USMNT Best XI, based on that list: GK: Steffen RB: Yedlin CB: Brooks CB: Ream LB: Dest DM: Adams CM: McKennie AM: Pulisic WF: Morris WF: Weah FW: Altidore If you want a right-footed CB you would move Aaron Long to CB in place of Ream, and if you want a left-footed LB you would move Ream to LB and Dest to RB. Second XI*: GK: Johnson RB: Cannon CB: Miazga CB: Long LB: Lichaj CM: Bradley CM: Morales MF: Lletget MF: Holmes MF: Arriola FW: Sargent * Not counting Nagbe, who has apparently refused call-ups. If you want a left-footed LB, you would sacrifice Lichaj for A. Robinson.
A few of those are pretty odd but any list is going to have people argue over it and some of those players could go up quickly with a bit more playing time or a first team move.
my top 100 1. Pulisic 2. McKennie 3. Adams 4. Brooks 5. Dest 6. Steffen 7. Morris 8. Yedlin 9. Morales 10. Long 11. Sargent 12. Altidore 13. Weah 14. Lletget 15. Pomykal 16. Cannon 17. Nagbe 18. Zimmerman 19. Yuiell 20. Zardes 21. Holmes 22. Reyna 23. Miazga 24. Arriola 25. Boyd 26. Ferreira 27. Aaronson 28. A. Robinson 29. Chandler 30. Green 31. F.Johnson 32. Lichaj 33. Ream 34. Opara 35. Richards 36. M. Robinson 36. Alvarado 37. Ebobisse 38. Otasowie 39. Llanez 40. Vassiliev 41. Ledezma 42. Soto 43. Toye 44. Sands 45. Carter-Vickers 46. Palmer-Brown 47. Lima 48. Sabbi 49. Konrad 50. Bradley 51. Guzan 52. Roldan 53. Trapp 54. Busio 55. Hamid 56. Bedoya 57. Canouse 58. Cappis 59. Mihailovic 60. Novakovich 61. Glad 62. Miljevic 63. Durkin 64. Bassett 65. Parker 66. Vines 67. Herrera 68. Mendez 69. Gioacchini 70. Hamalainen 71. Gloster 72. Picault 73. Araujo 74. Gasper 75. Acosta 76. Hollingshead 77. S. Johnson 78. Hyndman 79. J. Gonzalez 80. Turner 81. Delgado 82. Amaya 83. Lennon 84. McKenzie 85. Trusty 86. Baird 87. Lewis 88. Scally 89. Saucedo 90. Corona 91. Gooch 92. Amon 93. Lovitz 94. White 95. Sapong 96. Larentowicz 97. Hedges 98. Thompson 99. Miller 100. Moore
I have a hard time with a couple of things, Bradley being in the top 20 is pretty awful. Morris deserves top 5 and slide everyone else back 1 spot. Not sure Yedlin should be top 10 either considering his drop in form, but Im more okay with that. Also shout out to them for using PES 2020 for Miljevic at 74. But after about 25 or so it all becomes pretty subjective.
nice list. random question: we have a player who has recently been one of the best players for a mid table B1 team and he’s 29th? How many of the guys in front of him are actually major league players right now? Is this looking prospectively? It’s hard for me to understand his spot if it’s for right now. Probably a top 10 player IMO although I’m fine with excluding him from the USMNT given his age and his younger major league competition. for example, is Frankfurt or similar side looking to acquire Cannon who’s well ahead of him on the list? The answer may be yes and we’ll see in the next 10 days. miles Robinson was also MLS Best XI this year as a young player - his ranking seems low to me but I’ve only watched him twice. sorry if this comes across as nitpicking - not the intent.
I was going to say that you've got Yedlin, Morales and Steffen well too high, but then I looked at the list below and got really depressed. I'd bump Chandler up a fair bit. I'm not sure if he's getting the "dual national who is unlikely to play for the Nats again" discount, but if you're playing for a 1BL team, you're doing pretty well.
