Pre-match: Concacaf Nations League Quarterfinals @ Jamaica (Nov 14) & v Jamaica (Nov 18)

I largely ignore you because of posts like these. Stop the name calling, and there'd be more engagement.

Furthermore, it is somewhat difficult at times to draw together much of what you say with the players you suggest, but I will try to respond based on what I think you are saying.

1. You have previously often commented and seem to be saying here that we need to go back to how we played long ago. The defense should be all defense, the offense should be taken care of by a smaller number of forward players and we should play more defensive in general and do more of a play back and counter.

I understand part of this argument. I don't agree but I understand. I do think that the idea that fullbacks should always play defensively is something that is not a reality anymore in general, runs completely counter to our pool, and ignores the fact that central attacking is simply way more dangerous that wide area work. This last idea isn't a fad; it's something people have figured out like 3 pt shooting.

I also think it is crazy to think Jedi is a poor defender, and I think your potential replacements for backup FBs like Bello, Fossey, are proveably worse both at club and in their US performances.

2. I agree with you play with the US is important and should be an important part of someone's evaluation. I don't agree with using 15 caps instead of the under six hundred minutes Tillman has gotten. If under 600 minutes is your limit, I also don't agree ... but let's at least use a number that isn't deceptive, okay? A one minute cameo is not the same as a 90 minute start.

3. I also agree with you that the spine is absolutely vital.

However, there's so much ridiculousness in your example.

While Pepi was left off the World Cup squad, Reyna was clearly very hurt and only somewhat ready to play by a week plus in.

Moreover, the spine that you've listed ...

Pepi: On the roster for last window and likely to start this window
Reyna: Hurt both last window and this window.
(McKennie): should have been listed in your peak spine but was hurt last window; likely plays this window.
Adams: Hurt last window and definitely kept home because he's just getting back into this window.
Richards: Hurt last window; likely to start this window
Miles: On both rosters though not starting
Turner: On both rosters; started and likely to start this window.

So just to be clear, right now we're talking in differences about half a demotion of Pepi (who was never really the clear #1 under Berhalter at all) and the demotion of Miles. Because everyone else has been hurt, is hurt or is playing.

Last window's team was subpart! I agree. But once we sent Pulisic home, we were missing Pulisic, Reyna, Weah, McKennie, Adams, Dest, Richards, and Balogun. I know you hate Dest ... but quite a few of those guys are guys everyone would start. Add in that Johnny and Luca de la Torre were missing and we lacked a lot of our best options.

4. TRY SOMETHING ELSE! You and I will never agree on this; I have no wish for a scattershot approach because I do think we know a lot of these guys aren't better. We aren't going to agree on this.

But here's your roster with the actual differences between you and Pochettino listed.

koleosho - Not committed to the US
pulisic - on roster
musah - on roster
campbell - has under 200 minutes with a senior team
gressel - can't defend at US level; has been very clear
vazquez - on roster
pepi - on roster
green - this is your upgrade at CM?
sullivan - Quinn or Cavan? The latter is nuts, so I'm going to assume Quinn
ferreira - Injured most of the season, then disappointing.
luna - Good year for RSL
mckennie - on roster
castaneda - admit it; you've never seen him play, right?
maloney - Definite potential though he also was unimpressive for the US in very limited minutes.
jedi - on team
bello - been poor at US level
fossey - been mediocre at best in limited time for US
weah - on roster
dietz - was poor for us at U23 level
richards - on roster
trusty - on roster
CCV - hurt
schulte - roster
celentano - good year for Cincy
turner - roster

Honestly, this comes down to Maloney, Celentano and Luna to my eye and to most of your arguments. The rest are kind of crazy or are talented but very young and inexperienced players which runs mostly counter to your "strong spine" and defense first ideas.

That said, I do agree that Pochettino is not really digging into the pool at all. As I said before, I'm not shocked -- his focus is on the best players, no finding all the margins yet.

