Sorry, that’s not what i meant. What i meant is that calling in Euros might harm their club careers in the short term. That won’t happen with MLSers. Dest didn’t start today. Maybe he would have if he hadn’t played against Uruguay.
Thanks for the clarification and I think it’s an important consideration. On the other hand, that Why I looked at all of the games under Gregg and the MLS representation is remarkably consistent across them all and that shouldn’t be the case if it was simply allowing players to settle in imo.
What this doesnt show is that bench even more concentrated toward MLS players and DNPs are even worse. This highlights that unless Berhalter thinks a player is an automatic starter, they dont get a chance to fight for a spot. Meanwhile, Trapp, Lovitz, Baird, etc keep getting to play.
I don’t think it’s a fair assessment to say that I narrowly chose one area when I provided a lot of data broadly and then drilled down on one area as an example! In midfield, a key point is that Trapp/Bradley certainly have received too many minutes and I think that the concept that we play a system that only two average-at-best-at-the-MLS-level players can man is in itself an MLS preference. In other words, the alternative is that our coach really thinks that that’s the right strategy and those are the right guys. I’m going with ulterior motive of pleasing-the-guys-who-can-fire-me over incompetence as the latter is too scary for me to swallow. Wrt CM specifically, I’ll leave it to your wife to point things out that embarrass you as that’s not my intent here. Who are alternatives other than Morales (who is enough IMO?) Maybe getting Williams some time would have helped him get a club team earlier as he looked good the prior year for the USMNT? Next, where’s the harm in looking at Mix? Since defense doesn’t mean shit at that position, what about Green? None of those guys are ones I bang the table for but given that none of the guys we gave 70% of the minutes to looked the part, I’d search broadly. C’mon I doubt any of them could be much worse than Trapp has shown.
That is roughly 9 MLS players in the 40 players I would be focusing on. roughly 25%. If I were picking the 23, I'd think roughly 25% would be how it falls out as well. --------------------------Altidore/Wood-------------------------------- Weah/Arriola---------------Sargent/Morris--------------------- ---------Pulisic/Green-----------Mckennie/Holmes----------- --------------------------Adams/Morales------------------------------ Dest/FJ--Brook/CCV--Miazga/Alvarado--DY/Cannon -----------------------Steffen/Horvath/#3--------------------------- whoops... I forgot Lletget, who might be in my 40 and might replace Green in the 23. If so, that makes it Arriola, Morris, Lletget, Cannon, and Guzan/Gonzalez. I will round 5 out of 23 to 22% and 1 out 11 to 9%. If there wasnt this bias for MLS players and we were just selecting the best and highest potential players, the number of MLS minutes would likely be in the lower end of that range 9% and 22% which is more than a third lower than 59% number. The injuries to Brooks, Adam's and Yedlin might help a little bit, but not much as Morales would have stepped in at the 6 and would probably move FJ over to the right and let him split time with Cannon.
This is 100 percent a strawman. People aren't complaining about those two not getting a shot. They are complaining about Sargent being left out of the U-20 World Cup and Gold Cup this past summer. They are complaining about 23-28 year old MLSers getting tons of looks even though that generation of players couldn't qualify for two straight Olympics and a World Cup. The biggest problem with Berhalter IMO, is that he's trying to make some people regulars who have no business being regulars. You want to trot out Wil Trapp against T&T? That's fine. Don't make him a captain. And don't let him play against Mexico.
You might be right. Maybe GGG plays a regista because he thinks he must have Bradley and/or Trapp out there. But it might be the other way around. Both of us are just guessing, really, but my assumption is that before GGG got the job he and Earnie discussed tactics. 1. How’s about we ask your wife? (What, you expect me to pass up that tap in? No ********ing way! I’m a weak man) 2. Williams is the shadow that was nagging at me but i couldn’t name. Good call.
My wife will pull out a infinite magic scroll of embarrassing factoid that’s i’ve said/done. I know because it happens frequently.
I know you have a weak hand here in our back-and-forth as you’ve already admitted that you agree that the Trapp/Bradley as regista is a dumb experiment. Is it incompetence or intent? Giving the decision makers what they want isn’t dumb....
Maybe I’m nitpicking, but i think there are 2 separate things here. IMO, playing this style is dumb. But if we’re going to play this style, Bradley is a good choice for the role. The dumb experiment, to me, is the style, not the player selection.
I certainly agree that it’s stupid and will add that I think it’s an MLS preference that lead to it. Im mean, who would switch everything in order to build around two guys who aren’t elite even by MLS standards. Secondly, how do we know if the player selection is any good as every game bar one has seen Bradley/Trapp in the center of the field. If Yueill could look similar to them (and I thought he looked meh but that’s what I think about those other two at best), other (better) players should be given a couple shots at the regista.