I'd put them in buckets Proven Major leaguer with elite potentia (3) Pulisic Adams McKennie Proven Major Leaguer (5) Brooks Chandler Steffen Yedlin Morales Breaking through into major leagues (4) Dest (very high ceiling) Reyna (highest ceiling of this group IMO) Weah Sargent Elite minor leaguer (12) Morris (near peak) Cannon (rising) Pomykal (rising) Long (near peak) A. Robinson (rising) Miles Robinson (rising) Holmes (near peak) Altidore (past peak) Miazga (near peak) Nagbe (near peak) Zimmerman (past peak) Opara (past peak) High upside prospect nearing major leagues Llanez Ledezma Otasowie Vassiliev Regular minor leaguers (13) Carter-Vickers (rising?) Yuiell (rising) Hyndman (rising) Zardes (near peak) Lletget (near peak) Arriola (near peak) Boyd (near peak) Green (near peak) Lichaj (past peak) Ream (past peak) Hollingshead (near peak) S. Johnson (near peak) Alvarado (haven't seen him play at all so could be totally wrong) Prospects I'm keeping an eye on Richards Aaronson Ebobisse Konrad Gloster Scally Soto Ferreira I'm sure I'm missing some here Each bucket is ranked in order but there may be some in lower buckets I rate higher than those in higher one (morris over Weah for instance). My hope is not to delve too deeply in the regular minor league bucket and only for specific non-central roles.
No, I understand. What I noticed by doing a top 100 is that it works out a lot different than say importance based on the player pool. Personally, for that reason I don’t like that ranking system, but figured I’d give it my best shot. What I wish for instead would be a top 4 in every position.
IMO, if Zardes is low at 35, we are in sad shape (and we probably are). The guy can not regularly trap a ball when under pressure and many times when not under pressure. I love the guy, I love his workrate, I love his zeal for the crest. I'd follow him into battle. I would not, however, put him in my starting XI.
Anyone else feel that putting Tyler Boyd 30 or so spots ahead of Reyna at this point seems laughable? I would say that right now, if you gave the choice of Boyd or Reyna to play as a substitute for BVB, this team would pick Reyna 100% of the time. That tells me Reyna is currently the better player. He's certainly not 30 spots behind Boyd.
Seems pretty spot on if you ask me. Johnson as backup keeper, not really, but the rest of the team looks about right. Of course, nearly everyone wants MB out, so there's that.
Currently? No. Can't look too far into the future. Reyna might be up there soon (and perhaps a half dozen others) but I'm not one to get ahead of myself.
Yes, we are in a sad state. But he was the leading scorer for the team last year and the most prolific American scorer in MLS for the last 2-3. No way Sargent should be ahead of him (yet). In a match that matters, Zardes is preferred and produced. No way he is below 20. Lower than the XI, sure, Jozy is the starter when healthy.
To be fair to everyone doing Top 100s, until about a week ago, it was very tough to rate Reyna. Performing very well in U19s is a great sign, but it's hardly bulletproof. His ability to hold his own in the Bundesliga is a big data point, and that's not even firmly established yet, even though it's looking very good. I think Reyna also looked so good partially because he's playing with much better players and not asked to do a lot. So we know he can fit in nicely like that. BVB hasn't asked him to create at the Bundesliga level; that's another step (though he did do a couple of nice opportunistic things). And another level is where they actually ask him to create in hard situations. I'm sure BVB would pick him, and I still would agree with you and pick him for the national team simply because Boyd hasn't been able to produce against even mid-CONCACAF opponents. But, I don't know that this showing has really proven that Reyna is ready to do that, either.
