-------------------------------Pulisic----------- ----------------Weah------------------------Morris------- ----------------------Reyna------McKennie------ ------------------------------Adams---- -------Jedi----------------------------------------------Dest--- -------------------Zimmerman----Robinson---- ------------------------------Turner----
The problem with Pulisic starting is two-fold: 1) as far as I can tell, we have no one else who is proven to come off the bench and be a threat to score; 1) he gets injured all the time. Maybe I'm wrong about the first point, but if we don't have another off-the-bench scoring threat, and he is always starting instead of coming off the bench, we will always be a weak team if we're behind in the second half because we have no one else we can be sure can provide some real offense. On the second point:suppose Pulisic as starter always does a great job. But then he gets injured. How does Gregg quickly reconfigure a starting squad which can successfully compete? If the entire team concept is built around just one guy, maybe he can't. If Pulisic is kept as a sub, which is what I think should be done, we know we'll always a scoring threat off the bench, and it reduces his chances of injury. Trick, of course, is to come up with a good starting squad which can score without Pulisic not on the field.
maybe it can help to ignore the injury part? who do you consider scoring threats? pulisic, reyna, pepi and weah roughly in that order. mckennie as well, though thats not his primary function (cbs would somewhere behind). you arent going to play cbs based on scoring prowess, nor does starting mckennie greatly rely on goals. do you go with a more well rounded starting st to maximize pepi against fresh legs? one of weah or reyna will most likely be off the bench on any given night, but i dont think i assign either as the offensive "supersub". for me i just deal with the injuries as they come up. pulisics our best player. adams is irreplaceable, mckennie is a game changer but ultimately pulisic is the guy. i think that as we get the team more and more built out the best option is to find a "starting" striker and have pepi as that offensive spark off the bench. the simplest way i can put it is he brings the least to the team as a whole of any of those scoring options in comparison to alternatives at their respective positions. i wouldnt keep gio or weah on the bench simply to bring them off, you know? so start a zardes, or dike or whoever- relying on those varied threats around them to provide scoring while having a consistent threat in reserve.
pulisic reyna weah mckennie adams musah arob/scally brooks/zimm mrob dest steffen c’mon guys this isn’t hard
A bit surprised to see Morris back in the starting lineup. Are you projecting a quick return to form and fitness? What are your thoughts on Musah? Personally, I see Musah 100% in the starting eleven...
Agreed. I believe that 90% of top coaches who know the pool would find a way to use that group together.
If Pulisic and/or Reyna start, then Weah probably doesn't.......................and there's our scorer off the bench. Aaronson too, who can make things happen. I'm not convinced Reyna is going to be a starter in January, though. He's gotta prove he's back. Reyna hasn't played in forever, and people have him out of position as a false 9 in a lineup for January WCQers. It doesn't really make sense to me, but whatever. I think Berhalter really likes what Pepi is doing, even if the goals weren't there in the last window. We just beat Mexico rather convincingly at home. I don't think Berhalter veers too far away from that general strategy against El Salvador. I don't really understand the rush to boot Pepi from the XI. As I've said, this whole "Best XI" talk is pretty meaningless in these 3-game windows. In these windows, it's how we spread the pool to give ourselves a great chance to win all three games. And that probably means NOT starting your Best XI every game. So keep the same general lineup we used against Mexico for the El Salvador game. Then maybe Pulisic and Reyna start against Canada in the 2nd game.
I think the front five of Pulisic, Reyna, Weah, Wes, and Musah can all start and can work effectively on both sides of the ball, with Reyna at a false 9 in a 4-3-3 (or 10 in a 4-1-3-2). That is not really a difficult proposition for a coach willing to fashion tactics and strategy around his talent (rather than vice versa). It controls the middle of the pitch. Weah provides width on one side and ARob or Scally on the other. Add Dest to the middle attack and it looks like a potent one — all players that can p,at fast, are good in combination play, and includes a few long range shooters in Weah and Reyna. They all can press well, except perhaps Reyna. Wes, Musah and your FBs all can handle the defensive transition, with Adams behind. I say “why not”?
That was more in terms of the World Cup. I'd like to see Morris skip the January camp to focus on a normal off season. He can then get back with the NT in March. At this point, Musah is a rotational starter. He gets little playing with his club and is only 18. With the NT, his performances have noticeably dropped off on the second starts of windows.
All at once? Why do you believe that? I look out at a TON of top coaches across much more loaded club teams, and I can't think of many examples of coaches putting players in unfamiliar or unfitting positions just to get all the talent on the field. Especially not to force offensive talent. I mean, look at Tuchel. He sends a ton of players to the bench when there's no fit or spot for them. If anything, most top coaches seem hyperaware of what a player can't and can do, who fits in what role, etc. It's not unusual for a top player to be sidelined for a long time because they don't fit the coach's system, etc.
