March 2023: Nations League. The Rebuild

Bit heavy on the midfields there. Number one priority is players who can score goals. Number two is on central defenders and cover at left-back.

 

So I'm guessing in March Slonina and Gomez will be with the U20s as part of U20 World Cup prep. I also think there's a good chance that some of the core guys who played in the World Cup may get March off (though I included them for now). The Gold Cup also has the issue that it runs into European preseason so we may lose some European guys for that reason. And I'm probably not looking at most the MLS vets for now, but they are still in the picture for the medium term. And not including Balogun unless he commits.

Some of this will depend on how guys show in January, but this is what I think we'll see in March (and also similar for the Nations League finals themselves)

GK: Turner, Steffen, Horvath
LB: Jedi, Tolkin
CB: Richards, Robinson, CCV, McKenzie
RB: Dest, Scally
DM: Adams, Acosta
CM: Musah, McKennie, Cardoso, LDLT, Pomykal
WF: Pulisic, Weah, Aaronson, Reyna, Zendejas
FW: Vazquez, Pepi, Sargent

For the Gold Cup (assuming a 26 man roster)

GK: Steffen, Callendar, Celentano
LB: Vines, Jones
CB: Trusty, Miazga, EPB, Kessler
RB: Cannon, Reynolds
DM: Sands, Flach, Morris
CM: Williamson, Parks, Booth, Mihailovic, Mendez
WF: Tillman, Ledezma, Sonora, Arriola
FW: Dike, Pefok, Ferreira

 

these are simply what i would do.

first, for the gold cup, man...its a bummer trying to go two deep in mls. this is a hand off camp, almost certainly the last time id use johnson, long, zim and roldan. you could add lennon or glad but...i mean, why? you could add jonathan lewis...anyways, like i said, this is what i would do.



and for the nations league, this is where i start the rebuild/refresh- theres room for a couple or three more, maybe another cm from jan camp, mihailovic depending on how he settles at alkmaar, gomez if hes ready to commit. richardson or balogun too, for that matter, but i dont think either of them are going to decide especially soon.

 

i dont think us considering richardson is going to be the problem

 

It's probably weird, but I really want to win Nations League again.

We only get so many actual competitions, and while I acknowledge that it and the Gold Cup will end up creating B team dynamics, I just want to hoard all the trophies.

That said, we should be able to get wins against El Salvador at home and Grenada on the road if the B team isn't too much of a B team.

ES has one game left and are sitting on five points (and Grenada has 1), so tying El Salvador is enough as long as we don't lose to Grenada by 2 goals (and maybe 3, depending on the score).

Losing to El Salvador puts them through, though.

 

I'm a big fan of the MMA midfield. Against strong teams that are our equals or superiors.

Against weaker teams, we should start looking at a midfield with Reyna. And where better to start than against Grenada and El Salvador.

That to me this is priority #1. There are actually two ways to do this. One is Reyna as a substitute for one of Musah/McKennie in the starting lineup. The other is MMA plus Reyna at the tip of a diamond. With Pulisc and Weah further up. I'm interested in both approaches. They are quite different.

In terms of integrating players who did not make the WC squad, the ones I'm most interested in bringing in (mostly in order of preference) are: Pepi, Tillman, Ledezma, Palmer-Brown. There are some others. But I'd start with those four. Balogun would obviously go to the top of the list if he decided to play for us.

 

I’m in the camp of maintaining MMA and putting Reyna at the tip of the diamond. Keep Pulisic and Weah on the wings. That is the recipe for getting our best players on the field together.

 

For me, there is one overarching priority.

Figure out how to fully integrate Gio Reyna into this team.

Nothing else matters for me. If Gio is healthy and engaged, he is our most important attacking player. A player of his ability will make so many other things work. I know we have other issues like striker and depth on the back line. But the time is now to figure out how Reyna best works in this team.

I'm with @The Clientele - some sort of 4-4-2ish setup with Reyna in the middle of the field gets our best players in their best positions. We have a gap at striker, two forwards in Pulisic and Weah who are better attacking vertically with someone behind them feeding the ball, fullbacks who can provide width, and central midfielders who are athletic and rangy.

