I guess I just haven’t seen a big change in Lletget’s play. To me, he is not a guy who consistently gets on the ball and makes things happen. I view him as someone who is general cautious on the ball, but who picks his spots reasonably well, and does a good job of getting into dangerous areas in and around the box. This is why he goes for large chunks of games without making a big impact, but then pops up with a goal or assist. I wish he was more consistent in his impact, but I also appreciate that he doesn’t turn the ball over a lot.
What we're seeing with Greggg and Lletget is the soccer equivalent of a baseball manager playing a guy a lot because he is hot due to a high BABIP. At some point the bloopers stop falling and you are left with nothing.
re 352 curious if the GB fanboys consider this is completely results oriented -- a way to milk his mis-selected B team -- that poorly fits his "wingbacks plus reyna and pulisic" A team personnel and tactics. now, to be fair, I would be open to 352 if he swapped out his whole A team backline and moved reyna and pulisic inside to solidify the defense and clear the wings for the wing talent. but as-is, what's the use? we harp on system. this is not a system that fits what the A team has done so far. i wouldn't mind if we sometimes went results-oriented on the kids, who are not imminent senior team players. but i don't get spending this tournament with senior players playing anything but what they will play for him. their goal is not "make the pool," it's play in WCQ. surely he knows what that is going to be. now, to be fair, i think his 433 is silly too and don't like his personnel choices, but if that's the idea then you need to start over, blow it up, create a 352 team or whatever. but that should have begun the summer. doubt that's happening because he's cycled through about 3-4 formations this summer. which is kind of funny when people are like, we need to drill and work on chemistry for the fall. but my point is we're like neither bedding in the 433 nor bedding in something else, and the formation we're now trying doesn't even fit his pigeonholing of the first choice. i don't get it other than "let's get through the rounds here." which is the least of my concerns in using such tournaments. to me if you have the personnel and the tactics then the rounds take care of themselves.
We created chances before Zimmerman went out. The chances would come as they came in the previous game, a combination of the fullbacks and center mids playing through. It's not a hyper aggressive offensive approach, but it's clear from the line-up Berhalter was not trying to win this 4-0 or something. Once we started pulling guys back to help out the defense, we gave up on the midfield. A better option might have been then at some point to pull a striker; it'd have been an interesting press conference to understand why not. This game was a bit of a microcosm of why I don't love 3-5-2s period, or whatever Berhalter wants to call what we set up in -- one could argue it was more of our original 3-2-2-3 pre-Zimmerman injury and TSS called it a 4-4-2 diamond after (maybe? The passing map is odd...). But using wingbacks means that the instant you get on the back foot, it's easy to get stuck in a 5 ATB, which is what happened over time. And while I do think we have some 2 striker combos that can play 2 strikers well, Zardes-Dike isn't one, and Dike was terrible at being a target man despite historically showing promise. So there are tactical questions ... but there's also some poor player performance.
A few thoughts: Other than pairing Dike and Zardes together at forward, I was pretty happy with the starting lineup. I especially liked how Berhalter used Sands and would like to see it as an option going forward whenever it makes tactical sense. Sands has probably earned the chance to be part of the broader group given his quality and positional flexibility. You saw the athletic limitations of Busio tonight. I've been complimentary of him, with the caveat that his ceiling is going to be determined by how much he can continue to improve his athleticism or find ways to mitigate the limitation. Thought the Zimmerman injury really hurt our chances and don't think Pines belongs anywhere near our A-D squads. I agree with the uncoordinated giraffe description. If you're going to play midfielders with athletic limitations like Busio or Yueill, you cannot pair them with other athletically limited players like Lletget. It wasn't the only factor but it contributed to us losing the middle of the field. Similarly, if you're getting overwhelmed in the midfield and second to every loose ball, you need to consider subbing in a faster and more athletic player like Williamson instead of Yueill and Roldan. Gregg's subs were as slow or slower than the players he subbed out. Berhalter deserves some serious criticism over his continual failure to make relatively obvious tactical adjustments. He's getting the wins at the end of the day, but he's accomplishing it with more risk and less room for error than is optimal and in ways that won't translate as well when playing higher-level opponents. He got out-coached by Herdman today, which is somewhat depressing. I still maintain Gregg's some combination of naive, stubborn and overly married to the way he ideally wants to play. That manifests itself in overplaying inferior players that fit his system and being slow to deviate from "his plan" when things go awry, which both happened last night and continue to unnecessarily put game outcomes at risk.
Oh, come on now. Dike is better in the air, period. For one, he's got more header goals than Sargent in a year of pro ball than Josh has in his 2+ years now. For two, Sargent repeatedly gets pushed and bodied off the ball. Josh has much better foot skills and once he actually receives it, seems to do a better job of controlling it and passing, but Dike is simply bigger, stronger, taller. I've been a big Josh proponent for a long time, but if we're playing over the top, it's not really even close.
