Haji Wright has chance to find himself as starting striker

Yes, Sargent also has a high work rate and contributes on defense. If he was scoring at a similar rate as some of the other options he would likely be the starter. The issue with him is that he only had 2 goals and 1 assist last season, and you would like to see more offensive production from a forward than that. Hopefully with his team getting relegated he will get more scoring opportunities next season.

 

That is his game. he comes down to get the ball.

 

What I don't get is why so many fail to understand this!

 

No it doesn't. They botched 2019 entirely beyond the blatantly obvious, they eventually caught up to us w/who to play by early '21. It took them two years (and in fairness, Covid either hurt or helped their cause, I'm not sure which (it gave the developing kiddo's more time to cook, and less time and opportunities for the low ceiling low floor try hard guys in "the group" circa '19, to lock down their gigs) to figure it out and even late in '21 a series of wtf???? decisions was still operating on full power (Arriola 3 straight starts in window 2, Lletget getting randomness goals to secure a starting role until late in '21, Yueill getting perpetual mulligans until the summer of '21)....

I'm good w/where we are now, but I'm not good with statements like that last one. It's just simply not true.

But in fairness, I'm more than willing to own that some of his skepticism about some guys was plenty right, and just as importantly he and a his team did a brilliant job of recruiting two dual nats with elite potentially world class potential Dest and Musah (the former we had a good shot at, w/or without Berhalter, but he sure as hell helped, the latter I'm sure he was critical in recruiting), and just as importantly, there is Tillman, that a ton of people aren't buying, but whom I believe has a damn good chance of developing into one of our most talented attacking players over the next 2 years. So props on the Tillman recruitment as well, I simply didn't think we had a chance in hell of pulling that off, thought at most we were looking at a 10-15% shot, and instead we got him, pure and simple, credit for that.

Last note, my initial quibble is a quibble in the long run, I think Berhalter was god awful in '19, seemingly solid in '20 in a few run outs, damn good for '21 until the qualifying wheels went sideways on him, and good in '22. His decisions and overall performance have improved w/the passing of every year, and while I could ask for a little more, it sure as hell is better than what Tata has done with Mexico, which has been shining when the region was largely dog doo ('19), and faltering as the region saw Canada and the US rise in '21-'22 (the fact that the US has beaten and sometimes outperformed El Tri in every single match since '19, and that Canada did the same in '21 is astonishing, and the fact that he still won't shake up his process is a huge indictment. We've seen Berhalter repeatedly tweak his process, and change up things as needed for years and years and turn over the roster and nearly everything else as he's pursued finding his group, all of that is a credit to him.

 

Yeah, hard to say that many player calls outside the obvious have been particularly insightful. And, for me, I wouldn't consider a coach picking the most obvious players that would be our most important under virtually any coach working as somehow being strong at player selection. We currently have a mixed set of goalies with no clear #1. Our center backs look decent but haven't been a strength of this team. Credit for Zimmerman who wasn't an obvious choice and has done well. Outside backs, the clear leaders are Dest and Robinson, both of whom are obvious choices any coach would pick. Our midfield trio of McKennie, Musah and Adams is obvious and any coach would be playing those three a ton, credit to recruiting Musah though, sure. Up front, Pulisic and Weah are obvious and including Gio when healthy, again obvious We need someone to step up as the center forward with how we play and that's been a revolving door with no clear answer. Our top line of players are mostly set and mostly correct, but it isn't exactly brain surgery to be including those guys, those are guys anyone in charge would include. Most of them were thrown on by Sarachan in his short stint. And no one thought he was amazing at player selection for choosing obvious players.

If Berhalter gets some big performances in Qatar from the second tier guys, which is really what separates one coach from another when making player decisions, than I will be happy to credit him with some player selections that went above and beyond the obvious But, getting Pulisic, Weah, Gio, Adams, McKennie, Musah, Dest and Robinson on the field is nothing to give or take credit from. And so far, the other spots are still mostly up in the air. I think his player selection abilities are still something to be evaluated after Qatar because outside of the obvious picks, I think he can be credited for Zimmerman who wouldn't necessarily get the spot under other coaches but otherwise I fail to see any borderline choices he has made that have clearly made this team better. And that's what I would need to see to consider him doing more than average at selecting players.

