Paredes sees himself as an attacker: Kevin Paredes: Who is Wolfsburg’s American teenager with shades of Alphonso Davies? | Bundesliga Upon accepting a call from an unknown number, Paredes ended up chatting to Berhalter: “We were just discussing positions and he said he could see me as our left back in the future for the national team. I was really surprised, being in his eyes part of the future was a dream come true. But he said left-back position and I was like, 'Hey, I'm an attacker!’ But if that's where I'm going to get minutes then no problem. I'll play there.' He's been such a big help.” Being left footed (though his cross with his right from the left side isn't lacking) we have ourselves a right sided player who can score with his left. That's how he played in his last game with club and he was outstanding. Question: With Weah going to left back at club, who do you see as our #1 and #2 right sided attackers?
You know, "Jamaica, Arouca, come on pretty mama..." Mr. Bravo just had a typo. I'm actually surprised he doesn't have more typos with the amount of info in his incredibly comprehensive posts. Arouca is his club team in Portugal. I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but I believe that Mr. Michel is also eligible to play for Haiti.
Update…. Battling with injuries: Christian Pulisic, Auston Trusty, Josh Sargent, Alejandro Zendejas, Sam Vines, Haji Wright I don’t think they’ll be there: Folarin Balogun, Alejandro Zendejas, Jaheim Headley, Kristoffer Lund, Mauricio Isais GOALKEEPERS: Matt Turner, Ethan Horvath, Zack Steffen Considered Gabriel Slonina, but it might be a good time to let him play with the u20’s, especially if we want him to play in the u20 WC coming up. Aside from that, this seems like the 3. And we could always call in an outlier for a third goalkeeper if we needed a warm body, such as, Sean Johnson or Josh Cohen, which if it were me, I’d like to see Cohen called into one camp. RIGHT BACKS: Sergino Dest, Joe Scally, Bryan Reynolds Dest is going to need games. Scally deserves to be there and needs a chance to cement himself. Then, the decision was between Reynolds, Cannon, or Fossey. I went with Reynolds, although I’m not through with Cannon, and I still have Fossey on my radar. CENTER BACKS: Cameron Carter-Vickers, Chris Richards, Mark McKenzie, Erik Palmer-Brown Might be a tough break for Trusty, who I wanted to be there. Still, I see no reason to call in the old guys for this one, to include, Walker Zimmerman, Tim Ream, Aaron Long, or John Brooks, even if I would bet that Hudson will want Zimmermann and Ream. Similarly, I’m holding off on Miles Robinson for now, even though he’s back in action. That was a significant injury and there’s no need to rush him if we don’t need him. Plus, there are just other options to still look at, and who I’m confident can get the job done. And that still leaves out some other guys who I would have considered, but looking out, rather than looking in, such as James Sands, Samual Rogers, Henry Kessler, and Matt Miazga. LEFT BACKS: John Tolkin, DeJuan Jones No Antonee Robinson? He’s played so much for us and he’s had such a busy season, I think he needs a rest. So that’s a friendly omission, plus, there is a need to look at some other options. If things got desperate, I’d probably move either Dest or Scally to the left, and call in Cannon or Fossey. But just to show what we have there is Caleb Wiley and Jonathan Gomez, who should be with the u20’s. George Bello could receive a resurrection call up. Andrew Gutman could be a shock call in. You could try to tempt Jaheim Headley, Kristoffer Lund, or Mauricio Isais if they would accept too. But at the end of the day, I wouldn’t mind letting Tolkin and Jones get the call. I think this would be a great opportunity for them to receive their first “real” call ups. MIDFIELDERS: Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Brenden Aaronson, Johnny Cardoso, Taylor Booth, Alex Mendez I’m choosing to rest Yunus Musah, although I’m calling in the Leeds trio. Musah is younger and could benefit from the rest. But we still need some continuity of our main guys, and I like the idea of seeing of what our Leeds midfield can look like. Another player that I’m resting is Luca de la Torre. He just cemented his starting job, and there’s no need to risk that when we should be able to get the job done without him and when we need to look at some other options. Furthermore, I’m resting Kelyn Acosta because I want Johnny Cardoso to get his shot earlier in the cycle. Next, Taylor Booth is a lock, or should be. This is his chance to make a name for himself. Then, the last spot, I decided to go on a whim and