When is the law of averages going to finally catch up for Gioacchini and he's going to look like Di Maria? You say this after a game where Lletget just recorded another goal production. He came up as a 10. He has it in his arsenal, unlike all but a few players in this roster. Just is somewhat risk-averse, especially w/ the lead, which he helped provide us early! And again, he has poor stamina, so if he's left in too long, and you're one to define events based on what you just saw, not favorable to him.
I wish we had a higher standard, but the pool is the pool. I don’t see many guys out there, apart from young guys who are just breaking through professionally. Green is a guy many people want to call in, but he was not very impressive in his appearances apart from the Belgium goal. De La Torre turned down a call up. Clark was injured. If De La Torre accepts a call up and Clark is healthy, that likely means that 2 of the guys nobody likes are not called in.
GB's NL roster does not fit MLS bias. personally i think he's over his head and learning on the job. it's like a weird mix of supposed auteur capabilities with re-inventing the wheel in practice. he's allowed to be stubbornly weird like we's wes anderson even when a lot of his education seems to be obvious and take too long. i think he's fighting the last war and didn't learn arena's lesson. the last war is the blow up on klinsi's selections. but that beef was as much "you're picking the wrong people" and "we're losing as a result," as some Germany vs MLS thing. arena then overreacted against germany. it is kind of like he responded to how many foreign were on the NL team by going almost all MLS for GC. this is political. this is not reality. reality is right now you pick a euro leaning team it would be taken as common sense. and we would win and and people would shut up. people forget the "counter beef" came up in the wake of guatemala and costa rica. losses. i also don't think when pomykal was saying we had better kids than the 2019 veteran team he was saying "pick MLS." which means it's the war before last and not even the updated debate. the current debate, reflecting he is now coach, is whether he "favorites MLS." the polarities actually flipped.
Hard to judge either Acosta or Busio too much given it was basically 2v4 or 2v5 in the midfield due to this setup. I kept looking up thinking who are they going to pass to? Our wingbacks offered almost zero in ball retention or press-breaking, and Lletget offer practically zero progressive play and was a traffic cone out there.
Unfortunately, right now Tyler Adams is on his way to becoming our JOB type player for all the wrong reasons.
But, did we? Maybe I am forgetting, but I don't really recall getting many chances early either and if I am not mistaken our xG for the entire game was below 1. We possessed the ball better early on because we had Zimmerman passing well and Sands passing well in the back and maybe together they pushed everything a bit forward but I'm not sure I recall getting chances early either. I remember one cross by Vines. And I again have to question if our offense relies so heavily on our fullbacks and a passing centerback or everything falls apart offensively. I can accept that with the current squad, we simply have very few creative types, but that's a selection issue on one hand and we did have Hoppe coming in and looking creative far too late on the other.
Yueill can't be replace just because he sucks. I wish it were that simple... but I love the idea of bringing Cowell and Pepi in. I would also be good with Paredes. But what about Zimmerman? Pines can't be trusted right now passing out of the back. In a two CB setup I think Robinson could swing to the right and Sands can play the left... but if one of them needs a rest or gets injured we are likely cooked. Assuming a replacement has to come from the 60-man provisional I think we should bring in Trusty if Zimmerman can't go. Che is a wild-card... it would be nice to bring him in but he is pretty young and hasn't played CB at the MLS level yet.
Two cents: - Offense stalled because Berhalter asked a 6 (Busio) to play as a 10, and grouped him with two forwards who don't normally play alongside another striker. The result was three players confined to a relatively tight space, none of whom knew how to manage it. By the second half, Busio looked uninterested in even trying to figure out how to manage it, either -- but, to me, the problem lies at GB's feet. - Busio can blame Berhalter for his showing on offense, but his defensive showing is all on him. A player that might be further away from contributing than we hoped. - Speaking of Busio on defense, it's why I don't blame Acosta for a poor performance yesterday. Felt like he was playing 2v1 in the middle most of the time. Still showed the mobility to keep up with fast attacking players and just enough talent on the ball -- more than enough to keep his spot on the roster even when we return our top 23. - The roster was constructed so poorly that just one injury, to Arriola, has left Berhalter scrambling for new formations. Tactical flexibility is good, but only when there's a careful plan in place to implement it. Berhalter instead acting like a driver who hits a small patch of ice and starts wildly swerving the wheel to compensate. Lineup yesterday was a mess, and I don't see how anyone can feel confident Berhalter will do better in the future. - If Zimmerman is out, and Berhalter keeps the back 3, he should add Cannon and keep Moore as the wingback. Even a slightly out of positioned Cannon is a huge upgrade over Pines.
