Big game for LDLT on Thursday. He's performed well twice, but against lesser competition and at home. If he plays that well again, on the road against the 'Ticos? Then maybe we've found something more than just a useful rotation player to turn to when a starter gets hurt ...
I think he’s still more of a rotational player. The difference with the past is that our bench guys can now come in and be real difference makers. I think CP and Reyna are clearly ahead of Weah and Aaronson as wingers, but the latter two can still produce at a high level. And when some of those guys are not available, Arriola (who started at T&T in 2017) is a very solid option.
I am honestly split. I think the conversation of de la Torre versus McKennie is literally insane. And Yunus is far more talented. And people ignore the defensive gap. But man, we need passers. And Luca will pass the ball. We just need more dudes who don't let the ball stick to their foot. De la Torre isn't a great decision maker in the defensive third, and he isn't very good in the penalty box. But from the midline to the opposing box, he increases the tempo of our game signficantly. No pausing. No overdribbling. Pass and move. Dribble and pass and move. It's a somewhat contagious vibe. And I admit it's completely enabled by weaker opponents at home, and in Sunday's case, was helped by Jesus Ferreira and Paul Arriola and Gio Reyna being out there as well. But this team really does need to learn the lesson that the ball moves fastest on the pass, and Luca is the preacher for that kind of lesson. Yes, I've been drinking.
Preach on, brother! It’s so refreshing watching Luca for exactly the reasons you’ve outlined. He passes and moves. His movement destabilizes the competition because he’s accelerating the pace of everything around him. Christian’s third goal was a direct result of Luca moving the ball upfield in this manner. I don’t see him displacing our starters, but I sure do see him getting minutes. The dude is a baller.
Wes was our best player before injury and a world class #8. Luca doesn't displace him, and it's not much of a discussion. I'm thinking more about Musah, a huge talent but one whose career is still in its infancy. He and LDLT have a similar skill set, i.e., are good at holding the ball on the dribble and releasing it to teammates. But whereas Musah operates best as a deeper-lying player, almost a #6, LDLT pulls strings in the attacking third, closer to a #10. And that's something we sorely need on the team, where at our worst this cycle, the attacking players have been isolated and confined to the sidelines (I'm thinking of the second Canada game). Luca gives us a presence near the penalty box, who can force defenses to have to defend more than the wings. So maybe his talent level is less than Musah's (no doubt) but is a better fit tactically? Anyway, back to my point -- that's why Wednesday's game is important for him. He's still yet to prove he can hack it against better competition in tougher environments, and he'll need to do so before we can start any discussion of him replacing Musah in a first choice XI (at least in games in which we have to break down a defense playing a lower block). Also flicks at a bigger challenge for Berhalter if this squad ever managed to get healthy. How do you maximize a roster with Jesus-Weah-Pulisic-Reyna-Wes-Musah-Adams-LDLT all on it? Who starts and who sits the bench? Good problems to have.
I stopped posting in the Best XI thread a while back because I thought we'd actually reached the point where the Best XI was actually becoming game plan, teammate, situationally dependent. And so we're here. We have Pulisic, Weah, Reyna, Aaronson, Musah, McKennie all across what is essentially four positions in any formation we seem likely to play. Luca is competing with those guys. So I'm not sure I see a place where he's a firm starter in a generic sense when everyone's healthy. In our set-up, without forcing someone to striker or to the 6, we're already sitting TWO of those guys -- is Luca forcing a third to the bench? Probably not. But he brings elements to a gameplan that really only Reyna is likely to duplicate, I'd think. I don't think he's a 10. I think he's best set as a shuttler / distributor type, which is a similar role to what Musah has done for us. But Musah is a dribbler, and de la Torre has a passing dimension that Musah just doesn't. Both are great on the ball in terms of dribbling, but Musah is stronger and de la Torre more aggressive (which is odd to say but Musah doesn't rocket up field as much as he should). Musah's a better defender. De la Torre either played higher by design, or he has a natural tendency to get forward. Musah definitely seems to allow himself to get pushed back, although that may have been part of the gameplan. But de la Torre's strength is in that transition forward, it's in the cycling and distribution of the ball to the attackers. He's not a dime dropping 10, and he's not much of a shooter/scorer. But he gets the ball to people quickly, which is great, and he advances the ball quickly, which is great. I just think if you are looking for that guy in the midfield, and everyone is healthy ... then perhaps that guy is Reyna, which allows you to get Pulisic and Weah (or Aaronson) out there as well. And if you need a bit more defense, you are probably looking at Musah.
I see Musah and de la Torre has more interchangeable than most here, I guess. Musah has physical gifts that de la Torre does not, but I do not see de la Torre as bored defensively, or a defensive liability. Both are good at advancing the ball, and I would say that in the attack dilatory’s decision-making and execution is as good as Musah or better. He cannot recover as quickly as Musa, but he does stick in and defend hard. Because he is small, he probably doesn’t win as many balls, all else equal.
