I've always kind of argued this, and I still sort of do. It's not that we don't have depth, so much as its that we are incredibly system dependent on a couple of particular players. Look back and consider that we didn't have a fully healthy Pulisic until Window 4 of WCQ and we were just fine. The reason was we had really good depth at WF at the time, about 6 guys we used, and about 3 or 4 that were genuinely really good or solid (Pulisic, Weah, Aaronson, Arriola, Morris etc). We also had a ton of depth at CB which is why we could withstand losing 2 or 3 of our top 5 CB's and be just fine, because we had another 5 or 6 bang average (for our pool) CB's. What we didn't have was: *A like for like attacking RB like Dest. We just had a middling D first guy like Scally, an aged out pretty crappy Yedlin (who in my book, put out one of his best performances at the WC, so thank you), a never good enough Shaq Moore, and the RB prospect that went to Roma and flamed out to Belgium, in Reynolds, never came remotely close to Dest. A like for like LB for Jedi never quite materialized even though we had a bunch of LB young options, so its been kind of weird, because one can argue: "man, we have no depth at RB, or LB", and its true, there's noone close to the tier of value and style of play we get from Dest or Jedi. However, the reality is, especially at LB, we have several guys that are just way, way, way above the LB options we've had for 95% of the 1990-2025 era. Most of the time we had to simply move guys out of position to LB, because LB was a historical joke for us in terms of development. We produced zilch of quality, always. Now we have a pretty big pile of mediocre LB's who would provide middling defense, and middling or worse attacking chops, but just like Dest, none of them remotely come close to providing what Jedi and Dest do for the attack in particular. At Central Midfield: We only have one playmaking assist and goal dangerous machine, and his endless litany of injuries since Labor Day 2001, has essentially gutted the functionality of the attack from central. We have no like for like string puller in CM, zero. Pulisic doesn't work, Aaronson doesn't work, Tillman hasn't worked. Honestly, it may come down to Cavan, and Cavan if he's even that as a senior level player, is still 1-3 years away from being impactful, maybe. So its a disaster. We have no D-Mid close to Adams. That's what it is. I've spent a long, long, long time trying to figure out the depth thing because people say it, and I always believe it's a historically ignorant argument. We have infinitely worse depth during the '90, '94, '98, '06, '14, and '18 cycles. I'm not sure about '02, they had more depth, but it only truly started to congeal in '02, there was a litany of injuries that hit in '01 in particular that really hurt the team (at one point basically every single first choice attacking player was injured summer of '01). My point would be that most of our options the last four decades when guys went down were far, far worse than they are today. The difference is this team has been so so so system dependent, rather than the whole of its parts dependent like it was '90-'14, that when guys go down, that are specific guys, the domino effect of problems is infinitely worse than it was in the nineties and aughts and last decade. Back then we could survive almost anything in the 90s so long as our top goalies weren't out. In the aughts it was basically Donovan, and to a lesser extent, not getting all our strikers smashed at the same time like happened a few times, last decade it was Dempsey, and Donovan and Bradley and Jones, and we survived losing Donovan, but not Donovan/Dempsey/Jones which is a big reason why '15-'17 was so bad. But now, now we need Adams for the defensive set up to work at all, w/o him our defense is like Leeds post Adams injury, twice as bad in terms of floor. If we lose Dest or Weah, the attacking functionality of the Right wing totally collapses, if we lose both of them, it is a black hole. If we lose Reyna, and we have creativity in the midfield, comes exclusively from "Good McKennie" showing up with some Harry Potter ---- that day, otherwise we are totally dependent on the verticality element of the wings, which gets to why losing Jedi is even worse than losing Pulisic. We can lose Pulisic, because while we have no other Pulisic, he doesn't fundamentally change how we play, but if we lose Jedi, we basically lose the Weah option of the Left, that stretches defenses, and makes opponents honor the threat of pace, and crosses and finishing from the wings. So essentially, the team is desperately dependent on Jedi and Weah for the Wings, Weah and Dest for the max lethality for the right, Reyna for any central playmaking, and Adams for defending. We have zero replacements of quality for ANY of those guys. We do have guys EVERY BIT as good and better than the backup LB's, RB's, CM's, and RWF's we might have rolled out circa 1990-2019, but they aren't remotely up to the task of providing the verticality we get from Jedi, Weah, or playmaking of peak Reyna, or of the catalyst impact of Weah+Dest, or of the Defensive doubling in efficacy of Adams versus no Adams. That's what it is. Maybe I'm just arguing with myself, but for me its not really that we have no depth, it's that we don't have any like for like replacements for those 5 positions, and because of that, we simply have not learned how to play w/o them, effectively, EVER, and in particular without multiples of them. The '90-'19 generations got by with far worse replacements, because things weren't build on individuals and what they added, instead, we had the collective, and Arena and Bob, and Gansler, and Sampson, and Bora would figure out how to generate results from the ingredients in the given pantry any given window, and as long as the roof didn't totally cave in with injuries or aging out (like '98, summer '01, and WC '06) impacing everything, the team could survive plugging in players. We have not figured out how to play attacking soccer w/o Jedi and Reyna, without Weah or Dest, and we haven't figured out how to defend without Adams. So subtract clumps of those players and the team is far, far, far, far worse than it should be, in comparison to the teams of the past, because despite better talent at depth everywhere, we simply were far, far, far more flexible, and more capable of improvisation in the past, than today. We don't have next man up effectiveness, when it comes to playmaker, Jedi/Dest/Weah/Adams. We just don't, and the team folds like lawn chairs when enough of them are out, regardless of replacement quality. I think you've seen an acknowledgement of that on the boards since this past winter with us coming to terms with the reality that we need to build a different way of effectively attacking w/o Reyna because his lack of availability and fitness is more reliable than any other scenario. Luna gave us a hint of possibilities. I have hope for Cavan a few years from now, but yeah, we need Luna and Tillman and the rest to figure out how to effectively score goals w/o Reyna. The whole Adams piece is something that's largely unfixable, same with Jedi and Weah, until/if we develop similar vertical options.
