By his age, these things should be instinctual. Not sure how easy it is to pick up at this stage of his career. Lomg was one of the many confusing choices in 2019. There were the defensive midfielders who couldn't defend, the Roldan type 8/10 that I am not sure what they could do well, and the CB who can't play out of the back. If there was a player profile that Long met, it must have been very narrowly defined. He isn't good at much.
Depends on who we play. Most likely, Reyna moves wide & Morris sits. If it is a minnow, we don't need 3 CMs.
I am confused by that statement Are you talking about not needing a 4-3-X scheme with Weston, Adams, Musah against minnows like say Panama?
But I think that is the plan. Aggressively press the weaker teams into submission. We saw against Curacao in the GC, that playing passive just let them get comfortable and feel they could compete and they passed the ball around. No more of that. It will be physical and aggressive and every turnover a transition moment against an unbalanced team.
I was asking to see what recent evidence you were using to compare the two. I’ve only seen Miazga in the two US games. I was wondering if his club play had been better than those two games.
If Morris was in form at this time last year, he is not really in form now. He plays with the best player in the league (Lodeiro) so he will bumble into goals and assists when out of form. But Morris is either tired or going through a rough patch. Or it could be when you have a poor first touch that you are streaky. Against Canada, he takes the pass down and hits it 12 yards in front of him (not on purpose), but the Canada goalie panics and it turns into a goal. Last night, he is all alone in the box, goalie out of position, pass is to his chest perfect, and he somehow bundles the ball to the endline and lets this goalie get it. After 9 g+a over two months, he has 3 g+a in the next two.
If we are looking at a "second tier" European league for a player like McKenzie, my preferences are (in no great order) the Eredivisie, the EFL Championship, or Portugal. Outside of those leagues, Salzburg is good because it's in the Red Bull system. Besides those, I'm not really sure moving from MLS to a different Euro league outside of the Big 5 or those options I listed is really an upgrade.
We also have to remember that rotation will be a big factor with international windows, injuries, and travel. It's entirely possible that a window of, say, El Salvador home on Thursday and Mexico at the Azteca on Monday or Tuesday would see a central midfield with Reyna in the SLV match that would allow one of Musah, McKennie, or Adams to rest. Against a CONCACAF bunker, maybe McKennie can play the 6 to rest Adams, or Musah could rest. Obviously, you would then have your Musha/McKennie/Adams "best midfield" (if all commit and are healthy) with Reyna on the wing against Mexico. These are all decisions that Berhalter has to make in context, but I'm not nearly as worried about "who sits?" because rotation and the opponent could make that much less of a concern than we may think of it purely in a one-match vacuum.
McKenzie was just on a podcast saying he needs to work on his defense against crosses. So, the best place for him might be the Championship. I don't know if he can get a permit though.
Sounds like he needs a rest for his weary (banged up) bones. And I think the Covid vaccine got here not a moment too soon. Morris limped off the pitch yday b.t.w.
He could be one of the chosen ones next in line behind Acosta/Cannon. I think Euros are a little smarter than MLS gives them credit for though. I suspect Cannon would not have made it to Europe absent a new American owner for Boavista who has laid out the red carpet to Lille via Portugal. Reynolds probably would make it on his own as Euro scouts seem just as interested in USL these days. Get em younger? I can't say I ever got the McKenzie swooning but I'm game when it comes to getting him into some international football because he is said to be two footed and a ball playing cb which we need. Having said that, maybe Tessman would be the ball playing cb we could use when he gets more experience. Tessman impressed me with his concentration yday, besides his ball handling. He might be a good positioning partner for Adams. In that sense he resembles one of my faves, Delgado. Is McKenzie maybe EPB level (Austrian league)?
We saw that midfield could not advance the ball through a 4231 wales and something like that is what we will see v. Costa Rica, say (541 in Ticos' case). I think Berhalter suspected that might happen after scouting Wales which is why he played a 4th midfielder (Lletget) slyly calling him a "false 9" so he could play KDLF and Gio forward.
This is a grossly false take. There were able to advance through the middle third all game. The problem was trying to play the ball to the 2 centimeter windows the poor athleticism of Lletget and KDLF provide and Reyna who will at times simply stand stationary and beg for the ball at his feet. (It must be said that none of that trio has a killer final ball- but nonetheless, they were nearly unmitigated in getting to Wales’ third)
This is correct. The midfield dominated the Welsh and it was the poor play, mostly due to the game plan and deployment of personnel by Berhalter, in the final third that prrevented the midfield dominance to lead to scoring chances.