To me, it seems tailor-made for a 4-4-2 diamond.

 

The players who grew up in Europe have a tough time getting up for the CONCACAF grind like this, so while I think a player like Tillman could be an important piece going forward, I'd be hesitant to try and integrate him in a competition like this. I'd try to emphasize friendlies and Copa America for this group. Otherwise you risk false negatives & casting them off on merit.

Now, if a guy like Balogun wants to 1-time switch, and starts out in this comp, so be it. But it's a factor you have to keep in mind.

Then, as far as the World Cup holdovers, I don't know if they'd get motivated much for this either, and you don't necessarily want to risk them.

So I'd make this into a nominally b+ roster. If we can't beat El Salvador at home w/out our a-lineup that's a sad state of affairs.

And anyway, what breaks down a bunker like El Salvador projects to play is a different lineup than we usually employ. Maybe this is where we start to unleash Gio in midfield & as a leader on-field. We re-invigorate and re-establish Pepi as the #1 striker potentially here. Finally integrate Scally. It's time for those 19-20 yr olds that we throttled back on for the WC to be unleashed at the beginning of this cycle.

Thinking of something like:

--------------------Pepi---------------------
--Sargent--------Gio---------Aaronson
Tolkin----Pomykal---Adams----Scally
--------Richards--McKenzie------------
----------------Turner----------------------

 

I appreciate the Nations League group phase because it gives us some road games. Always a bit of a challenge that our guys don't get at the Gold Cup, etc.

For the next matches against El Salvador/Grenada I take about 14 core USMNT guys and the other half newbies. Grenada comes first. Give some of the best young performers from the January camp/friendlies this game that matters. Ensure victory. Then play the senior guys against El Salvador in the final game. A game we must win or draw to advance.

Just for those that think Grenada is a pansy cupcake, they drew El Salvador at home. We've drawn against El Salvador both in the WCQing and the Nations League. They aren't an easy team to play.

[I don't really understand the comments about how this competition is a waste of time. We should take EVERY opportunity to play matches in this upcoming cycle. Without WCQing, these added games with actual meaning are important. Particularly for the young players.]

 

There may be reasons it might not work, but this makes so much sense!

We don’t currently have a 9 who warrants leaving Reyna off the field. Maybe one of them develops, but I’d currently leave Jesus and Pepi on the bench for serious international competition.

 

I get it's Argentina and they have a bunch of talent, but I thought Scaloni really did a good job building from a base setup and adjusting things really well. That's exactly what an international manager should be doing. He did very well getting his dangerous players like Di Maria and Messi into good attacking positions the entire tournament. Yes, I know we are talking about the greatest player of all time and another veteran attacker who has been elite for many years. However, the coach still did a fantastic job pulling the right strings, which was impressive given his inexperience as a head coach.

I know I've written about this before, but whoever the next US coach is needs to take a page from Scaloni's playbook. Build from a base setup, but have enough tactical flexibility to account for the opponent, standard rotation, injuries/suspensions, etc. I know international windows are tight, and we may not be able to do all of these. But in a perfect world, I'd have the following setups handy.

• The England setup with MMA and then setting up in a 4-4-2 defensively. This would probably be the setup without a traditional #10
• More of a standard 4-4-2 with either Reyna or Pulisic underneath a holdup striker.
• 4-2-3-1 with Reyna in the middle.
• 4-4-2 diamond or a false 9 4-3-3 with Reyna in the CAM role.
• MAYBE a 3-4-1-2 as a wrinkle or when we want to put an additional defender on while still keeping our ability to hit on the break.

What we really don't have is a traditional striker to lead the line. I hope someone steps into that role in the next four years, but that kind of player doesn't exactly grow on trees. What we DO have as a strength is more of the classic #10. Reyna is obviously at the top of that list, but I see Ferriera much more as a 10 than as any sort of 9. I'd even say Sargent is more of a 10/false 9 than a true scoring striker. I also think there are some players coming up through the U20 ranks that could also provide that type of depth (Paxton Aaronson, for one). We also need to look at France to see how they utilized Griezmann. That's how I'd like to see Reyna utilized for the US. Griezmann took on a very different role for France than he did for Athletico and excelled (I'm really going out on a limb here by saying Deschamps is using Griezmann's strengths better than Simone has. ). I don't see why we can't do similar things with our best players.

