Have you watched Weston play with Bradley? They don't fill well together. Bradley needs a specific player to compensate for his weaknesses and we've been looking for that player since 2014 (Jermaine Jones was able to do it but even he wondered why he had to change his game to suit Bradley). Your question presumes that we should build around Bradley/Trapp and that's the problem - it forces a series of cascading compensations that put all of our high-ceiling guys (Pulisic, Adams, McKennie, Brooks) in non-optimal situations. I love all of our young guns but they're not complete players right now and we should be building around them. Therefore, the question should be: which set up augments McKennie strengths and offsets his developmental areas? I think it goes without saying that one wouldn't pick a Bradley or Trapp type as his optimal partner in midfield. If Berhalter can solve that challenge, we have real potential - I'd guess it's someone who is also a rangy ball-winner who can clean up mistakes that Weston makes with over-enthusiasm (and vice versa).
An extremely active center forward who can hold up the ball. A true destroyer who can get the ball. The wide mids, Agudelo and Adams, could certainly defend, and in the case Agudelo, hold the ball up. It was the type of setup that allowed the game to come to McKennie, a circumstance that was crucial because he was not good at finding the game and setting tempo. Hopefully, that skill set will improve with time. For the first time since the Portugal game, we now have a forward in Sargent who can cover ground and hold up the ball. Adams will be an improvement over Williams. Holmes replacing Boyd should give the team more possession play wide areas.
McKennie had the odd assignment of being one of two in a 4-4-2 defensively but once it got past the two forwards he would have to go back and help bail out Trapp. That's a lot of ground to cover defensively.
Too be fair you'd have to list aerial duels as a weakness for Adams and I'd argue that finishing isn't a weakness for McKennie it just isn't a strength. He has had some spectacular headers for goals he just doesn't do it every time. One thing that stood out in the Uruguay game was how the US lost almost every aerial dual. With no Brooks, Miazga or even Omar it was kind of painful to watch but not having McKennie or gulp Bradley was noticeable on aerial duels also.
The weaknesses are based on the opta stats. So Adams hasn't been losing out many duels. McKennie has gotten a fair few looks in front of goal, and failed to convert. These things are partly circumstance, partly skill-set. McKennie has been played in more attacking roles than Adams has. Adams has been in a more stable system. If Adams were played in a more attacking role 'finishing' would probably be listed as a weakness, as he'd get more looks in front of goal, and would likely also fail to convert.
I'd sure love for Adams and McKennie to be double pivots against good teams with either Pulisic or another creative type - Pomykal in front of them. For bunker buster formation go back to 4-3-3 and move McKennie to one of the dual 8/10 spots and cover for Adams when he makes a marauding run. BTW, talking about form I think the young players don't fit well together style wise with the older players because they've played a more attacking, possession based style their whole life so combing the best of both has made both look worse. What the younger players lose in experience they gain in cohesiveness.
McKennie is not a bad passer. Not even close. I don't even know how to take an assessment like that seriously. What McKennie is right now is inconsistent across the board. He's young, but he needs to learn focus and consistent intensity. His waxes and wanes throughout the game. The other key difference between Schalke McKennie and USA McKennie is that there's a lot more responsibility on USA McKennie. He's allowed to range at Schalke, but that's not the same as having a large amount of responsibilities. For the US, he's been the second best player, and has been asked to play a real box to box role where he plays as an attacker and gets backs to stop breaks, help control the midfield, etc. That's partly just relative talent around him. This is where his lack of focus and intensity kills him -- we're asking a lot of McKennie and he's a player who makes mistakes. I think things change a bit with Adams out there. I believe he had 2g, 2a in 5 games in the Gold Cup. So I'm not sure where we've gotten that he's bad at all.
Thank you and rep for watching the match and for paying attention! Now answer all the Berhalter whisperers who were trying to put the Chicharito goal on Weston. How many SS are asked to defend at the top of the press and simultaneously follow the opposing striker into the 6 yard box to defend against a cross. The Flash? Superman maybe? Berhalter has 2 of our 3 best players (McKennie and Adams) playing impossible gimmick dual roles in order to get Trapp/Bradley on the field. The System tm also effectively neuters our best player, Pulisic. When GB was hired the PR feed was that he was a tactical guru that would organize and synergize our squad unlike Arena and the tactics-less Klinsmann. The naive ate it up. 14 matches into GB's tenure I am still waiting for just basic common sense approaches never mind tactical brilliance.
He kind of was at Columbus. I'm sort of getting the feeling he's an incremental improvement type. He had a plan with Adams that fell apart as he blew up at RBL but stayed with it since he'd spent time with it. Still tried it with Lima subbing when Adams was out but has since slowly tried other things and other players. Seems to value those who have been there before and not wholesale change. He is getting a couple of new very players in each new opportunity. Doesn't seem fast enough for most of us but he may end up close to where we all want.
