Let me preface with; Tim Ream was legendary in the 2022 World Cup. He has continued to be a vital leader and anchor of our backline into 2024. But here’s the thing…. Due to age, he has lost his starting spot at Fulham already, and he’ll be 38 in 2026. Now, we can say, we keep writing him off and he keeps proving us he’s an important player. But at what point do you say, or do you have to make the choice, okay dude, thank you, but we have to move on. I see a future coaching gig for Tim Ream. He’s got that going for him. His leadership is irreplaceable. But at the same time, I would have no problem if this tournament was his last hurrah. Let him go out on a good note, instead of waiting until he’s as old as Methuselah, and he trips over himself because of his age, and we were too short sighted that he was going to be too old when it counted. 2026.
It depends on how he plays. Age is just a number. If he’s good enough, he’s young enough. People tend to overthink this stuff.
We move on from Ream when a left footed CB takes his spot. Someone has to play that position and if he's the best available then he starts. The question shouldn't be "Do we move on from Ream?" The question is "Who is going to step up and force Ream out of the lineup?" Who is clearly better than Ream right now? Richards and Robinson? To me, that's about it.
I wouldn't preemptively push Ream off the squad. Brazil had Thiago Silva, and Portugal had Pepe in their respective teams for the '22 WC, and both those guys were in their late 30s. It's unlikely that Ream is still good enough in 2026, but it's impossible that he keeps playing better than his competition until then. It's also not like we have high-ceiling younger guys being blocked by him at the moment. Guys like CCV, McKenzie, and Trusty are all in their mid-20s and all look like their ceiling is 2nd-tier Euro leagues. Then the next wave of CBs seems nowhere near ready yet for the full national team.
Let's see how he plays first................................. Thiago Silva is 39 and just played a full Premier League season at a high level. Tim Ream is 36. I don't think its at all appropriate to "pre-emptively" push somebody out the door. Let performance be the decider.
Well based on FBRef match log data, Fulham seems to be actively starting to phase him out too. He was a consistent 90 minute starter from Aug to Dec, but only 4 90 minute games in 2024 out of 6 total appearances in 2024. Based on Trasnfermarkt, his only injury was in Dec to Jan so it does not seem like injuries explain this. I can go either way, I wouldn't be up in arms if we see him start and go 90 in all Copa games nor would it bother me if we started to phase him out too.
how will we know if the young guys can play better than him is we are still playing him? he not playing with fulham, hasnt been for two+ months. its more than fair to question trusty, for example, but hes been starting in the same league over that time and isnt even in camp. so i mean, somethings gotta give. as for where you see those youngers guys- where was ream at 25? a colaship starter/prem reserve, occasional nat player. reams play in the last window bought him this one, imo. if hes not playing regularly with a club then its irrational to say we dont need to look at guys after the copa. i dont know when the time is to present him with a nice watch is, but youre making it out like hes just there until someone clearly surpasses him, while not allowing anyone to do so.
Would any combo of Richards, M Robinson, McKenzie be all that much worse than starting old man Ream? I mean, I guess I will try to be patient with him and see how he does in the friendlies but if the Brazilians and Colombians run all over him I think it would be wise to just look at those other guys.
ream isnt even that good netherlands SMOKED HIM in the world cup gave him total time to pick a pass and couldnt complete a thing...and was a key part of a horrific defensive performance can't wait to see him lay another egg in a crucial game in the copa america ....<<sarcasm>> *he is a decent option and should be in consideration for a roster spot...but nothing more.... I'm sure berhalter has him as a locked in starter, thhough, just because of how he operates.....unfortuantely...... personally I think John Brooks is a better player and does everything ream does ...but better
John Brooks barely played the second half of the season. He's now looking for his 4th club since 2021-2022. There's a reason......................... I'm not some big Tim Ream defender. All I'm saying is that we don't kick somebody out of the pool due to age. Let it be performance-based. If you think somebody like Auston Trusty (who really did get smoked on a weekly basis this year) is better, then that's who we should turn to. We called up 5 CBS to the pre-Copa camp. Right now, I do think Ream is one of our 5 best CBs. That doesn't mean I think he should be our starter.
Netherlands exposed most of our players. The reality is that with our player pool, once you take that leap to the truly next level of quality - the WC QFs/R16 level - you will find most, probably all of our players are going to get exposed by the competition at that level. That's just where we are, and thats fine. That's all to say I don't think singling Tim Ream out for any of that is fair to him as it applies to our whole pool lol.
