I’m guessing posters can try to rationalize sitting Pulisic at this point in his career too. Reyna and dest as well. Even thought they’re fundamentally better than the alternatives.
What? For me, as shown in all my Starting XIs, unless he's injured, McKennie is a starter, no ifs ands or buts. Of course, if he starts looking poor or gets benched, I'd have to reconsider.
I wouldn't sit Dest for Cannon. Dest isn't better than Cannon because Cannon defends well while Dest has defensive lapses. Nevertheless I would play Dest over Cannon (unlike Berhlater) because I think Dest has special skills I want to get those skills into the team consciousness at the earliest opportunity whereas Cannons deficiencies are something opposing coaches can take advantage of even as Cannon seems perfect to BS punks who look only at his defensive performance and ignore his impotence on offense. At this stage I can only see sitting Pulisic to bring Reyna into the game as his sub. Otherwise I can definitely see not calling up Reyna because he is very young and we don't want to mess up his development at club.
"starts" looking poor? Are you saying McKennie can replace Mascarell at the 6 or Serdar (German international) at cmid or Harit at CAM? Which one of those 3 do you see him replacing? Seriously, folks, McKennie is there as filler.
Obviously bias is everywhere but if we just closed up shop and didn’t talk what would the point be. At least attempt to be objective or educated on the matter. I wouldn’t cite Whoscored for player evaluation. Especially when they put tackling as a weakness. He’s strong in tackles. You could site positional awareness sure but I’d point to instructions from the manager and lack of knowledge on those for the most part. I’d also quibble over his finishing. No he’s not some crazy goal scorer but just because he’s played higher up the field doesn’t mean that he should be. He’s defensive minded box to box mid who’s played up there because of how good he is at pressing. He should be played further back and that comment wouldn’t come up about the type of player he is if not for the system he’s used in. He also has shown a decent scorer at national level. Either in the air or timing of late runs. Wouldn’t call him great or good but I wouldn’t pick on it as a weakness in his game either.
Fair enough I use it in the context of our national team pool as we’ve never had and don’t currently have a world class player (also highly debatable standards). Many of the knocks on Wes are the same on Jones and look how much we missed him once he was gone. You can quibble over things but Wes is in our best 11 talent wise by a mile. Our coach not using him correctly is a different issue.
Some of that is 3G asking him to play two roles at once and that’s more on Gregg then Wes. He does need to improve on knowing when and when not to and yes he reminds me of Jones like no other. I hope he continues to improve. I think he will but I also think it’s going to require him leaving Schalke to do so.
Bottom line: a 21 year old does not get over 1,000 minutes in a Top 6 Bundesliga team if he's poor. Not all are going to be virtuosi, without the guys who carry the piano there's no concert.
I think what many are missing about McKennie is also attitude and toughness. He's the guy who'll lay a hard tackle on the other team after they crunch Pulisic. He's the guy in someone's face defending a teammate. Sure if someone else or multiple other better players emerge who will do that he can move to the bench but after Jones left who did that last cycle? Those kind of players don't grow on trees. I still remember Jones taking out a young Neymar after a Brazilian thugged one our our good players. Guess what? No more thuggery the rest of the game as the message was sent.
He doesn't replace any of them, he plays in the diamond with those players. Has he ever had a half season where he was available for every game? He seems to be hurt, for short periods, often. But, his history at Schalke has been when he is available for a month or more, he is a starter in CM somewhere. In between injuries, he also seems to be the first backup RB, on the depth chart at Striker, and maybe 4th or 5th at CB. I can't remember many times when all Schalkes defenders and midfielders were healthy and he was left out.
Yes, he has generally looked good to great as a #8 and less good to poor as a #10. Like many American midfielders, he has not looked his best next to Bradley, sometimes. That sometimes he looks ok next to Bradley is an improvement on many players through the last cycle. Only Jones did, sporatically.
If you view top club football as a three stool system, you get the clubs that are elite technically but soft (Dortmund, Arsenal), clubs that are eltie athletically but technically loose (Frankfurt, Newcastle), and clubs that are elite athletically and technically (Bayern Munich, Liverpool). Then there are clubs with no identity that spend a lot of money. Gregg seems to want to play the technical way and we don't have players yet that play for Real Madrid or Bayern Munich, at least not 11 of them. So, approaching Dortmund or Arsenal types of teams is what Gregg can hope for. That would look like: ------------Sargent------ Pulisic----Reyna-------Weah -------Adams-----Pomykal Ream-----Brooks----?----Dest --------------GK--------------- But if we went all out physical, we could put out: -------------------Zardes------------ Morris----------Holmes--------Chandler ------------Adams------McKennie Robsinson----Miazga----Long----Yedlin ------------------Steffan-------------- It would not be pretty soccer, but the second team would probably do very well playing the type of game a coach like Marsch would bring. A compromise would be to take the elite physical midfield and surround it with the more technical players: ---------------Sargent----------- Pullisic-------Holmes---------Weah -------Adams--------McKennie--- Robinson---Brooks---Long-------Dest ----------------Steffan--------------- That team could play the possession game Gregg wants but it would be even better in transistion. The problem with both these last two teams is the the depth CMs we have are mostly not good technically and soft or slow.
