Just for grins I looked up current ratings from WhoScored for all of the players in the National Team Pool. Based on those as well as my own intuition as the fairy tale Manager, I came up with the following starting 11 based on current form and if we were in a big tournament instead of friendlies in Nov. For the full team: Wood(7.82) Novakovich(714) Pulisic(7.5) Morales(6.94) McKennie(8.62) Cameron(7.48) Lichaj(7.26) CCV(7.25) Brooks(6.8) Yedlin(6.47) Guzan Note: Woods and Mckennie's ratings are lower overall except for the couple of games they've played at LF & ACM Cameron and Morales would play as dual #8's except for Morales acting as more of #6 on defense but Cameron dropping back to cycle the ball from defense to offense. I'd press high with the the 3 front men immediately pressuring the ball/players when we lose the ball in our offensive 3rd and keep the lines tight. Cameron and Morales drop in and cover when the FB's overlap to prevent counters. All 3 forwards stay high to counter ourselves and switch places to keep the defense unbalanced. First sub might be Weah for Wood... On the bench: Steffen, Cannon, Robinson, Miazga, F. Johnson, Adams, Sargent, Hyndman, Weah For Olympic Qualifying: Nova Sargent Weah Mckennie Adams Pulisic Robinson CCV Palmer-Brown Cannon Klinsman Same general tactics as full team but switched formation to take advantage of the players we have.
I would want to see Adams, Feilhaber, Weah and Sargent on the field in a game we had to win right now. I would remove Novakovich, Cameron, Morales, Wood. I haven't seen any of the above four recently except for Wood, so there is definitely a possiblity that I am wrong on who to replace. I want Feilhaber in there because his abilty to see a pass will help us get the ball to our forwards...especially Pulisic. I like Sargent more than Novakovich and he may be about even (tempoarily) to Wood but I'll take the vision and ability to combine better with the other players that Sargent has shown. Weah has really impressed me with his eye for that killer pass and his instinct for the unpracticeable. I haven't seen Morales recently and haven't been following but really like Adams, so I'll go with him. I know some of the argument right now will come down to experience vs talent and or timing (is he ready now?) I don't particularly like Lichaj at left back but not sure we have too many better options right now. Several for the future....
Edit: FJ at left back. I guess I have been focusing almost entirely on the future and neglected him. for the most part, I believe our best players are also currently our youngest but there is definitely a legitimate argument in several cases. I also believe that in one year's time (or whenever it is that we begin qualification) the team will look much different. A few of the choices will be much more obvious as the young prospects will have proven themselves to be clearly superior or they have stalled. The Gold cup will be incredibly important for many of the young players (I know I'm not telling anyone anything they don't already know).
Lichaj is not one for the future. I believe he's 29. I don't think FJ really likes to play LB and without a shot of going to the next WC, I doubt he'd be willing to play there. Nova is doing well in the Eredivisie and I'm not sure why hasn't got more of a shot but Sargent may have something he doesn't... Can't disagree either with using Weah instead of Wood. But Mckennie is way better than Feilhaber and Morales is better right now than Adams. Cameron is the best player we have right now for understanding when/how to give the CB's positioning space for delivery out of the back as well as seeing/executing the best pass forward.
If we had to win a game right now.... Zach Steffen Brad Guzan Bill Hamid DeAndré Yedlin Matt Miazga John Brooks Cameron Carter-Vickers Reggie Cannon Anthony Robinson Geoff Cameron Danny Williams Weston McKinnie Christian Pulisic Darlington Nagbe Tyler Adams Fabian Johnson Timothy Weah Jonathan Amon Alejandro Bedoya Joshua Sargent Bobby Wood Josimer Altidore Andrja Novakovich
We need to scratch Jozy for a while as he is having foot surgery very soon with no time table for return.
Agree on Lichaj...100%. You are probably right about FJ but I don't see him as a starting midfielder. To answer your question about Nova, my guess is that the reason he hasn't gotten that much of a chance is that he has only recently been doing well in the Erendivisie. Last year he did well but it was one division lower. My choice of Sargent over Wood, Nova, Jozy et al comes down to his ability to bring others into the play. I like what I have seen so far...enough so that I am willing to make a leap of faith on him. I really like what I have seen of Adams. I haven't watched Morales so can't comment but haven't heard anything...If you say he is much better at this point I can't argue. I see McKennie and Feilhaber as two completely different types of players. I won't argue that Feilhaber is better but I will argue that Feilhaber has some facets to his game that McKennie doesn't have and probably won't ever have. i may be the only one on these boards that would use Feilhaber but I believe he is someone that can and will play that dangerous ball to guys like Pulisic, Weah, Sargent. i would use Feilhaber in place of Cameron. We seem to disagree primarily on Cameron and Feilhaber.
Tough call really. Team is in such flux. But, If I have to line people up for a do or die, I'm thinking something like... .............Sargent..Weah .......Pulisic................F. Johnson ............Adams..McKennie Villafana..CCV..Miazga..Yedlin ..................Guzan Biggest issues include Fabian Johnson maybe being more valuable to plug up the left back spot since it is a glaring weakness. But, it seems he's fairly adamant about not being a fullback these days, which I will never understand as he was far better there than as a midfielder. And our left back is garbage no matter who else we stick there. Guzan gets the nod over Stefan today, but he's going to get bypassed quickly and I know many people think he already has. I left Brooks out, but I simply don't think he and Miazga work well together and I picked Miazga as I could only get one. Easy to argue either way for that. Yedlin barely holds onto his place, but I was more impressed with Cannon last time out so it really is just barely. Since we don't have anyone decent at the #10, we're back to Bob Bradley ball and just giving the outside mids all the freedom in the world to cut in and go forward while keeping the center mids deep.