I know what you mean, but I don't think it's quite system-dependent. I think we're caught in between a style of play transition and a transition of expectations with less talent than you'd want. The difference there is that I think the coaching staffs do a pretty decent job of adjusting and adapting their specific system to missing guys, and I don't think the system itself is dependent on say, Dest, or Pulisic. It's just that: a) We expect a level of domination as a fanbase that requires a more complete talent level up than we have. Yes, having Dest would help, but it's more than we expect the team to win everything CONCACAF and upset other teams and that's not a team with a shaky keeper or mediocre CBs or running out an all-defense RB / Winger combo. Performance should be better than recent, but we're nowhere near the overall talent and depth required to win at the rate of expectations -- which is to not get upset. b) Any attempt to control the ball and score from possession requires the vast majority to play that way. We aren't specifically dependent on Dest so much as we are when the rest of the backline and keeper can't pass or possess and some of our midfield goes missing for ... reasons. We are dependent on our few really talented players because we are starting from 7 or 8 of the needed personnel already. The obvious answer many have stated is to go back to defend and counter gameplans ... but there are two issues there. One, our strength is not defending, and it certainly isn't defending passively. It may be tough for us to control and score through possession because we're just not quite good enough, but defending most of the game has us playing away from our best players' strengths for vast swaths of time, and defending passively really does that. Two, go back to point (a). Countering teams have less control of the game, and we forget that the success rate of countering teams is more accepted not because it's higher but because it's used generally by teams with lower expectations. If you have superior talent and superior expectations, you're going to be frustrated with losses that come from minimal chances, an inability to do anything when you have the ball, etc. See LAFC. Teams are going to sit back on us. Playing passive defense and countering doesn't solve that. As teams treat you this way, you have to learn how to score. The most successful we've been, of course, is option 3: aggressive pressing defense. But that brought up concerns about fitness and fatigue in tournament play, and we've already talked about lacking depth to rotate. You can see Poch trying to thread the needle: very selective on pressing and a "possession" game that tries to resemble a counter as much as it can. I think these are smart high level changes from Gregg 2.0, but I think he's going to need to move more on defense to Gregg 1.0 than he currently is to get it to work.
Charlie Davis with great questions. The CBS Sports Golazo crew chats with Klinsmann on Poch, Foreign Managers, and other topics. Key point; It is all about people management skills from JK's perspective and he thinks Poch is very good at it. Great story about JK's disbelief that Pulisic wanted to leave camp to go to the prom.
When the title of this thread pops in the "Recent Threads" box, my first thought is "Pochettino is replacing Gregg Berhalter...again?!?"
