Yes, Arriola plays on the right wing for DC United. GGG asked him to play left, but he's a right footed player. That's where the comparison with Lewis fails.
Is it worth giving Arriola a look at Left Back? I think we have gotten enough looks to know that Arriola is not a good international level winger. He just doesn't have the quality. A decent depth option, late game defensive sub etc, but we are hopefully not starting Arriola at winger a few years down the road Arriola is my favorite DC United player. Great team guy, works his ass off, plays all over the place and is a fairly good MLS winger. But even at DC United, he has played some games at Outside Back (mostly Right Back) in favor of different options up front.
Without injury, I'd imagine this roster would have contained Brooks, Adams, Lleget, Sargent instead of Mihailovic, Lewis, Cannon and I'd bet, Omar. Maybe not a perfect 23, but can we stop acting as if this is even the 23 Berhalter wanted? Why is Mihailovic here? Because he was invited to camp as a young, rising 20 year old prospect then saw two players in front of him on the depth chart get hurt.
I see very few similarities, to be honest. Eddie struck a very clean ball and played tactically intelligently and stayed wide. Arriola drifts into the channel inside the other team’s wing back and does it more with speed and determination. He also is bigger on just keeping the ball moving than looking for an opportunity for the well-hit long ball/shot/cross which Lewis knew was his strength.
Arriola was a very clean player in Mexico. But he was about as predictable as it gets. Try and get to the end line w/ speed. In MLS he's expanded his game to be unpredictable, but that goes for himself too. He doesn't know what he's going to do before he receives the ball. That's I think why it often takes too long or bounces off his foot. I don't think anything about Europe is going to solve that this far into his life. His instincts are to be paint-by-numbers. Blame his Mexican club(s) in his formative years for that if anything. I like the idea of moving him back to fb, and entertained it myself. It would take advantage of his work-rate, speed, two-footedness, and crossing when he has a little time. It's insane to be playing such dross at lb as now.
Other thoughts - Steffens pretty clean, hopefully more reps with the ball at his feet will help him improve. Ream is a tweeter as a left back - maybe small and weak in the air for a center back, slow and low on attacking skills for a center back. Miazga played well but has a crucial lapse. Cannon is probably better than Lima. Rolland did well in that improvised role, though I thought it was an excessively defensive sub rather early. And Pulisic is so good that if the rest of the team manages to play the opponent pretty easily, he can turn losses into draws and draws into 2-goal wins. He and Wes have better habits and hustle of getting themselves into position than anyone else in the pool and it isn’t close.
You're not wrong about Arriola. He does a lot of great stuff. And I think people absolutely underestimate what his defensive work rate allows Pulisic to do. He can basically do what he wants in part because everyone knows Arriola won't. stop. running. But Arriola's not a great one on one player. He's not a great crosser or a great passer. And he's a well below-average finisher. He knows it. He's admitted it. He's got to work on that. Luckily for the US, we have a rich man's Arriola in the wings. Tim Weah is fast, has a high work rate, plays well in the two man game and makes FANTASTIC runs behind the defense. He's better than Arriola in the latter two and a bit worse in the former but pretty closer all around. He's also not a great crosser, one on one guy or finisher. But he's materially better than Arriola at all three, younger, and more likely to improve. Arriola's not terrible. But we are scoring when we have 1-2 competent finishers in the front four to five. Imagine if all of them are at least average.
Altidore looks like his weight has really ballooned. And he was slow in his reactions and slow in pace. He did have some solid hold up plays but also a couple of dangerous turnovers. The team appeared to have switched to more of a double pivot, with McKennie and Bradley, much closer together. Bradley was still a defensive turnstile, but the team had better attacking flow. This was McKennie's best match since the Portugal game. His passing from deep positions was quality. Both he and probably lost the ball too much in those deep positions, though. The Arriola-Pulsic interchange was excellent. Jamaica were forced to adjust, which opened up space on the right for the play that led to the 3rd goal. CP looked comfortable in running the game and leading the team. Zardes. !$@%$ The US were carved opened too easily in my opinion. But maybe the plan was to play loose, given Jamaica's horrible finishing. Mexico should provide more clarity. The pattern of play reminded of Bob Bradley's Run 'n Gun US.