I'm a big fan of Feilhaber but I'm going off the last couple of matches where Mckennie has been moved up & played as a #10 in a 5 man midfield. He's got a couple of goals and a few key passes. Having said that, I wouldn't mind Feilhaber as the #10 and McKennie as the #8. Morales is more in your face and a lot more like Jermaine Jones than I think most people give him credit for. Adams doesn't bring that bite yet... Cameron has great vision, is as calm on the ball as anyone I've seen and can still execute. He needs some speed around him though and I think Adams is really close to replacing him and/or Morales just not quite yet... BTW: I don't see FJ as a starting mid anymore either that's why I had him on the bench. I think He's still versatile and good enough though to fill in at LB, LM or RM if needed.
Would Miazga + CCV or Miazga + JAB be any better??? Nope. THe point is we need a team. Not 11 players. Because clearly we don't have 11 players who individually can beat anyone with any quality. But as many other national sides have shown, a team of quality players well trained in the tactic and shape by the manager can beat anyone on any given day.
If we had a game today that we had to win (i.e. not building for the future), here is the line-up and bench I would choose: -----------Altidore (or if injured, then Wood)----------- Arriola-------------------Pulisic-----------------------Weah -----------------Adams-----------McKennie---------------- F.Johnson---------------------------------------------Yedlin ----------------------Brooks----Miazga---------------------- -----------------------------Guzan----------------------------- Bench: - Steffen - A.Robinson - Besler - Nagbe - Bradley - Acosta - Wood (or if Altidore is injured, then Sargent) Reserves (or extended bench if a tournament game): - Hamid - Lichaj - Amon - Saief - Zardes I'd also give strong consideration to one of Feilhaber, Lee Nguyen, Sacha Kljestan or Alejandro Bedoya for the bench or reserves in place of Saief or Bradley based on current form. I'm also not a huge Paul Arriola fan; I'm just looking at our crop of wide attackers / wingers and not seeing a ton of compelling finished products who are in form right now (outside of Pulisic, the options at this moment are basically F.Johnson, Weah, Arriola, Green, Sabbi, Amon, Saief, deploying Nagbe out wide, Picault, or Ibarra).
I haven't followed McKennie recently and didn't know he had been playing the 10. If he continues and is effective (as apparently he has been) He would be a great option and I wouldn't mind him replacing Feilhaber. I wouldn't play FJ in mid either. In my opinion he is by far our best lb and probably our best right back too but I haven't been all that impressed with his play in midfield. If he doesn't want to play LB, than that is fine. Villafana is just as good as any other right now.
I would hope CP doesn't have a knock, make sure Steffen is ready, and then talk Dempsey into one more appearance if the U.S. had to win today.
If we had to win just one game today? I would just call up the same base we had out there against Peru plus Pulisic, Adams and McKinney. Hope we can schedule the hypothetical game in Seattle, KC or maybe DC's new Stadium and just hope and pray the team steps it up.
It'd depend on the rival. It'd be foolishness to use the same tactics and personnel to face Switzerland or Portugal.
You are, of course, entitled to your own opinion but Benny is 33, shares attacking duties will fellow over-the-hill former USMNT Lee Nyugen for the 275th ranked team in the world. He is not on any Best XI list I've seen. He's also been recently excluded from games that matter by former coach BA.
Understood and agree with age. I, under no circumstance, feel he is an option of any kind going forward. My choice to put him in that position is not a reflection of his overall quality but fa reflection of the type of skills that he does possess, the type of skill that is currently lacking in our pool, and what I believe is currently our greatest offensive strength (Pulisic with the ball attacking goal). He can see a pass better than anyone that we have (in my opinion) and with Pulisic, that is a very valuable skill. We NEED to be able to get Pulisc (and Weah and Sargent or whoever plays an attacking role) the ball. In that regard, I guess that Feilhaber is a poor man's Donovan. Someone mentioned that McKinney has been playing that role with Shalke...I haven't seen him but perhaps he would be a better alternative. Within a year or two at the most, I hope that Carlton, Pomykal, Mihalovic, Busio, Tatiague, Parks or someone else will step forward to take that role but for now, we have Feilhaber, Nguyen, Kljestan, Green, Hyndman and a few others. I like Feilhaber the best. As you said, this is subjective and ultimately I understand and know that many disagree with me. That is fine. Green has shown flashes and many are proponents of Hyndman but I am not as familiar because I haven't followed them in Europe and have not been convinced by Green when he has played with the USMNT.
If we "had" to win a game right now our best hope would be Tonya Harding starting in the alley line up.
If we had to win a game today against a strong rival, I'd go with Berti's 8-1-1 because our defenders are quite terrible and our only hope is putting so many bodies in the area, the other team never has the space for a clean shot.
Most coaches usually go with their player rating rather than just by the numbers. That is why we got Gonzalez in a must-win game.
Williams has made one partial appearance in a cup match this year and FJ has had very limited playing time, so I am not sold on their form.