352 is usually a fire and ice combo. mcbride and landon. one target and one speed or technical guy to play off him. not just playing off each other but complimentary yet distinct. dike and zardes are too similar. also, while you might want the second striker making runs into space, GB didn't seem to have his mind made up whether the striker was central or also playing wide. normal 352 is you let the wings run the wide channels. you make the middle runs. also usually in a 442 or 352 the AMs are in support and even overlapping some behind the target forward. our mids were AWOL. so it basically became striker gets ball, no middle help, plays wide, who then play it back in. little predictable. part of unpredictability is options. too often GB's offense the next option is obvious. i do think it could be slightly less obvious if the wingback or wing inverts back in when they anticipate an endline run. pulisic does this. dest some. maybe it's that concacaf teams are going to bunker back and that makes it harder to invert/cut back across at the 18. to get that cutback you need a team confident enough to stay in their shape and not flatten into a pancake.
Tyler Adams is 22 and has already played more first team club games than John did in his entire career. I personally think that game yesterday tells us virtually nothing about what will happen when the US faces Canada in WCQing. We got the win, and we move on to the next one.
What? When I see people talking about Lletget sucking relative to this roster and Tajon Buchanan "dominating" I am reminded why a large number of this fanbase thought Joshua Pynadath was going to be a star. Lletget is not a spectacular player, he's not going to beat guys one on one, but he still will play his role well, be where he needs to be and he converts at a level above quite a few of his contemporaries. You can compare it to BABIP, but to do so, you'd need some statistical backup. Lletget isn't scoring on low xG shots; he's putting himself into good positions and making good plays. He has 7g and 2a in 1400 USMNT minutes. You can hard about the competition, but few players have that kind of record against the same competition. And yes, it will decline against better teams, because all players' numbers decline against better teams. Our pool is not chock full of players who take on France one on one and score. Just start a discussion of our best pure striker for the last decade and everyone will point out how few goals are in the tiny subset of games that people think count.
No offense, but if you don't think that Roldan could contribute to the A team in a WC qualifier, I'm not sure what to say. He's gritty, he's hard-working, he never runs out of energy, and he's got more big-match experience than pretty much anyone else on the Gold Cup roster thanks to the Sounders multiple deep playoff runs. He's exactly the type of guy you need to get a result in WC qualifiers....especially the away matches in Central America....
It was never 2v5 in the midfield. We had 3 or 4 even after the Pines sub, depending on when you are talking and how far Sands was getting up. But never 2. Busio, Lletget and Acosta were all there; they just weren't effective at all. Busio was slow and weak. I literally have to rewatch to see what Acosta was doing he was so absent.
As we have more WCQers and more WCQers in each window...................the depth of the national team programs is very important. Our "Best XI" is almost never going to be available, so its important that we have depth pieces like Roldan and Acosta. Guys we can trust not to wet the bed on the road in Honduras. Also, worth noting that players like Acosta or Roldan look completely different when they're a complimentary piece in a midfield also containing McKennie, Adams, and the like.
We had 5 at the back, 2 up top, and Lletget giving his best late career Riquelme impression. No possession support from the wingbacks. No defensive support from the “3rd center mid.” So yeah, it played out that Busio and Acosta were hung out to dry.
We did, though they were not great chances -- you are right on that. There seemed to be a decent amount of disconnect with the strikers and timing, so it was more situations that should have yielded a good SOG rather than actually doing so. How much credit you want to give to that is up to you. I don't think things fell apart because Zimmerman went out and we lost his passing -- Sands actually did a pretty damn good job and while we did lose a few passes over the top I am sure ... Zimmerman isn't that good at those anyway. I think it killed us because Berhalter protected Pines defensively. I think Hoppe should have come in earlier -- he'd had been a FAR better pairing for Dike or we could have shifted to more of a 4-3-3. As to reliance on centerbacks and fullbacks, separately: I don't think we're overly reliant on a passing centerback; we have plenty that can pass -- we're dealing without Brooks, McKenzie, Richards, etc. as well as being able to work through fullbacks like Dest or a CDM that can pass. We have plenty of options, and I don't think that is even what hurt us against Canada with a roster WAAAAY down the depth chart Fullbacks providing enough width is the big question of Berhalter's offensive system, IMO. I know people harp of the CM creativity, but I'm far less concerned there. It's a good question, but it's also one that pulls you away from most 2 striker systems (aside from a flat 442) as you either get width from your wingbacks/fullbacks in those OR you have a Werner-style striker who can provide it. We don't have the latter unless Pulisic is played up top so... ...The other option is to go to true wingers. I've said before with the A team that a split between Pulisic (IF) and RW (Weah/Morris) could be helpful, but I think the pool and roster choices make it an issue here. Cowell's the one guy who could really provide that outside speed and width that isn't here -- we saw on the first Martinique goal even an awkward play deep to the endline can create space. But even Mueller really isn't that guy -- it's Cowell and then, gulp, Arriola?