Pulisic hasn't recovered form, yet. Freeman needs to get settled in with Villarreal Scally has been benched Adams is back Banks continues to rack up starts and results It's disappointing Kochen didn't get a loan.
RSL had tried to transition him to CAM last season, but Luna looked better as a left-sided attacker or second forward. Tillman at CAM would certainly work. He has an excellent record with the US at CAM. It's too bad he's not a great fit for Leverkusen's system.
I just tend to think Balogun is ineffective without a good progressive passer behind him in the middle
Balo's main strength is getting behind.... so yeah. he needs someone who can break lines w/ a pass or he needs a strike partner who can flick on headers and quick touches. I am also souring on the idea of having Dest at forward. He isn't the best final ball passer and he can't even score for the most dominant team in the Eredivisie. I think Weah is a better crosser and is more goal dangerous.... I also think Dest is a better defender so I would have Weah at RW and Dest at RB/RWB. Lastly, we have been so much more successful w/ 3 in the back... either with 3CBs or w/ 2CBs and RB/RCB hybrid... and given how meh Jedi has been in his return I think we could have a guy like Freeman play at RB/RCB w/ Dest at RWB and Weah at RW.... would be a killer right hand side.
ive said it over and over, but adams at one cm spot/puli at one 10 with wes and tillman stacked and interchanging vertically on the other side. balo/pepi up top (pepi for me). weah and jedi on the wings (though jedi is worrying me, and i would rather have arfsten on the left than flipping either weah or dest). richards, freeman and freese. any of trusty/banks/mckenzie by miles and miles ahead of ream at lcb. thats my team. __________freese__________ ___freeman_richards_trusty___ weah__mckennie_adams__jedi __tillman____________puli___ ___________pepi___________ thats the team. rotate with up to 3 of dest, mckenzie, arfsten, tesserman, ba and balo. the three lcb options i listed are just a feel thing. i believe- and i know im in a minority- that morris is the closest we can get to adams which makes him a mortal lock for me. luna and agyemang are the wildcards off the bench. i dont see anyone else making an impact, and anything beyond spot minutes for ream will cripple us. if you "trust" ream more than youd be comfortable with banks we see the game in entirely different ways. and wes should wear the armband. dont @ me.
——————————Wes————————— ——————————wes—————————— ———wes—————-wes ———-—-Wes——— ——————————Wes——————————- Wes——————————————-————-Wes —————-Wes————————-Wes—————- ——————————-Wes——————————- Prove me wrong
Saw on ESPN that Herc Gomez put out the following as his starting XI vs Paraguay. He didn't really talk about game-planning against Paraguay, so the impression is that this is Herc's best XI... Balogun Pulisic-McKennie Jedi-Adams-Tessmann-Dest Ream-Richards-Freeman Freese Commentary acknowledged 1 Ream is older/less mobile, but he will have cover 2 Arfsten very possible instead of Jedi 3 Malik and McKennie are close to a tossup, but Wes has been in great form recently Not a bad XI.
That's my projected starting XI exactly. As I put in another thread, there's a bunch of that which is kind of a toss up. ...................like how often has Poch played Wes in that position? ....................we haven't used a Tessmann/Adams central midfield since the poor Panama game at the Nations League. ........................Jedi hasn't played with the group since November of 2024. There are locks on the team now that he probably has never even met. Freeman, for instance.
What’s the argument that supports that, “we have been so much more successful w/ 3 in the back”, when Poch has used that his entire tenure?
Balogun; Pulisic, McKennie, Aaronson; Adams, Johnny; Robinson, Richards, Banks, Dest; GK Tillman and Pulisic aren’t fully fit so Aaronson starts and Tillman is the sub for Pulisic. Weah could easily fit in there. Front 3 shifts to Wes at RM, Pulisic CAM, and Brendo LM if that makes more sense on D to hide Pulisic. Tessmann vs. Johnny is close to a coin flip and somewhat matchup dependent. Probably want a 3 man rotation to protect Tyler’s health. Richards has more credible reps at LCB. McKenzie hasn’t taken his chance so going talent here.
