He lets himself down? First of all, you are speaking in English footie cliche (hope you are English). Second, he plays defense in the EPL and even if his team isn't very good, he defends against very very good teams and is rarely burned.
Snobbery in what competition, the one between Yedlin and Cannon to hold Dest's jock? Dest is already at a level right now that neither Yedlin or Cannon will ever reach. If there is a difference in the margin of their defensive abilities, it is slight. Whereas the difference in every other aspect of their games, is a vast chasm between Dest and the other two. Your highlighting of the assist stats last year makes no sense either, Cannon got all the minutes because Yedlin was injured and Dest hadn't been called up and Dest still had as many assists as Cannon, in a third as many minutes. Dest is also 2.5 years younger than Cannon. The frame of this discussion alone highlights the difference, no one has a problem slotting Dest in at LB because he is good enough to play there, not a single person is advocating that Cannon or Yedlin play on the left so that Dest, the superior player can play in his natural position, why is that? As for Yedlin and Cannon, they should continue battling it out as I don't see much separating them at the moment. Yedlin has been injured and has big holes in his game, but he has been doing fine at a much higher level than MLS and lest we forget, the last time we were in a world cup, he was terrific for us, whereas the next actually meaningful game Cannon plays in will be his first. I would be curious to see Dest play on the wing with CP at the 10, or vice versa, instead of Lleget/Roldan/McKinnie/Aaronson or whomever else. I just don't see how we can play Dest anywhere but LB if the next option is Lovitz. Hopefully a genuine LB like Robinson or Gloster can break through to a Cannon/Yedlin level so we could try moving Dest around.
Haha what particularly makes that an English football cliche? Him rarely getting burned is the point I'm making club level is much more frenetic so his pace gets him out of trouble a lot of times. At international level different situations arise, where perhaps you need to concentrate more rather than relying on your speed.
I don't think there is any question that in a three way battle for a single right back spot, Dest wins this with ease. The real question is if Dest or either of the others are able to play well enough on the left to improve the overall team since we have little to nothing at left back. And further, if it is worth moving Dest to the left and lessening the effect of one of our best players to provide more solid cover on the let. But, no way Cannon or Yedlin are better right backs than Dest today and that gap will only grow over the next few years.
In YA, an apparently very credible source has Dest going to Bayern Munich this summer. If so, wow, did that pro-active dual national strategy finally pay huge dividends.
Would move Yedlin and Chandler into right-midfield/wing-forward. Yedlin would play his deep-lying winger role. Dest and Cannon would be the right backs. That's the entire right side sorted through the World Cup. Maybe Gressel gets his papers in time to make a run. Pulisic and Antonee Robinson would be the obvious starters at LM and LB, respectively. There's not much depth at LB, though. Is that Finnish-American player any good? What happened to Marco Farfan? Maybe Vine comes good.
I don't rate Yedlin for the NT, neither do I rate Robinson yet. I'd put him there out of necessity only. Dest/Cannon would be my #1/#2 choices on the right. On the left, we have nothing. Lovitz is terrible. So it'd be Antonee/Lichaj/Ream, depending on the rival and whether we want to attack on that side or mostly defend. We have no one who can play LB well enough against strong competition, though. On the right, we're pretty much set. And we're lucky the only team in the region playing good soccer is Mexico.
My team 4-3-3 Defensive / Counter Attack GK: Zack Steffen RB: DeAndre Yedlin CB: Matt Besler CB: John Brooks CB: Sergiño Dest CMF: Tyler Adams CMF: Michael Bradley CMF: Weston McKennie LW: Jordan Morris FW: Jozy Altidore RW: Christian Pulisic Subs Tim Melia Greg Garza Walker Zimmerman Matt Miazga Nick Lima Sacha Kljestan Jackson Yueill Djordje Mihailovic Tim Weah Christian Ramirez Paul Arriola Ethan Finlay
I like the idea, but Guzan for the sub keeper, Holmes for one of your subs, and how can you omit Sargent entirely? Is that an injury thing?