The problem of "holding and passing" vs. Barbados was that ... you know, the options were behind the play. I mean, Luciano Spalletti can play a 4-6-0 but he has half a dozen guys making mad dashes forward on each possession. Bob just does his keep-away, where the logical outcome is not scoring because you keep moving the ball around to your team mates who are further from the goal.
I actually liked the idea of possessing the ball deep and making runs out of the midfield to get through balls at attacking feet heading to goal. The execution just wasn't there. Now if you have EJ (don't laugh), Landon and Dempsey making those runs from deep instead of Pearce, Klestjan, etc; and Edu or an in-form Feilhaber playing those through balls along with Adu, I think this becomes a decent way to break down a bunker.
Now you've thrown gas on the fire I have a bigger problem than that with Beasley. When is the last time he's done anything? I think he's lazy, only an average dribbler, average passer and horrible at crossing to anybody on our team. He has a hard shot but most go into row 30. And finally, why is he an automatic? The reason he doesn't put out 1/2 the time is because he knows he'll still start next time out. If BB or the next coach ever wants to get anything from these guys they have to know that today's performance will dictate if they get to play tomorrow. Guys like Beasley an Dempsey need a serious wake up call to lite a fire under their butts. I just don't think BB has the nads to ever sit the automatics down for lack of effort. And that includes a poor outing by sunny boy too
But a much easier way is to have a holding forward and fast wings who play fast and can cross. If you're going without forwards, youll need some top level attacking mids and where is the US going to get those?
Totally fair point. I guess Landon, Freddy, Clint and Beas / Lewis (hard to believe he's in the mix, but he is). They're the best we've got. Edu and Feilhaber holding. Not saying it's without flaw, but an interesting idea. We haven't been getting anything out of our forwards, why not try something new? Didn't work, but I respect the attempt.