Coaching Philosophies and the Gregg Berhalter System

In Berhalter's system, he might be more effective on the left.

 

And this is playing out of the back gone right. When you can find a hole in the defense and pass lines and defenders, you create a mini-break. This is the reason to do it -- yes, there's risk, but booting the ball deep to our strikers especially is unlikely to generate chances like these unless the opponent is dumb.

When you don't generate something like this, it's not because the intent of playing out of the back is really slow progress, it's because the defense didn't allow the openings or you didn't see them or weren't able to exploit.

We want to score upsets against the top teams, we are going to have to have games where we finish above our skill set once in a while.

 

Yes, but I also think we should acknowledge that there's no gameplan out there that just gets us to a situation where we generate a lot of offensive chances but shut down the opponent against teams this talented and good.

Colombia is in the same talent tier but playing great. Brazil is a talent step above and we'll see about the latter under a new coach. We're going to have to make choices and then we're going to have to out-execute in the moment to win.

 

There were little mistakes by the Brazilians that contributed. Mostly Douglas Luiz being lazy covering McKennie. But also you can see how much respect the Brazilians were showing to Pulisic. Even though the play was moving right they didn't shift hard because they wanted to make sure Pulisic (I'm doing a little mind reading here) was covered. The other interesting bit is Balogun's positioning throughout, which has the effect of occupying their right back rather than one of their CBs.

 

Yep. A really well executed defense is going to be really hard for us to beat. We don't really have the horses to do it through individual skill -- maybe just a couple of guys who can do it once in a while. But you need to be able to exploit mistakes. And Brazil got a bit lazy there.

One of the things Crocker said he was looking for in what a USMNT player is and what our style of play should be is the ability to exploit those gaps -- to understand when to hold onto the ball and when to be aggressive. We did it there, but it's decision making we can struggle with.

Good points on the other two items, too. One of Balo's edges is that he is pretty good at these small tactical things; I just think it's something that isn't strong yet about our youth development.

 

Brazil's coach will have to tighten things up defensively too. They gave up some quality chances against us. Watching the two matches, there is no doubt Brazil is more talented than Colombia. I think we'll see that manifest itself as the tournament proceeds. The big teams have a different mindset about how to approach long tournaments.

 

The first three have either been fired or will be soon. Maybe Callaghan will be the exception. As far as Nico is concerned - lack of scoring and boring play was his downfall. Not sure that's what Gregg needs.

 

The thing is these assistant jobs aren’t necessarily the most attractive to begin with and just because someone failed as a head coach doesn’t mean they are a bad assistant.

The biggest selling point though of the assistant job is it’s a pretty clear path to an MLS head coaching position. The fact that guys didn’t succeed is a separate point. If someone wants to be an MLS coach, being a USMNT assistant is a good way to get there.

 

Two straightforward victories going into the third match would be a godsend.

 

In addition to probably have to replace BJ Callaghan, another opening on Berhalter’s staff

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Is this why Sean Johnson keeps hanging around? He's still playing though so he's maybe angling for the future. Go get that guy that coaches the Fire / Fire youth. Maybe he can fix Turner.

 

What Turner needs most of all is games. Just two games back and he regained much of his former form, or at very least regained the strong part of his game (shot-stopping). A goal kick giveaway still cost us a goal, but against Colombia he couldn't even stop near-post shots...

 

Revisiting this thread a year later, I'm still seeing lots of references to hate and bias against Berhalter, no acknowledgement of problems.

Did anyone here allow Copa America to change their minds?

 

When we press, why do we get so few good looks with the other defense scrambling?

 

Do we? What's your context here? We haven't pressed much for a bit, but what's the expectation based on other teams and what do we do?

I don't actually know the answer, but before we assume anything, we might want to get actual data.

 

For me, Berhalter’s philosophy isn’t a front foot philosophy, and that’s what I like.
I want to be a team that, when the press comes, they’re licking their chops, that’s what they want to happen. Because they’ve shown they can play through it, albeit inconsistently. What they don’t do, imo, is take it down the opponent’s throat. Instead, its press broken, mission accomplished. No! Make them pay with the numbers advantage gained.
And I don’t care how the press is broken, be that play out of the back or go over top or better yet a mix with what’s working in the moment. I just think it’s all pointless if they don’t try and put paid to the numerical advantage.

 

And I sincerely doubt Berhalter is like "break the press then stop." Early on, we were pretty conservative in our risk-taking. Then we spent a lot of time with our stars trying to dribble 8 guys, but now ...

... I guess I don't see the level of caution you folks seem to be claiming and I don't think the decision making is all that driven by the sidelines. It generally feels to me like a lot of this isn't "we don't push" so much as "we don't score."

I wish we had a real measure for this and aggregate data because anecdotal is going to be kind of pointless.

But in the Uruguay highlights -- a game we CLEARLY did not generate much offense in ...

:45 - force a turnover and break. Four guys in attack. McKennie holds back, Adams attacks ... Adams lets up at the end instead of crashing the box. How much of that is direction? How much is choice? If the direction to McKennie is to stay back to avoid a counter, is that terrible? Adams' let up feels like his choice esp. since he's not exactly sprinting into defensive position.

Next highlight -- we break any semblance of pressure, but there's a heavy touch and we lose it. The wide players don't seem to be reacting, but it was quick. There's some lethargy, but really, we can't tell much given the execution.

2:20 - We break it, we attack, and then maul Balo, and he's offside.

