I get the impression that Gregg is much more diagnostic and sophisticated about defense than offense. There is that clip of the earlier goal when Brooks gets out of position, in which Gregg goes to the monitor immediately after. He looks full of purpose and all it takes is one look for him to know what went wrong. When it comes to offensive breakdowns, I get the impression he is a little bit lost, or at least a lot less confident about what the problem is and how to fix it.
i thought Dest was awful offensively and defensively- I’m shocked more people aren’t talking about him. Is that the coach’s fault? We looked like a team thinking an opponent should be a piece of cake - reminds me of my old team where the best player would repeatedly say we aren’t good enough to look past any team. Kinda the way Concacaf works - you can’t just show up and assume a win. Our best players were playing some hero ball when patience was required. Looking forward to Canada - really want to beat them Sunday.
Let me posit a theory I have. Most assume that because we continue having the same problem with supposed high-level players, it must be the coaching. But if all of our high-level players are lacking in the same area, we can put them together and never get the same out of them as they produce at club -- at places where they are accompanied by players who are complementary to their game. I have said this a number of times -- the US, for all the talent we have, lacks a player who has shown true passing acumen that also fits into the lineup from a physical standpoint. To me, that is our problem now. There is simply not enough passing creativity in our lineups. The ball sticks, because our guys don't have enough vision to make those series of passes in succession that open teams up and leave them exposed. Seriously, of all the guys that we have on this roster, which guy fits the bill? Busio seems to have some of that, but his athleticism is a question mark. People say de la Torre could be that guy, but the guy has zero assists in the last 30+ games at Heracles. Pulisic's head goes down every time he gets within sight of the attacking box. Guys like Weah and Morris are push to the endline and try to get it into the box players. Seriously, where are the passers that can open up games in the middle of the field. I think this is a FIT problem from our players more than it is a problem with our coaches. As I have said before, guys like Reyna, Busio, and de la Torre have to come good from the passing perspective to allow us to always have a guy on the field who we can play through. If they don't, I think we will continue to live and die on the odd disjointed goal or moment of individual brilliance.
Frankly, the expected goals lines up with the game I saw. We should have had two in the first half, at least one of Ferrari’s and a couple others that didn’t become shots thanks to defender’s legs. Adams was… not Adams. But he will be again. As for Pulisic, I think it needs to be simplified for him. He needs to play on the right and not feel responsible for driving the team - which paradoxically leads to his holding the ball too long and dribbling into people.
You get 5 subs but only have 3 windows to use them in. We could've used sub #5 but it would have happened at the same time as Acosta for Musah because we had already made subs at 65' and 72'.
Do we play a different system than these players play in their clubs? Does CP try to dribble through three defenders with Chelsea? This is straight Hubris. The same mind set that lead us to missing the last WC. The disrespect of our CCAF opponents is rampant through our fan base, and seems to be prevalent in our players too.
I think there’s a lot of truth in that, and I think it is a reminder of how big of a loss Reyna is. At the same time, I think guys like Aaronson and Weah are decent enough passers. Liverpool is also an example of a team that doesn’t have great passers, especially in midfield, but still scores goals through pressing, fast transitions, and good crosses from their fullbacks. Perhaps berhalter should try a low block more to give more opportunities to counter and get behind the defense? Or plat Aaronson in midfield to have a better passer there? Passing is not our strong point for sure, but I also don’t think Gregg does anything to address it.
If we decided to ignore the names on the back of the jersey ... I think I'd have a lot of interest in the winger from a Champions League-winning team whose form has been spotty but still produces more at a much higher level than Christian Roldan or Paul Arriola (or perhaps even an increasingly ineffective Brenden Aaronson.) Pulisic was bad. It's fair to be worried. Most concerning of all, he looks physically overmatched, getting bullied off the ball with little evidence of his old quickness. However. His form has wobbled his whole career and he's still, over and over again, found a way to perform in the biggest moments. Let's give him the rest of the window to get himself sorted and see where we sit then. Weird game overall. Jesus and Weston finish their chances and the game finishes 3-0 and everyone's probably thrilled. But this team still looks as if it doesn't really know what it's trying to do on offense, or knows but isn't committed, or is committed but doesn't quite have the talent and experience to pull it off. Who knows. But it does seem like the No. 1 problem Berhalter has to solve if he wants to coach past Qatar.
Agree, but playing a CAM is out of GGG’s ability. But, of course 90% of the issues is the players fault, according to the brigade. Expecting a coach to coach his players up, is not a reasonable expectation. It’s roll the ball out and blame the players.
Fair counterargument. I posted my theory, in part, to relay my opinion that it is not simply a 1-way street of blame. Our ineptitude offensively is a more complex issue than simply "Gregg bad." And I say that as a person who is not at all high on Gregg. We need to hold everyone accountable for improving the situation, because there is no simple fix.