So while we should have a Pefok or Dike-style striker when we need to say "(blank) it, pump crosses into the mixer", we need to understand our player pool strengths and work toward those. We have good central midfielders, wingers that are best running vertical and getting defenders on their heels (Pulisic, Weah, B. Aaronson), strength at the "classic" 10, fullbacks that can provide width, and a weakness at striker. Build the attack around these items. If we somehow get a more-than-competent striker, then start to integrate that into the attack more.

 

Reyna needs to be incorporated back in, but in reading your post and your previous one (your only priority is essentially making Reyna the center of the offense), I do think there's a difference in the ratings of players between you and many other folks, including the coaching staff.

For one, even before the tournament, I had concerns about making a 20 year old with limited play (and zero national team starts) in the last 15 months the absolute centerpiece of the offense on a team with Pulisic. I think activities at the World Cup vindicated that; Reyna clearly doesn't have the maturity yet to lead this team even in an on field capacity.

Going forward, planning for 2026, there should be an attempt to incorporate him, and there should be some attempt to find a wider range of approaches, the latter being a need independent of Reyna.

But he has to earn that place at the center you want to gift him right after he endangered our whole world cup. He has to stay healthy, he has to play well, it can't be about him. We have four years to do it while I'm not suggesting he's sitting on the bench, I'm also not building my plan entirely around him like Argentina built around Messi. Forget the immaturity even; he's not proven he deserves to be a solo focal point on the field in place of others yet. Should we give him the opportunity to show it? Sure. But give it? No.

Which gets me to evaluations. Pulisic is a better overall player right now, and I'm not building a set up that shoves him aside in importance for Reyna based on potential. They are going to need to work together.

I'll also note that only 50% of your formations are MMA capable. That's fine; rotation and flexibility are good. But given your other comments, I again think people are ignoring a lot of the value that McKennie and Musah bring or are even allowing for development, especially of Musah.

I'll also note that in some of these -- like a 442 diamond in a very direct game -- Brenden Aaronson might actually be a better choice than Reyna!

Perhaps you meant all that. Perhaps I am reading too much into the prior post. But we played Reyna a lot before his injury and while he was very good at time, it did not solve all our offensive problems. So the one thing we didn't try became the bogey -- the pure 10. At first it was just the 10 ... but when Aaronson was meh there it became Reyna at the 10.

There's a lot going on with the offensive set up that should take some tinkering. Reyna is uber talented and by 2026 there's a good chance he is our offensive hub or at least sharing it. But for motivational reasons, for team management reasons and because it's not certain, the next coach needs to build to what exists now in terms of performance, IMO.

And to someone else's point, we need to be careful not to build for CONCACAF opponents too much.

Even with the talent upgrade of replacing strikers with Weah/Pulisic or Reyna as a false 10 ... I think we will miss a striker in terms of scoring, especially against better teams.

Weah's a good finisher in open space, and Pulisic makes some fantastic back post runs. But neither is much of a scorer and neither is the type to make the movement needed to beat CBs or move them around in the box once the defense is set. We have a team full of trailing runners but for those to work, the defenders need to be occupied. This is a situation where a warm, moving body can actually be valuable.

You can't give up on it because a striker makes Pulisic's back post runs work. A striker makes Weah's "Man City" runs to the baseline and cut back to a trailer work. That space isn't open without someone making a run.

Who's making that run in a 442 with Pulisic and Weah up top? With Reyna as a false 9? Reyna sure as heck won't; Weah and Pulisic shouldn't be; they have other roles in that movement.

I think a 442 diamond would be a very strong counter-attacking set up for us. I think we might beat up on some bad teams in possession. I think against a good team the 10 gets marked the hell out of existence and even if we pull an overload wide, we're sending something into the box for maybe a back run Tim Weah without a real striker out there.

It's not to say all of this can't work. I think a lot of stuff should be tried with four years. Though we will see it go quick if people can't quite cotton to it.

