USMNT's striker problem: Who are the best post-World Cup options?

The best Striker option going forward is the one the Egg finally decides to try to get the ball to in space. If he doesn't change his ridiculous tactics, it doesn't matter who the striker is.

If we could actually consistently get the ball to our striker in a dangerous position, then any of our candidates would do. Sarge, Wright, Ferrera, Pepi, Vasquez, Ebobisse, Pefok, etc, can all put the ball in the back of the net when given a decent chance.

The lack of a 9 was NOOOOOOT the problem. The lack of getting the ball to a 9 was.

Anyone got the stat for how many touches our 9 got per game, and where, vs. the same stat for good teams?

 

I think Weah has the tools to be a very good striker, but would need to play there at the club level. Outside that Pepi seems the obvious front runner going forward.

 

I actually wonder if not only those we're talking about will improve a lot in 3-4 years but if a few just under the surface could blow up. What about Quinn Sullivan? Could be others slightly younger about to break onto the scene. Surely with so many prospects we will be in better shape than this cycle.

 

Reyna's a cold-hearted assassin. He's a natural scorer. We don't have many like that. Move him closer to the goal, dammit!

 

As outlandish as it sounds he reminds me of a young Robin Van Persie. He went from 8/10/winger at Feyenoord, to a winger at Arsenal, to a true 9 at Manchester United.

 

We don’t have a striker problem, the issue is with the GGG as coach who doesn’t know how to use them.
After we got a new coach (BIG IF), then this problem will mysteriously disappear.

 

First, you make a strangely strongly declarative statement that is manifestly untrue, and then you assume (quite falsely) that a center forward has nothing to do with with how many touches they get and where. One of the biggest jobs a center forward has is making themselves available in opportune areas.

 

Vazquez seems like he'd be a handful for even elite defenders. I hope he gets a good look with the US very soon.



(Edited to add the right vid)

 

As an international manager if you have a young player that is excelling in MLS you should call him in to see how he does against higher level players.

He may not make the next level transition but if he is excelling he should get a look see.

 

I agree. Now I don't watch full Cincy matches, just highlights. So I'm not sure what the young man doesn't do well.

It's clear that he's physical, skilled and composed. He also sees the field around him pretty well and has a knack for finding small spaces close to goal. All of which is a lot to recommend him.

 

He has featured internationally as a youth.

He has a really clean and smart game. His spacing, field awareness, etc, is better than what we took to the World Cup. He’s big, athletic, decent with his head, good in hold up play and can finish in the box. His profile is a natural fit when we play pure wings who stretch the field.

 

I think the biggest potential barrier is just to what degree. He does a lot of stuff pretty well -- is he good enough to translate up or not?

Biggest gap is probably his ball skills. He has a good sense of when/where to pass that has gotten him a pretty good assist number, but the actual skillset -- touch, etc. isn't particularly strong and could be an issue for some teams.

Tough to tell where a player like him should go where he can still get service but move up a level.

 

I dont think it matters who you put up top as long as you have a midfield that creates NEXT TO NOTHING. That won't change until GB seeks employment elsewhere. He has ZERO idea how to attack and its easy to blame the the CH when they hardly see the ball.
The Spanish coach was not renewed after losing to Morocco. US Soccer should also not be happy with getting our ass kicked by the Dutch. Our lone goal there was accidental offense as the ball hit the forwards heel and ended up in the net. Its simply NOT ENOUGH. Hire a real coach, not GB

 

Creative CAM

 

EXACTLY CORRECT. The problem is Egg.... more than the striker de jour.
Of the group you listed, I would drop Ferrera totally. He is not international quality for many reasons. As even Gregg saw in the Dutch game.

 

I hope Vasquez has good advisors and get himself into a good situation in Europe. He seems to have a lot of good tools. He just needs to get into a place where he learns to think and play faster than he has to in MLS.

 

We've always struggled to find strikers in the US. Jozy's one of our best strikers ever and he's decidedly mediocre on a global scale. McBride was solid but it took him a lot of years to get there. Our best scorers have been Donovan and Dempsey, and neither was a striker. We have nearly always found other ways to score. I think we need to look into how we get the players we have to score goals rather than crossing our fingers and waiting for a striker to save us. It could be a very long wait. Sure, Pepi might become that guy, Vasquez may be an upgrade to what we had in Qatar, maybe Sargent goes from a second-tier guy to a guy who can score in a top league. But, none of that is for sure and we need to find a way to score without relying on someone suddenly appearing who can do the job.

 

But if we keep relying exclusively on crosses?

 

If we keep relying almost exclusively on crosses, we will need to pray that the magic striker who can do something with them appears, or we'll be having the same discussion after 2026.

 

Yup.

I love the comments above about how "the strikers aren't the problem, Berhalter's the problem."

I'm sorry. But at the World Cup level we just played at................Championship, MLS, Turkish, etc. forwards aren't going to cut it. So if people want to make a case for Vazquez or Dike or somebody else, go for it. From where I sit, none of them are any better at the moment for that level. Pepi did squadoosh in Germany and is now scoring for one of the worst teams in the eredevisie. Hooray! Ricardo is a hope as he's still so young. [If you say Hoppe is a hope, then you haven't been paying attention for two years.]

If folks want a drastic difference, then its going to come from a "new guy." Maybe that's Balogun. I don't know. Or a total strategy shift to a false 9. However, I don't like the idea of using a guy for the USMNT as a false 9 who doesn't play that role in club soccer. The answer isn't throwing Reyna out as a false 9 when he goes months on end without doing that.

Do you know who looks like the play a false 9 kind of role a lot in club soccer? Jesus Ferreira.

 

Regarding this "relying on crosses" thing .... is that really what happened at the WC?

There was the Wales game, where Yedlin pumped in about 8 crosses in the last 15 minutes. Other than that, I don't recall us putting in a lofted cross in the last 3 matches. I'm sure we did. But, I think all of those balls into the box on the ground, like the one Wright scored on, are being counted as crosses.

That brings us to a huge problem with Gregg's tactics. A huge part of our attack was playing balls in, on the ground, to a guy in a crowd who has his back to the goal. Almost never the 9. And, there was never a complimentary run made. The guy receiving the ball was stranded there. If he didn't lose the ball, he ended up passing the ball back out of the box, so we could do the same thing again, until we lost the ball.

That.is.not.a.9.problem.

That is a tactics problem.

 

It's totally true.

Regarding the CF's job, I'm not sure that's true in Gregg's O. Gregg wants a slow as molasses build up, with no attempt to play behind/through the defense, until everyone is organized in and around the box. Gregg has shown zero interest in putting 9's in dangerous positions with the ball. The assertion that there is no 9 in our pool that knows where/when to run is comical.

 

The last bit of analysis I saw said we led everyone in crosses at the WC. IIRC, we were 50% higher than the next highest team.

 

A chart from The Athletic shows we weren't the team to cross the most, but we were very high on the list:



Crossing in and of itself isn't good or bad to me and you see good and bad teams all over that chart. But if you're going to do it you need to have someone capable of doing something with them.

 

Crossing the ball 93 times without Pepi and Pefok is wild. pic.twitter.com/mTslr30q5x

— Daniel (@DanielSmith1022) December 3, 2022