He upgraded the roster significantly for this window, adding Weston McKennie, Chris Ricahrds, Johnny Soccer, a game of Christian Pulisic and a game of Tim Weah. That's a much bigger upgrade than anything else you have listed -- compared to the Mexico match, it's 5 to 6 of our top 10 outfield players that we've improved. And it's definitely five if you just look at how they've played for the US.

And 3-4 of the remaining ten are still unavailable (two, if you insist on the Dest thing and don't think much of Balo).

Think about that.

 

By my count there are 5 members of the squad who have played FB in a top 5 league.

 

you have fun at my expense but i remember having to beg to say johnny or malik or some of them could get a runout -- in addition to weah ferreira miles reyna etc. you do remember a couple years ago the tillmans had been on lists for years but yet zero caps. and now untouchable despite no performance.

so why doesn't the next guy get the same chance?

but the game is some work out, some don't. the US has quit washing out the more prominent trialists who don't work out. the game with trialists has always been, here's 30 minutes, here's a start, show me what you got. 15 games in it should still not be "show me something, please." you should be done for a year or two.

we then try someone else. and you can make fun of those someone elses, but malik and johnny were just as obscure a few years ago.

it's obvious status quo bias where you don't see that the players the US favors get quickly catapulted into the stratosphere. our job is to find the right ones to give that push.

we have kind of quit trying. we just assume this is the group -- results be d@mned.

 

dude, i have gressel at F or did you miss that? in which case who gives an eff how he defends?

did you miss they were broken down by line? including musah as wing F, and weah as RB.

he's on my list for late game service. we give our attackers crap balls to work with.

if you want to do fast, go find some other fast attackers besides weah. it can't be just one guy. and you better do some sort of transition game or change to counter soccer.

or, you go technical. which is what i proposed. guys with a bunch of league assists or who i think combine well with US teammates. i think that is the implied premise of our chosen scheme. however we do not start guys who can possess the ball or create for others, besides perhaps reyna and sometimes jedi from a wing. as such, we try to do 30 pass builds -- and fail. and don't score much of anything.

just cut the crap, how are we scoring goals. and spare me the "breaking lines" professional jargon gibberish. we gonna counter teams? win transition goals? outplay teams technically in half court?

if we're gonna play half court soccer and gressel is a F then the idea is for him to hit balls to fit into the box for others to finish -- like he does for miami.

 

I mean, that's simply not true. Reyna literally started from day one, and the only time discussion around him went away from him playing was around best position and if he was hurt.

The only discussion about Weah was for about a month after he returned from serious injury. And nearly everyone wanted to see Richards.

I wouldn't mind Campbell being called in, but from what I have seen, I do not think he is Reyna / Pulisic level. I think he will take a bit to make an impact.

I didn't like the last lineup at all. Though you seem to ignore very real constraints.

As I've noted, we're not going to send out the same lineup against Jamaica. We'll certainly start a whole whopping 2 players in common (Jedi, Turner) and maybe up to five or six.

But we were missing guys like Pulisic, Weah, and McKennie who are now here. Plus Johnny, who I suspect starts as well. When Weah is eligible in game 2, I think we're at at least five different starters.

Again with the name calling. I don't even know who you are going at, but I have seen no one list off the same starting lineup as versus Mexico. Not a single person, in large part because it is impossible.

If you'd like to sanely argue that we should not start Malik Tillman, you're actually going to find some people in agreement. You'll find a decent chunk of people who would start almost anyone over Ream. I see a lot of lists with Trusty -- who you seem to like -- starting.

If you'd like to argue we should start George Bello over Jedi Robinson, you are going to be called insane, and people are rightly going to ask for a very specific argument there. Because I doubt there's a single person in this world other than you that thinks Bello is a better player or even defender than Jedi.

Or screaming about an 18 year old who was in the 3. Bundi last year.

Or weirdly not wanting Scally when he's literally the all defense / no offense type of fullback you seem to want.