call in Alex Mendez, over some other options, that includes Paxton Pomykal, Eryk Williamson, Alan Sonora, Tanner Tessman, Gianluca Busio, Richie Ledezma, and even Cristian Roldan. As it seems, Mendez has quietly turned into a solid pro in Portugal, and this is a good opportunity to give him a chance to prove himself. WINGERS: Gio Reyna, Tim Weah, Kevin Paredes, Malik Tillman, +Christian Pulisic Should we call in Pulisic, if he’s just coming back from injury? Initially, I say no. But here’s why I say yes. He’s on the outs from Chelsea. Might as well call him in to be a familiar face around the camp and to meet some of the new guys. But that’s a decision that will be made closer to the date. Next up, we know Weah needs to be there. Paredes should be a lock. We don’t know what’s going on with Gio but this should be a good camp to reprove himself. And finally, Malik Tillman needs to be there. I left off Djordje Mihailovic because he seems to be struggling in Holland and he might need more time there. I didn’t call in any of the u20’s - to include Cade Cowell. Zendejas is hurt, plus, not sure about his commitment. And I’d only call in Morris or Arriola if we got desperate. FORWARDS: Ricardo Pepi, Daryl Dike, Brandon Vazquez, Jordan Pefok That’s a lot of forwards, I know. But what this team needs is to sort out our forward situation. Sargent and Wright are carrying knocks. No need to call in Ferreira. Hoppe can wait. Same for Ebobisse. Malone isn’t there yet. The main thing is that I want to assess the forwards that we did not call in for the World Cup. Give them their shot. At Grenada ———————Pepi———————— Reyna————————————Weah ———McKennie—-Aaronson————- ———————-Adams——————— Tolkin—————————————Scally ————Richards——McKenzie———— ———————Steffen———————- Subs: Reynolds (Scally), Cardoso (Adams), Booth (McKennie), Tillman (Weah), Pefok (Pepi) Vs El Salvador ——————-——Pepi——————— Paredes———————————Reyna ————-McKennie——Aaronson——- ————————-Adams——————- Scally—————————————Dest ————Richards——-—CCV——-——- ———————-—Turner——————- Subs: EPB (CCV), Cardoso (Adams), Booth (McKennie), Tillman (Reyna), Vazquez (Pepi) DNP: 3rd GK-Horvath, 24th man-Jones, 25th man-Mendez, 26th man-Dike, 27th man-Pulisic Of note, that means that only Aaronson and Richards are my 180 minute men. Aaronson is an energy bug who I could trust to go 180. And we need Richards to get a little more PT, if we’re going to see him evolve into a routine starter for us. The rest? I tried to rotate, at some point. Adams is still the captain.
i dont really see a case for cardoso, mendez or p-funk right now. i also dont really see a need to "rest" anyone, i mean we have so few games that mean anything ahead of us we have to at least pretend to be an active national team, you know? what good do anthony hudsons hunches/fringe guys do anybody? booth, tolkin, vazquez sure. i still think its a little early on parades, or even gaga but whatever. theres no reason not to bring in the first team and go hard, though. thats just as valuable as managing a win vs grenada, and with our makeup id say moreso. these guys need to get used to beating teams theyre supposed to beat. if we had our manager i could see it differently, building up depth and the next "class", so to speak but thats not whats going on. the best we can do is let hudson send out our guys the best he can with the goal of putting 8 on grenada and at least 3 or 4 on el salvador (im not saying thats a literal expectation, but its not unrealistic and should be our mindset). i just dont think you can be planning for the future with an interim manager and no front office- its not even sarachan throwing out a ton of kids; that was 5 or 6 friendlies over a few months. heres yet another angle- i really want to see mma without all the intricacies of berhalters late stage "system". more flexible, less specific pressing schemes, etc and start to see exactly how "incapable" we are of creating offense with our inarguably best players. wes isnt some offensive black hole, musah (at times) was able to show very well offensively (at least in terms of ball progression), we all know damn well tyler isnt as one-dimensional and limited as our tactics have allowed. i want to see a dike up top now that "fit" isnt more important than ability. our fed being a full-blown clown show doesnt allow us an (arguably) ideal, early cycle search under every rock/in every nook and cranny refresh- hopefully we can do that next year with the first team getting the copa and most everything else with an eye towards building the team out from there/upgrading. but until we have some structure and a manager we dont know what the hell we are looking for.
