i think we could see pulisic both starting (positionally) and moving even more narrow (as close to a second striker) with gio as "10"/attacking 8 above a pseudo-double pivot. gio naturally plays in the space wes often did as our left-sided 8, much moreso than right on the top of the box. im going to try (very poorly) to illustrate how i see the movement in possession/attacking... pepi pulisic> ^ <reyna ^ weah mckennie ^ adams> ^ jedi <dest pepi plays pretty straight up with weah as a fairly standard right wing. pulisic cuts in and towards goal as the "secondary" attacker, with reyna drifting towards the left (and deeper picking up possession) in the space under pulisic, with jedi giving us the straight line/overlap width on that side. wes moves from a deeper position into the space reyna vacates, including that lane to make deep runs into where hes especially dangerous. dest (most in need of a diagonal button here) can both fill that space wes leaves (as a de facto second "dm") or moving past him (inside weah) which is generally what he does now. adams (again- this is all in possession/attack) moves centrally, sitting on top of the backline. but "offensively" that gives us three distinct attacking triangles- reyna dropping under pul with jedi overlapping, wes and weah combining with/under pepi, and reyna playing more directly, with wes pushing up in support/level with him making pepi the fulcrum. ive been saying for well over a couple of years now we need to build our attack on quick combination play while greatly reducing the reliance on crosses, and reyna "for" musah goes a long way towards that. wes has been able to combine very well with both pulisic and weah, depending on which side he was on, but reyna gives us that ability to combine on both sides. musah and ldlt are both really good-great players who are, in a way, specialists at this point (carrying and distributing, respectively) but neither are able to combine at the level and certainly with the speed of thought of weah and pulisic. which is why we cant be one thing. "best 11" is such a mythical thought-excercise, if we saw the guys i see as that together five times this cycle it would be a miracle. musah can replicate wes (at a lower level than many here want to believe), but luca cant do what reyna does. so you can have "small" variations- say musah for wes, but use aaronson for weah to better support what musah does. the next ripple is maybe scally is the better call at rb with play more narrow on that side where he is primarily/predominantly stay at home, but can contribute those straight line runs on the right absent weah. aaronson for reyna centrally (in my initial layout) can be a half-measure- one stop before going full mma- to give us a really strong pressing in the middle, above tyler and wes. and obviously mma is always an option. ...i guess thats a pretty drawn-out response to idea that reyna/pulisic may want to occupy the same space too much, huh?
oh gosh, i just looked at that hot mess for the first time, one more try to space it out... ______________pepi____________ pulisic>___________________^___ ______<reyna____^________weah_ ____________mckennie__________ _^______adams>___________^____ jedi_____________________<dest__
If we really want to figure this out, Hudson is going to have to pull back some of the positional freedom he's given. The midfield was not particularly stout against pretty poor attacking competition in these last two games, and the cause was partially the weird passive midblock we played at times, partially the personnel (Gio+LDLT is not much of defensive midfield) but a lot of it was a lack of positional discipline. We got out of position and strung out a lot. Not just the midfield, but everyone. Counterpressing was turned off or weak, the lines were inconsistent and strung out. It'll be interesting to see how we handle it against Mexico and hopefully Canada, but losing Adams + pushing forward more in attack + allowing more offensive freedom and overloads generally means you're simply not in a great spot to defend and you don't have your best defenders. But we could against Grenada and an El Salvador that mostly attacked with basically one striker long.
Yeah, I'm really curious how this will play out against better competition. With Adams out, to me the question is do we just throw in someone like Acosta who will sit deeper and play more defensively or do we try to get Musah and McKennie to play with more discipline and cover those spaces. Personally, I'd at least like to get a look at Musah and McKennie playing those deeper roles because I think both of them have abilities we don't get bringing in someone like Acosta. They are both mobile, physical and can tackle. Both are willing to put in the work and bring better skills on the ball and potential to play forward. But they will need to be disciplined in their approach for it to work. They have both played deeper midfield roles at times with their clubs so it's not like we are asking them to do things they have never done before. And, if it does work out, we could really benefit from having some better passers playing in that part of the field. We could also start to see more options for resting Adams and developing guys who can play in those spaces when he's not available if successful. It's a risk, but it is a risk that could yield some pretty big rewards if it is successful. We just saw it work out against teams up to the level of El Salvador, and while Grenada took occasional advantage of some lapses in midfield to run through, El Salvador did nothing through the middle although they barely even tried. The next step is seeing it against a better team who actually does try to attack.
