I consider these guys to be locks Pulisic, Renya, Weah, Aaronson, Dest, A.Robinson, Zimmerman, McKennie, Musah, Acosta, Turner, Horvath, Stefan, Richards, Adams. I consider these players to be slightly fringe players or in a good position right now. Pepi, Ferrara, Yedlin, De La Torre, Cannon, Morris, Arriola. I don’t consider a nine to be locked into a position yet. I don’t consider any backups to the LB and RB position to be locked in yet either. Yedlin and Cannon don’t impress and there are some good younger ones coming up. I would take Cannon over Yedlin. I also think that Berhalter needs to look at either Carter-Vickers whose stock has risen at Celtic or Brooks at that 4th defender spot. As far as 9s I’m hoping Dike will emerge into an option. I would like to see a 9 that can get the ball at his feet in the upper midfield and run at defenders. the midfield could use another player with attacking qualities to emerge.
By my count, there are exactly 22 guys who have been named to a roster and have played at least 90 minutes over the past 3 qualifying windows. (I'm not counting Moore who only appeared as a late replacement in one roster). Add a backup GK to that, and you may have something pretty close to Gregg's current 23. GK: Steffen GK: Turner GK: Horvath/Johnson/Slonina (DNP but all made a qualifying roster) RB: Dest RB: Yedlin RB: Cannon CB: M. Robinson CB: Zimmerman CB: Richards LB: A. Robinson DM: Adams DM: Acosta CM: McKennie CM: Musah CM: de la Torre CM: Busio WF: Pulisic WF: Weah WF: Aaronson WF: Reyna WF: Morris CF: Pepi CF: Ferreira The biggest opportunities to break in there appear to be at one of the CF positions, one or two of the backup fullback positions, and maybe Busio's place at CM. Teams also obviously tend to take more than 3 CBs, so replace Morris maybe with one of the other CBs who have appeared in qualifying (Brooks, McKenzie, Long, EPB, Ream).
morris shouldnt even consider to be lock; It's either Arriola or Morris; Right now, I ill pick arriola.
Yedlin needs to be dropped. He didn't do himself any favors in this window... so I hope he continues to underwhelm in Miami so it makes GB's job decision easier. Replace him w/ Scally so we have extra protection at both RB and LB. I am going to guess that Long will be the CB added to the 3 listed: MRob, Zimm and Richards. Lastly, really hope that someone other than Steffen will be playing in goal come Qatar... gotta have a keeper that is getting consistent reps. Unfortunately even when Turner gets back he might not be that guy when he moves to England.
Why not Mix Diskerud? Great point about rolling the dice and carrying 7 defenders. That *could* work since Sergino Dest can play both RB and LB. In 2006 and 2010 we still took 4 CBs and 3 FBs (2006 was a bit unique in that Bocanegra was primarily used as a LB and Eddie Lewis of course lined up at LB in the opener against Czech Republic). This approach would give us Dest, A.Robinson + one of Yedlin/Cannon/Moore/Scally as a backup, and would free up an extra attacking spot either to take a 5th winger (i.e. Morris/Arriola), a 3rd true striker, or an extra #8 or attacking midfielder (i.e. if a guy like Mihailovic or Pomykal push through).
Nice assessment. I really don't see this summer to be a time of looking at a lot of new blood. I want them coming together as a team and addressing the few opportunities that you identified.
Scroll halfway down the page in this column from Matt Doyle and watch the 3-minute video where Sacha Kljestan is asked who he would start at #9 in the World Cup: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/grading-berhalter-and-the-usmnt-world-cup-qualifying-campaign Obviously a super hot take, but he could be right, and his perspective means something coming from a current player with his experience. If Jozy can get hot this summer/fall (particularly if Adam Buksa is sold), he really could bring a level of quality and well-roundedness to our striker pool that no one else offers. A healthy/in-form Jozy has: The finishing ability in the box of a Jordan Pefok The passing range/ability of Josh Sargent (I'd argue actually better than Sargent) The hold-up play and ability to physically overpower defenders of Daryl Dike He obviously sucks at pressing and lacks the work rate to do so, so we would need to adapt our style of play to accommodate. Ricardo Pepi is the only other striker in the pool who has the potential to be as well-rounded, but as we've learned the past few months, he's still very young and a work in process.