...

I went through the rest of the highlights. I don't see a lot of hesitation at all. Of course, those may not make the highlights, so this kind of sucks for that. But I'm not seeing pulling back much.

What I do see is that we rarely actually have those numerical numbers. Against a Uruguay we weren't committing six or seven guys early on, but that's not exactly a bad choice, right? Uruguay had 1.5 xG but .75 of that was on the rebound offside goal. (And not only was it offside, but as I watch it, what is Turner doing parrying that shit? It wasn't hard to catch. You're an American who played baseball -- this is supposed to be your strength.)

Once we went down, suddenly you see 5-6 guys in and around the box, but we didn't score.

Like I said, highlights suck for this stuff, but I'd love to see specifics of the team not attacking. I totally can agree that we make some bad decisions. I can agree that we sometimes take the easy (outside) pass over an aggressive one but I think we have to remember personnel and the dark days of hero-ball Pulisic in WCQ.

And I think we don't overload as much as we could against weaker opponents ... but I'm not sure that's true against better teams. We have suspect CB, a GK who is very shaky right now, and we want to through Tyler Adams (or pick anyone not named Reyna or McKennie) as an extra attacker??? Eh, pass.

Instead of all these feel conversations, I'd really like to see examples. But when we get articles in backheeled or in the Athletic with detailed breakdowns, we don't see this mindset as an element anyone actually detailing step by step of the game sees. It was true, early. And some of our guys still do it from time to time -- Musah and Johnny, for example.

 

I believe it’s a situation where we’ll know it when we see it, it will be an undeniable difference.
There was a great example in a fairly recent tweet where it showed the US passing out of a press, many passes and hard running, and when they broke it and had a man in open space, he put his foot on the ball and looked around when he could’ve taken 15 yards of space minimum.
Of course I don’t think Berhalter is saying break the press then stop, but I don’t think he chides them for not pushing. It’s a different mentality I’m looking for.

 

Maybe. I also think it's the default for some of these guys. If that was Musah ... that's what he does. Perhaps someone can get him to change, but it's worth noting that he's not either hyper aggressive nor a great decision maker.

Also worth noting that is sometimes the right decision.

One of the things Crocker talked about in his introduction on what they were looking for in an Americna style of play was players who understood when to possess but also were able to recognize the the weakness and attack in an instant.

Coaches can influence this, but one of the beauties of soccer is that compared to a sport like American football, the decision making is primarily in the hands of the players.

 

Good stuff, though we’re miles apart. I don’t see it like that at all, I believe teams take on the personality of their manager and have done so in this instance.

 

My though for other thread:

Gregg would say we lost because I don’t have Memphis Depay. Just listened to Max Bretos and he said that we lost because we don’t have Chrisitian Rodan. LOL.
But if I am the new USMNT coach, would I do with the players pool we have? When I have no Depay and I don’t want have Rodan?

1. 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1? I will go 4-2-3-1.
For Center Backs, I would bring Brooks back and have Ream/Brooks pair. Yes they are slow as turtle, but we would abandon a high line with both full backs running as forwards.

2. Who will be my dual pivot as the 2 to control the middle?
Not Adams, Not McKennie, Not Musah.
I will have Johnny and Tessman as my dual pivot. Don’t ask why, but this combo will be the best we have coming 2025/2026.

3. Who are my outside backs then?
Before Dest returns from injury, I would use Weah as the right back and told him to improve his defense and modeling as Hernandez of AC Milan/France for the way to play.
I also ask Scally improving his offensive skill and also try to be a left side backup too.

4. Who are my attacking 3?
Gio has no guaranteed starting spot in my system. In current state, ONLY Christian Pulisic has my guaranteed starting spot, period. You have to earn from your club performance and training performance. Center 1 would be contest between Gio/Malik/Aaronson/Musah etc.The Right 1 I would use Wes now, but I can have all the combination. Such as Wright in left/Christian in right, or Balo in right (with Sargent as lone forward).

5. Balo is lone forward right now with his performance in Copa. But he can also play as the right forward.

6. Goalie? Danm. That is a recycle project. Maybe Staffen back his pre-EPL MLS level?

 

I want to give Berhalter some credit. He has really been the shepherd of an important evolution in US soccer, and that’s being able to hold on to the damn ball.
It’s something the US has struggled with since the beginning of time, now it’s an afterthought and only notable on the odd occasion they do struggle.
He emphasized ball control, and for me it’s something that had to happen before the US could move forward. You have to have that in your bag at all times to be a serious team.
So kudos! Now be gone!

 

After a thousand posts of analysis, rants, and alternatives, I have a feeling this thread is going to end up extending Berhalter's contract through 2030.

 

The quality of player at his disposal was the primary factor here. You think Steve Sampson wouldn’t have like to hold on to the ball a bit more? I think it’s simply been a decades long evolution of our player pool (some ups and downs, but the general trend is up).

 

I kind of thought the same until recently it occurred to me Berhalter’s insistence on possession as sort of the be all end all forced the team to not only prioritize possession, but find players who hang their hats on that quality.
The biggest giveaway to me is the centerback choices, they became increasingly more about finesse than force. When he said he wanted to change the perception, this is what he meant and this is how he went about it.
I think he did change the perception, but not how he planned to. It changed from the world seeing the US as a pain in the ass to play against because of determination, lungs and brute force, but ultimately not a serious football team to a proper football team that isn’t particularly challenging to break down and defeat.

Or not.