 

your dismissiveness of campbell is just a boring status quo reflex. i see him as the next reyna or pulisic. that good. in which case i don't care if he's a teen or not experienced first team. he is 20x the player cowell is -- ALREADY. he is just as fast but much better skilled and technical finisher.

watch the freaking tape out there.

 

half of your supposed harsh critique was to say several proposed choices had a good year someplace, ohhh, that cuts to the bone and disproves me so bad.

 

fossey was excellent last cap, what on earth are you watching?

fossey's problem right now is his trial window was during the caretaker period. so he's an orphan. the current coach calling a lot of summer guys plus steffen and zendejas suggests he didn't watch recent games for himself, and is perhaps reflecting one side of some sort of internal stale USSF debate on personnel.

 

If we mean 3 CBs playing as a back three in and out of possession I tend to think the chances we come out to start in that is low. I expect to see some 3 ATB when we build out but a consistent 3/5 ATB system is probably most likely when protecting a lead.

 

Keep in mind when thinking about roster for game one vs Jamaica that Weah will be serving a one game suspension.

 

Well, one, I am going to make fun of you simply because you ALWAYS cast yourself as some kind of absurd victim. Lots of people wanted to see Johnny or Malik, not just you. I also don't know how you were begging about Johnny -- Berhalter was all over him, brought him in quickly and played him a lot and frankly, he's never quite justified it yet.

You can make a decent argument he should be on the block. So it's a weird example.

Likewise, it's strange to mention the Tillmans, when it's clear Tim is not really in consideration.

I do think that we can be slow to give some players the same chance, in particular when they are performing. Maloney has actually been in a few camps but someone like Luna does deserve a shot. I agree with that.

I suspect that Pochettino is simply not in that stage yet. Again, using 15 caps for Malik is intentionally deceiving -- he has about 6 games worth of minutes. But he has one camp with Poch, and Poch is likely to evaluate him on that.

It's not. It's not random. It's not unrelated to club play, or skills sets or work rate or how you do in practice.

The subset of data these decisions should be based on should not be limited to game minutes with the USMNT. Though minutes should factor in and with an added weight. But it's a massive mistake to act like "we don't know how this player will perform" to any accuracy. There's absolutely some variability there ... but it is on the whole largely predictable.

Thirty minutes or a start would have us exiling quite a few of our players who are very good now. Jedi had multiple bad starts. Chris Richards did not look good at all for quite a few games. Some guys pop immediately -- those are the best players generally. But some guys do not.

When we have a full roster where everyone pops immediately, we can set that as the line. But we don't.

And let's be honest, guys like Fossey or Maloney or Bello or Dietz or Green have all had a short or longer short and failed to impress.

The upper limit is the question. When do you give up on a player that they simply aren't going to work out for the national team?

We can argue about that, but I don't think anyone should be shocked a new coach wants to give players who are physically talented and highly skilled and kill it for club are given more than one window with the coach. A coach who probably believes they can unlock something the last one couldn't.

Again, Johnny was fasttracked. Malik was pretty quick as well.

I have no issues trying something else -- it's the idea that ANYTHING else is a good idea.

I'm not sure who "we" is, but I do think you need to give the current staff a chance to evaluation before assuming that they will change the overall group of players called in at all.

But the reality is that the differences are at the margin right now, or at best, with young players emerging.

And if a Cole Campbell is as good as you say, he'll be in camp soon enough.

 

you're just making stuff up on bello. like you don't like him so he must have played bad. we have literally lost one game he played. panama away qualifier 21. and the only goal that game is zardes heading the ball in his own net. not bello.

last game he played was 5-0 grenada. before that he beat bosnia. he played a scoreless first 65' against mexico in the gold cup final.