I will raise my hand as one who thought we would lose after the display vs Curacao. First 15 minutes was great to see. Bit shaky after that. Have all the panty wringers chilled now that Altidore got a start? Hell, it was pretty obvious that Zardes was just a placeholder to provide a baseline and demonstrate the system (like Trapp) while everyone got up to speed (& Jozy got fit/healthy). Still a long way to go & much left to figure out (MF dynamics, Pulisic's best spot) and Berhalter still has not had the whole pool available at once (Brooks, Adams, Yedlin, Weah, etc). But promising to see some guys prove they are at least squad players and others who may push to start (Long, Arriola, Cannon, Boyd). Still, the best signs are that we have found a way to make Pulisic influential, found a way where Bradley/McKennie works in CM, and are getting Altidore integrated. Sprinkle in some more of the youbger guys (Weah, Sargent, + others) & the injured guys (Adams, Brooks, Yedlin) & I may start to be optimistic. FWIW, we could tie Mexico with 7 Gold Cups if we win. Overall CONCACAF Titles (Gold Cups/CONCACAF Championships): 1. Mexico = 10 (7/3). 2. USA = 6 (6/0). 3. Costa Rica = 3 (0/3) 4. Canada = 2 (1/1). 5. Haiti = 1 (0/1). 6. Guatemala = 1 (0/1). 7. Honduras = 1 (0/1).
Baird is positionally sound. Coaches love guys who follow instructions. Fast too and contributes on the offense. Looks like a good buy for somebody.
Sorry for the snark. The internet is a dangerous place to trust. The data teams are working with now is pretty crazy. It's a bummer so much of it is proprietary, but the movement elements in this sport ... it'd be really interesting to see what network modeling could do with it.
Zardes (despite last game heroics) has an annoying tendency to lean backward and sky his shots well over the bar. Not putting that golden opportunity on frame was criminal. Needs to stay over the ball. Needs to stay on the bench.
Their goal is basically the definition of didn't need to happen, Zardes swiped of possession, ball wide to Ream's man, crossed in to a guy Miazga isn't within yards of. Brooks and Miazga, to me, are better marking space than people. The further we get from people whose "defensive prowess" is standing in line and hoping the other team plays into that, the better.
Nick Lima on the left, please. When Ream has the ball, I get that same squeamish feeling as when Bocanegra handled the ball under pressure. Neither has a right foot. At least Bocanegra passed it forward (usually long, Route 1 passes that went to the opposition).
Pulisic has 19 G+A in 21 competitive matches for the US, with either all of them or nearly all of them coming as a CAM. He has tremendous freedom of movement in the slot he's in. He's dominating. Why are the vast majority still so insistent he be moved to wing? Is he going to average 2 G+A there?
I don't get the comments about about Arriola, especially those that wish him replaced (and, consequently, the entire front organization re-adjusted from its barely stable current condition). Just like I don't get the boringly repetitive criticisms of Michael Bradley. Right now, the team is in transition from an awful situation in which there were simply not enough adequate players. The team is in a different place, now. The last tryout for the Gold Cup final game was last night. After that, the tryouts for the next version of the national team begin. For most of the players, it is back to square one. That includes Arriola and Bradley. Berhalter's responsibility is to organize for future success, with a nod toward current success. Toward that end, he will be looking more or less closely at all the U-20s and some of the U-17s (e.g., Giovanni Reyna). The result will be a greatly expanded player pool, with Berhalter watching the newbies in person and via video, with an eye toward creating an invitation list for the next party. Also, as much as everyone wants to see Adams in the squad and successful, pigeon-holing him into the #6 position may not be the best for the team either now or in the future. That's a complete wait-and-see IMHO (including Berhalter's right side defender preference). Also, I loved Pomykal in the U-20s. His availability may change everyone's thinking. The point is USMNT player resources are starting to change very quickly. Berhalter has already shown his ability to put together a successful group (last night) that surprised almost everyone. I'm beginning to think that he will continue to do that with all the emerging young talent. The bottom line is that the next roster will, in all likelihood, have new, young guys in it and some of the current guys will be gone. I wouldn't be surprised if 50% or more of the game roster is new within 12 mo. I know speculation about the squad makeup based on current game performance is fun, but it has its limits.
The merging of video with GPS data is interesting. You could literally make a high quality computer game (FIFA 2018 or Pro Evolution, for example) replica for each match.