Here's a completely off the cuff idea that might be what I think performs the best. CF: Balogun RW: McKennie RCAM: Tillman LW-as-CAM: Pulisic LB: Jedi if healthy, Arfsten if not CM: Adams, Roldan providing widespread cover RB: Dest or Freeman * see below CB: Richard and Heck if I know. McKenzie? Banks? GK: I guess it's Freese. Writing the lineup in this order is such a downer at the end. I'm front loading my attack. I'm not completely convinced we have the right mix or cohesion on the overloads to do them completely right. The Paraguay match had lots of nice things but also suffered from terrible spacing with Tessman crowding into Reyna's space and pushing him back. Them plus a dribbly Dest plus ineffective Scally made for a pretty right side with very little bite -- I'm not overly shocked the first goal came from Arfsten being over there. In this version, I replace Tessman's offense with Roldan's willingness to always cover, allowing Tillman to stay forward. He's my outpost, my tentpole and I'm running Pulisic and McKennie off him and allowing him to distribute back to them or Balogun. I try to envision Tessman or Johnny covering the ground that Roldan does ... and I just can't. I haven't seen it for the US so as long as I think this become a priority for this role, they drop down a bit. I'm not certain about Freeman v. Dest, because, you know Dest is better, but I'm bringing McKennie, Tillman and Pulisic together around Balogun ... I don't know really where Dest plays there and I think Freeman's size on set pieces and more value staying back makes sense. But perhaps Dest is still better as a build out piece and occasional marauder, trading off with McKennie. I could convince myself the other if the have enough time to work out the back and forth. I think Pochettino's ideal world, we've got a very fluid team interchanging and covering for each other. I like that, and so I've largely picked guys I think will do that and have the soccer IQ to do so. But I'm also not relying so much on that, and simply trying to overload the attack with talent and the back with more work rate because of the ground they may need to cover. I don't know that we need to bring six a lot, or should, so I've built around it being a more sporadic thing than Pochettino likely will. If we do bring six, I think they likely should be a wide player ... hence some angling to Freeman. Weah's the only guy at RW where I think the sixth could be an interior player and not cause counterproductive traffic jams ... and I'd use him if I thought bringing one of the CMs more often made a lot of sense. But I can't see us bringing six into attack A LOT against top teams. (In that case, putting McKennie or Tillman back and bringing them into attack would be ruthless ... but we've not leaving a lot home). Also, aside from Pulisic, this is an excellent counter pressing group, which will work in great tandem with Adams and Roldan flying around. I think the build up will be fine in most cases with Poch's tactics and Tillman presenting back more. But that would be the weakness of this lineup versus others. There's definitely some skill gap there.
McKennie has been 'generational' in the attack. Tillman has been very adept when played at the 6/8 positions. Tillman can also be rotated into CAM.
25/26 league npG+A/90: .34 Tillman .37 McKennie Tillman has only occasionally played in the 6/8 position (vast majority of his CM time coming as one of two 8/10s in a 3). In one of the 2-3 times as an actual 6 he had a disastrous outing against Ajax after which he and his manager talked about how it wasn’t something he wanted to do or was particularly suited to and how it was something they weren’t planning on doing going forward (he was only playing there because of an injury crisis). Playing next to Adams with 3 CBs behind him is basically the easy-mode version of a double pivot in possession and would allow him to push up as the ball advances. He can do a lot of the combination work one wants from a pivot but, because of a lack of reps and his attacking and laidback nature, he’s going to make some mistakes. He’s also more of a close quarters combiner and less of a quarterback. Basically this is roughly similar to Wes except more press resistant and less field spreading. Defensively he’s strong in duels but does not have a natural sense for the type of tracking one wants from a CM in this spot in this shape. Specifically when it comes to runs into the top of the box or filling in to the backline he will switch off. Wes and even Tyler had their versions of this that they have improved on. Tessmann as well but that seems to have been worked out in Italy and France. Last match against OM TT did well a handful of times when an OM attacker split the RCB and RB or beat the RB and tried to turn the corner in/into the box. Johnny has more of a sense for this and his “issues” are more about fine tuning. I’m also uncertain about how good he is at chasing back.
In the 56 minutes he played there, next to BL’s primary pivot and in front of 3 CBs not just in possession but out of it as well. How many minutes has he played there this season, 200-400 out of 1800?
He also did it against PSG. Basic proof of concept. Tillman's ability to play in the double pivot is just another tool Poch can use. Simple concept.