We have no idea if Lletget ever even did the False 9 in training. He certainly had not played it for Berhalter in a game, or ever in his career. It showed. He would drop in and then basically become a 4th midfielder and become static. He would sometimes even drop deeper. He was in all the spaces Gio is used to operating in. NicoG, dropped in some but never stayed. If he wasn't played the ball, he vacated the space and went back to stretching the CBs. This is probably something the coaching staff went over in film after analyzing Lletget's performance. It is ok if Gregg didn't want to start a French 2nd division kid in the first game. Strange that he then started a youth team kid at LW. But logic isn't always easy to follow with Berhalter. But there is no doubt that Lletget clogged up the attack and didn't help Reyna. Reyna wasn't super great against Panama. He was better. But it seems like he knows exactly what to do with Dortmund but when in a less well drilled team, which is international soccer, he has room to grow. Always hard to think of him as just turned 18.
I am really confused about the need for experience and when we need it? We needed for the WCQ and the first game of this camp but then didn't need it for the second game. WCQ was an absolute disaster, we looked aweful in the attacking third against Wales with an "experienced" player, and then looked pretty good with that experienced player being replaced by a 20 yo getting his debut. Is the difference in need in the first game to second game that each of the wings in the second game had one more cap?
My belief is that Berhalter made a last minute decision that he needed more experience in the front line and threw Lletget in there. Berhalter always talks about his "principles" and after a dozen matches and several camps he believes that Lletget would understand his principles better than a bunch of rookies he'd met in person two days earlier. The idea was for Lletget to pull the CB out of position and let Reyna and KdlF to exploit the space behind him. In the end Reyna, Musah, KDLF, Lletget and McKennie kept operating on the same area. I don't think Berhalter has any long- term plans to retain the false 9.
Here's Gregg's press conference a few days before the Wales match: Michele Giannone: The last time we talked a few months ago about Christian and Gio playing together. And one of your options you said was that you would be able to see one of them playing as a false 9. Has that idea evolved, or what are you seeing or thinking now? Gregg Berhalter: I think that's certainly an option, especially the way we use our strikers. For me it's gonna be about putting them both in a position to help the team.
From his quotes, I think it was a little bit of both. I do think getting some veteran presence between Konrad and Reyna was important to him. But he also mentioned that the False 9 was a specific gameplan for Wales -- that given their organization, he wanted the 9 to try and pull out the centerbacks and have the wingers come back inside. It's not a terrible gameplan with the right 9 and the right wingers. With Jozy / Sargent and Pulisic and Morris, I bet it works pretty well. It just didn't work here. I think we could see it again, but it's clear it's not the core tactical choice. And I think Berhalter probably overestimated Reyna and Konrad. I know I did.
In a forward line featuring a false 9, the natural spot for Reyna would've been the false 9. GGG's choice there was an odd one. My only mitigating thought was that perhaps Musah had proven too good to bring off the bench.
Logically that makes sense but Reyna is barely old enough to shave, never mind play in experimental positions.
I pretty much agree until the last part. We used the False 9 in two of our three matches this year. Gregg has been quoted as saying we are using it. If anything, a False 9 is probably the plan but he realized neither Nico or Soto could do it, so he didn't run it in the second game. The False 9 has made us look good in possession, in the small sample size, but it has not led to many scoring chances at all. I do think it shows a complete lack of understanding of Reyna's game to employ one with him on the wing. Considering he is his pseudo-uncle and he has had nothing to do for 11 months but watch Dortmund games, that is actually pretty worrying.
No, Berhalter said that the false 9 was specific to the Wales gameplan; that he ran it out there because of what he thought it would unlock in Wales' defense. I suspect that we will see a false 9 again at times, but I don't think it's "the plan" in the sense of the default gameplan. I think it would work well with the right personnel.
Well, if it was specifically supposed to unlock Wales, it was a pretty abysmal failure considering it resulted in a single shot on goal over 90 minutes that the US controlled against a mediocre lineup for Wales. I think it would look better for Gregg if it were a tactic he considered something we would use often and took a less than ideal chance to try it out. If he specifically came up with it and thought it was a good tactic to beat a specific opponent with the players he had at hand, he was proved unequivocally wrong. Running out a good plan with the wrong personnel is no better than running a bad plan. In fact, it is a bad plan.
I read it as it was specific but also something the team has been doing. They did it in February. If you do it in February and again in November, that is a pattern. Can he abandon it? Sure. Like many of his big ideas, they get over taken by some player emerging at the Champions League level that doesn't fit what he has been working on for months. Poor guy or maybe lucky.
I mean, sure, it didn't work. I merely mean to say that the tactic, when executed properly, may have been the right gameplan. It surprised me how badly the players in the front played to the gameplan, and I suspect it surprised Gregg. Perhaps Lletget was predictable; but my bigger surprise was how limited Reyna actually looked in both matches in terms of skillset. And before anyone jumps on me, that's because I have a very high opinion of him. But he wasn't great, and what was more surprising, is that he really seemed to only execute a very simple range of play on offense.