 

Good for him. Still tough to see him getting in the picture. But its certainly a lot better than not scoring.

 

20 goals in 39 games in Turkey and 33 goals in his last 75 matches going back to Denmark days in '20-'21.

The 20 goals scored in 2415 minutes is pretty ridiculous for an American striker as well.

Should be in consideration.

Probably isn't.

To follow the NCAA Tourney system, right now he's my first striker out, if I'm taking four. If anyone gets hurt, he goes.

 

I always want our players to do well, so I’m happy he’s playing well in Turkey. However, I just didn’t see him being at a level to make a difference at the World Cup. I simply didn’t see any singular quality that would vault him over our other options. Beyond that, what really bothered me was, at least to the eye test, a lack of hunger and effort.

Am I wrong here?

 

He is a very good, cold blooded finisher. Poor defense in Turkish league allows him to receive passes in scoring positions. Hard to figure out what all that would mean for the NT.

 

yeah, I’m really not sure. He’s tearing up the Turkish league, and will probably get a transfer to a top league if he keeps it up. But the lackluster performance in the last US camp really set him back. Maybe there’s just not enough time for him to make a real run at Qatar if Pefok and Sargent are both playing well. I do think he will be in the mix for next cycle.

Berhalter Throwing him under the bus was also really odd. Still not sure what to make of that.

 

Berhalter rarely has a negative thing to say about any specific player, so it makes me wonder if it wasn't a calculated comment to spur Haji to improve in the areas Berhalter wants. I haven't watched Haji play since the June matches, but the commentary from others seems to indicate that he's got more fire. I think he's still on the outside looking in, but I also think Berhalter wouldn't have called him up in June if he didn't think he could bring something beneficial to the team, even if different than what he seems to want from his starting 9. Berhalter doesn't make willy nilly callups on a whim--there seems to always be a very thorough and studious survey and discussion among the coaching staff before anyone gets the call.

 

I don’t think we really know whether our other strikers would have gone off against Morocco, or whether JF would have scored against tougher opponents. Those are counterfactuals that didn’t occur, so we can’t really know.

 

Finishing. He's become a lethal finisher. He's got pace for a guy his size too (which Pefok does not, but I like Pefok as well). He's gotten better w/using his size as well, but the aerial game definitely still needs plenty of work.

 

Love the analysis. I guess that raises an important question. Do you feel his improvements translate to the international game? Do you think he’s potentially an impact player?

Part of the fun of sport is seeing players exceed expectations. I’d love it if his improvements would help us clinch a game.

 

Good for him. I was worried his disappointment w/not being a part of the Qatar proceedings would potentially send him sideways, but after a brief dip for about 4 or 5 weeks he seems back on the horse again.

A player for Qatar if the injury woes hit Pepi or Sargent potentially (Sargent already apparently has a mild knock) and certainly a guy OUR NEXT COACH, will need to look at some more next spring.

36 goals in his last 82 games, or 5000+ minutes. Not bad. Goal per 138 and the scoring rate since March '22 has increased exponentially, I think 17 in his last 21 games. Would be spectacular if we could build a system that guys like Wright, Pefok, Sargent, and Pepi could excel in w/o sacrificing the strength of our squad (Wings, and CM).

 

I think in order to make a serious run at a better league or team or the USMNT, Haji needs to get better at a broader part of the game. He has physical size and decent enough skills, but he's more of less a one trick pony right now and I don't think that gets it done.

And by that, I don't mean a) his one trick is "scoring" or b) that he literally only does one thing.

But you can trace this back to when he first started scoring -- a huge % of his goals are on through balls or transition breaks, often against much smaller, weaker or just incompetent opponents. Making that run and finishing is a nice skill, but it's going to translate up at a much worse rate than someone with a broader skillset.

