Interesting comment from Berhalter: But Berhalter hasn’t yet decided how he’ll handle squad rotation. “To be honest, I don’t have experience in that,” he admitted postgame. “This is the first time we’re going through it. So we’re gonna have to figure it out.” https://sports.yahoo.com/usa-trinidad-and-tobago-gold-cup-score-usmnt-015823852.html
I assume all coaches pick squads that they think are good enough to win, even the coaches you personally despise, superdave. The point of the above is that the team is basically a continuation of Arena’s squad with many of the same spine players. The players he kept were the ones that Arena relied upon and the ones he discarded often seem to share a trait in common. It’s not a rebuild at all but a continuation of a failed regime but with a new tactical scheme attached.
That’s a silly tangential that ignores the real issue. We have enough talent to replace our spine and quite frankly upgrade it quite a bit but that’s not what Berhalter has done. As the list above shows, Berhalter continues to build around the core that led us to ignobility last cycle. I believe you yourself stated that Bradley shouldn’t be starting but yet we see that he’s the centerpiece of the team - in fact, given the importance of the regista, he’s even more important than under Arena! Perhaps the concept is that Berhalter isn’t building around Bradley, he’s building around Trapp. That’s pretty frightening to me.
I national head coach that doesn't know how to do rotations within a tournament. It shows me he doesn't know his players.
This was the first time Bradley started two games in a row and Trapp none. They are the first two competitive games. Pretty clear that Bradley is the first choice #6 on this roster. After the GC, Bradley should retire. Give him a testimonial against Mexico in September. Then the Tyler Adams era begins. There really is no excuse to wait any longer. Even if Adams is unavailable in September, players like him like Pomykal, should be played over Bradley's understudy, Trapp. The bigger question is Altidore. He might be done too. Will play sporadically for TFC but mostly hurt. He looks slow. He is probably better at 70% than Zardes, but finding someone to play up top will be the priority after the GC.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/12/24/tyler-adams-future-usmnt-captain-my-eyes-are-set Tyler Adams, the future US men’s national team captain? The young midfielder who will be joining RB Leipzig in January, has those aspirations, he told Grant Wahl on the Planet Futbol Podcast. “My eyes are set on that,” he said. “Why not aim to be a captain of the national team and continue to be an important stable piece for this team?” The 19-year-old, who has made nine appearances with the USMNT, credits former New York Red Bulls coach Chris Armas with helping him have the mentality needed. Armas was a legendary midfielder for the USMNT and wore the captain’s armband. “I feel that I have a lot of the same leadership qualities that Chris had,” Armas said. “As a young player, it's easy to be timid and be scared and not to seize the opportunities in front of you. I'm completely the opposite. I'm fearless.”
No, it isn't. Pulisic and Altidore are still core players. Most of the others you want exiled are clearly squad players. As far as Bradley goes...if Adams wasn't injured, I'd be all in on the notion that 3G is ********ing up. Adams IS injured, so Bradley is a defensible choice. I'm a DC fan. People have been touting Canouse. He might be the best ball winner outside of McKennie in the pool, but he's really limited after that. If you start him, you have to pick the other 10 to paper over that weakness. Pomykal might be the answer in 6 months, but to me, not now. (Why rush him? Let him play at the U-20s.)
Again, don’t call it a rebuild if you’re relying on much of the same core and certainly don’t call it one when you’re relying upon a 31 year old who captained is to failure to touch the ball the most. Adams and McKennie are better 6 candidates than Bradley yet we move both of them around to put in Bradley in the middle. I won’t even get into Berhalter’s roster choices that puts Mihalovich into games that count. I’ve suggested that Trapp>Bradley for the simple reason that at least he’s not over 30.
Nope. It’s the concept. We failed to qualify and quite frankly needed a hard rebuild in many ways. Instead, we received an Arena-lite who’s is building around the same player we built around last cycle to horrendous results even though he’s a shell of the player he used to be. Making matters worse is that we have many defenders here stating that,”well, it’s early in a big rebuild so let’s let it play out.” If we really were rebuilding and going through growing pains with young/appropriate-age players going through growing pains, I’d be ok (thus, Trapp>Bradley even though Trapp is below the new Ralston line). But that’s not what’s happening. Is it possible that it’s only a few posters and I’m over-emphasizing? Possibly and I’m sure you’ll let me know if I overread it.
I know Pulisic had a rough year, but to say he’s a shell of the player he used to be is really extreme and almost certainly wrong.
“To be honest, I don’t have experience in that.” “This is the first time we’re going through it. So we’re gonna have to figure it out.” Really? That seems to apply to just about everything Egg does. I appreciate his honesty, but it sort of proves he was not really qualified for the job.
That’s funny. Who touches the ball more - Bradley or Pulisic? Please defend why we’ve only seen Bradley and Trapp at the highest usage position. Can’t wait.
That quote was less than awe inspiring, no doubt. I see the media is all on board with major rotation. When they all have the same "original thought", you have to imagine it was leaked to them. In my opinion, this team has played well for about 20 minutes this tournament. I would start much of the same team as started the last two. Winning the group should always be a priority for the host team. If we had some young guys who needed to be capped or needed minutes, then sure, rotate them in since coming in second doesn't get you closer to Mexico. But Sargent, Robinson, CCV, Weah, Pomykal, etc. are not here. Aaronsen isn't even here. Djorde wasn't on the initial roster, so nobody thought he needed to play before. Omar doesn't need minutes. Trapp and Roldan played plenty in the friendlies and played so poorly we can only pray they are not needed in the knock-outs. I would rotate in Miazga. Not sure about Lovitz as Ream clearly is learning to play a straight LB (the roster was build for the 3-2-2-3 but we are playing 4-2-3-1 now) and needs practice. Boyd seems like he needs more time to learn the System. Lewis should have been left in Colorado. He was finally getting minutes and doing well and sitting on the bench for three weeks here is dumb. Amon could have sat on the bench instead of whatever beach he is on. Or A. Robinson. Altidore starts with Miazga. Otherwise, everything is the same. Long or Zimmerman sit, doesn't matter.
In thinking of this seriously, if we really were building around Pulisic, I'd take the position that he's best in the midfield but with limited defensive responsibilities so he can attack as much as possible. Therefore, what we need are strong defenders across the board behind him so that it limits his defensive responsibilities. Putting a poor defender at the 6 works against building around Pulisic IMO as it pulls back all of our midfielders (including Pulisic) into a more defensive position.
Furthermore, I'd position Pulisic so that we can chase the matchup that we think is best: does our opponent in each game have a slow-footed positional defender who can't cover a lot of space. Wherever that person plays in each game, I'd be trying to create as many situations where we have Pulisic running at that person in isolation. In some games, it would be as a 10, in others it would be on the wing. If I was actually smarter about Mexico, I'd look harder at their likely lineup and choose Pulisic's position based upon their weakest ball-winning defender while freeing him as much as possible from a lot of defensive responsibilities.
He was never a national team coach so if that's your sole job requirement then, yes, he wasn't qualified. But Berhalter played and coached in both the US and Europe. You would be hard pressed to find someone more qualified than him who was willing to take the job.
We will also never know if any of your assumptions are true. That's the great thing about BS conspiracies. They never have to be supported.