In his post game presser, he specifically mentioned it as something he implemented for Wales. Two times of anything is not a pattern. It's a tool, and it's a tool he likes, but there's really no reason to think it's somehow Plan A.
I get that with the right players under the right circumstances the false 9 setup could work. And it may even be a solid strategy against that particular Welsh team. But, around 90% of tactical setups out there can work under the right circumstances with the right players. But, this setup with these players was poor. We saw what happened. With this group of players in this circumstances it was a bad plan. And, you can't separate the plan from who you have to carry it out. I thought Gregg did much better in the second game, but we don't have to judge his game one plan in some theoretical world of what could have happened. We saw what happened. And yeah, it's easy to say I'm looking back with 20/20 vision. But, the game is over and we can look back with clear vision and we should use that clear vision to judge what we saw. And that clear vision demonstrably shows that the plan failed. I don't understand why we're supposed to give credit for some thing that maybe could have happened differently once the evidence is in and we can clearly see what actually did happen. I agree Reyna was below his best, particularly in the first game. But,that's what happens when your coach has a bad plan, the team and the individuals within it tend to play badly executing it.
Relax people, the false 9/Reyna at wing is not some new master plan. It's just a new wrinkle to try out. Reyna will get some time at CM and some time at 9. His final position will be gradually fine tuned. Remember, this forum whined for two years about Adams at RB and that's where we will see him forever and ever under Berhalter. Let's not do that again.
I think most people who watched this experiment are happy to just say yeah that didn't work and move on. But, if anyone wants to come and defend bad ideas that we clearly saw were bad, you gotta expect some will push against that.
I saw that formation more as a desire to check out Musah at CM. The result of that was Reyna out wide. Maybe that false 9 experiment would have worked better if it was Pulisic out on the left wing...................... I personally give the USMNT coach a wide berth to try out experiments in meaningless friendlies. Wanna try a false 9? Go for it. That meaningless game against Wales was as good of a time to try it as any. Maybe the day will come when we actually need to do something like that in a game. Remember at the 2014 WC when the top 2 forwards that Klinsmann brought both got hurt (Altidore severe injury, Johannsson minor injury)? What did we do? I don't think we really had a plan, but it ended up being Dempsey up top.
I think a big difference between my mindset and others is that I don't care if we win these friendlies and I don't think Berhalter does all that much as well. I see a lot of people angry he didn't move from the false 9 earlier ... but honestly, if I saw the first half, I might want to give direction at halftime and see if the players can adjust. They didn't. So far, he's coaching very differently in friendlies than in competitive matches. I'm not saying he's a great coach, but I have no issues with continuing with something not working to see what players can and can't execute or adjust to. Reyna is 17; Konrad is 20. I'm not scrapping everything after 45 minutes. I don't think we should be limiting our asks of players in friendlies to what we already know what they can do. I think Gio was disappointing relative to my expectations in the Panama game as well. This is not meant as a long term commentary or anything beyond that, but if you put a different name on his roster, I don't think anyone is lauding his performance aside from the free kick. Which is was really soft on the GK.
Both Pulisic and Morris are scoring forwards with a strong skillset of making vertical runs. Jozy and Josh are both pretty good at laying off balls. It's a pattern of play that we'll see, even if we don't ever use a true False 9 again -- we will play the ball into the striker near the top of the box to pass off to streaking wingers.
Which is too bad, because there's a real interesting discussion out there around the Berhalter 4-3-3 that's being played in these friendlies (or Panama) versus a slight variation to a 4-2-3-1. The 4-3-3 Berhalter is doing has three central mids that stay central and stay mid and form the core of the defense in terms of counterpressing and transition. They two forward CMs will make runs and attacks into the space -- McKennie was a whirling dervish -- but they fundamentally are there to own the midfield. Adams stays home. He's getting great help in the build up from the fullbacks -- mostly Dest in either setup -- and in a non-false 9, the wingers comes back to help as well. Still the attack is fundamentally 2 FB, 2 Wingers and the CF. The other option people push is to place more on a central 10. The two DMs stay home more, most likely, to protect that player, and that probably means less ranging for McKennie and a less solid forward counterpress. The wingers likely go wider, but you do have a central playmaker which seems more in line for Reyna or Ledezma. On the flip, though, it likely pushes Pulisic out further and de-emphasizes his role a bit. At least one fullback is likely less aggressive. In truth, the two don't need to play completely different -- they could play almost exactly the same. But if you want to play Reyna or someone as a central offensive hub, that has both positive and negative implications. I think we will likely see both.
Too me eyes, Reyna is far from his final position. I think that he has the ability to follow the Ronald/Messi/Henry pathway of elite scorer. Having him learn to make some runs is far from a terrible experiment. It's just a long term process. Playing Lleget as a fake Benzema is like inviting him to become Ronaldo. Why not? It's certainly not selling him short. Or maybe he's more like Benzema. Who knows yet? That said Benzema had more of an eye for the long pass than an eye for the goal. To me it seems that Reyna has an eye for the goal.