But I think people are overly dismissive of the value of a proper striker. False 9s can work. Speedy dual 9s can work (bigger two striker systems can, too, but we haven't been talking that). But they have weaknesses. False 9s only work against set defense if the 9 pulls out the centerbacks. Speedy dual 9s are great in transition but tend to struggle against set defenses because they can't bang and in small spaces the speed isn't helpful.

 

A complementary part of this is figuring out how to keep very good players happy in bench roles.

 

even with Sargent and/or Dike,
or other CFs,
we need to evolve, into a better attacking system and style of play.
no more 100 crosses.

either the wing needs to hold and wait for the midfield,
or stop going too wide, where they need to do so.

combination play towards the middle of the field, would b great also.

id like to see lots of different combinations of players and formations.

examples
..........Sargent - Dike
Pulisic........Reyna........Aaronson
..................Adams
FB.......CB............CB.......FB

.................Dike
Pulisic......Reyna......Musah
.......Weston - Adams
FB.......CB.........CB.......FB

it can be any players.

would like to see a 3421,
but, thats a more difficult system to implement.
plus, we dont have the CBs atm.

lets get weird too :
..........Sargent Dike
..........Reyna Aaronson
..........Adams Musah
FB.......CB.........CB.......FB

 

What I would do in March

GK: Steffen, Cohen, Celentano
LB: Tolkin, Vines
RB: Scally, Reynolds, Jones
CB: Richards, Robinson, McKenzie, Trusty, CCV
DM: Acosta, Morris
CM: Booth, Williamson, LDLT, Pomykal, Tillman
WF: Zendejas, Reyna, Paredes, Fagundez
FW: Vazquez, Pepi, Dike

I’m also leaving most of the U20s off to prep for the U20 World Cup.

Others in consideration: Cannon, Miazga, EPB, Kessler, Cardoso, Parks, Busio, Tessmann, Sonora, Mihailovic, Mendez, Wright, Ferreira, Ebobisse, Pefok, and Balogun (if he’s willing to commit he’s an automatic call up).

Turner, Horvath, Dest, Jedi, Zimmerman, Ream, Adams, Musah, McKennie, Pulisic, Weah, Aaronson, and Sargent all being given a rest. Very much in expanding the pool and giving core guys some time off mode for March.

And then I would pick the best team available to me for the Nations League finals and use the pool of whoever is leftover for the Gold Cup.

 

I think a "B+" team is appropriate here.

Play El Salvador with a total "casting a net" group at your own risk. We'll probably only need a draw to advance ahead of them, but still.

A reminder, Grenada ain't trash. El Salvador drew with them on the road.

So I think it'll be half "A" team and half "casting a net."

Of course, a new coach may have totally different ideas. He may wish to assemble our "best possible team."

 

If we have a new coach, it should be whatever the new coach wants. But presumably mostly the A team and then probably a few guys that perhaps he's identified in the pool.

 

I agree 100%. The nations league will not provide the environment for us to get games that matter. We have to push hard for an alternative.

 

You can already see an effort towards a more complete plan.

1. Get into Copa America for this cycle. And in the long run, I'm sure there's thinking of a path to a more regular joint North and South American tournament.
2. Hopefully, we're trying to pull a Qatar with UEFA qualifying.
3. I'd look to try and either combine Nations Leagues at least at the knockout level.

CONCACAF isn't getting rid of Nations League, because it is the only competition for lower level countries of any quantity. The whole problem was that these smaller feds would literally have a game or two of early WCQ every four years and that's it. Get eliminated and not play again for a cycle.

That's what Nations League does -- guarantee 4 competitive games every two years to every team, and then give every team a shot at the Gold Cup. Smaller teams are going from basically 1-2 guaranteed competitive games a cycle to 10. That's huge for them.

So the best you can probably do is to combine it where it makes sense. At most, that's A league, but it's far more likely that instead of having a four team final, why not do 8 teams, mix and match with a federation, and have a slightly longer final set up?

 

But that would involve USSF actually doing something above and beyond the bare minimum, which we’ve never seen the organization do.