It's not bad just don't think it would work against top competition. It's much to ask of Acosta, or any player, to man the middle by himself. I would be interested in seeing it slightly modified to look like this... Howard Yedlin-Cameron-Brooks-Villafana Pulisic-Acosta-Nagbe-Jonhson Wood-Dempsey Though ultimately Pulisic may be utilized to his best as a 10 in a 4-5-1 but then that leaves the issue of dropping two of Wood, Dempsey, Jozy instead of just 1.
I think Miazga is terrific but it wasn't the time. Hopefully he proves himself this summer in the Gold Cup and solidifies a spot on the final roster for Russia.
Miazga has also had a hell of a time establishing himself at Vitesse. He's only started 9 league games all season. We've had enough players who have been planted to the bench for their club following an international call-up; if Miazga is going to keep developing, he needs the playing time. I'd like to see him at the Gold Cup this summer though.
I mean yes. But no. He's likely to sent out on loan and I'd like him to spend some time with Conte before going on loan again.
I agree in principle, but I don't think he's ever going to crack the Chelsea XI, so I'm not really interested in him performing in front of Conte. Like, where is he on their CB depth chart? 6th or 7th? He isn't even their best CB out on loan.
I think that Pulisic is the key. He's at the point where he has to be on the field but he does have deficiencies that go along with his strengths. Unfortunately, one of his main strengths is his playmaking...which makes you want to place him in the middle but his main weakness is defense. As a central midfielder, he needs to be paired with a ball winner. How you build the starting 11 depends on where you put Pulisic.
Why... I'm not surprised that @MLS is coming up with that stuff!! https://t.co/B1KUYzCMVj— Jermaine Jones (@Jermainejunior) March 30, 2017 IMHO, Bruce Arena needs to cut Jermaine Jones out. But, again, that is MHO.
He's not a great defender... for an 8. As a 10/11/7 he is very solid and that's why Tuchel hasn't played him at RWB and has given him so many minutes over his competition.
I agree. I don't think he's one of our best 11 anymore. His strengths have diminished, and the downsides of his game remain. He's 35. We have up and coming options. We have other guys with experience. It's time to move on from Jones as a starter.
-----------------------------BW/JA--------------------- ------------Dempsey----------------------------------- Nagbe-------Pulisic------Cameron------Johnson Villafana-------Brooks-----???????------DY/TC -----------------------||Howard||-----------------------
Miazga is 21 y/o. In the EPL, only 3 cbs under age 24 have made more than 15 appearances this season. His late loan to Vitesse likely contributed to his long wait to breakthrough there.
--------Wood---------- -----------Dempsey---- Pulisic---Benny---FAB --------GCam---------- JV-Brooks-Besler-Yedlin ----------Timmy------------
He's low on the list and their likely to buy again. It's not about performing in front of him as it is learning from him and the staff.
I don't know if the top part is true but the second part certainly is. He's also working on developing his distribution there which also played a part in his slow breakthrough. He's a good player and finishing it this season and figuring out his next loan prior to the season starting, the year leading up to the World Cup, is more important than the gold cup.
IMO we have 8 guys who are automatic starters when available: Howard, Brooks, Cameron, Yedlin, Bradley, Johnson, Pulisic, Wood. (Not saying Bradley SHOULD be in that list, but he is.) Villafana may be #9 at this point. The other 2-3 spots will depend on form, tactics, and the opponent.
Agree and I think a lot of this hinges on the opponent. If we're playing an inferior opponent and going for the kill, we can probably get away with Bradley or Acosta as a lone DM which means we probably want to use CP10 at the top of a diamond behind two strikers. Against a more threatening opponent we'll need an 8/6 pairing, which means either putting Pulisic on the wing or keeping him central but in a 4-5-1/4-2-3-1. I actually think we have the personnel to run a really solid 3-5-2, the problem is that none of our guys play it at the club level and it takes a lot of team cohesion to run otherwise you run into a Mexico disaster. Maybe something to experiment with in the Gold Cup but a lot of our top guys probably won't be there.
Your points are absolutely correct. The questions that remain are if he is the 10 (or a similar role), how do we set the lineup. Similar to Honduras? will that work against Mexico? If he is wide, he needs a strong defender (ie not Zusi) behind him. I think Yedlin would be fine on the right. Villafana probably fine on left. It would also help with a stronger/more familiar CB pairing compared to what we saw Tuesday. I think it is a bit more difficult to fit Pulisic into the lineup at this stage in his career because he is lacking compared to Donovan defensively. this isn't a criticism....he's only 18! I think he will get better and be very similar to Donovan in that he will be our best at several different positions and at some point I expect that his defense will not be a liability anywhere in midfield. (I am not talking about a destroyer of course) By the way, this wasn't meant as a comparison to Donovan but it is striking how similar they are in many ways. One of the biggest advantages, I believe, that Pulisic has over Donovan is confidence and willingness to "try shit" that Donovan didn't always have. Donovan was incomparable to his peers when on the move and attacking the defenses in open space but if the defender stopped him he lost much of his danger. Pulisic, even at this young age, is willing to try shit. He's a pretty darn good combo of Clint and LD.
The formation in the Honduras match played out more as a 4141, a pattern designation supported by the network passing diagram and the charts of defensive incidents. Dempsey and Pusilic occupied positions behind Altidore. So Pusilic essentially has a partner with whom to split the defensive workload. Dempsey and Agudelo, both gritty strikers who are comfortable dropping into deep positions, would make for good partners with Pusilic.
This is ideal. Perhaps shift that mid to FAB at left and Pulisic staying central with Benny not as a wide winger but just ahead of Cameron as our #6 and Benny as our #8. Yedlin will be getting up and down our right wing no doubt so Benny can stay central and lay deeper in our set up. Benny would be a terrific foil with Cameron at our #6. Allowing Pulisic to really have carte blanche to show up where ever he wants in the flow of the game. -------------Wood------Dempsey ----FAB-----------Pulisic ---------------------------Benny --------------------Cameron ---Villafana---Brooks---Besler---Yedlin ---------------------Howard
The midfield is a real puzzle for me at this point. Clearly, Pulisic has to be in there, and I think he was better centrally than out wide this set of games. As others have said, though, you don't get much defensive cover from him (though I feel like he is better about this with Dortmund, so maybe he's getting more license to attack from Arena?), and Bradley covered an immense amount of space behind him against Honduras. Would this really work against better teams? Or would we better off going with something like a 4-5-1 with Pulisic the most advanced of the CMs, but with a 6 and an 8 behind him. Or do you play Pulisic outside with a strong RB/LB behind him to mitigate the space he leaves defensively while giving him license to cut inside and do what he does offensively? If that's the case, I'm not sure who the other CM would be with Bradley. I do know that Jones shouldn't be starting anymore. That's at least an easy conclusion from the Panama game.
He's fine on defense. And deficiencies in this area would be more than covered by putting him at the tip of a diamond midfield.
I can't believe some people still have Benny Feilhaber on their lists. He's not even in the top 30, obviously, if he can't get called in to a team with 26 players and tons of injury substitutions.
I think people who are slighting his defensive play have never watched him play wingback (3-5-2)at BVB. His defense isn't "bad" and actually is pretty good for an attacker. He plays defense on top and pinches down when he sees a chance to pick the ball. If he plays wide in a 4-4-2 he will get stuck in, he isn't "tackle shy" or anything like that, he just provides more value closer to goal.