I don't mind this at all. I do believe, however, that there are far more legitimate reasons for debate with some of these players than there is for Trapp and Bradley. It also highlights our weakness at left back. You have penciled in Dest huge upside but still unproven as a defender (very good going foward and with the ball but shown to be still working on his defending) and FJ (has been excellent for us in the past at LB but now almost 32. Both could turn out to be great choices going forward into the WC but we don't have too much behind them (A. Robinson perhaps but he is similar to Dest in many ways). Yedlin, Adams and Brooks, of course have had injury issues that all will hopefully get past bu until they do that right back spot is a bit thinner (If FJ plays there than what do you do for a LB that is a bit stronger defensively. I hope this doesn't sound like a criticism...it's not meant that way. I think the lineup really isn't too bad but it raises some questions. I also believe that there are some legitimate arguments for a few others as well and also that it highlights some of our real weaknesses right now: we have had some of our better players out due to injury Adams, Brooks, Yedlin, (Holmes too If I remember correctly) to mention a few and we have a number of top prospects that really haven't reached what we hope is their potential....Weah, Sargent, Dest, and probably Cannon to name four that you have listed (in addition to quite a few others that aren't even on the list).
Yes,, I am biased toward potential since we have holes and having seen what the players Arena and Berhalter have used. Each of those young arent near their potential, but have looked like they belong at this level. We arent that deep at a number of positions. We also have many players that can play multiple positions that I wouldnt always go to the back up if the starter goes down. I think Brooks, Yedlin and Adam's are still injured. I'd replace Brooks and Yedlin with Long and Robinson. With Adam's absence, I would start Morales and plan on moving Mckennie back if Morales couldnt go and replace Adam's with a more attack minded player. Since it is early in the cycle and we are still trying to build depth, I'd call in an extra 3 to 5 players. I'd likely look to u23 guys who look like they could be in the picture in the next couple of years. I'd bring an extra CB in case we arent comfortable at LB and play with a CB out wide. Probably Robinson, but would consider rotating in Richard's. I'd call in at least two of Pomykal, Medez, and Ledezma and one of Gall or Gooch. Yeah, there are questions. We've never not had questions. The problem we've had under Arena and Berhalter is trying to solve them with mature players who arent good enough.
I think the big difference now is that the answers to those questions seem a bit better than they are in the past. Also, we have never in my memory had so many players to replace at the same time. Not even close. the sheer volume necessary to replace increases the uncertainty. The youngsters aren't necessarily ready for prime time but enough should come good that our questions will probably be a bit different going forward.
its really the dumbest idea I've ever heard of. 1)the january camp is going to have the fewest players that would make the world cup roster of any camp all year(if they qualify) 2)these same players want to get comfortable in Qatar? they need to get comfortable with concacaf conditions first and then they can worry about Qatar. 3)also the jan camp is notorious for having players out of shape and is a terrible camp anyway...what is it going to prove? that a terrible camp in brutal conditions can be terribly brutal?
It feels like a set up, following the same talking points we've heard all year about Berhalter's rosters: "well, we had to take a heavy MLS contingent because they're the one's most familiar with traveling to / playing in Qatar."
It's not quite the same thing as minutes played but here's the roster breakdown: MLS: 18 (69%) Major League: 5 (19%) Other: 3 (12%) I'm not sure how consistency of data doesn't cause pro-Berhalter posters to acknowledge that there's a clear preference here. It's black and white. this is depressing.
So what do you think of this latest roster wrt MLS bias? Nothing to see here where almost 70% of the roster is MLS (consistent with every other camp under Gregg)? Too early to tell? Totally justifiable?
Was nothing to see here a year ago......still nothing to see her a month as go and today it's still nothing to see here.
As far as I am concerned anyone who is ok with this roster is an idiot or just not a fan of the team. The responses on the usmnt twitter are not pretty and actually quite amusing. It is worth a look.
It's pathetic that Berhalter continues to cling to a Camp Cupcake core of terrible players, especially considering the fact that he's clinging to a core of players caught by the wide, domestic-only net cast in Cupcake, as opposed to players who have done well in a tournament setting. To put it another way, if we'd won the GC and looked good doing it, I could see being loyal to some standouts from that roster. Instead, he's loyal to Columbus Crew players and guys who looked awful.l in the GC, even in limited minutes. What's even more damning is the fact that he's called up a roster that is weighed down by a giant segment of putrid players. Guzan, Lovitz, Trapp, Bradley, Baird, and Zardes are all awful callups, as per Berhalter's MO with his MLS guys. Of the few European-based players, Boyd's callup is pretty inexplicable considering his form, so I'm not sure he should be here either. That's 6-7 guys that don't belong, 1/4th the roster, of dead weight that are stealing opportunities from our younger MLS and European-based players. Evidence has piled up to suggest that Berhalter can't implement his ideas. Evidence is strongly indicating that he can't make a good roster, either.
The USSF and GB need to feel the anger somehow. It's not going to come from the US soccer media, who are either afraid to lose access, or MLS shills who love a team of MLS players, no matter if another Cuova is guaranteed.