I’m not advocating we stick to the same 4-3-3 that necessitates a winger like Weah to stay wide and stretch the defense. Rather saying that we could have used a formation and approach centered around our 3 most valuable attackers - Pulisic, Reyna and Aaronson. Or at least 2 of the 3. Not scoring goals is also a death sentence, and the 4-3-3 wasn’t exactly churning out goals. I think we should have tried to get Weah on the pitch with the aforementioned 3, but that would require breaking up MMA which many are loathe to do. Maybe Aaronson is only worth $30m to teams playing a specific pressing style, but no team is paying $30m for Weah or any of our other attackers apart from Pulisic or Reyna. Market value is a pretty good indicator of quality.
For this to be relaxant, you’d have to believe that the only system we can play is a 4-3-3 with a single pivot and the only position Reyna and Aaronson can play is a wide forward in a 4-3-3. Neither are true.
id hate to hear your take on the rest of the team, because pulisic did, in fact, provide one killer pass/killer shot on every goal in our world cup.
Really interesting article about possession and how it is increasingly less of a predictor of outcomes. 2022 World Cup tactical trends: Do you even need possession? (espn.com) One thing they mention rings very true for the US and our lack of creating chances while having plenty of the ball. Teams are not possessing the ball in central areas nearly as much anymore, and as the lack of having the ball in the middle increases teams who possess a lot but fail to create goes up. Seems lots of teams that focus on possession are increasingly keeping the ball on the perimeter and thus not really turning that possession into something productive. Sounds very much like what we've seen with the US. If we want to go back to creating chances, we may need to start taking more risks with the ball, including being willing to probe more central areas.
The thing with Reyna is that if he's healthy and in form, then he's worth shifting the system in a way where we can figure out how to get him on the field in his most effective spot. The problem is that has rarely been the case over the last year or so. It's hard to build the system around Reyna when you can't count that he's going to be there. With Aaronson I'm definitely a fan of his as a player. But Weah has been such a critical part of the USMNT. Going back to qualifying, the team consistently looks worse when he's not on the field. Aaronson's best role for now is to be the first guy off the bench of either Pulisic or Weah. And it's not like Aaronson didn't play a good amount this World Cup.
Weah has also been very good, and validated Gregg's trust during the WC itself. MMA with Pulisic-Weah-Aaronson in front of them just seems so obviously the best deployment of Gregg-ball to me, it's a mystery to me why you would have Haji Wright out there being asked to bring so many of the qualities Weah also possesses while being a much lesser player. MMA-PWA isn't perfect, but neither were the alternatives. Go down swinging with your best guys.
Gregg: I don't have big time Champions League players like Memphis Depay reports: no team wants to pay 2 million for Memphis Depay 🚨 Barcelona are asking for clubs to pay €2M for Memphis Depay this winter but NO team wants to spend this amount on him! 🤯(Source: @sport) pic.twitter.com/CdBamJAjDI— Barstool Football (@StoolFootball) December 16, 2022
xbhaskarx: "Gregg is an idiot, look here--barstool sports says Memphis Depay sucks!" first response to barstool sports: "Well, no, its probably the 200k a week 5 year contract he wants But you get the clicks." Also, I tried to find the "source" article (supposedly diario sport) but I can't find anything from them about Depay other than a piece from yesterday that says: Barcelona has no intention of letting the player go for free (his contract is up this coming June 30th) Galatasaray has inquired about him Memphis isn't interested in signing with Galatasaray now Memphis wants the freedom to get a better contract next summer If you look up "@sport memphis depay" you get a whole bunch of similar tweets to the one you posted here, all "quoting" @sport, yet no links to the original. The article from @sport that I found says nothing about any "2 million". This is just a bunch of dumb clickbait, and you've used it here for the narrow focus of saying something negative about Berhalter (for the 47 millionth time).
I'm not the one shitting on USMNT players for not being good enough, that would be Gregg Berhalter. Whatever club decides they want to pay Memphis Depay, perhaps Gregg should go coach them.
The point is, Gregg in fact does have big time Champions League attacking players like Memphis Depay, including one he didn't even select for the roster. He even has a pure class deep lying CM worthy of being on the pitch with Frenkie de Jong. What he does not have is Virgil Van Dijk, and fundamentally that's why his tactics were what they were, he was scared of what Team Man Bun would do if the rest of the team put them in bad situations, and he wasn't wrong to be scared of that. What Gregg *meant* is that the squad lacks age, experience, and volume goal finishers and poachers. And that's true. But once again there he is in direct quotes saying something obnoxious and alienating to his increasingly established at the top level player pool.
I mean -- we had a Pulisic/Reyna centric offense for a decent period of time. We had issues with the offense when we ran Pulisic and Reyna out there together in large part because they both tried to the same thing in the same space. Aaronson also loves to run to the same spot, but at least he makes some runs. Width and verticality are necessary for any offense. Because it requires the defense to move far enough apart to create space to pass or dribble through. You can go back and watch Pulisic and Reyna stare at each other as they dribble, pointing to their feet, dribbling into double teams. I'm not saying they can't play together, but aside from maybe Lionel Messi, there isn't anyone who can get through a quality, packed in D. If they do play together, you have to create a dynamic where there is space created around them. Weah does that. Jedi does that. Aaronson ain't great at it. Dest just runs into them as well. The only way to beat that is either transition, set pieces (i.e., don't let them get set) or stretch them, move them out of position. It's tournament play. If you have to pick offense or defense to focus on, defense all the time. Morocco defended their way to the semis. Germany offensed its way out of the groups. France is likely to win with defense with amazing talent; tournament favorite Brazil focused too much on offense. Spain as well. Yeah, because of the above. If you put 4 attackers plus two attacking fullbacks ... oof. Now, you can keep someone home, but then I'd encourage you to write up those tactics. Berhalter effectively attacked with 5 and kept 5 home. Attacking with six ... maybe we get out of the group, maybe we don't, but it's not a winning formula as you go on in the tourney. It's extraordinarily blunt. It's heavily biased to young players, under longer, more affordable contracts. Which just feeds the hype train. Hugo Lloris' transfermarkt value is 7M Euro. Giroud is 4M Euro. Josh Sargent's is 12. He's 3x the player Giroud is! Karim Benzema is only $35. Griezmann is $25M!!! Picking a team based on transfermarkt value is ignoring massive amounts of information.