It appears we disagree over whether the middle of the front line is “ unfamiliar or unfitting“ for Reyna, CP or Weah.
Do you think playing a striker or false 9 is familiar to Reyna? He has the skills for a false 9 but has never played it; he did play straight striker a lot in the NYCFC academy but it's been a while. If it is a false 9, that has cascading tactical considerations for every player on the roster, Weah and Pulisic included. This is entire thread seems to be full of people filling out their FIFA FUT lineup. Which, whatever. But I think people actually think ACTUAL coaches do that, and I really don't see that anywhere.
I reject your derision in that last remark. I think we do best with those 5 in the attack. You disagree. I can respect that.
As far as I can tell, Berhalter has used a "false 9" twice. Once with Ferreira against a truly horrible T&T team. [Although Ferreira was playing that position tactically, he's a forward.] And of course the Lletget experiment against Wales. I see no evidence whatsoever that Berhalter is going to use Reyna as a false nine. None. Zero. Zilch. So this is the BigSoccer intelligentsia going down a rabbit hole that isn't there. I get it. Its folks trying to get who they believe are our 11 best players on the field at the same time. But its just a fad. We don't have to go too far back in this thread to see the short-lived fad of everybody deciding that Sergino Dest should be our right winger. At least Barcalona played him there............................ Now we have the inventor of that fad posting a lineup above with Jordan Morris as the right wing. So that was short-lived.
reyna played as our primary st in some youth tournament, and its the only time at any level he hasnt looked really good to me.
Was he dropping deep to get behind the wings? I suspect he’d be very good at creating from that position. But if we must play some other CF, put Reyna at the 8 and please god keep Weah out right.
I mean instead of playing Reyna as a false nine just go with a 4-4-2 diamond where he's a ten or a 4-2-3-1 where he's a ten.
Berhalter generally likes to play with a ball-playing center forward whom the wide forwards run beyond. Call that central player a false 9, a trequatista, or whatever. It doesn't matter. The role does. He also appears to be a huge fan of Pep, so the wasting of a cap on Lletget at false-9 was not completely decipherable. But given there are now more suitable candidates, I'd be surprised if Reyna were given a runout at striker, especially as he has transitioned to central midfield. Pulisic, on the other hand, looks to be transitioning to striker. Or at least he looks to be quite capable there.
I'm way past the Best XI thing now. For me, I see the situation much more about these players being the best midfielders and forwards and then figuring out how to best utilize them given rotation, tactics, etc. Pulisic Reyna Weah Aaronson Pepi Musah McKennie Adams So you have eight players for six slots. How do you rotate those eight players so you have six of them on the field and two of them as subs? To @IndividualEleven 's idea, I think if you are looking at the false 9/charging winger idea, then the best combination is Reyna at the 9 with two of Pulisic, Aaronson, and Weah as the wingers. I'd like to see that at some point.
If you incude Sargent, you can have a pressing line of Aaronson, Weah, Sargent, with Pepi added in the middle and with 2 dmids who cover ground in Adams and Musah. At the half you can add Reyna, Pulisic and take out whomever needs to be taken out.
----------------weah ---aaronson---------sarge --scally------pepi-----dest --------adams--musah -----miles--------------zim Musah has to grow up in a hurry, 2nd half -----------------------pepi---- ---------pulisic-----reyna-----x (winger or cb (y) to push Adams or Musah, fb's in attack ---------------adams--musah ---scally---miles-----y------zim-----dest
I just see Reyna to be part of the central midfield rotation. 8/10s: Reyna, McKennie, Musah, Busio 6s: Adams, Acosta
When I think of Reyna as a false 9, I think of him more as the tip of a 4-4-2 diamond. Like you, I think he's more of a central midfielder, but I could possibly see him as a winger when we go full MMA in the midfield and we still want more of a poacher-type striker. I think, at the present time, Busio is more of a fringe bench option or a possible option if we decide to go with a full DLP against lesser opponents.
............................sometimes the efforts of folks to get our "best XI" players on the field at the same time actually produces an inferior team. And of course its all a paper exercise anyway. The "best XI" are rarely available at the same time. Just like in the last window Dest and Reyna weren't available. So you need a deep roster of guys, all of whom can play at this level. In these 3-game windows, we may not want to start our "best XI" together anyway. Indeed or stay with the 4-2-3-1 and move Weah up top. I would even argue that putting Pulisic up top makes more sense than playing Reyna as a false 9. The fact is that Reyna as a false 9 seems like a move we'd make if we don't have any forwards whatsoever. Sort of a desperation move. We're not in that position. Whta exactly about our performance against Mexico recently makes people think we need to overhaul everything? I don't know. What I do know is that Reyna has been out a long time, and I'm not sure he starts for us in January regardless.