ill gently push back against this- i think richards is locked in as a starter, while he and miles are 2 and 2a. i agree with the "thats he (berhalter) operates" part, but we have to by what actually happens more than what we expect, however merited- and we just saw the nl semis and finals. the copa is a huge checkpoint for the team in a lot ways- one situation thats been greatly effected by that is ream retaining his place in the team. i think thats very understandable, and as ive said i think ream justified that in the last window. my greater point in this thread is that as soon as the copa is over there will be- certainly should be- a hard reset. johnson or callender wont matter anymore because slonina and schulte will be in the mix. i think paredes walks into the team (and has to show were he fits from there). the cm conversation is going to get way more complicated. but again- we need to give those other cbs under the clear, current top 3 matches. reams incumbency, the idea that someone has to beat him out goes away. waiting for one of our guys to move to and thrive at bayern is just as dumb as saying ream keeps his spot until he crumbles into a pile of dust in front of our eyes.
how do you compare reams token, last day of the season start over the last 2+ months to trustys 20(ish) starts over that same period? how do you evaluate not playing for fulham vs playing for genk? and how do you compare how anyone else could perform for the nats vs ream if they cant get on the pitch. i mean, what is there to misunderstand?
I don't think we really have a handle on it. I think Richards is an automatic starter. I'm not sure we really know who his partner is. In the Nations League, it was Robinson against Jamaica and Ream against Mexico. Same actually for the Ghana/Germany window. It was Ream against Germany and Robinson against Ghana. The other two "A" team games in Berhalter's return were the T&T series in the Nations League. The combo of Ream and CCV started both of those games. Richards was in the squad, but didn't play. That was also while Richards wasn't getting into games for Palace. The pairing of Richards and CCV hasn't played together in Berhalter's second tenure. Have they ever partnered? That might take more effort to figure out than I want to put into it. Certainly not in the last couple of years. Anyway, my point is we don't really know what Berhalter's top pairing is. But Ream has been involved in every "A" team window since Berhalter's second tenure started.
He's behind Calvin Bassey, who is a very good player. At his age, it is probably not a bad thing to not have a full load of matches. He just needs enough to stay sharp.
The thread title is whether this should be his last hurrah. So the answer is, you’re not asking the right question because this thread is about later, not now. So I guess the misunderstanding is what time period this thread is about. I’m pretty sure it starts up this fall. Otherwise it’d have a different thread title. This whole thread is ultimately asking people to have an opinion about things which haven’t happened yet, which is kind of a dumb topic. Maybe revisit this after we see hm play this summer? Right? If he’s good enough, he’s young enough. What other answer could there even be???
I think integrating players in is overrated, especially when tournaments have long camps beforehand. Tim Ream got called up to Qatar after being absent from The NT for 15 months, and that was with a shorter than usual pre tournament camp and zero friendlies. He reintegrated into the lineup seamlessly. I know some people are gonna say he's a veteran, but his experience with our current group was actually quite limited and he had little to no reps with Turner and Zimmerman. Obviously when we play friendlies there'll be room on the squad to experiment at the fringes, but we don't need to start just doing large scale experiments for a tournament that's still a long way away. Guys like Richards, CCV, Robinson and McKenzie will get their caps naturally. And let's say hypothetically come January 2026 someone like Maximillian Dietz is getting regular minutes and playing well in The Bundesliga, you have a March camp, a pre World Cup Camp and tune up friendlies to get him up to speed. This is a long way of saying Tim Ream should remain on the National Team as long as he's one of our 26 (or 23) best players. That may no longer be the case this Fall, or he might still be kicking in 2 years
I don't think he should be kicked off the team, but I do think we need to acknowledge reality and that means trying different partners (MRob, CCV, McKenzie, Trusty) alongside Richards and seeing which of those partnerships work best.
Sure, but we were already doing that. The fact is that over the past 2-3 years we've had a series of injury problems with those guys. Heck, Tim Ream may have only made the World Cup roster because Richards and Robinson were out longer-term. Mark McKenzie and CCV had injuries in the fall that kept them out of some windows (toe injury and hamstring injury respectively). Even Jalen Neal, the young CB we started at the 2023 Gold Cup, subsequently had a long-term injury. We called up Josh Wynder to a camp in April 23, the U20 CB at Benfica. He's been out long-term with an injury as well. Both of those were hernia injuries/surgeries if I remember correctly. [Is it just me or is that a more frequent injury these days?] Its actually old man Ream that's been pretty healthy over the past couple of years. Hence why he played so much in Sep, Oct, Nov windows. He had a bit of a calf injury around Christmas. That gave Bassey a foot in the door of the Fulham starting XI. Ream has definitely been part of the group. I'm not arguing with that, of course. He's been more than that. He's seemingly been a leader. I'd just push back a little on the notion that we haven't been thinking of the future. What was starting Jalen Neal at the Gold Cup about???? [Part of the problem with regards to the future is the dearth of U23 CBs. Hence why folks are advocating for two overage CBs at the Olympics. A much discussed topic.] The fact is that we've relied on Ream for a number of reasons, and he's by-and-large delivered. Could the Copa be "Ream's last hurrah" if other guys really step up? Sure. But let's see it happen first.
To partner with Ream. Ream was the starter, then the calf injury happened..................... According to transfermarkt, Bassey was actually RCB with Ream those games before the injury.