I thought Lleget was fine. I’ve been absolutely impressed with Busio since he played us in preseason. He’s a starter in this team, no question. I stopped going to the USMNT board a while ago. It’s depressing, negative, and irrational analysis. It’s like everyone is trying to one up each other to see who can give the most Piers Morgan/Simon Cowell take.
The word on Lletget is that he is playing conservatively in general because he wants to attend what will probably be his one and only World Cup. We all remember how he was called up by Arena only to go bust his knee and miss the russian WC completely and an entire year with Galaxy. This sort of thing can work on a players mind. He wouldn't be the first to think and do this. Pace yourself, stay healthy so you get to attend. Anyway, that's the juicy gossip.
I'm still of the opinion that if Lletget was healthy we qualify for 2018. He was much needed depth of attacking midfielders we needed, Christian was young, and all the other guys just sucked or were too old.
I think that's just Lletget's game and what he'll be asked to bring to the World Cup. He captained last night. He should have a role in WCQ, so I think there's a good chance he's there. He can play a few different positions, he plays smart (but not brilliantly) and within himself, works hard to show for and recover the ball and makes the safe, possession-keeping pass. He's the level-headed vet on a team of young dynamos. Occasionally Lletget can make the incisive pass, but really his job is more often to make the safe one.
Agreed completely with every word - until the last phrase. It's everyone's job - from gk to defender to midfielder to forward - to take any incisive pass available and resort to the safe pass when nothing is possible within their skill range. For example with Pirlo - there were always incisive passes available because he could deliver the ball 40 yards and land it on a dime. Reyna senior was sooo good with possession that he got a great rep and kept starting for both the US and an EPL team - but game after game I would watch him "circulate" the ball aimlessly, with maybe 1 or 2 attacking plays in 90 minutes. His lack of attacking mentality hurt us when we had our best striker pool ever. We don't need Seb to be Claudio - he has the ability to be more aggressive with his passing and he should take advantage. IMO.
Yeah, good point. I was just posting over there, I think in the full "A" team, Lletget's role will be mainly retaining possession. We have some big talents, but still nobody with that ability (ironically, we could use Claudio today). But even in that role, he needs to be more incisive when the opportunity presents. The GC will be a good audition for him to see if he can provide that kind of creativity consistently.
Yeah, I didn't like the conservative play against Haiti either, and it won't work against Mexico. But hey, three points is three points. I also abandoned the Nats board a long time ago. I gave up, and I was tired of commenting on anyone from MLS and being told immediately that player sucked. Much better analysis here.
I don't think we played bad against Haiti. This was the first competitive game for this group of guys together. A lot of teams start tournaments slow only do get better as they play more minutes. Plus we also hit the post twice, and had some really quality chances that were not converted. Tonight's game will likely be a good game to get the team on the same wavelength.
I watch basically all the USA men's games and I still had to look up a handful of these players. Guys like Bello, Williamson, Sands, and probably even Robinson are so far down the depth charts right now so I doubt we'd even see them in the 23 for a serious tournament like the world cup. Still good for Greg to get these somewhat young fringe players some minutes.
Agreed. I only watched the last 15-20 minutes of the game (I blanked) and Bello looked terrible. Like way BELLOw everyone else... [ducks and runs after a terrible dad joke]
I think this gold cup roster was constructed for 5 reasons. 1) Can Daryl Dike make the jump? 2) Do we have any depth options to back up Tyler Adams for when he inevitably missing international windows with injury? 3) Do we have any actual left backs? 4) Are any of the MLS based CBs good enough to be depths options? 5) Get people caps to help them move abroad. Everything else is just filling in the gaps to complete the roster.
I still don’t understand why we seem to have prioritized the nations league thingy over the gold cup. Can anyone more enlightened than me shed some light on that?
Lletget starts vs Canada. ALL ABOUT THE THREE POINTS! 🇺🇸👊Here's YOUR #USMNT Starting XI for today’s Group B decider vs. 🇨🇦.LINEUP NOTES: https://t.co/VrRCBhzu6o #USAvCAN | #GoldCup21 pic.twitter.com/FYzlJXrj4G— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) July 18, 2021
Assist 20 seconds in. 20 SECONDS ⚡️WHAT A START FOR THE @USMNT 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Y7dEIywRRL— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 18, 2021
The game was disjointed. Scoring so early kinda ruins the chemistry and mentality for a while. It still frustrates me that Gregg puts Seb centrally, I just feel he's better out wide, that being said the choice to put Dike and Zardes together was a bad one, they occupy exactly the same space unless you tell Gyasi to go wide. He can function decently out wide.
That's a good question considering the Nations League is how teams qualified for the Gold Cup. I think we prioritized Nations League mainly due to timing, that is when we had most of our European based players available. It's unfortunate because it devalues the Gold Cup but it's also a great opportunity to test our depth and get a look at new players.
Against Canada was the first game that I'm seeing the complaints about Berhalter. The team looked liked they had no plan, just lost. There was an inability to hold possession which didn't seem like it was just skill. The movement, the positioning was not there. Good for Lletget getting the assist, but I'm not seeing nearly enough from him. At this rate he's not making the WC squad. He is slow, and not great at maintaining possession or creating. He did a couple of good things on the game, but...
Berhalter seems to really like Lletget for a lot of reasons. He is a pretty consistent performer who can play on the left, center, or right side of midfield. His flexibility really helps him, but also looking at the plethora of CM options the US currently has makes me think Lletget might miss out on the world cup which would be a shame. Adams, McKennie, Musah, Otasowie, Pulisic, Reyna, Weah, and Aaronson are all basically locks for the world cup assuming they continue to play for their clubs. Then you have guys like Busio, Tennerman, and Clark who are all moving to Europe and play similar positions to Lletget. AND we now have Julian Green who has really kicked off his career as a box to box mid who also can play wide, and he will be in the bundesliga again. It's not looking good for our guy. Lletget will have to keep up his form, and really be the best US CM in the MLS to really have a chance.
I dunno, he put a gorgeous assist on a platter for goal #1. Not sure that gets him kicked off the World Cup squad. I don't think he covered himself in glory, but with how often Gregg plays him, he's in the 23. And so far, I don't see anyone that's the jack of all trades he is. Basically...where are the assists coming from? Also, good on Gyasi Zardes for reaching the double digit goals + assists club. Fastest behind...Landon Donovan. I don't want to hear any more complaints about him. Dude has performed for the national team. So I'm going to ask again...where are the assists coming from? Against Mexico that is going to be a problem.
Oh, lest anyone think I thought he played well, I don't think anyone was particularly good against Canada, including Lletget. That was a plodding game. Well, maybe one exception - the one player I've been pleasantly surprised by: Sands.
This is the US C team with a few people from the B team and we played Canada’s A- team. This tournament is really about testing guys to see where they’re at and they can make the jump up. So far, only Robinson, Vines, and Sands have really proved they can handle this. Lleget was alright. He completed like 92% of his passes so I think he was doing fine maintaining possession. He got screwed by the fact Kelyn Acosta was invisible for the entire game. He did absolutely nothing. Busio wasn’t great either. Lleget had to drop way too deep to get the ball to help move it forward. He’s much more effective if he can get the ball. Lleget will never take over a game and run the show, but he clearly can play to the level of the team he’s on. Put him on the field with the US A team and he’ll be a much better player. I’d be surprised if Lleget isn’t in the 23 man squad for the World Cup.
Can't read the nats threads, oh boy are they salty that USA even HAS MLS. Literally every single MLS player they poop on, unless it's a player prepping for transfer, at which point they are "ok".