Right now, I'd argue we need a top 40... GOALKEEPER 1. Zack Steffen 2. Bill Hamid 3. Matt Turner 4. Brad Guzan -Youth Movement: JT Marcinkowski, David Ochoa, Chitundi Odunze, Damian Las, Matt Freese -On the Outside: Sean Johnson, Jesse Gonzalez, Tyler Miller, Ethan Horvath RIGHT BACK 1. DeAndre Yedlin (RW) 2. Timmy Chandler (RW) 3. Reggie Cannon - Olympic Eligible -Youth Movement: Joseph Scally, Brooks Lennon (RW), Julian Araujo (RW), Sebastian Anderson (RW), Jaylin Lindsey -On the Outside: Shaquell Moore, Keegan Rosenberry, Tommy Thompson x2-CENTER BACK 1. John Brooks 2. Aaron Long 3. Walker Zimmermann 4. Miles Robinson - Olympic Eligible 5. Matt Miazga 6. Ventura Alvarado -Youth Movement: Cameron Carter-Vickers, Justen Glad, Auston Trusty, Mark McKenzie, Chris Richards -On the Outside: Ike Opara LEFT BACK 1. Sergino Dest (RB) - Olympic Eligible 2. Antonee Robinson - Olympic Eligible 3. Eric Lichaj (RB) -Youth Movement: Sam Vines, Aaron Herrera (RB), Chris Gloster, George Bello, Travian Sousa, Kobe Hernandez-Foster -On the Outside: Chase Gasper, Ryan Hollingshead (RB), Nick Lima (LB) HOLDING MIDFIELDER 1. Tyler Adams (CM, RB) - Olympic Eligible 2. Alfredo Morales (CM) 3. Jackson Yuiell - Olympic Eligible -Youth Movement: James Sands (CB), Chris Durkin (CB), Brandon Servania -On the Outside: Russell Canouse (RB), Wil Trapp, Michael Bradley, Fernando Arce CENTER MIDFIELDER 1. Weston McKennie (DM) - Olympic Eligible 2. Paxton Pomykal (AM) - Olympic Eligible 3. Brenden Aaronson (AM) - Olympic Eligible -Youth Movement: Christian Cappis (DM), Hassani Dotson (DM, RB), Bryang Kayo (DM), Cole Bassett (AM), Danny Leyva (DM), Alan Sonora (AM), Taylor Booth (AM) -On the Outside: Darlington Nagbe, Kellyn Acosta (DM, LB, RB), Marky Delgado (DM, RB), Emerson Hyndman (AM), Mikkel Diskerud, Alejandro Bedoya (AM), Joe Corona (AM) ATTACKING MIDFIELDER 1. Giovanni Reyna (RW, LW) - Olympic Eligible 2. Sebastian Lletget (CM) 3. Richard Ledezma (CM) - Olympic Eligible -Youth Movement: Matko Miljevic, Djordje Mihailovic, Alex Mendez, Gianluca Busio, Luca de la Torre, Malik Tillman -On the Outside: Julian Green, Romain Gall RIGHT WINGER 1. Jordan Morris 2. Indiana Vassilev (LW, FW) 3. Tyler Boyd (LW) -Youth Movement: Emmanuel Sabbi, Sebastian Saucedo, Konrad de la Fuente, Ulysses Llanez -On the Outside: Corey Baird, Lynden Gooch, Jerome Kiesewetter, Alex Muyl, Chris Mueller LEFT WINGER 1. Christian Pulisic (AM) - Olympic Eligible 2. Paul Arriola (RW) 3. Duane Holmes (LW, AM) -Youth Movement: Jonathan Lewis, Jonathan Amon, Niko Gioacchini -On the Outside: Fafa Picault, Joe Gyau, Memo Rodriguez, Kenny Saief CENTER FORWARD 1. Josh Sargent (RW, LW) - Olympic Eligible 2. Tim Weah (LW, RW, AM) - Olympic Eligible 3. Jozy Altidore -Youth Movement: Sebastian Soto, Omir Fernandez (AM), Mason Toye, Ricardo Pepi, Josh Pynadath, Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez, Maurice Malone, Haji Wright, Johan Gomez, Jalen Hawkins, Cameron Harper, Brandon Vasquez, Charlie Kelman -On the Outside: Jordan Siebatcheu, Andrew Wooten, (RW) Andrija Novakovich, Bobby Wood, Brian White, CJ Sapong, Dom Dwyer, Juan Agudelo, Teal Bunbury, Tom Barlow THE LUCKY +6 1. Tim Ream (LB, CB) 2. Owen Otasowie (DM, CB) - Olympic Eligible 3. Gyasi Zardes (FW) 4. Jesus Ferreira (FW, LW, RW, AM) - Olympic Eligible 5. Jeremy Ebobisse (FW) - Olympic Eligible 6. Keaton Parks (DM, CM) - Olympic Eligible