 

my point is the US' scouting has become lame, predictable, buzz driven crap, usually involving improved statistical years from players who already disappointed, as opposed to new bodies who might shake things up. so we go in backwards circles when what usually shoots a team forwards is the next beasley pulisic donovan showing up. not going back through the same boring unsuccessful list of mids and backs who couldn't hack it before and have generally been B team level under berhalter.

and so sargent got back all summer and nothing happened. "but his norwich stats!" but the underlying actual player didn't appear to have changed -- he just found a smarter club career choice where he thrived.

what it's becoming is an exercise in status quo perseveration. we are very good at justifying the second act of players who failed their first chance. we drag our feet on the gamechanging younger players like richards, reyna, and campbell.

last point but you'd think you snobs would understand that the guys coming through elite germany might be facing the most intense roster competition of anyone. it's this bizarre thing where starting there is a gold star towards starting here, but being just the other side of that divide -- getting 10 minutes a game -- and you're somehow a scrub age group player not ready. you ever consider a kid getting any time there is probably a starter in MLS, SPL, Championship, MX, or any of the other leagues we populate our team with?

 

I'm not. Bello has absolutely had issues his entire career -- youth, club, senior -- with getting caught out defensively. He loses focus, he gets beat behind. It's in every scouting report ever written on him. Offensively, he's very fast but he lacks ball skills; isn't a great possession guy and struggles in the final third.

I haven't seen him with LASK this year; maybe he's gotten better. He is young. And maybe if that was your argument, great. But it is clear you are just tossing his name out as an alternative because he's an alternative, not because you think his play warrants it. You don't like Jedi -- which doesn't make any sense as he's been one of our best performers in the US shirt over the last few years -- so it's anyone you can remember.

And Bello was a disaster in that Panama game. A lot of people were, but he was a nightmare. A complete inability to make even a basic pass put us in our own end really hurt us.

A January camp against Bosnia and a Grenada match are fairly meaningless. The Mexico game is a plus.

 

Thanks for putting it out there, and it's not as unserious as Clint suggests. Gogo pretty much detailed a lot of my response so I don't need to.

Curious is Adams missing above because he's "hurt", or has failed, or isn't the skill-set you want.?

 

or have you considered that the way dortmund kind of jerked around pulisic at the end, or reyna, hints that they are either overstuffed with talent and struggling to accurately assess it, or operating on some level where their sub might be another guy's starter?

it's odd that we take so seriously one club's decisions. i remember gullible folks listening to lampard during pulisic's CFC years. one career move later lampard looks like the idiot. (and fwiw they were his last job, hasn't been hired since)

why do we have to borrow their formations, their tactics, and accept their evaluations of our guys?

i watched campbell play some and he's got excellent touch, good finishing, and cowell's speed. which means, better than cowell, or esmir, or the rest of that gang that couldn't shoot straight.

but thanks to boring status quo worship, i have to watch cowell get 10 chances to flub shots, until dortmund either starts the kid or loans him out, where he earns some stamp of approval where i am allowed to admit seeing what i see. which is backwards how scouting works.

did we wait for german teams to tell us it was ok to like green (age group)? donovan (wash out)? richards (bounced around)?

 

I don't think we've seen any indication of what Pochettino is doing.

I don't think that's at all indicative of what Berhalter was doing. They had a good article from early on, but they were using both statistics and watching a crapload of games -- splitting them up and then all reporting on them every Monday. There were multiple approaches.

And it's hard to argue with the results on identification of new players. We didn't know or barely heard of guys named Johnny or Musah. Heck, we had barely heard of Cole Campbell before he made his one time switch back to us.

Every piece of evaluation has biases, including your own. But what you think is lame and predictable is almost certainly, in Berhalter's case, a coaching staff who believe they had largely evaluated the players you are talking about. Berhalter had Maloney, for example, in multiple camps. If he liked Johnny better, that's not necessarily faulty. You need a coach to have some level of conviction.

Is Pochettino really focused on outside talent eval right now? I suspect not. Maybe not ever. But I also think he's hesitant to judge players on one window, and I agree with that as well.

