had reyna been fit/available for qualifiers (say 4 of the 5 windows), would tim weah be in the team today?
Weah has been an extremely high level performer on the field for the past several windows. He may be the consistently highest level performer over that period of time. When a guy is in form like that, the odds are good that he’s doing it in practice too. He is coming into his own right now. Gio had some ups and downs in performance. There would have been plenty of opportunities, and its only good that both players are being challenged to get on the field because they are both mentally tough and have the professional desire to perform.
well weah comes out of matches I mean is there anyone that has played every second of every match in all of these windows? morris would be the odd man out.
Worst case scenario he's the 3rd best winger behind Pulisic and Reyna. I could see a 4 man midfield of MMA and Reyna with 2 forwards of Pulisic and Weah. 442, false 9, whatever. That's our top attacking talent.
Another thing to remember is that in a World Cup, you need to be able to rotate your starters. You look at best case scenarios right now and you go with the guys who can help you execute what you want in certain moments of certain games. It’s kind of new for us to have this kind of depth where we have multiple high quality players who have been given lots of caps very young and who are developing well within the system. Do you play Weah up higher against England because of his athleticism and use Gio as a 65th minute change of pace? Do you play both Weah and Gio against Iran? Start Gio against Wales and bring in Weah to attack with strength down the wing? Etc. Its a fantastic problem to have and the teams who go far in the World Cup typically navigate these problems well.
Assuming Adams or Acosta starts at DM and we have a specialist center-forward you have Pulisic, Musah, dlT, Reyna, Aaronson, McKennie, Ferreira and Weah competing for 4 spots. Expect rotation.
i think yall are applying what we know now to what we...were doing at the time. if reyna were fit he would have played the lions share at the right "wing" spot. aaronson would still be used primarily on the left due to pulisics absences, but arriola was very clearly ahead of weah even with reyna not available. im not sure where weah gets a look (at the time) if reyna were in the team.
Was it the second window where Arriola started the first two games (don't remember if he went 90 in both) and was still slated to start the third? It took Arriloa picking up a knock in pre-game for Weah to get in the starting line-up. I believe Weah still would have eventually forced his way onto the team, but it would have taken longer.
Weah took his chance and now people are hesitant about replacing him with Reyna. A Rob has a similar story, we were struggling to find a lock left- back and suddenly he showed up against Mexico ( I think). Maybe there's something to holding players back until they're 100% ready.
I think it would be error not to have bothe Weah and Reyna on the pitch as much as possible (if healthy).
No Paul, any decent NT coach has Dr Strange or Nostradamus like predictive powers. Earning a spot is soooo last century. #Berhalterout
This is why Klinsmann should have taken Gio Reyna to Brazil in 2014. He was only 11 years old but look what he's done since!
I think had Reyna been available more often he would have secured a starting role somewhere but I also think not having him has made it impossible to say just where that would be. Weah really does bring something on the right wing that this team needs and what it has lacked in his absence, a direct vertical threat. And, Gio started off last year at BVB playing more of an 8 in midfield. There is a very good chance we would have had a guy playing as an 8 week in and week out at a very high level and his place in the US team may have reflected this, leaving the wing battle between Weah and Arriola alone. We have seen the team change over time and player performances lead these changes in many cases, so I don't think it is crazy to think that had we seen Gio available and playing throughout this cycle his role may not be exactly what is was when the cycle started and he was around. Weah may have still taken that right wing spot. But again, we don't know how it would have played out and when available Gio has always been Berhalter's pick on the right. Weah may never have gotten the chance to show what he can do there had Gio taken most of the minutes and Arriola been slotted in behind him since until Weah broke out positively he was sitting behind Arriola. With Gio taking up a ton of minutes, we don't know for sure that Weah would have gotten enough time to win that spot. Injuries and availability can dramatically change what happens in a team and having a big player like Gio out for so much time is certainly a defining feature of how this team evolved. I don't think there is any way to know what would have happened had he been around more often but I doubt everything would have played out exactly as it has.
Here's what I do know with regards to Weah versus Reyna. At the 2021 Nations League semi/final event, both Reyna and Weah were on the roster. Reyna started both games on the RW. So at least a year ago Berhalter had Reyna ahead of Weah on the depth chart. ..................but that was a while ago. So who knows? The truth is that we've not really had all of Pulisic, Reyna, Weah, and Aaronson healthy at the same time very often.
This is just me supposing stuff, I am not sure what Berhalter is actually thinking but I do think that this is plausible. A year ago, Berhalter settled on a dual 8 formation for qualifying. While Reyna was playing at a high level in a more central role he figured that he had no true backup and it made better sense to have him slot in as a winger. Through qualification, Aaronson started appearing more often for his club in a more central AM role. He even started in that role in a CL game against Bayern Munich which is a high level. We saw Berhalter work on a dual 6 lineup with Aaronson playing AM against Morocco. Reyna would be able to slot in quite naturally in that formation. At least that is my opinion.
Reyna, Aaronson, Musah, Weah and Pulisic are going to cover 4 positions and Ferreira can play as 8 or 10 too. Adams, McKennie, Acosta and LDLT sharing the other two midfield roles. That allows for some rotation. You also have Morris and Arriola getting minutes. I'm worried about CF and cover for the CBs and LB.
Starting back at the Gold Cup, Berhalter was looking for and talking about being more direct, getting more verticality, etc. It was a glaring problem in the first window, alleviated only in the adjustments made in the Honduras game. I think it would have been a slower transition given Reyna's skill and Berhalter's understandable love of his game, but in the end, we needed to stretch the field more, Berhalter understood that and so I suspect we would have gotten there. A big reason Arriola played so much in the October window is the runs he made; the verticality he brought. Weah was dynamic, especially as a sub in the first game on the left, but he also was much more free form that window, often leaving the front line to come back for the ball. It was after this window that the reference coaching session occurred, I think, and when Weah played in the November window, he played much more disciplined. Always forward, always making runs, always pulling the defense away from the middle. There's a chance with Reyna there that he would have spent time trying to get Reyna to do it, but I it seems to me that he a) recognized the tactical need for a vertical threat and some width and b) recognized Weah's ability to do it with a minimum of coaching. Given that, I don't see why we don't get here.