LDLT is a good, solid player. He has very good balance and is two-footed. He needs to transition from a good tool to a weapon, and that mostly means scoring goals. Learn to pick a corner and fire. If he gets proficient at that, I see him as a player in La Liga.
Yeah, he seemed to pass up two shooting opportunities on Sunday, though he put one right on Ferreira's foot.
This is a difficult decision and as more players develop, these decisions are only going to get more difficult. By next cycle, you'll probably have another 1-2 guys who are looking close to that group of 6 for four spots and then things get really hard. We have enough quality that there will be good players that sit on the bench a whole lot and sometimes it will depend on player types we need. And that's where I see a real advantage for Torre because of what many are saying about his willingness to let go of the ball. If the choice is between Luca passing and moving or one of the other choices sitting on the ball all day, Torre starts to look like a much more solid choice. Still, I think that we will see more of the other guys moving the ball around more as they get more time together. You don't really need to know much about your teammates to take off dribbling downfield, but to play quick passes between each other, players do need some familiarity. I have to wonder if at least some degree of the over-dribbling we see is due to guys lacking the familiarity with each other to make more complicated team-based movements over just dribbling forward on their own. It seems Torre is more a guy who prefers passing to move the ball and may be good at quickly picking up how to do so with his teammates. But, if we can get guys like McKennie and Musah to play more of a passing game and dribble less, we'll be better off. Either way, I think Torre has shown himself to be a valuable player for us and sometimes you really do need specific skills out on the field and if your "better" players won't do what needs to be done, someone has to step in and take on that role.
I am hopeful that "Pulisic, Weah, Reyna, Aaronson, Musah, McKennie" will be competing for 5 starting spots (not 4) come WC time. I agree that LDLT is a sub, and with those who think his best role is to spell Musah (who doesn't get enough rest).
Assuming the WC has five subs, I am not too worried about who starts and who doesn't. I'm more worried about health and availability.
I generally agree with this. However, I will add in his favor is that the "team" looks better with him. So, Musah may be a better play or have higher upside, but the team may not be better with him. Frankly, it's a good challenge for GB and will determine how the US goes. My biggest concern with Musah is conditioning. If he starts, I doubt that he plays 90. Mix and match depending on the opponent is another option.
Every time I see Luca, I am left with the feeling that I want to see him more... and I was not someone who knew much about him until his recent run with the national team. He consistently takes passes facing his own goal and turns immediately up field instead of passing back. He is so so good at transitioning the team up the field. Problem is who would he play over. Him and Musah rotating sounds pretty good Luca is also a better defender than I thought he would be and seems to be pressing in the right place at the right time quite often
The MMA midfield is overrated IMO. We played El Salvador at home and Canada away, with that midfield and only scored 1 goal.
To me, it isn't LDLT or McKennie. It's McKennie OR Musah, and (to me) Reyna OR LDLT OR Busio. Busio has not looked good enough in his recent limited chances. So we are left with the other 2. I have been saying since September that we can't have an MMA midfield. At this stage of Musah's career, it does not work optimally. I doubt it will ever work in a 4-3-3 because neither he nor McKennie are natural passers -- again, what I have been saying for 7 months. We need to accept that lesson from now and not carry this MMA stuff to the World Cup.
The MMA midfield is an excellent choice in a game in which limiting opposition opportunities is the primary focus. It's not ideal when our primary focus is to create the maximum number of opportunities, however. The MMA midfield is keeps a significant amount of the ball, keeps a significant amount of the ball in the opposition half (or at least the middle third), and keeps dangerous counters down to a minimum. The most effective way to attack the MMA midfield is to play fast down the wings or use switches and overlaps, which are less effective than quick counters through the middle. I expect that if available we rightly use MMA in 1.5 of our group matches, and probably most of our potential knockout round matchups. I was really hoping that we would learn to attack through the center of pitch at least occasionally with that trio, but that hasn't materialized yet, so we do need an alternative, but we don't need to abandon that group, because they have their purpose.
You just know someone is going to be injured and miss the World Cup. We don't know who it is yet, but it's a given. Gio, Pulisic, Musah, Weah, ... With LDLT, you have a competent replacement who is not going to screw things up, but who probably won't be a game-changer. You'd like to see him become a game-changer over the next 8 months, so that he can slide in and bring us to glory. We are not a team that has a huge amount of depth. I welcome players like LDLT to fill that gap.
I think MMA is fine; it's just more defensive. I get where you are coming from, but I think people tend to assume defense, but our defense has been so good in large part because our midfield has been a defensive rock. There's certainly teams in the World Cup where we're going to want to play with the best defensive lineup we have. I think people may be missing that we've played with de la Torre at home, and against bottom of the hex teams. I'm hopeful he can keep it up in more adverse circumstances, but while Musah has improvement areas, so does Luca. They are just in different places.