Actually, Sargent absolutely has improved at Norwich. If you've watched him, that'd be clear. He's gotten much quicker to get his shot off, for one. One of his biggest struggles when he wasn't scoring was a need to line up the ball -- he's much better at one timers, at quick shots, etc.

He didn't play well last window. But he's exactly the type of guy you should be advocating to get a chance.

If you didn't think he should get a chance, then you need to stop hiding behind this idea that all you want is a chance. No, you want the guys YOU think are better to get a chance. There's a difference.

Sargent's also not here this window and while that's injury driven ... isn't calling in a dude who is performing well exactly what you want?

See this is the dumb bullshit you say.

In an earlier post, you say that you haven't called for permanent exile ... but now you criticize bringing anyone in for a second chance.

Furthermore, claiming we dragged our feet on someone like Reyna is hilarious. Reyna started from Day 1. Period. He only failed to start when he was hurt, coming off injury or the fourth game of a four game window that was a friendly after a 120 minute intense Nations League final.

That's it. That's all. There was zero dragging. Richards was also fairly quickly integrated, especially considering that a) he's a CB and b) once he did play, he wasn't all that good for us.

Cole Campbell has like 100 minutes. To claim we are dragging right now is hilarious.

He's got under 100 total official minutes currently. I don't think anyone would have been mad that he was called in, but acting like this is the end of the world and indicative of some decades spanning problem is making a mountain out of a molehill.

I'd have liked to see Campbell. I am no fan of Zendejas, for sure, though he played decently last window. I also think that Pochettino could have some very good reasons for not calling him in, and I think that may just revolve around his chances of minutes versus what he can do at Dortmund, etc.

 

Who are you even talking to? Seriously, there's a quote button. Use it.

I don't take any single clubs evaluation all that seriously. It's a data point like any other.

How much time of Campbell have you watched? Because I can guarantee you that I can find you that much time of Cowell where he looks amazing, and back when he was 17.

But that's immaterial. There are plenty of reasons why it's okay that he's not called in. And I have no idea how calling Cade Cowell is status quo worship.

This might be the most bizarre reference ever. Got a short look with the US, played very well, wasn't put on a Olympic team, chose Bosnia. I have no idea how he's even referenced in this discussion.

There's nothing about Julian Green that should be a plus for your discussion here. That was entirely a status driven decision by Klinsmann and not really based in skill set. The guy got a random goal or two for the US but simply isn't actually a very good player.

And neither Donovan nor Richards ... like, we brought them in and played them so isn't that argument that we aren't deciding based on European teams' choices?

 

i like adams. adams is the only real 6 we have identified so far. but adams is barely back playing games and should be left to heal up. hurt guys or recent rehabs should be left to heal up. you only take injury risks at world cups. what happened to adams and reyna earlier in the year is why. we didn't win. and we lost them the rest of the year. this used to be basic US common sense. but a lot of basic US common sense like club success doesn't mean country quality, has also gone out the window.

adams also keeps getting hurt. to me on players like him and turner, we could really use to leave them off some and just audition competition. the US used to be more self confident where they could leave off an excellent player a window or two, get them rest, and trust that the switch could be flipped. for some reason roughly klinsi's era, this became, call the key players every single game possible.

johnny i don't see it. musah isn't consistent back there. weston makes isolated good 6 plays but doesn't dominate the space for 90. to me clear the runway and let some others try. if no one can do it, circle back. but the US has a tendency to either hand the job to someone without any proof of concept, or make it a 2 man competition. to pick winners. we then seem confused how the "winners" play. but they didn't win the job on the field. they got picked off paper.

when i mentioned adams keeps getting hurt, like they need to seriously audition that position like at any point he turns into john o'brien or holden and is done. i don't mean that nasty. maybe he heals up and is never hurt again. but it's happening so often and the solutions seem to be awfully ad hoc for a recurring theme. if a guy is regularly out you should be finding a long term replacement or at least identifying a similar enough sub when he is here.

