If he was on a mid table BL team and scoring and contributing at a high level we’d all be very happy but that wouldn’t change the fact that most of his numbers have been against sub part international competition. Similar to Jozy. Morris def been one of our more productive players. Sadly not saying much but true. That doesn’t change that we’re playing a 4-3-3 and our two most talented wingers are Pulisic and Gio. Morris won’t be used as 9 by 3G and we won’t move to a 4-2-3-1. Gio isn’t going to be played as CM in a 3 and Pulisic is miscast there too. That means Morris to the bench.
I'd definitely put Morris in the starting line up ahead of Sargent, Zardes, Yuevill, Lletget and even McKennie, I doubt that 17 yo Reyna is 90 minutes player. I don't care which league who is playing, Donovan, Pope, Mastroyeni spent their careers in MLS and didn't get worse because of that. If GB isn't able to put his best players on the field he is just a lousy coach. What may be the cause of course.
I wouldn’t start him over Wes. Wes brings something to this team we desperately need. Either way. It won’t ever be about those two. This is about Morris and our system. He’s got two positions he can play according to Greg. LW or RW. He isn’t beating out Pulisic and at this rate he won’t be beating out Gio either.
The thread topic is 'Best 11 right now', 'not 'Coaching Philosophies' . Morris is likely the best forward, right now. Maybe Pepi and Soto come move into the conversation later in the year.
Morris prob is the best Striker we have right now. Jozy isn’t 90 minutes and just flashes now, the kids aren’t there yet and Zardes is trash. As for the thread... it has long been debated about whether it’s Best 11 for Greg, our Best 11 or a mix of who we think the Best 11 of who will be called in will be. It def varies from one poster to the next. Surprise.
I was just talking with someone who suggested we go Bunker Bob empty bucket... —————Sarge———Morris————— ——--Pulisic———————Gio————- ————Wes——————Adams——— AR———-Brooks———Long———Dest
I think Gio should play in the center as he's the type of passer we severely lack there. But with an obvious solution handed to him on a platter, Berhalter will stick him on the wing and keep worrying about how to continue developing Yueill or hoping Bradley finds his legs again while working on more ways to get our defensive midfielder the ball in our own half.
Most of any player's numbers are going to come against sub-whatever competition, especially in Concacaf.
Where are your attempts at optimism? I see you saying that we're sticking with a minor league regista (who isn't a top quartile player even in MLS) as our central distributor......
Well, I'd been banking on the team evolving slowly and hoping our injured players come back and take their obvious spots and all goes well. Give Berhalter time to learn and surely he'll adjust and so forth. Maybe it really has just been the injuries keeping the team all misshapen. But, that quote threw it all out the window. Not to beat a dead horse, the part of the quote that just dropped my jaw was this..."there are so many ways we’ve figured to get the 6 the ball and we’ve done so much work in that area" As if this is something to accomplish? No team gives a shit about Bradley/Trapp/Yueill sitting 70 yards from the goal with the ball. Getting one of your mediocre passing 6s on the ball deep is one of the easiest tasks this team faces because no team even cares enough to prevent it. If anything, they want the 6s we trot out there on the ball so they can attack them with it and create turnovers with numbers up. That's the priority? It's honestly even dumber than I'd imagined.
Seems so many here, and in general, are constantly assuming Egg will "come around" to the generally accepted thinking here (ie. drop Bradley for good, start Adams at the 6, limit Zardes PT, figure out LB with robinson once healthy, allow our young GKs to serve as backups rather than Guzan), but I'm not sure this is happening. And as you and others have mentioned, these Athletic article quotes seem to show he's nearly ready to double down, and stick an average MLS player behind 2 of our best CMs who are defensively inclined, while benching either Morris or Reyna. At some point we need to take this guy for what he says, and believe it. He's not learning, he's not doing the obvious things/making the obvious selections our player pool dictates, but effectively demanding a player who is, maybe, in our top 35 overall, starts, and starts every game (whether this is amazingly bradley still, or Trapp, or Yeuill).
I always liked Berhalter for his no nonsense approach when he played, but lets be honest, he's always been second rate. His playing career was mostly second division stuff, his coaching record in MLS is strictly average and when he got a job at a mediocre level in Europe he was run out in short order. I really should not expect better.
Egg wasn't even first rate for MLS. Also, contrary to what people here pretend to believe, most of our players are quite second rate too. That's why we have all this talk of teens becoming awesome.
I know Berhalter loves Dutchness, is he dyslexic? We must make sure their worst players get the ball the most. You’ll get it back in no time. - Cruyff
He operates out of the winger role more than CAM as they don’t play with a traditional 10. Modern wingers do a little bit of both. He’s got skillsets for both. However, with how we play he’s a winger. He isn’t a CM in a 3 man mid with a 6 like bradley, Trapp or Yeuill
Tata took one look at the US team and came up with the game plan, in the GC Final, to isolate Long with the ball. He let Long try and pass the ball wherever he wanted and Long failed all night. Long has the most minutes under Gregg and is basically inked into the starting 11 by everyone. You can't play the game Gregg wants to play with a weak link. If there is nobody else that can defend, then the game has to be changed. That might be happening.
This is spot on, depressing, but spot on. People can point to the Canada, Jamaica, Mexico or whatever other terrible Berhalter game they want. The turning point for me on completely souring with GGG was the Curacao game. They are what GGG and his vaunted system are described as and they are doing it with vastly inferior players. Watching them ole our hapless players put paid to any sort of talent discrepancy argument.