Not sure where to put this or if already posted... but half spaces does a solid write up on the player pool. Not sure if Ben? is on here or not.. https://halfspaces.com/usmnt-player-pool-by-tiers/
A fully healthy Best XI has a few dilemmas now, I think, which will hopefully only get worse as some of the younger guys prove themselves out. We may never see it because of injuries, but there's a real potential crunch at winger, right back and central midfield coming. We might actually not just have depth -- which is what we have/had at CB, but quality depth, provided anyone can actually stay healthy. Famous last words, I know.
I haven't done a best 11 in while, so here's mine as of now (I'm assuming everyone is healthy): Pulisic---------Altidore-----------Morris ----------Lletget---------McKennie----- -------------------Adams------------------ Dest----Brooks----Miazga---Cannon ------------------Steffen------------------- Tough decisions: --Forward is such a mess right now. I think Altidore is still the best bet when healthy, but then it's a crapshoot picking between Zardes, Sargent, and Ferreira. Maybe guys like Ebobisse, Toye, and Siebatcheu even work their way into mix. --Lletget has been adequate, but no more. I'm leaning towards Reyna playing more centrally, so he's breathing down Lletget's neck, but I want to see Reyna with the USMNT before plugging him into the best 11. Pomykal, Aaronson, and Holmes are also possibilities here. --I put Dest at LB because he's better there than Lovitz or Ream, so that allows a better overall 11. However, I haven't seen Robinson in quite a while. If he gets called in and looks the part, he might take LB, and Dest boots Cannon from the starting RB spot. --I feel like Cannon vs. Yedlin is a coin flip at this point. Yedlin has more high-level experience, but Cannon has looked better for the USMNT in the last year. If Cannon gets a good move abroad this summer where he gets the minutes to up his game, I'd bet he's clearly past Yedlin by the fall. --RCB is also a crapshoot. I have a slight preference for Miazga over other options, but I wouldn't argue if others preferred Long. Hopefully, Alvarado becomes a real contender here.
I don't understand this idea that the forward position is a 'mes'. Morris is the best striker in the pool. Sapong has been excellent when played at striker at club level. He was excellent in his cap against Portugal. Ferreira had a good debut.
My 55 right now (injuries discounted): ------------------------Altidore------------------------- ------Pulisic----------Lletget------------Morris----- ---------------Adams---------McKennie------------ Robinson-----Brooks-----Miazga-----------Dest -------------------------Steffen------------------------ ------------------------Sargent------------------------- ------Weah-----------Reyna---------Chandler----- --------------Morales---------Roldan---------------- Hollingshead----Ream----Robinson------Yedlin -------------------------Horvath------------------------ ------------------------Sapong------------------------- ------Boyd-----------Holmes----------Llanez------ --------------Cameron---------Nagbe--------------- Lichaj--------Opara-----Alvarado--------Cannon -------------------------Turner------------------------- ------------------------Zardes------------------------- ------Green---------Pomykal----------Sabbi------ --------------Durkin---------Cappis----------------- Gloster------Long-----Zimmerman-----Johnson -------------------------Hamid------------------------- ----Saucedo----------Ferreira-----------Gooch--- ----------------Mendez---------Ledezma----------- -------------------------Servania---------------------- Duncan---------EPB------Richards----Olusunde -------------------------Ochoa------------------------- The last team is sort of who I'm excited for and seem close to a break though. It's kind of cool that there's this many guys I like. I could go deeper. There's a whole slew of young MLS guys and other academy players who could take the next step. I mean guys like Aaronson, McKenzie, Vines who just got capped and looked ok aren't in my top 5 teams. Shit, USMNT regular Yuiell (who I like) isn't there, not to mention, ah hell I won't mention them.
Mckennie Pulisic reyna chandler Adams morales Dest brooks robinson yedlin Steffen. Given weah will not play for around a year he is now an unknown, but these are the best 11 usa players right now that fit on the field.
3 deep depth chart (including players like Weah and Arriola who are out for a while...after all why go 3 deep if not to illustrate depth in case of injury): Forward: Sargent, Altidore, Zardes (would like to see Siebatcheu) Left wing: Reyna, Boyd, Arriola Right wing: Morris, Llanez, Weah 10: Pulisic, Pomykal, Lletgett 8: McKennie, Holmes, Roldan 6: Adams, Yuiell, Morales LB: Dest, A Robinson, Gloster RB: Yedlin, Cannon, Chandler CB: Brooks, Alverado, Long, Miazga, Zimmerman, Miles Robinson Goalie: Hamid (yes a little bit of an idiosyncratic choice on my part, but hey it is MY list), Guzan, Steffen Some of these players can play multiple spots. I list Dest at LB because we have better cover at RB. Pomykal is probably the best backup at both the 10 and the 8. It might turn out that Reyna and Pulisic need to swap positions. Chandler might fit in better at the RW spot. Areas where I like our depth: wide attacking players, fullback Areas where we are thin: forward, goalie