BIGGER PICTURE -- VERY FEW OFF THIS TEAM HAVE EARNED THE IMPUNITY THEY HAVE FROM ROSTER COMPETITION. i know people adore the starters but outside maybe pulisic how many play so good so consistently their job shouldn't be rotated until we see if someone else is better or they get more consistent.

 

green has goals on belgium and france. for a team with any clue that would matter.

to me it's we have a cluster of players like him that are closer to what reyna does. technical AM types with some sniper and creative ability.

to me what no one admits is even reyna had to fight his way past a stack of crap 8s to get his playing time.

a lot of what the fanboys have confused is GB wanted the 8s for defensive reasons and wasn't comfortable with a 10. so he demoted guys like green who are pure attackers. we have had a generation like them come up, luna, sullivan, tsakiris. your ilk pretends like they suck because they don't play for the NT. but that begs the question. they don't play for the NT because we deliberately call hustling mids like busio or tessmann or johnny instead.

it's strange because the guys i am suggesting are like better versions of LDLT who y'all seem to love even though he's on a spanish bench and absolutely hopeless in physical play. like if you like a 2 assist technical mid what's your issue with a 10 goal 10 assist version.

IN SHORT -- GO FIND SOME MORE GUYS LIKE REYNA. where the 10 slot doesn't depend on him being healthy or in fashion in club ball.

either that or consider moving pulisic to the 9 or 10 hole to get some creativity in the middle. elite soccer is not a tractor pull.

odd.

 

i mentioned esmir because there is a whole cluster of a type of wing we have produced, cowell, esmir, zendejas, where they dance around, run fast at people, and then get nervous or sloppy and the final ball isn't there. more chaos agents than actual service. what the US needs is less energy expense and more final product. create separation. deliver a ball inch perfect. let the 9 finish.

i personally favor more paredes and yow (hurt), the young vazquez kid, or campbell. better technical wings.

either that or generally i like speed wide, but that's weah and then what? pulisic can't keep up with him. i have suggested pushing dest up high when he's healthy. he can't defend. that would be 2 fast wings.

and you can make fun of esmir but they capped him literally 9 months ago -- this january's camp -- before conceding him to bosnia. my point, is in the absence of weah and reyna we kind of call a "type" that isn't proving very effective. i am suggesting move on to the yow/paredes/campbell bunch that i see as better technical soccer players.

this shouldn't be controversial if you have a clue. it is controversial if you just cheer for cap counts and stat lines even if he's not really doing the job for us.

 

personally i see the affection for cowell as people who adore promoting internally without considering they are starting to promote up the same B team that couldn't get out of a gold cup semi a year ago (cowell wide, busio mid). that then gets B-like results.

considering the horrific results the B team has in recent years i see no reason for the impetus.

i once in junior high got promoted off the B select up to A where i stayed then on. i did it by scoring a hat trick on the As in the preseason scrimmage where we beat the As 3-0. they then switched 3 Bs to A -- the midfield basically. and vice versa. that makes sense, i just outplayed the As badly.

not losing a gold cup semi as well as about every recent off-brand mexico B game or january contest. what on earth is encouraging this other than rotely working down a list with B listed after A? to me if you can't beat the A out why aren't i considering U20s or dual nationals just the same.

 

and i think what i am specifically talking about on gang that couldn't shoot straight, is the U20s a couple cycles back. varas' bunch. cowell would get about 10 chances and maybe score 1. which is about how his senior caps have gone since then.

and that bunch would get countered like mad and yet is somehow the next generation of defenders people want called.

 

That goal against Belgium was in 2014, and that very lucky goal against a French team that wasn't really trying was in 2018.

It's 2024.

If one were just to read this, they'd think you were speaking of Malik Tillman.

He did not, and if you want to wonder why people put you on ignore, the straight out lies are a big part of it.

