I have a few players that I'm hoping they make a move to more playing time at first team, either with their current team, or loan/sale. I'm high with Richards,De La Fuente, Llanes, Cappis. I'll be happy if one of them breaks through.
I'd certainly consider giving him a look in friendlies. But reviews out of lower level Bundesliga haven't been stunning; he's been playing a lot of RB, and I'm not starting a 19 year old CB in a WCQ match for a national team debut. No thanks.
I think Llanez has the best chance to make an impact. He can be young and play the late offensive winger sub role pretty effectively. His shot at the roster is hampered a bit by Gio Reyna's breakout -- otherwise, the role was really clearly his for the taking. I think Miles Robinson has a better shot at starting in the 2022 World Cup than Chris Richards.
Gio Reyna the fact that his father Claudio played for the national team and his father was captain and then all these years later his son makes the NT...I can see Gio being better than his father ever was
Llanez is hard to tell. His athleticism isn't bad exactly, but he isn't explosive. But you have to be able to create daylight by speed or size or skill/craftiness. Llanez seems like he's in the last of those. I could see that working at high levels in some places, not as well in others. From the sound of it, it's not going to be enough at Wolfsburg. They're saying nice things about him. But it's the sort of nice things they say about players who are about to get loaned and then transferred to 2BL or Austria. He reminds me a little of Sebastian Lletget. Richards looks like a man among boys in his youth team tapes from his first year at Bayern. But it sounds like he dropped off some this year. Watching highlights of Otasowie, it just seems like the other team hates playing him. 6-3 physical, quick, skillful. always in charge of his space. I praised Kayo on the YNT board and took some shots - he's a track star, not a soccer player. But that's what they say about Zardes, too. Ledezma will probably get some time with PSV. I'm not sure what he'll do with it.
Otossawee sounds to have the athletism to make it, I just haven't seen enough of him to have an opinion.
USA is young pretty young on average but that is the beauty of it though. No one knows how good this young USA team can be. They can be fast on the ball and or beat you in other ways besides speed and ball control but on the counter and or on defense. Possibly the best backline in CONCACAF right now besides Mexico, bar none.
Not a bad guess, but I think you'd have a real hard time not finding a spot on the pitch for Reyna at this rate. (And, as usual, the left back role is a total crapshoot. It might well be one of our surplus of right backs playing on his wrong side...)
If we had to play Belgium (#1 ranked team as per Elo) tomorrow in a playoff game, with all our guys healthy and Belgium playing their usual A-team in their usual 3-4-3: ----------------------------Steffen*--------------------------- -----------Miazga---------Brooks-------Long------------- ----Dest*---------Adams-----McKennie*-----Pulisic--- -----------------------------Reyna---------------------------- ----------------Morris----------------Sargent*------------- The * guys are far from ideal against such rival, but are there because there's nothing else. As for subs, we'd be screwed: Guzan --- Ream Robinson Cannon Robinson --- Morales Yueill Lletget Holmes Pomykal --- Altidore 3rd Keeper: Horvath And hope their guys are as rusty as ours.
You want to take our best player and put him in a position that doesn’t suit him? Also Wes is def of level and probably one of the best suited players in our pool for a game like that. He would be needed to do so much defensive work and bring the physicality to the midfield.
You have to remember that lineup is against a very specific rival (I don't believe in a single "best lineup" for every team facing you). So let's have a look at it: -------------------------------Steffen--------------------------------- ----------------------------Brooks-------------------------------------- ----------Miazga----------Lukaku----------------Long------------- -------E. Hazard----------------McKennie------Mertens-------- Dest------------------Adams---------KdB------------Pulisic------ Thorgan-------------Witsel------------------------------Castagne -----------------------------------Reyna-------------------------------- ---------Morris----------------Boyata-------Sargent-------------- -----------Vermaelen------------------------Toby------------------- -------------------------------Courtois-------------------------------- Yep. McKennie will have to cover like he does in Schalke, often helping Brooks. Pulisic and Dest could be constant threats, facing the only weak spots for the Belgians, the wide areas. Witsel is the focus guy for them, so Adams would have to be on him like a barnacle. The big problem is de Bruyne. Hopefully, he'd have to support covering Puli and giving us some respite. I don't think we'd have much of a chance, though. Unless Steffen plays like Howard in 2014. And, even so, let's remember they were playing their second striker against us then (Origi). When Lukaku came in, things went pear-shaped for us.
I get what your saying but against a team like that we’d be playing without the ball for long stretches. You want to take the player who’s by far the best on the counter and as for him to defend at times in our own box. Sorry but that makes no sense. You’re making it even harder for him to break out. You would have to drop one of Morris or Sargent and play Pulisic up high. Insert AR at wingback. His speed and cross would be beneficial. I’d likely also drop Miazga for a quicker CB to play that RCB in a back 3 but if it’s really tomorrow I’m not sure there’s a better option. Something like this ----------------------------Steffen--------------------------- -----------Miazga---------Brooks-------Long------------- ----Dest---------Adams-----McKennie—----AR—--- ------------------------Reyna--------Pulisic-------------------- --------------------------------Sargent----————--------