I do not think that we’ve ever been particularly good at pressing. We’ve not done a good job of disrupting decent teams’ buildups. What we have been good at, at times, is counterpressing. Specifically that means winning the ball back within 8 seconds after losing it somewhere in the attacking 60% of the field. Our CM also had a stretch where they won a lot of duels. The England WC match saw us do a good job containing them from the midblock and winning a lot of midfield battles with a “passive” approach. The home WCQ against Mexico saw us play direct over their first line of pressure and murder their midfield with our mobility and strength in the challenge. Our tradeoff to maintain the rest defense required to be good at counter pressing and not leaving our CBs exposed in the space of a counter was that the 8s needed to be more mobile two-way types who would have to hold at times to account for our agressive FB play. There were also some complaints about a lack of urgency/risk taking in our own attacking transitions, a lack of attacking freedom, and the allegation that this CM made our talent balance too defensive. Since then our against the ball/duel strengths have eroded. Some of that is missing Tyler. Some of that is catching Wes in bad moments (his club play has not tailed off, which would indicate a deeper issue). Some of that is dropping a two-way 8 for an AM. Any sort of perceived increase in freedom and fluidity has not translated to an increase in chance quality generation. The ability to unlock a competent block has not materialized. Maybe the other defensive tilting personnel moves (going with a conservative/stay at home RB, playing a two-way player wide) has hurt us. I’m not sure there is an easy fix. Having all our best players will help. The highly likely outcome of Johnny translating club form into national team form probably sees us back to playing a conservative 3 man CM. That’s true even if the triangle is flipped and Wes defends more like an AM. Maybe that sees some marginal gains in passing and defending and a bit more box arriving and set piece threat (where Johnny is stronger than Yunus). It could also see a better ability to rotate, with Musah and others in reserve. Dest being back is going to help our ability to build out and bring some more dynamism to his side of the field. However, if the CBs can’t form a solid partnership and GK remains middling, those problems will largely wipe out the attacking gains. We almost certainly will need to play a contained, largely mid and low block approach against any good team. We will probably still struggle against any decent team with an organized defense. The hope is we just return to being hard to play against and we finish well enough when it matters.
Depth is an issue in no small part due to badge logic. For example, against Panama, Scally and Musah were used as the fullbacks. Scally certainly isn't an attacking fullback, which was what had been needed. Instead, DeJuan Jones would've been the much better option. As Panama were sat in a low block, Diega Luna would've been the best option at the 10. And at least 3-4 keepers in MLS would've been superior options to Matt Turner.
I don't think Matt Turner did so badly. Horvarth by the way was ranked 26/29 in the Championship for clean sheet % and 28/29 for save % (FBref).
Univision calling out Poch... but Zendejas has never done anything with the USMNT Univision Broadcast are calling out Mauricio Pochettino for not considering Zendejas for the #USMNT after his great season & being crucial for the Three-peat of Club America. Zendejas has two goals vs Pachuca in a QF match going on right now. pic.twitter.com/Ya5QJxMYtW— Edgar (@ConcacafEdgar) May 11, 2025
He has the same problem Mexican players do in that they have a lot of trouble doing it against bigger more aggressive defenders in international play. He's sort of quick, not really fast, little and plays hard. It works in MX but he struggles getting that room internationally. Hell Pulisic struggles and he can do everything Zendejas does and do it much better.
Sure, it's just garbage. Throw it out with the rest of the click bait. Have to say, though, I was chuckling after listening to the rant about how the head guy had to fly to Holland with his entourage to attend personally to Sergino "red card" Dest only to have the female anchor sum it up saying that she supposed it would take about a year for Dest to feel normal again after his ACL tear, pointing out that he had time since the WC was in 2026. Hang tough, Poch. We do things differently in America and we rely on immigrants to do it. If we play like the badges we lose to the badges. If we play like Argentina, we will lose to Argentina. Need to find our personality. You got it right.
Oh so the reason Poch hasn't spoken to (aka "attend personally to") Dest is because Dest isn't back to normal yet? Do we know, what is Poch doing with all that free time instead? You know, as a hard working immigrant or whatever you're trying to say there...
Can't wait for Poch's touching statement 1 year into the job, and I couldn’t be more thankful to work with such a great group of people, coach such a wonderful team, and represent such a fantastic nation. We will push everyday to make the country proud in 2026. I believe in these players entirely. 💪💪🇨🇦 #CANMNT pic.twitter.com/7clD6TZO5c— Jesse Marsch (@jessemarsch) May 13, 2025 Only one has an excuse!
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_...-klopp-slot-success-proof-coaches-dont-matter Love this quote by Ancelotti. I am very clear that there are two types of coaches: those who do nothing, and those who do a lot of damage. I try to be the first.
USMNT Announces September Friendlies Against Top Asian Opposition The United States men's national team announced friendly fixtures in September as Mauricio Pochettino continues preparation for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The USMNT will face South Korea and Japan, four days apart, in Harrison, NJ and Columbus, OH. South Korea and Japan are ranked 23rd and 15th respectively in the FIFA men's world rankings, as of writing. The Stars and Stripes will take the field and host supporters and their opponents at two Major League Soccer stadiums. This will be fun. Good job by Crocker/Poch to book these two in the Sep window. Remember how impotent Berhalter was against Japan in the run-up to Qatar 2022?
Problem with hiring a foreign coach is you run the risk they aren’t as invested in a way that Berhalter was or Marsch would have been. And not saying Pochettino is mailing it in, but do wish he was doing a little more to beat the allegations. Though I’ll start to worry if the Gold Cup goes poorly.