Reyna started every game he was healthy for, period, under every coach, except that Costa Rica friendly right after the 2021 Nations League final and B squad games like January camps and B squad Gold Cups.

He's only ever even come off the bench when he was not fully fit.

The dude is just always injured or coming off injury.

Again, the name calling.

No one thinks those guys suck. Quite a few people wanted Luna called up. But also, you act like they have been performing forever. Luna broke out some last year, but this was Quinn's breakout year and Tsakiris hasn't done so.

More importantly, Pochettino did play with a 10 and he did play Tillman and Aaronson here. I don't know how Tessman or Johnny or Busio relevant; Diego Luna can not play an effective CDM or even CM.

So the guys on this roster to compare at the 10 spot are probably Tillman, Aaronson and McKennie.

If someone took Luna's spot, it was actually Cade Cowell.

I don't love LDLT -- we are not all the same poster here. But he's a shuttler anyway; Luna is a winger or CAM.

Incidentally, we did the player with the best stats in MLS at this kind of thing; Mihailovic has better stats than Luna but didn't pass muster.

Hopefully, Luna will get his shot soon. Hell, I'd love to see Quinn on a wing ... I'm somewhat of a Quakes fan and let me tell you, we don't need to see Tsakiris yet.

Oh, is that all?

One must consider that we might not really have another Reyna in the pool.

You have a very specific view of how a team plays. Pulisic does plenty of playmaking from where he plays now. A lot of people called his role in the Panama match that of a dual 10, and aside from playing a little left, that is basically what he did.

And ironically ... most of what you propose is making the game much more of a tractor pull.

 

This just really details how much of this has nothing to with all your babble about process and simply all about which players you like.

Esmir actually has end product and was very good for the US. But you like Paredes better, who (a) no one would describe as technical and in fact would be categorized as a defensive winger, period and (b) has been very poor for the US and according to your process should be dropped outright.

You can't write what you've written and pimp for Paredes and not be inconsistent. Period.

Just say you like Paredes better and say why. Don't try to make this some process thing or use the word fanboys or act like every coach is an idiot or some decades long USSF problem.

It's okay to simply like a player better than another. Then people can disagree. Stop trying to make it more than it is.

(Also, are you saying David Vazquez? Who has yet to play for the Union? I love Vazquez, but perhaps he should get some more pro run before rushing to call him in?)

Me, too. That's why I like Jedi on the left and Weah as RW.

Umm... well, on this team, Cade Cowell. But you don't want him there. Also Musah. I think both have problems with end product but so do most of the other options.

I'm pretty sure he can. We don't play Pulisic as a straight winger, but he's more than fast enough.

I understand your POV. For you, there's simply one way to play -- fullbacks stay back and defend. The wingers play as wingers. The ball goes through the CAM. Dribbly guys are CAMs and do not belong on the wings.

That's it. Any permutation is a problem.

But there's lots of ways to play.

Pochettino may agree. But shouldn't you wait for him to be healthy.

I'm not making fun of Esmir. What I'm pointing out is that the US giving an 18 year Esmir a January camp call and who actually was very good in the game and showed excellent skill as some kind of example of "the gang who can't shoot straight."

He actually seems to have a pretty accurate but more importantly, he was called in at a very young age but he also wasn't called in repeatedly so who was he blocking?

Well, you were pushing Luna, who is definitely of that type.

And Cowell is very much in the Yow/Paredes/Campbell style.

And actually, Zendejas can very much shoot straight, even if he's the Luna style, he just gets pushed off the ball.

Your buckets are all over the place and don't really make sense by the way you've labelled them.

Again, just label them "Players I like and Players I don't like" and we'll have a much better conversation.

I don't even know what that last part means. I've never seen anyone make an argument that cap counts should be the decision maker. And as for stat lines ... isn't that your argument for Luna?

Stop acting like everyone else is an idiot, and stop acting like you have some grand logic that no one else can figure out.