost.
Yes, but Morris has not played striker. He's been on the wing or a wide forward. Already posted it above and is mostly Euro-based. I just think in Qatar (if we make it), we're going to be in big trouble.
This past season, Morris started 5 times at striker for Seattle. He had 4 goals. In his other fully fit season, his rookie season, he had 11 goals and assists in 24 starts at striker. This and his effectiveness at international level would suggest he could be successful at striker at that level, especially in Concacaf.
In case it's not obvious, I was focusing on players playing the striker role for the NT and their club in Europe.
I think Morris might be a good fit against really good teams where we have very little of the ball. His speed would sure keep the defenders honest.
With Adams allegedly back: ------------------------------Morris---- -----------Pulisic----------Holmes-------------Dest --------------------McKennie-------Adams-- --ARobinson-----------------------------------------Cannon----- ------------------Brooks----------------Long---------- -----------------------------Steffen--- Zardes and CJ Sapong would be the backup forwards. Pulisic could slot into amid/fwd, with Morris dropping to lam. Dest could move to amid or rb, with Arriola moving to ram.
No, Robinson has been coming along nicely. The central midfield trio would br left-focused to free up Pulisic. Dest, providing balance on the right, would be in more of a two-way role.