Yep. Dest scored a brilliant goal vs Costa Rica. He also turned in some clunkers earlier in qualifying (and NL) and was rightly getting subbed at 45'-60' pretty consistently. No one covered themselves in glory at Panama, but those guys have played well before and since. Plus, as a coach, you cannot just ditch a player with a long history of good performances after one bad one. That is how you lose the locker room. If you did that, everyone would get ditched. Plus, as bad as it was, if Zardes heads that away cleanly, we get a point. It wasn't a beatdown like, say, Costa Rica last cycle.
And likely it will. But you also do not want to throw young guys to the wolves too soon, that can hurt their development. Busio had some poor showings in GC, or have you forgotten? Leaning in the more experienced, proven, physical guys in an away qualifier was the smart thing to do, on multiple fronts. Now, I think the beef was sticking with Acosta/Lletget for the whole 90. That is a legit beef. But they did get a shot, I think you will see Busio/LDLT having more minutes as reserve 8s going forward. Acosta more exclusively as a 6, and Lletget less. But both guys have been pretty big in big games this year (especially Acosta vs Mexico). Hoppe is not close to overtaking Zardes at striker. The former is not playing for club, the latter just got another brace.
Assuming full health and all players in the pool, only sticking to a front 3 since that what we play. I view Reyna as a mid. Pulisic Aaronson Weah Hoppe Sabbi Gooch Morris Konrad Arriola Gioacchini Llanez Boyd Amon Saucedo
Amazing to think that our "Wide attacking player depth" under Klinsmann was 0. We were not even living in a 3 dimensional universe with Klinsi, who played the "skinny diamond". Now we don't know what to do with them, we've got so many.
I agree with this. There is a balance to be struck. Anyone can have a poor game. You have to look at the ratio of good to bad.
I think all the players he picked for rotation against Panama were fine. Just not all of them together. Agree he should have picked a couple more technical players to balance the hustle players. I would have picked De la Torre myself and probably Hoppe. Will Berhalter have learned his lesson for the next three game window? Stay tuned and find out.
I agree, he got the mix of players wrong. Also, Musah and Arriola should've been rotated. Musah because of his age and lack of consistent 90 minute games at club level. Arriola because of his playing style and injury history. I
Lletget was LDLT, only he was buried by a club even less favorable to integration in West Ham, then proceeded to have more productive seasons at a similar level, and carve out a decent career w/ the NT to have the proof/experience edge. If LDLT plays he could get bullied in the middle worse than Aaronson as the skinniest cm in CCAF, while gambling too much, and producing poor final balls. Busio just played at Gold Cup a couple months back w/ Lletget & Acosta. Busio was the worst of the 3. Yea, he's faring decently now in Serie A, but he was almost immediately, so he didn't change significantly as a player. His club opportunity did. Hoppe was OK at GC, but arguably worse than Zardes in his minutes (though this is the one that's iffiest). You presume they're better because they're younger, Euro-based, and grass is always greener. It's no actual data.
Except that it isn't because they may be exhausted after just playing and a somewhat lesser player could be better for that game. It's why they where those bras so they can see who's tired and somesuch.
The challenge I have with a ranking like this is the vast differences in playing style that each player has. That may not matter quite as much at the top, but it really matters as we go down the depth chart. For example, while Konrad and Arriola (and I choose them because they are probably the most diametrically opposed) are technically competing for the same position, they aren't competing for the same role. Konrad is a relatively static one on one player who isn't going to bring much defense or off the ball, from what I've seen so far. He can skin a guy and deliver a mean cross. Arriola is pretty much the opposite -- he provides off ball runs, spacing, vertical pressure, defensive pressing and a non-stop motor, but he's not beating anyone one on one and his final ball is meh. At the top of the total team depth chart -- the Pulisic's, the Reyna's, I am selecting the player and trying to build around their style. I might ask them to emphasize, but they are good enough that I adjust to them. Konrad and Arriola aren't good enough to build an offense around, or to surrender a defensive strategy if I have most of the my A team around otherwise. If Pulisic, Reyna, Aaronson are out ... I'm still structuring around players like Musah, McKennie, Dest, Pepi. And so I'm picking a role I want at that level, not a player. It doesn't really matter if Konrad is objectively, in a vacuum, a better player than Arriola, if I decide I need defense and off ball runs, I'm playing Arriola (or Weah, who has a similar profile). Konrad simply isn't good enough to require the rest of the team adapt to his very different game. It's a different story as more and more players are removed. Hoppe was a good choice as a sort of playmaker at the Gold Cup because the rest of the team lacked them anyway. It was okay and even preferably to have a less disciplined, but more creative talent there because the rest of the team were piano carriers, so to speak. So to me, once you get past the guys like Pulisic -- who can play a LOT of roles, and Reyna, who has been more set to a single style but is so talented that you adjust, you get to Aaronson ... who has a sort of all-purpose game so he works a lot of ways ... And then you start getting people who start falling into buckets. Weah and Arriola are the more traditional vertical wingers/outside midfielders with defensive skills and a good work rate. Morris would fall into this bucket more or less as well. Konrad is more of a specialist right now, to my mind. Hoppe more of a wildcard. You take who you think you will need to fit in properly more than this player is better than that player. Because the gameplan is likely to fit around Dest, Musah, Aaronson, Pepi, etc. than the lower level of the winger depth chart.
