Weah will be more dangerous from the fullback position. He has more intelligence than Dest and knows when to move into space centrally from the fullback position - and when not to because defense comes first. I see a lot of discussion about Scally but little when it comes to how Berhalter will spell his best players so we don't have the same situation as Qatar 2022, when people were blaming Gregg for overplaying starters and tiring them out for the most important game in R16 v. Nederland. Against Bolivia, how about 45' each for Weah rb and ARob lb with Scally going 90' and splitting time rb and lb? That gets the sub ready for the eventuality that one of Weah and ARob have to sit one out while resting ARob and Weah. How about selecting our cb's so we can bring 3 fb's and play Richards, say, at fb case need. Heck, why not play Scally 90' v. Panama for Weah so Weah is ready for Uruguay? I'm sure Berhalter & Co. can come up with a scheme of subbing that is better than mine. Maybe the idea is not to overemphasize the Uruguay game and finishing 1st but rather to have players fresh for the quarterfinals.
Back then they were easily the best option. Today, things change and Musah may not be there for me. But Aaronson is showing his international value at the moment. There's got to be something better to replace Musah or change formations.
Here's CBS' Chuck Booth's opinion on this, with some edits, and possible Dest replacements' names highlighted. Basically, he's saying "there's no obvious replacement for Dest": ... "Not only is Dest the unquestioned starter at right back, but he's also the primary backup for Antonee Robinson at left back. In 33 caps for the national team, the team has a record of 18-8-7 when Dest starts with three of those losses coming with him at left back. With the USMNT picking up four losses during Dest's career during non-January Camp matches that he didn't appear in, his importance to the side is quite clear. Dest's passing abilities can help overload teams and as he has gotten more experience during his career, Dest has also become less of a defensive liability as well. You need to look no further than the Concacaf Nations League semifinals where Dest was suspended to see his importance. Joe Scally started the game and was out of his depth, being beaten for Jamaica's opening goal and the match ended with Weston McKennie playing right back to push the pace forward. If Dest can't go, we've taken a look at the options to replace him, but to say that they're lacking would be an understatement. Chris Richards, who should be the starting center back at Copa America maybe being the best option says all that you need to know about the player pool. While Richards has been a strong performer for Palace this season, moving him will not only cause Berhalter to need to reshuffle his back line, but also his playstyle. Richards is a more conservative passer and stay-at-home defender, which helps keep clean sheets against top teams, but not when it comes to actually attacking against them. Tim Weah may have played right wing back for both Lille and Juventus, but it's a very different world playing as a wing back in a back five compared to a right back in a back four. The defensive obligations are higher and if Berhalter moved Weah from winger to right back while plugging someone like Gio Reyna at winger ahead of him, he'd be asking teams to target his right flank all day. As Jesse Marsch succinctly put it on the latest episode of CBS Sports Golazo Network's Call It What You Want, "He doesn't look comfortable there." It might take a shift to a back three to accommodate Weah in a more natural position, but that creates issues as well due to then requiring a midfielder to be dropped. With Tyler Adams back from injury -- sort of -- midfield is full with him, Yunus Musah, and McKennie. Even if Adams can't start a game, Johnny Cardoso and Reyna would then come knocking for central positions. Midfield has been one of the USMNT's strengths, so disrupting that midfield would be more trouble than it's worth. Looking at other right back options, Scally has shown that he should be a backup unless he shows rapid improvement ahead of the summer, DeAndre Yedlin is useful but likely doesn't bring enough to the table to defeat teams like Brazil, Shaq Moore is injured, DeJuan Jones could be an option and Nathan Harriel has been impressive for the Union but would be better served starting at the Olympics than being on the bench at Copa America."
Also Weah would have Pulisic (not Gio as Chuck Booth suggests) in front of him who has been putting in excellent shifts defensively for Pioli at Milan. Having said that, ahem (clears throat), the midfielder helping out there matters a lot. If you watched the Coppa yday, notice how Allegri moved McK away from Weah.
Pulisic’s defense has improved and he has had his best performance on that front with Milan. I absolutely watched the Coppa and fully disagree that Allegri moved Wes away to provide better support. When they were chasing I did seem him get into the box more. For Juve typically Wes and the RWB form a partnership and frequently swap positions. To the degree that Wes spends 30-50 of the match in the RWB position. However Wes did not play well yesterday, misplaying a lot of makable passes and not making up for it in other areas, and I knew that would bring you joy.
His underlying numbers are much stronger since February than before, .84 npxG+xA/90. That’s basically best XI level underlyings. It’s 150% of his season average rate.
Whatever the underlying numbers, Balogun hasn't been scoring at a frequency that would suggest he should be a lock starter. At some point, the ball needs to be going in the net.
I agree with that. There is something to be said about starting for the current second place team in Ligue 1. That's not small potatoes. That said, when Sarg, Haji, and even Vazquez are absolutely gatecrashing important goals for their teams, that could upend it.
Monaco paid 40 million euro for the player. They're going to give him every opportunity to succeed. The US doesn't have do that.
Oh yeah, and we gotta be very happy about that. They're not going to give up on him. Especially given Ben Yedder is getting older and has legal issues hanging over his head. He could be "the guy" sooner rather than later one way or the other.
Just one thing: Allegri has been sporadically moving his midfielders to chiesa's side, juve's left, to draw the opposition to that side leaving the rwb by himself in space. It's the same whether it is McK earlier or Weah when Weah came on and Cambiaso sat. I think a lot of what Allegri is doing has to do with sorting out what he's got, what he should keep for next year and what he needs to buy. I think he keeps Weah and sells McK. What do you think? Obviously those kinds of things can change rapidly in the soccer world depending on many factors but that is how I see it at the moment.
His ratings are down in all the sites keeping score. Compare Sept.-Oct. 2023: https://ibb.co/2NhWQsb To current form: https://ibb.co/Nmv8Zv1
He is scoring non-penalty goals at the frequency of a 74th percentile Ligue 1 FW. He’s 10th in Ligue 1 in frequency of non-penalty goals scored. So the point at which the ball is going in the net for him, is significantly more often than most players.
These sites have no real empirical rigor are basically duel win + ball go in trackers. The DAVIES xGoalsadded system converts all the stats recorded on FBref (which is from the same data provider as the sources you cite) into how those actions tend to help or hurt a team’s goal difference in a match. It has Balogun as the 26th best player in Ligue 1 (when comparing a player’s per 90 expected effect on goal difference vs the avg player at their position). https://mimburgio.shinyapps.io/alphonso/_w_515375f8/#tab-7943-3 Unfortunately I don’t think this interface shows the game by game rating.
Malik Tillman just beatin that ass for PSV, two goals before half no big deal. PSV up 5-0. Title is all but officially wrapped up
He is tied for 11th with 7 goals. He has zero goals in four matches for the US this year. None of these would suggest he should be the starter for the US. Should he be in the mix? Sure.
No goals in 4 games!?! When you project that trend out into the future that’s 0 goals in infinity games!!! That would be horrible.