I would also add they didn’t have much time together to prepare and get comfortable with each other. The play in the final third was much better against Panama. Funny enough, we had more difficulty getting through the 2/3.
No, and considering the midfield had that same amount of time and looked so good is encouraging. I think the False 9 certainly helped with possession which was seen in the Panama game. Four midfielders (five with Reyna) certainly is better than 3 for keeping the ball. But there was little penetration against Wales and the bit of sacrifice in possession ability led to an explosion of offense. Wales was better than Panama too. But i think Panama played harder and more motivated.
I listened to a preview of the game in which Wales' set up was explained and Wales played us exactly they way they wanted to except our mids were good defending the Wales attack. Wales played exactly the way they wanted to in their own end. Two forwards can't take on a Welsh backline of 4 + 2 dmids. They need help from the 4 USA midfielders. b.t.w., per box score, Wales had 57 Duels Won to USA's 35 12 Tackles Won to USA's 6 9 fouls to USA's 17 I believe the "dominance" you are refering to is possession and pass completion. As I said, the Welsh game plan concedes that. I'm fine with the argument that we were playing for a 0-0 result. Maybe that is what we set out to do. I dont know. But to put a tag of "dominant" on it is just lipstick on a pig.
There were times that Musah or McKennie, and Adams once, made a third man run after the ball into Lletget from a CB. Much is made of the wingers running behind, but in January, much was done with these CM runs. Lletget is supposed to lay it off one time to the CM in stride who will blow by the CB that was pulled out. He didn't hit that pass once. Almost always dribbling and passing it back to the CB. Ferreira hit that pass quite a few times in January. It isn't the most revolutionary play. But it just shows that beyond Reyna and KDLF not filling space behind, Lletget didn't execute either. Can't really be surprised since he doesn't play there .
I wouldn't classify Panama as a minnow. They made the WC last time. But yes. A team that is just going to sit and bunker, you do not need 3 CM types. Play 4 up top. Play a more offensive oriented player at CAM (usually Reyna). All that ball winning and range in CM becomes unnecessary when we'll have the ball all the time anyway. Two 6-8 types is more than enough. Hell, against real minnows (Bahamas, etc), I'd consider playing a more offensive 8 (Aronsson, etc). Or, gasp, 2 forwards.
Yanks on BS got their wish today. Adams at the 6 for the 2nd half with only 2 cb's and their Turkish opponent just got a hat trick with 3 goals from the top of the Leipzig box (2 of them in 2nd half). Going into this game, the Turks had 3 goals total in 4 games and sat bottom of the table. they just doubled their total in one game.
We should, imo, always have a target forward on the roster. When we're playing bunker teams, we should have a 9 that can move and pass, certainly, but that guy should absolutely be a threat with his head. And, when we're playing teams that are probably better, we should have the aireal threat guy for if we go down a goal. I'd be overweighting Akinola and Soto right now, as they seem to be the up and comers that are best in the air. What about Hoppe? Could he get in the mix based on the search for a target? And, is Gyasi good enough in the air to play that role?
It seems like you are always looking for something that isn't there. I dont think I even mentioned Zimmerman in my post. As I have written in other threads, I have never rated Zimmerman but he supposedly had a good year. That should get him more looks but doesn't propel him past those who have established themselves. If he performs for the usmnt, then he can win the spot, but a season in MLS doesn't warrant that. As for Miazga, I have always rated him. He is more than two years younger than Zimmerman and was acknowledged as a top MLS defender a year before Zimmerman. He spent a half season training with Chelsea, a stint in the Netherlands where he was told he needed to improve on the ball to get on the field (and he did), a decent run in France where one poor game and a new coach ended his run, and growing role at Reading in over a year there. I have thought he should have been part of our pool since 2017 and would have been an upgrade over Gonzalez but didn't have the required long term relationship with Arena. He played well for the team in 2018, including some mistakes and a very strong outing vs France before suffering a head injury. Zimmerman started the GC in 2019, but by the end of the tournament, Miazga had won a starting spot. Miazga became a leader of the back line at Reading and is supposedly doing similarly with Aderlecht. He has improved steadily over the last four years in three different counties with three different styles of play but hasn't reached the high level we had all hoped. Zimmerman has been "let go" by two MLS teams and is now MLS defender of the year which isn't the biggest accolade out there. it puts him in the category of Besler, Opara, Gonzalez, Hedges, Marshal, Parkhurst, etc. Not quite what u would hope for in an improved USMNT.
I hate this idea that players can't play two games in a window. Top European clubs go months playing two games a week. I was told over and over from 2014 to 2016 about how fit our players were.