Last year, he had started to add a few more goals, but it was mostly a few wide open shots. Everybody gets some of those, but it's pretty rare for Haji to score outside of these transition moments.

There are teams for that, but those teams usually require some pretty dedicated work on defense, which Haji hasn't done. It'd also be a big bonus if he were as effective as his height in the air, but his header goals are pretty few and far between and in June, he constantly got outmuscled.

He's 24. Decent skills. Good tools. Definitely can step up. But I'm not shocked he's back at Antalyspor this year even in a rapidly declining Turkish League. I think if he brought that vertical play with strong defensive effort and some banging on set pieces/hold-up, he'd be a good choice for a decent countering team. But he's not that guy right yet.

 

I agree with the aerial element.

The finishing... he's good at that one on one with the goalie element, but I haven't seen him really hit anything in any kind of traffic. He's been consistent in one on ones ... that's not lethal to me.

Pace is good but not great. He's not pulling away from World Cup level defenders or much of CONCACAF. Combination of size and speed is better as you note but I just don't know if that's going to be an advantage in a stronger league.

Right now, I feel like he's not all that different than Daryl Dike, in effect. Little better passer/dribbler, but not as big, strong or as good in the air. I think Daryl has a bit more upside due to age and the fact that I know he's going to be able to physically hang with anyone.

 

Strikers depend greatly on service and what the guys behind provide, so they should be evaluated based on the difficulty between the team where they are with respect to the league median, in addition to league strength.

Haji is scoring in a weak team in a league ranked a few spots below the Eredivisie. Pepi is scoring in a mid-table team in the Eredivisie. Sargent is scoring in a strong team in a league weaker than those two. Pefok WAS scoring in a strong team in a strong league.

Unless Pefok starts scoring again, Pepi and Haji should be the #1 and #2 choices.

I don't rate Sargent as a striker, sorry. The Championship is terrible.

 

Championship is stronger than Turkish league, and close to Eeredivisie. Ajax gives the edge to Dutch league, botom of Eeredivisie is garbage.

 

Evidence seemed to be that he was drawing attention from some better clubs. I'm actually quite glad he did what he did, w/the season he's putting together, he's proving it's not a fluke. That he can bag double digit goals in a season, as he's doing it for a third consecutive time.

Are there inherent limitations to his game? Not sure, so far, he's seemed a bit one dimensional, not enough headed goals for a guy w/his size, he definitely gets an absolute ton of goals from through balls, and the transitition, counter attack sort against a broken defense, but what matters just as much as the limitations are the goals themselves. He's getting the ball and finishing. He's doing something he didn't really do with Schalke's senior team or VVV, or Sandhausen and he's doing it in a professional league, and against the better sides and not just the dregs (4 goals against the league champs and Beskitas combined in the '21-'22 season).

I'm not gonna quibble with your critique because I think it's fair. He is limited for now, he's not a guy that break downs a defense w/deft dribbling, or plays a target man game like Pefok or McBride. But he is a weapon, and if he can ever start to use his size more effectively, he can become something more than a legit scorer.

For now, he's a legit Striker headed towards 50 goals the past 3 seasons combined which is about 40 more than probably anyone would have predicted in August 2020. And I'm interested in the US bringing him in because we lack legit answers in the striker game. Every player has question marks, every single one. I have favorites, but they aren't obvious starters in the same way say McBride was, or Donovan before he was moved to midfield, or Davies in his brief but shining run of 2007-2009 or Altidore. 2023 will be a transition year, hopefully before a Copa America (Please God) in 2024, perfect time to sort out whether we turn the attack over to Pepi, Sargent, and whomever, or if Pefok and Wright deserve some more looks. I want Wright called in next year, and will be disappointined if he isn't. Stamping "reject" on him after being given a mudfest monsoon game in El Salvador strikes "as the height of idiocy (even if I do agree he, like everyone else save Musah, was uninspiring that game).