Good news on the bolded: I saw a report that Adams' surgery was arthroscopic (minimally invasive surgery) Arthroscopic Hamstring Repair | Orthopedic Medical Center (orthomedctr.com) Get well, Tyler !!
The new hot take in USMNT twitter is that Adams is a liability for Leeds and the US. No. What people witnessed was Roca finally playing well and McKennie, a guy that I think has always lacked consistency and at times fails to impact a game, doing so. Yea, Adams doesn’t provide much in the final third, but if you NEED your CDM to play that role then your problems lie elsewhere. Heck, if Leeds’ forwards weren’t blowing so many chances at the beginning of the season they probably constantly playing hopscotch on the relegation line.
The problem with Leeds at the beginning of the season wasn't scoring. Leeds scored enough to be solidly mid table. The problem was defense but you could point at a lot of problems there. they had Struik at left back when he is really a cb. They now have Firpo at lb. Leeds didn't have Wober. Let's see how the Adams haters fare when Leeds play somebody other than Forest. Adams would have helped a lot v. Arsenal, e.g. Palace on Sunday will be a good test even without Zaha who is out. I watched them v. Leicester April 1. Palace had 31 shots to Leicester's 3. Let's see if Meslier can stop 31 shots. Palace won 2-1.
Well, Adams is a liability. He has clear limits as a player. They're just eclipsed by how good he is at the things he does well, and he's just really solid in our system (and it's also worth noting it's a system that benefits him). We have bigger problems, but he needs to address the hole in his game.
I think he has gotten better with the ball and is now acceptable in his decisions and execution with the ball.
Whenever I hear about Adams' limitations i am reminded about another midfielder who was said to be limited, Claude Makelele. What ZZ said in disgust when Madrid sold Makelele to Chelsea is appropriate to any discussion of Adams.
With Adams injured, Dest not playing, Reyna out of favor/recovering, Pefok reduced to a non-scoring sub, and LDLT and Wright emerging, I have to give this another shot: ----------------------Turner------------------------ Cannon------McKenzie------Ream------Jedi ------------Musah---------LDLT------------------ Weah-------------Weston---------------Pulisic ---------------------Wright-----------------------
We're recovering, so compared to the last 8 years this is quite good. Anyone who started following in those years must feel this is the best USMNT ever.
Seriously. If we had a must win match tomorrow you'd start Cannon at RB? You'd start Wright at the #9. You'd start McKenzie at CB? And guys like Zimmerman, MRob, Richards, Pepi, Scally, and Dest are on the sidelines. Wow.
If we went with a 442 diamond ———-Balogun————Pepi——— ———————Pulisic—————— ———McKennie———Musah——— Jedi—————Adams—————Dest ———Ream——————-Miles——- ———————Turner———————
What's most interesting about all these "best XIs' is how almost nobody has Reyna listed. Yet some many on here wanted to bash Berhalter ad infinitum for his use at the WC. Funny how that works.
With Adams injured, Balogun yet to file to paperwork, Reyna out for Dortmund, and Dest not playing--- ---------------Pepi------JMorris-------- -----Pulisic--------------------------Weah------ ------------McKennie-----Musah-------- --Jedi-----------------------------------Scally--- ----------Ream--------Robinson--- --------------------Turner----
I'd like to see several second forward formations as we have several players that would be good fits at off forwards and no one who is a must start every game at the single forward spot. Agree that with Adams out it is a good time to try it.
I know it’s harder to come by for the older guys but you really want to use minutes here. For instance Morris has 11 in 2,064 minutes for .48 G/90. Lletget has 8 in 1,876 for .38 G/90. Wes has 11 in 3,315 for .30 G/90, which is still a great rate for an American CM.
And Weah hasn't player winger in months. NT is a different animal. We're not going to play Puli as a wingback or de la Torre as a LM. Also, McKenzie is doing well with Genk. He deserves another shot with the NT. Two strikers is silly when our strikers are subpar. Including Balogun shouldn't be allowed until he switches.
When one of the two strikers is Pulisic, Reyna, or even Aaronson or Zendejas it starts to look a lot better. Pepi with Balogun might work but they don’t seem to complement each other well.