I’d only take him if it’s a 26 man roster. Otherwise it’s too much of a risk. With 26 roster spots you can afford to take chances with the extra 3 spots.
We do have a tendency to dig into that back pocket whenever we can’t seem to find a 9 we can all agree upon. If Berhalter has to dig into that pocket, it’s Zardes. Not Altidore. There’s plenty of Football left for us to fill in the missing pieces. Luckily for us those missing pieces are contributors and not starters except for at the 9. That September FIFA window should be played in Europe versus top competition. There will be continuity building exercises to go along with what’s left of evaluation. The summer windows should be to evaluate. Bring in players on the fringe and get a good hard look at them and if they show, throw them on the September squad with the first teamers.
This is where the program is - We are considering/thinking of dropping the only guy currently called in who has WC experience (Yedlin) for a 19-year-old with 25ish professional games (Scally) under his belt. I really think this puts into perspective how much turnover there's been and how young this team really is. WOW!
On his most recent podcast with Grant Wahl, Landon Donovan made the point that on any World Cup roster the last few guys on the roster are unlikely to play much if at all. And he basically said sometimes it's worth taking the better locker room guy for those spots because if you're going to be stuck with someone for 30 days and they aren't likely to play, it's important that they are someone you actually enjoy being around. Just food for thought, but the sort of the role that Christian Roldan would play.
Does the draw make it more likely we see Brooks again? Sargent? Others? I tend to think Brooks benefits from this draw.
Definitely helps Sargent, he will be ready for England, and Wales/Scotland. Wonder if it also helps some fringe England-based players like Tim Ream and Duane Holmes too, if just for moral support on the bench and scouting. I'd add Dike, but he's injured.
Don't think Balogun will be joining us this WC to play against his home country. (Not likely he would switch anyway.)
The draw might help players like Matt Miazga, who has experience in the Championship and training with Chelsea. I also like EPB as a fourth CB. And maybe James Sands, Carter-Vickers, Ramirez, and Ian Harkes could help against Scotland?
Don't want him to. If he switches it needs to be after the WC. Can't sacrifice team chemistry over a guy who is on loan in the Championship.
With the way we play, though I wouldn't go with the 7 backs unless you're going to go with only three center backs, and we all know that's a huge risk. Berhalter subs his fullbacks more than most because he expects them to run like wingbacks. Further, don't really need more than 6 CMs and might be able to get by with 5. It's always advisable to have an extra guy on the forward line since it's most-frequently subbed, but it's not like there are great, must-have guys that absolutely behoove you to take them that aren't among the most-favored 6, and if they are, they're coming at the expense of a CM since Reyna can, and Aaronson probably can fill in there in a pinch. I say, given what we have now, and assuming everyone will be healthy (an unlikely outcome), we go with 8 backs (4 CBs and 4 FBs), 5 CMs, and 7 forwards. We're probably going to carry an extra CF that just happens to get hot in time.
My 26-man squad based on Berhalter's callups, because there's no way this is only a 23-man squad: Locks (11): M. Robinson, Zimmerman, Dest, A. Robinson, Adams, McKennie, Musah, Pulisic, Reyna, Weah, Aaronson Near-locks (4): Steffen, Turner, Richards, Acosta, Work to do (7): Horvath, Yedlin, Cannon, de la Torre, Arriola, Pepi, Ferreira Bubble (4): Long, Sands, Morris, Pefok Last Man Out: Roldan Just missed: Palmer-Brown, Bello, Busio, Zardes And if FIFA for some reason doesn't expand squad sizes to 26 or more, then Aaron Long gets the call and the others in his group get slashed.
To the above, I want to add that it's a bit unusual that if the World Cup started tomorrow and everybody was healthy, that I could immediately name 22 out of 23 players. The only true question mark would be Arriola versus Morris. This will definitely shift over time as we get closer to November.
I think there will be only 5 MF and Reyna will be called a FW but will more likely play MF. I'd like to see a 4-man rotation of Reyna with MMA and Acosta as A's backup. If Pulisic, Weah, and Aaronson are all healthy and playing well we can move Reyna centrally.
I think that’s true as well. And the fun aspect is trying to guess whom that will be? Che? Paredes? Gomez? Ledezma? Cowell?