Poch deserves all the criticism he is getting. I understand the idea of trying out new players but aside from Luna he has been picking some sub-par players. I also blame him for not understanding that our talent pool demands a 3CB formation. But there is a lot more blame to go around that the players need to eat. Canada and other CONCACAF teams routinely get more from MLS level players whereas our players almost always play worse than the sum of their parts. It started to decline rapidly in the 2nd GB era but the feeling that this team is snake-bit has really snow-balled. I mean, at this point I fully expect them to lose to teams like South Korea and Japan. Heck... we may not even be the 4th best team in our own conference. Mexico, Canada and Panama are better... and Jamaica and CR might be too. In short... they stink and I can't wait for the Intl Window to be over.
Japan and SK are more Canada/US/Mex level than any other Concacaf team. Doesn't mean we shouldn't be playing better, but they are not "worse" (or better) than us in any great distance by any objective metric. (aside from, you know, beating us, in the case of SK, but other than that...)
Noting that there will be 26 man rosters to choose from to pick the 11 starters there are a possible 7,726,168 different combinations available. Gio in goal for starters!
Like Stewart, Berhalter was going to take a club gig before the Reyna imbroglio hit. Crocker was set on Marsch until he did a round of interviews with the players pre-NL. After which they rushed to hire Berhalter before he took the Club America job.
If these tactics were too complicated it’s because our players are stupid and incompetent. A 4231 that does some pressing, drops into a 442, and attacks with wide fullbacks is the soccer equivalent of vanilla.
Flat out I do not think that Poch is actually calling up the fit players he thinks would give us the best results. I think he is: 1. Deferring to club concerns during this, about to be phased out, September window. 2. Trying to motivate under-performers/guys who haven’t shown the level of commitment he is demanding. I also suspect he has over-indexed on his own in-person observations of training and the small samples he has observed. So because our pool lacks competition Poch’s plan is to get those guys performing at a higher level by 1. playing big roles with their clubs and 2. forcing them to adopt a mentality/approach that Poch feels will lead to the best performances and thus the best results. The first part tends to help but the second still requires those guys to buy-in and change. That’s far from guaranteed.
I agree that he is over-indexing on super small sample sizes tied to his very brief and incomplete views of our player pool. Mainly because he is lazy and arrogant, thinking he has the ability to unlock the magic depth of the US pool by leaning on players like Berhalter, Agyemang, Harriel, Roldan, White, Blackmon, et. al. But asking our best players to come in and give it their all only to surround them with players that don't deserve to be on the team, leading to a string of embarrassing and disjointed performances seems like an asinine masterplan to get the most out of your best players and "create competition." These shit mind games might work on 12 year olds but not grown ass men (tm).
Even though I think USSF is ride or die with Poch until after the USMNT exit the WC, I still want to ask this question: If Poch is fired before the WC, he still gets his 6 million because it’s guaranteed money, right? So where will the money come from to hire someone else? Didn’t Poch’s 6 million come from some hedge fund guys? Would they be willing to fork over more money for zero guarantee it’ll work the second time around?
I think you’re missing the point of this theory. He does not care about those depth guys outside of their commitment to the required mentality. Those guys being dropped is more important than who is replacing them. His goal is to get the under-motivated, overly-complacent, underperforming dropped players to raise their games. If there was competition Poch wouldn’t have to do anything other than respond to performances and pick the best players. If those guys don’t get on board they don’t go to the WC. That’s the incentive.
I think the “under-motivated, overly-complacent” read is a bunch of garbage, honestly. And to ask player to come and give it their all when you don’t put the player in the team in a position to succeed is nonsense. It’s amateur hour pseudo-psychology nonsense. Worse than late stage Klinsmann bullshit.
Many coaches have tried to send messages to players by using playing time as a carrot. It doesn’t work when your competitiveness then plummets and you start racking up losses. That’s why it frequently ends with losing the locker room and later your job. That btw doesn’t excuse what I see as a lack of leadership within the team from vets, failure to set the tone and police the other players. Has been a negative.
Cant have defensive confusion like we did on both their goals. They had good interchange and movement but we had so much space and gap in the center of 18 yard box. Have to be more compact and dense.
I figure those same hedge fund guys can fork over another 1 million to hire a guy for 9 months through the World Cup.
That isn't necessarily true. You do need a reliable CB to play in the middle... and that is Richards right now. But if you have one, then a lot of CBs that would be subpar in a 2CB system can actually do well at outside CB in a 3CB backline. Heck, as god awful as Blackmon was in the first 60+ minutes against SK he actually did OK once Richards came in and he was pushed to RCB. Everything changed when the formation shifted and if we had guys like McKenzie or Trusty (and hopefully Banks) then we might actually turn a negative into a positive (or at least average it out). I hold to my statement. As long as Richards is there we should play w/ 3CBs.
I mean Trusty seems to have lost his starting spot with Celtic and I think the World Cup might be a bit too soon for Banks. You’re basically rolling with Ream and McKenzie most likely and you’re likely taking off a better player off the field to do so.