I've watched all of Busio's games with Venezia. Surely, that is relevant "actual data." I'm pretty confident Busio is superior to Acosta and Lletget. Superior in ability and superior in recent form. I made the same point regarding Musah before the last window. The last window simply validated what should have been abundantly clear to anyone who has watched Musah with Valencia. Even the Musah coming off the injury and not yet in top form and being used in a position that is not his best.
Good points all around. But talent generally trumps those considerations. Obviously the considerations you mention need to be given some weight. So if the gap in talent between two players is small, then these other factors could tip the scales one direction or another.
Talent? I struggle with that word. Konrad has a lot of talent, but go back and watch the El Salvador game. He hurt us every time he wasn't touching the ball. Poor pressing, poor defense, static off the ball. It's not some devastating batch of errors ... it just is like trying to play with less than a full XI in a really crucial spot for a team that both tries to press and uses its wingers like we do. I have no doubt that he can be a contributor and perhaps even very soon, but either the offense runs through you or you have to bring something off the ball. Right now, Konrad seems very good at just about one thing, and unless we are restructuring to really push that ... I don't see his production being very good compared to a better fit (such as a Weah). We're in WCQ. We don't have time for players to develop. We have to have players who can execute their role. We can build around our top players but the folks down the totem pole need to fit into a certain space. I think he'd be a far better fit for a complete B team that really desperately needs some offense.
Yes. But defining better isn't as easy as it sounds. better skill, higher potential more athleticism etc, by themselves don't equal better player. A top young talent can sometimes be schooled by a less skilled, less athletically gifted etc veteran. And sometimes those veteran intangibles are more or less important which then makes "Better" situational as well. We all saw how effective Ream was against El Salvador and how much he sucked against Mexico. Was Ream the best choice against El Salvador? Even with the result, we can't be sure but it sure looks like he was a pretty good choice. Even against Mexico in NL, he was fine until Mexico made a sub that exploited Ream's major weaknesses (if I remember correctly). Again, situational. Then again, we have guys like Pulisic....regardless of the situation, he is the right choice when healthy. Most of our guys, however, are not Pulisic and defining "Better" isn't quite so obvious or easy.
Agreed, but on what important metric is Bello or Vines > Scally? Or Arriola >Weah? Or Lletget > DLT or Busio or Mahilovich or a healthy Polykal or Williamson?
It's interesting you cite Konrad. He has some fans around here. But I don't see him as an especially talented player, in part because he is so one-dimensional. And he's also a player who didn't play in either the Gold Cup or Nations League and gets thrown into the lineup in the first WC qualifier. Anyone I think both Weah and Aaronson are more talented (and multi-dimensional talents at that) than Konrad. But I do appreciate your point that talent is a nebulous term. It is something I recognize when I see it. But not everyone sees the same things in a player. I do think for the next window Konrad might be a better choice than Hoppe. Mainly on grounds one is playing a bit more for his club than the other. Hoppe is more multi-dimensional but needs to get some club PT.
Dest should also be in there given the plethora of RBs combined with a good game at RW with Barcelona. That said, a lot of guys would have to be hurt to play him at RW instead of RB.
Agree (pretty much) on your top 3. Pulisic is currently a lock at 1. Reyna firmly in at 2 (sorta). For now I would say Aaronson is 2.5 but I'll round to 3. Reyna has the pedigree (name and club) over Aaronson but Aaronson has consistently been a guy you want on the field all the time and even when he isn't at his best, he finds a way to contribute with, defense (tracking back and pressing), energy and work rate. Even so, Reyna gets the nod for now. I think it gets much more difficult from 4th spot down. You have Weah as a lock for 3/4. I see him lower. Like Reyna, he has the pedigree but he has been very inconsistent (often invisible) with the nt. Until he brings it with the nt, I can't put him at 4th. Hoppe hasn't received time since gold cup, where he showed a lot as a winger. In some ways, Hoppe was a slightly more clinical version of Arriola. High energy, works hard, always thinking vertically, tracks back etc. Even without any wcq experience, I put him at 4th spot. I am not as high on KDF as many and definitely don't hate Arriola like everyone else. They give you different things so I'll rate them an equal 5th. Weah has shown flashes of brilliance, so if he can show consistency, find a way to help the team (by working hard) when the game isn't going his way, than he can jump ahead from 7th and fight for 4th spot with Hoppe. I believe he probably has a ceiling as high or higher than all off our wingers, with the possible exceptions of Puliic and or Reyna, but right now he ain't there.