Hard to say what we're going to do. My guess is that we'll call up a large portion of the "A" team with some new additions with expanding the pool prior to the summer tournaments in mind. It's a perfect time to give Booth, Paredes, Vazquez, etc. an opportunity. I imagine we'll have a U20 camp at the same time, so many of those players won't be at the Nations League. Paredes, by the way, is eligible for the U20s. Pepi, Gomez, Slonina, Cowell, etc. are too. So we'll see................
One thing I am not looking forward to -- if Reyna isn't called up due to injury, there will be so much internet drama.
A few comments on this On Zendejas if he his healthy and you call him and he accepts there's zero reason to doubt his commitment. Playing in either of these games permanently cap ties him so him accepting a call up is him making a decision. EPB seems to have lost his starting spot with his club. If that continues to hold I wouldn't call him up for this window as other guys deserve it more. I don't know if Zimmerman or Ream will be there, but if Miles Robinson play well with Atlanta and is healthy, I don't know why you wouldn't call him. I'm also not sure why you'd call Pefok when he's lost his starting spot and has scored one goal the last 5 months. I don't think Sargent's injury is particularly serious and Wright seems like he's about to return. I think the forwards are Sargent and Pepi and if there is a third forward called it's a battle between Vazqeuz, Wright, Dike, and Ferreira. I think there's a good chance Paredes is with the U20s as he's likely to go to the U20 World Cup. I also think that Tillman is much more of a central midfielder, but Booth may end up on the wings given where he plays for his club. More broadly I don't know that we'll call much more than 23 guys for this as you can only dress 23 and I don't think we're flying guys over from Europe to not even dress. I also think Hudson will end up calling pretty close to A team, except for guys who are injured.
Yup. It's hard to say who's in Hudson's mind as the "A" team, though. It may not be who we think it is. Folks are expecting a continuation of what Berhalter had as his "A" team. Why? I don't know.
Mostly because Hudson was his assistant and was part of the conversations and decision making as to who that A team was. Hudson won’t do everything exactly the same, but there will likely be a ton of continuity with the Berhalter era.
It is, but it’s a fairly good one. The question for this window in terms of the A team is going to be availability more than anything. We have a lot of guys with small knocks or coming back from injury.
Sure, there are core players that are a near certainty with a our A team if they're healthy. The Adams types. But..................there's not much gap between 1/3rd of the roster and other options. Maybe Hudson was really impressed with Paxton Pomykal or somebody from January camp. I'm expecting a few surprises.
I think there’s a question of whether someone like Ream or Zimmerman will be there who are clearly A team guys but who may get the window off. Where we may see the most changes are amongst the fringe guys. I don’t know if we’ll see Morris or Roldan this window for instance. Zendejas seems like someone Hudson will call for sure if he’s ready to commit. There’s definite room for John Tolkin given we have no back up left back. Clearly room for someone at the 8 whether it’s Tillman, Pomykal, or someone else.
??? He' He isnot struggling. He's on a team that has with Feyenoord the best midfield in the Eredivisie. It would be amazing if he was already a regular. He's being groomed into the playstyle of AZ, which isnot an easy one. So no, he isnot struggling, he's doing fine and learning alot.
A lot is subject to change. And, I hope that Hudson still considers his reign to be more about the Sarachan’s exploratory / give some chances to some fringe guys. That said, I would say that I don’t know what to do with Pulisic yet. If I was Hudson, I’d have to talk to him. Does he want to come? Would it be good for him to come? Would he be able to play? Should he stay? There’s a lot of questions. On Paredes, I don’t know why, I didn’t think of him still being a u20. Heck, that includes Pepi too. Still, they’re becoming unmistakable selections for the A team. On Pefok, is the same as it is for Mendez, EPB, and the others who you might say, what are you doing? We have to remember this is early in the cycle. It’s okay to experiment. Try new things out. Give some dudes who might need a boost to have their shot. In a way, this camp can be more of a January Camp for YA than anything else. We shouldn’t struggle in these games, therefore, it’s a good time to bring some guys who might not get their chance to impress the new coach, but they can get used to their teammates. Hence, the decision to “rest” some players. Jedi has been playing non stop. Luca just won a starting spot. Etc. Maybe we won’t do that. But it’s what I would do.