El Salvador were shit. They are a shit squad from a shit footballing nation and we got the W. I will take it. This is still a team of mostly 20-25 year olds. I don't expect a ton of cohesion even if Pep Guardiola was coaching.
How many players on France, England, etc play on similar schemes as their club teams? These are the same teammates of guys like CP Dest, and Mckennie. and lol at saying that this mentality is what leads to not qualifying. We didn’t qualify because we had crappy players who were over the hill, and gave poor effort. We never had problems qualifying before that since I’ve been paying attention. we have a much more talented team now than we’ve ever had. Meanwhile, Canada is much-improved, but everyone else is basically on par with, or below their normal standards. I don’t expect to win every game, but I do expect to qualify without this much stress, and to have a few blowout wins at home against teams like El Salvador and Honduras.
Glad for the win, but this team is just not greater than the sum of its parts, which is new for the US. Part of that is overlap of primary skills of the better players. But part of it is Gregg seems very stubborn with how he wants to play offense. It’s been 9 games. I think we know what this team will look like in possession and it’s not very good. At least not how Gregg asks them to play. Yes the players played too slowly and too much hero ball, but Gregg has some control over that. I’d love the players to just figure it out on their own, but their instincts seem to be to go 1v1 or look for cheeky flicks, which is natural for young players maybe but isn’t helping. A bigger issue is intensity and fight. We see it sometimes and then it isn’t sustained. The team looked like they were playing the clock out for the last 20 minutes. I’m glad it worked, but I question the strategy. Thanks Costa Rica. Let’s hope El Salvador beats Honduras and they just don’t even want to get off the bus in St. Paul.
Such a stupid concern. Yes it's really taxing to get on a chartered flight for 3.5 hours instead of like 2. Come on. Furthermore just as like a fellow human being why would you subject these guys to more cold and snow? Mentally that's got to wear on them as it does the El Salvador guys. Or you know the El Salvador guys don't mind it and almost find it a novelty. Just wild speculation but that's what we do here. Regardless I don't think playing in the cold helps us. It certainty doesn't when the pitch is all fragmented cause it's winter in central Ohio and the sun shines like once every few days.
Yeah I agree with you and I am definitely not a blind Gregg hater. I guess my fundamental thought on national teams is that they are not a place for players to grow or improve. There simply isn’t enough time together to do that. To me, when things aren’t working, it’s on the coach to fix them. Sometimes, the team is so bad there’s nothing the coach can do (like us last cycle), but I don’t think that’s the case for us this cycle. Flaws? Yes. But I think they could be addressed through better coaching.
It’s not like these dudes fly southwest from one match to another. And we could have flown 2 hours south instead of 2 hours north west from Hamilton.
From a talent perspective, this was the Sounders vs the worst USL team. And the Sounders A team not some C team mixed with youth players. And we still can’t dominate. Totally the payers fault and the coach has no capability
This is where I am. Just a bit befuddled at the complete lack of skill once we're in the final third. It's like we're a team of Nagbes. I don't think we give the team enough credit for giving up absolutely nothing, either. El Salvador had a couple of very hopeful plays but generated zilch. I think if anything is on Berhalter, it's if he's the one that told Pulisic to come that far back, and on a more general basis, too much reliance on inconsistent fullbacks (someone noted that Robinson has the worst crossing % in the Ocho, and it can't have improved today). But the final ball and finishing, it's like watching Space Jam or something where the aliens took all the skill out of our players.
9 games and never let in more than 1 goal in a match. Defensively we are solid. I think on the offensive side, the system is too rigid and it limits opportunities. Guys are thinking too much instead of just playing.
I posted this like an hour ago, but the flight from Toronto to Minneapolis is the same duration as the flight from Toronto to Charlotte. The latter puts you in a warm(er) climate and keeps you in the same time zone for the entire camp.
I mean there's a reason players don't usually get fired, while managers do all the time. Is it fair? Maybe not, but that's the way it goes. Egg is now putting out more or less the starting 11 everyone agrees is the best, and we still look toothless. Blame the players for part of it, but it's not like we're going to drop our best 11 and playing worse players expecting better results. And it's not really that bad. We're sitting pretty, we'll go to the world cup, hopefully make it out of the group, then turn the team over to a new manager in a really good situation. The talent has developed pretty well, egg has done a masterful job recruiting, and hopefully the next manager keeps a bunch of eggs defensive players/tactics. We really just need a coach who knows how to coach offense. Heck, egg could hire a coordinator now (and probably should), and still have enough time to fix this before the WC comes around. But barring a collapse these next two games, we'll be qualified, and even if the team is pretty terrible to watch a lot of the time, we'll at least have a shot to do something fun in the WC.