Hardly. Most systems have a balance of offensive and defensive focused players, have complementary player roles and attempt to create advantages and space. It's not FIFA. You just don't plug in the highest numbers wherever you can.
The actual quote was not shitting on anyone, but we're just going to use the shortened one because that gets you those twitter likes you love. Longer quote: I find it hard to believe that anyone thinks this team has clinical finishers or precision attackers. It wasn't a dig. You can argue it is an excuse, but it is also reality -- this team does not have a proven finisher and it is something that often comes with age. Like the van Gaal quote, people continue to chop these things to make them seem different and more divisive for clicks. It's tired. (And the only reason there's no takers for Memphis Depay is that he's paid $11M/year in a market where few teams can take that on right now.)
Again, if Gregg thinks leaving the supposed viper's nest of US soccer reporters is going to free him from the burden of his words being chopped and screwed to be used against him in order to bait clicks, he is badly, badly mistaken. It didn't take Pippo Inzaghi-an goal poaching nous to exploit the interstate highways that were left in defense on the two Holland goals that ended the contest in the first half. Mistakes were made, and excuses about not having the same kind of players to execute the basics ring exactly as ridiculous as the media portrayed them.
It is the manager's responsibility to create and grove a scheme that leverages and benefits his key players. Berhalter never created a scheme that maximized Pulisic and Gio as wide attackers. GB had a system he wanted to play and tried to fit Pulisic and Gio into said system often with little success. There are many ways to break down a packed defense. Take a look at this sequence from a 2014 WCQ. Note the US was playing their standard 4-2-3-1 GAM wide. Look how they lined up on this recycle, straight from the training ground. Look where the LB (Fab) is, the CAM (Deuce), the #8 (Jones). No need to read complex cue, we are going to run our stuff you figure it out. Movement and quick one touch passes does the trick!
I think you are falling into the "what you see is what you get" evaluation with Aaronson. You may recall that MLS critics pointed to Aaronson being unable to get on the ball at Philly - low touch count and so on. That changed at Salzburg. Has Aaronson really been coached to play other than how he plays by anybody other than Matthias Jaissle at Salzburg?
Put any damn formation and tactics out on the pitch you want. Put any damn players currently eligible for the USMNT out there in the whatever you setup above. NEWS FLASH - We still aren't scoring many goals. Its as simple as this. We do not have a honest deadly goal scoring threat. Period. Ya'll can love all the Pepi, Wright, Pefok, Vasquez you want. But as of right now not one of them is a clinical finsiher. I have hopes for Pepi but I think some are making way to much about our formation and tactics as the reason we don't score. Certainly some different approaches might be somewhat better than what we have been doing offensively but IMO none of those things were going to be step changes in our goal scoring.
You get your England analysis wrong and it isn't just me. Bottom line is that Mount played ineffectively in general. He isn't in Chelsea form.He did squat v. USA. Foden's role at ManCity has become Haaland feeder which Southgate translated to Kane feeder - with a left foot to boot. Foden played more of a CAM role than trad winger when he was brought on. I've heard others say the same. This whole tournament has revolved around the re-invention of the CAM role, if you ask me. MMA lacked one and Berhalter never adapted. Griezman is inventing one on the fly and getting motm touts in media.
Does anybody know where one can find list of players who pull yellow cards on opponent most often in various leagues? I would think Pulisic and Aaronson rank high. Berhalter's 10 was basically McKennie and I don't think he would rank too high if he ranks at all.
Good stuff but would just point out #8 jersey is Dempsey so nobody gets confused. After watching a whole 3 years of teenagers, I just wanted to thank you for cuing a vid of real grown ass men playing the game.
I appreciate the thoughtful and well reasoned reply. I disagree that Pulisic and Reyna, or Pulisic and Aaronson, can’t play together at the same time. We could have tried Weah up top, considering all of our 9’s besides Sargent were generally ineffective, which would have allowed us to get either Aaronson or Reyna on the pitch with them. We still could have defended with the same grit and not broken up MMA. I’m just saying there were other options to get our best players on the field, but Berhalter pigeonholed us into one approach. He built the attack around Weah and using one of our three strikers. You’re examples of transfermarkt value are comparing apples and oranges. Of course old Giroud isn’t worth as much as young Sargent. However Weah and Aaronson are the same age. Of course there is more information to consider, like how Aaronson has actually been a more effective attacker than Weah for the national team.
Answering the question of who is the better attacker Weah or Aaronson, requires the context of the team, role, and responsibilities. Neither is an ideal fit in Berhalter's scheme. If we had a true modern functional 4-3-3 like say Liverpool then Weah would be a better fit as a WF and Aaronson would be a better fit as a midfielder.
I agree. I wasn’t suggesting a 1-for-1 replacement in the same system, just that there are other tactical approaches that could have yielded better results and maximized our talent. We were stuck with a 4-3-3 with attacking fullbacks that not only resulted in few goals but relegated two of our best attackers to the bench and also left us exposed to be picked apart by the Dutch.