I don’t think Hudson will approach things the same way as Hudson given that the team as a whole is much younger and we aren’t going to be doing a full scale turnover. He also won’t want to screw up these games this window by not calling a good enough team. It did seem in January he had an emphasis in calling in dual nationals so maybe we’ll see some of that. With Pulisic assuming he’s healthy it’s likely he won’t be playing a ton for Chelsea and he seems to be on his way out there anyways. Why not call him and play him some minutes in that case. I think Pepi has very clearly graduated to the A team but I don’t think Paredes has quite yet. Who does he displace from our top 4 wingers? Whereas I think Pepi is one of our top 2 strikers. Paredes has great potential but he hasn’t even established himself as a starter with his club yet. The thing about this cycle is we already have a very established core and there’s no reason to rush guys. Paredes should play in the U20 World Cup and continue to te6 and become a starter with his club. I am very much for experimenting and trying new guys, I just don’t think Pefok is super deserving based on his play at this point in time. I’d rather see Dike for instance or possibly Vazquez depending on how he starts the MLS season. The MLS guys are harder to judge in terms of whose deserving since the season just started last weekend. Similarly I think that a lot more guys are more deserving than EPB given how he’s been playing with his club. As for resting guys we’ll see, I think it’s an open question as to whether we do or not.
Just depends what they want to do with the U20s. If they want to crush it at the U20WC, then by all means take Paredes, Cowell, Slonina, Che, Gomez, etc. And Pepi is sorta the missing piece on that U20 team. Forward is the hole. We could always just talk to Pepi about it. Cuz we could take Dike, Vazquez, Sargent, Wright, Ferreira, etc. to the Nations League and Gold Cup. Hell, throw in Ebobisse. Whatever. We have plenty of options to evaluate.
I don’t know but I’m guessing Pepi would prefer to go with the A team for the Nations League. There would also be a release issue most likely with Groningen battling relegation and the U20 World Cup starting before the end of the season. As for the others I think Paredes is the only other one there’s any question with. And it’ll probably very much depend on whether he establishes himself as a starter before year end or if he continues to mostly come off the bench. Because if he’s starting games he’s probably not getting released either.
Now I think we have to bring a stronger, less experimental lineup to Nations League, including in March. Can't mess around w/ even taking the slightest chance in missing the most important tourney mid cycle, especially when we're hosting it. We can integrate a bit, but it has to be more around the edges, and I think all the core players should be brought. That includes Dest, who I was going to leave home. He could help us break a bunker vs. El Salvador, if need be. We only need a draw, but still. If they nick one against us, we'll need to score. Speaking of them potentially nicking one against us, I think we have to just set up a strong defense 1st. That might mean the same spine as the WC. I don't know I would risk the re-integration of Miles as a starter, or furthering it for Richards. These are things that can happen in GC & friendlies. I think we also now have to expedite the hiring of a new, permanent manager. Can't drag our feet, like was acceptable before. If they can't get the manager they really want when he becomes available, at least nab a better placeholder than Anthony Hudson. Curtin said he'd do whatever, so maybe he'd be the bridge to the permanent guy, then he could be retained as an assistant.
I think we'll bring close to an A team for this but I don't think this particular Nations League matters much as far as the Copa America is concerned. Qualification is during the November window and we're already locked in as a top 4 seed (as they are based on March CONCACAF rankings that were released yesterday).
My understanding was that we need to make the top 4 of this tourney or win a head-to-head against a fellow team who didn't, to qualify for Copa America.
So it will be this fall’s Nations League https://sports.yahoo.com/amphtml/co...s-league-format-usmnt-schedule-180014168.html The top 4 teams in CONCACAF will get a bye till November and we’re locked in on that front. And then if we don’t win in November we have the head to head against other teams who didn’t next March.
Then I think the opposite is true of what I originally said, which is that this camp should heavily be used for experimentation and we could be relatively gradual in our permanent/longer-term hiring choice, but it has to at least come by the end of this summer. Because to me, 90-95% of what's going to make this cycle a success is performance in our home WC, and 5-10% Copa America (which apparently ties in the next Nations' League). Everything else is just setting us up for success in those competitions. It's always nice to win everything (including GC & even friendlies), but we have to get over those things being priorities psychologically.