A lot of crapping on Trapp here. But he was actually good under much of Sarachan's tenure. The France game highlighted how Trapp could be solid contributor at an elite level. He sat in the pocket behind two high-level bodyguards in McKennie, and especially Adams. He was adept at making the read as defenders were closing, receiving the hot pass, then quickly moving the ball. He also did good job in secondary defense to help break up some very dangerous potential attacks. When he had to step out of that pocket, his lack of athleticism really showed. He has been effectivie when used differently. When Sarachan changed things up for the England match, Trapp and rest got embarrassed. Not sure what Dave was doing there. Was that his idea? The formation and tactics looked like something Egg would've rolled out. I'm not suggesting the team be built around Trapp.
Strong, very strong, weak, and very weak?? You are drawing your own simple conclusions without presenting any actual data.
Again. Those are whoscored classifications based on their data! It obviously has its myriad caveats, but those labels are purely data driven
I'm not suggesting the team be built around Trapp. Whew! Thank God for that. I was getting worried there for a second. I've not been impressed by Trapp at all. However, let's say he's a one-dimensional player whose strengths may play well against a specific opponent. I just don't think that is good enough at this level.
Whoscored lists their methodology for determining the levels of the skill sets. What we know so far w/re to Egg. 1. He's a system guy, but he's willing to made big adjusts ---moving CP from amid to wing, dropping the 'Lahm role', dropping the LCB/LB. 2. He personally reaches out to duals, both senior and youth levels ---Efra and Dest confirmed this. 3. He avoids publicly calling out players, even when they throw shade or dissemble. ---he did not call out Nagbe who basically lied about his NT situation. There was nothing in response to CP's sideways comments. 4. He's not pompous or overly defensive ----basically admitted he was wrong to insist on playing out of the back despite Mexico's high pressing with 800 players in the US end. 5. He's articulate about what he is trying to do, what worked, what didn't work. ---patiently breaks down the games 6. Willing to come back to players he had previously cut ---Cannon had been cut from Camp Cupcake. --------------------------------- But this team has yet to put together a comprehensive performance against a solid opponent.
The verbal irony is that your defense of Trapp may be one of the most damming indictments I have seen on this board. In order for Trapp to be "solid", the term you continually use, he has to have 2 of our best players assigned to bodyguard him.. What does the team get in return? Is Trapp now Pirlo because we know the Pirlo trade off. When Carlo Ancelotti devised the 4-3-1-2 with Pirlo at the base and 2 3-lunged shuttlers on either side his answer to push backs was essentially that Pirlo would starts a couple of handfuls of attacking sequences per match and directly create 2 or 3 big chances. Trapp does none of that even against poor teams. Against good teams he just looks constantly in-over-his-head! Designing a scheme so Trapp can be "solid' is stupid. It not only neuters 2 of our best player it also has negative impacts on the rest of the team. Julian Green, who was playing striker, had a better defensive match v France that WFT. Review Green defending Pogba 1v1 at the top of the 18 right in zone 14 while Trapp is sitting, gesturing, and providing zero benefits. Trapp did not make a single tackle in that match! Simple exercise; Replace Trapp with DWill or Morales v France and keep everything else the same. Look at the clear and obvious benefits.
His last game with Schalke was one of his best, he played as a CM and was Jermaine Jonesish. Absolute animal defensively and marauding runs with the ball. It’s just possible Jays brother has screwed him up as much as helped him! And it’s just possible his actually not that weak individual performances for the us are 100% Jay’s brothers fault. I’m not sure what your last bit about Will Trapp means exactly, but let me posit a hypothetical that I find cuts far more easily with Occam’s razor than does yours: The Regista role is completely stupid. Even if we had a decent international level poor mans Pirlo, we do not have the level of defenders that a team like Italy had to make up for having Swiss cheese in the middle of the park. Even if the role made any sense in general terms, it’s still stupid for us because we don’t have an international caliber regista, we have an old MLS caliber regista and Will Trapp. In order to play 10 v 11 when the opponent has the ball, as we do with Bradley/Trapp there would need to be some sort of payoff elsewhere to justify, there isn’t. Even if they were the only ones capable of hitting a couple pretty diagonals per game, so what? Finally, it forces weird asks and extra duties out of everyone else in order to adapt to having a static player that just jogs back and forth between the back line and center circle playing lots of square balls and back-passes and minimal token defense. The prime players forced to adjust to this and required to perform extra work are the 8 and 10, who are asked to often be in two places at once and therefore never seem as effective as hoped for. TL;DR version; we have a problem in central midfield, it’s name is Bradley/Trapp.
The Trapp v Yueill comparison is a perfect example of why not to call in Trapp. Both are physically disadvantaged at this level. But Yueill is aggressive, always attacking into space while Trapp's first instinct under pressure is as a release valve. We simply can't have the latter. We need people to use the press' aggressiveness against it, not to cave and pass the ball back to someone in a worse position. Beating a press requires aggression and a willingness to lose the ball with the knowledge that if you do so traveling forward, you can at least counter press to get the ball back. Losing the ball going backward is ... not good.
I'd already stated I was not suggesting the team be built around Trapp. I was just pointing out in what way he could be a solid player at a high level. Morales isn't a good enough passer to play in the pocket. Williams is out of the picture. Question. Why has the single-pivot(D-Will, Trapp, Adams) looked better under Sarachan than under Berhalter?