If you are going play Ream, it makes a lot more sense to pair someone who can handle counters and is good in the air (Ream, despite his height, is not). I'm glad CCV is doing well, but he's become wildly overrated for playing in a league for the team with by far the most talent in the league. Celtic has 73% possession and takes 20 shots a game. He should absolutely be called in and given time, but his edge in passing doesn't overcome some of the defensive elements, and especially not when paired with Ream.
3313 - let's see who is tactically aware in our group. Adams is having hamstring surgery and will be out for the season at Leeds. How long did Weah take to rehab from hamstring surgery? It was quite a while. ----puisic------pepi-----reyna ----------------aaronson ----scally-------dmid----paredes -----ream-------zim------miles -------------gk: turner *edit: I actually have no idea if CCV, Trusty, Richards could be better somewhere in the back line, especially with Ream getting up there in age. They need tryouts in the 3 back system to see how they fare. CCV has done well there in the past iirc, v. Italy e.g. We will need a left footer like Trusty.
Ream - CCV was the line up used in the do-or-die WC game against Iran and was pretty outstanding. CCV has been developing really nicely. I'd go with him. Others may go in another direction. There's a lot of competition for the spot next to Ream.... all who have gotten looks recently... CCV, M. Robinson, McKenzie, Richards, EPB, Zimmerman, Trusty
CCV was okay. He made a couple mistakes that he didn't get punished for, and we had to put in Zimmerman at the end because Iran was murdering us in the air. I'm not anti-CCV, but I don't think he pairs particularly well with Ream. He has improved a ton and should totally be in the mix. I just personally really like to have at least one fast guy and one guy who is great in the air in a pairing (and one passer). I think it gives you more freedom in other spaces if you aren't trying to compensate. Generally, I think the idea of a best XI is silly anyway -- playing CCV over Zimmerman against Stones, Maguire and Kane on set pieces would have been super dangerous, for example. But in other situations, CCV might be better.
Yeah, always going to prioritize a strong and more versatile 3 man CM as my first choice. Reyna is capable of great things at his best, but he's somewhat rarely at his best with the US team IMO. I don't start him right now as a first choice.
Reyna made a couple of diagonal runs with the ball that had me holding my breath for one of those Dortmundesque wonder strikes of his. It didn't happen this time but I'm holding out for the next Mexico match. ETA, just to make this post relevant to the topic: I don't have a best 11 right now, but whatever it is, it has Reyna.
He doesn’t really dribble anyone good, but I agree with everything else in addition to the fact that he also combines very well. As long as we can get Gio in the middle going forward, Weah still has a grip on that RW job. I’m hoping that Booth and Zendejas become the pecking order nipping at Weah’s heels.
Ideally CCV will make a move this summer to a mid level top 5 league team. Not a lot left for him to do in Scotland.
This is our deepest and most talented position group by far in my opinion. LW: Pulisic, Reyna, Aaronson, Zendejas RW: Weah, Booth, Zendejas, Reyna CAM: Reyna, Booth, Zendejas, Mihailovic
Nothing’s changed for me in the last six months: Pepi Puli Reyna Aaronson Luca Adams Jedi Ream Miles Dest What is different are the viable options off the bench. Forward( Sargent, Weah), CM Depth (Musah and Mck), Winger/AM depth (Weah, zendejas, Booth), RB/LB (Scally, Reynolds). And it seems like the list is growing and the drop-off from starter to sub shrinking.
Eh he’s def a top 11 talent but I wouldn’t pen him into an 11 just yet. Against teams that we will dominate possession against us id go with MMA in mid and likely go with Weah over Gio at RW and Puli at LW and Sarge or Flow if he joins us at ST. He’d be the first attacking sub tho. Against teams we’re gonna dominate or at least go toe to toe id switch up to the double pivot with 2 of MMA and put Gio as the 10 in front of them.
Some people don't appreciate one of our best players. For all the talk of lack of offensive production, Weston has 11 goals in 43 caps, not that far off from Brian Ching (11/45), Wondolowski (11/35), Morris (10/51), Wolff (9/52), Mathis (12/46), Klopas (12/39), Wood (13/45), Hugo Perez (13/73), Zardes (14/67) and on pace to overtake Stewart (17/101) and not that far off Wynalda's pace (34/106 -- Weston would have 27 at this pace). Of course, those dude were all forwards. Weston's our best scoring midfielder on a per game basis that I can see, ever, unless you call Landon that (and he's certainly not an 8). His five assists are not spectacular, but not exactly shabby -- Sacha Klejstan only had five in more games. He's also a great box to box defender, and the emotional heartbeat of the team and the guy who brings energy. He's a big game player. But yes, let's bench Weston.
I agree that Wes is a far more offensive player than he gets credit for, and I find it pretty bizarre really. His first appearance he scored a really nice goal against Portugal, has a slew of highlight reel goals from his time in Italy and is consistently the most attack minded guy we play in midfield until this window when Gio finally took a role there. And even then, he's the guy who set up the goal we needed against El Salvador. But I do think Gio taking a midfield spot is going to force a few changes in how this team plays. The most significant to me may be down the left with Jedi and Pulisic and then who are the guys you play with Gio in the center. If you have Gio in the middle, you don't want Pulisic always cutting inside and want him to take the attacking opportunities down the left. And that's going to require Jedi leaving some space for him. I do think you can still have Wes getting involved in the attack from midfield because one of his other big strengths is making recovery runs back when he does get into the attack and once Adams gets back, we already have one guy who's not going to be moving forward much. To me, this leads to a question whether you want Musah or Wes to be part of the midfield if you don't want 4 mids. And I think that's a real question that can be answered both ways with solid reasoning. Then again, we will need all of them to be healthy and available before we run into that issue and that's a lot easier said than done.
Praise Pepi and his goal but the pass made it possible. Let's sit that guy who makes those passes down. Certainly. He does have a tremendous work rate; makes good tackles; is solid in the air; etc. Hate blinds and we have a couple haters posting regularly.
I think you never want to be in the position to depend on Weston to be one of our 'best/star' players, but you are almost always going to want him on the field. When he's not having one of his dominant games we probably should hook him sooner, but he's consistently more impactful than either Musah or Adams (but never really 'looks' it).
You hate Wes we know. But if we’re going up against a team like Brazil that’s the best midfield we can start with. They’ll close down everything and make it very difficult to play through the middle. We’re not good enough to go out and play our way and not adapt at all against anyone.
Yeah... IMO, it is the best midfield we have to play against the best offensive nations for the reason you specified but you give up some creativity so you are looking to draw or hopefully win 1-0 or 2-1.
Assuming Weah's situation is not lengthy. Adams will be out for quite some time. Dest needs to find a team. Assuming the Balogun paperwork will be forthcoming. Weah is better at rm, rwb, and rb than closer to goal. ----------------------Pepi------Balogun----------- -------Pulisic-----Musah----McKennie-----Weah-- ---Jedi--------------------------------------------------Scally--- -------------------Ream---------Robinson--- ----------------------------Turner-----
You have any info? For me it looked as the kid underappreciated in Europe decided to squeeze his 15 minutes of fame. Hope you are right, though.
It sucks that Tyler is injured. The silver lining is that we’ll be forced to find out whether Musah and Weston are stout enough together to allow us to play an ACM. I hope they are. I think Tyler had been developing his ability to push forward and play dangerous balls forward occasionally under Marsch. Not sure if that will continue but just like we need Gio (or someone) to be better pressing and defending we need that from Tyler (or someone) to get to the next level.