Central defensive options for 2030 cycle

It just feels to me like his ceiling is SO MUCH higher at CB.

He's not a bad attacker at RB, certainly better than Scally, but he's not close to Dest level, nor would you expect him ever to be. Where he shines is in recovery speed and defending and size, he's 6'2. Think about all the things that we worry about with most of our CBs and Freeman doesn't have those deficiencies now essentially playing out of position. Imagine what he could be if we had him playing CB full time.

I also think Scally should move to CB a well, though I think his ceiling is much lower than Freeman's.

 

Yes because obviously if we had played out backup center backs as we did in the Turkey game that would have gone so much player.

The problem wasn’t the manger or the tactics it’s the quality of the players we have in the back.

And btw Chris Richards also made plenty of mistakes in the Belgium game.

 

The bold was the key part you had somehow missed or didn't comprehend. Don't play that way, which means you don't need a Ream type of player. Also, don't play that, as your better CBs aren't suited to that style in the first place. Play to the strengths of the better players in the pool.

Ream was heavily in all three of the first goals.

 

Quite simply we don’t have better center backs is the issue.

Not particularly on the third goal. And he was far from the only player at fault on the first two.

 

Again, that just isn't reflected in the last two seasons of careers of these guys. But let's see if the next coach continues with Ream.

 

freeman is an overwhelmingly better attacker than dest.

 

Well Pochettino may return but Ream is obviously at the end of his national team career other than maybe a send off appearance.

But McKenzie, Trusty, and Robinson aren’t center backs who are changing our ceiling or leading to dramatically different results, It’s going to be the younger guys if they emerge (and as always it’s a big if).

 

I see Campbell, Banks(if he commits), and Richards as the frontrunners. They're all dramatically superior to Ream. As for results, again, don't try to play that way in the first place---certainly not against a team with a good attack.

 

Campbell has done nothing to show he’s a particularly better option than what we have currently.

Richards played against Belgium and had his share of mistakes. But obviously our best center backs.

Banks still a very young player but has the potential to get where we need him to be in 4 years. But no guarantees and he isn’t even committed at the moment.

And again none of the goals we gave up had anything to do playing style. They were basic defensive breakdowns and mistakes independent of that.

 

Ream is in there because of the style. Freese is running out of the box to play sweeper keeper because of the style.

 

The Freese play was not this dramatic sweeper keeper thing. It was a fairly basic goalkeeper coming out for the ball and he screwed it up and had the worst moment of his career. It was a mistake from a player not a style thing. Goalies regularly come out and try and claim that ball even for teams who don’t try and play out of the back.

And Ream is there as a veteran leader and because Pochettino didn’t feel like he had other center backs he could trust instead.

The problem in Belgium wasn’t the way we were trying to play. It’s that the team overall made a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes and played poorly across the board.

 

He's coming out that far because the US line is set so high, especially with CBs who aren't even fast.
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Yep. Poor judgement from Pochettino.

Nah. Poch's record against the elo top-20 teams has been pretty horrible. He never properly adjusted to deal with quality attacks.

 

I sort of agree with both of you. There were absolutely uncharacteristic mistakes made by players AND i think poch and the team were never appropriately pragmatic in our approach against teams with more talent

 

San Jose Earthquakes defender Daniel Munie is widely recognized as the fastest centerback in Major League Soccer, having clocked a top speed of 22.37 miles per hour (36 km/h)

Add him to the list. That kind of pace would be highly useful in a team that like play a higher line.

Senior Team: Richards Trusty GCampbell Banks McKenzie

Possible converts: Freeman Tessmann

Up and coming: Munie Pierre Roberts Kohler Chirila Che Wynder Akinmboni

 

There's a reason Poch moved Dest to wing and not Freeman. Dest is vastly superior on the attack. He has better ball skills, he has better crossing, and he's more creative. Freeman has better speed but how often have we seen him use that speed, get open with the ball, and cross it to nowhere or dribble it out of bounds? He definitely has potential for sure but he has a ways to go to be that true threat that we've traditionally had from the RB position from players like Dest, Johnson, Yedlin, Cherundelo, ect. I think he can get there but his potential as a CB is off the charts in a way he doesn't show at RB.

When Dest was Freeman's age he was already an X factor who made stuff happen out of nothing.

 

Freeman's doesn't have Dest's ball skills on the whole, but if you think he doesn't show anything offensive at RB, you're really not watching.

Pochettino had him stay back more this World Cup than he has in other games, but his ability to dribble forward and use his speed is definitely a weapon. This was true for the US and especially true at Orlando where he got to play a real wingback role and attack all the time.

Freeman could convert to CB, but I find it unlikely any club team is going to do so. Players with his top end speed on the outside rarely get shunted inside aside from these sort of hybrid 3 ATB roles.

He has become a pretty good passer out of the back, which does speak to that. But I just don't think many teams are going to want to give up what he gives outside.

 

He's good for 1-2 inexplicable errors a game, but he certainty has all the tools, on and off the ball and athletically. Reminds me of Ream at that age. Never say never.

 

McKenzie is a bit too much like Richards for those two to be a strong complementary pairing. Both are average to below average in the air. They read the game well and are maturing into good organizers. You do need one player like that in the back. But the second one should be more physically dominant. More disruptive. Ideally.

For the 2025-2026 season, Richards was at the 40% percentile in terms of aerial duels won. McKenzie was even lower for his league.

 

Also I don't know that our CBs are even worse than they were in past (as is clearly the case with our GKs), more like that position has stagnated while our attackers, midfielders, and fullbacks have significantly improved and so our CBs, while not any worse than they were 10 or 20 years ago, are no longer good enough for the ambitions we now have as a program given our improvements elsewhere on the field.

And of course the stagnation of our CBs and drop off of our GKs amplify and magnify one another on the field.

 

The one backup CB who acquitted himself well was Trusty, who barely made the team (and probably wouldn't have been on my squad).

 

Really hoping Hamouda makes a big jump this year

 

He gives me demerit vibes. A hard charging athlete

 

im not sure why youre making this about rbs- freemans offense has come from the cb spot, and he has as many goals for the nats as dest already. hes twice the defender dest is and hes been a pro for like a month.

and im sure poch has "reasons" for lots of things, but a big reason we got our asses handed to us by a decent belgium team is we didnt have a rw on the pitch.

 

You're basically making my case for me here when you point out that Freeman is twice the defender of Dest despite barely having time as a pro. I agree totally. That's why I want to move him to CB. I think he has serviceable offense for a RB and much like everything else, will get better, but he can totally become a shut-down CB who's never beaten for pace. That to me is so much more valuable than what he can bring to the RB spot.

Speaking of that, I also agree want Dest out of the RW spot and back to RB where he's most effective.

 

Yes locks. Unless Richard gets injured, he’s going to be a walk.