Here's Tyler Adam's perspective across a few interviews. Seem obvious that he doesn't think there's "hardly anything" to evaluate Gio by. SBI “Personally for me you have players like Christian and you have players like Weston, and you have players like Gio who just make everything look so easy. Those are the players that you just enjoy playing with because you can give them the ball in tough spots and you know he’s going to deal with it. You know he’s going to make things happen, and there’s just a confidence to him, a calm confidence. He just goes about his business. He’s not bothered by anything. He’s getting touched, he’s getting fouled, he’s playing through things. Those are the players I like to play with for sure.” ESPN: "I think for a lot of guys it's going to be different because you might see guys get called into a [World Cup] qualifier that I've never been into camp [with] before, but you have to find a way to get your best players on the field, so it'll be interesting." I think it's pretty clear he's talking about Gio in that last quote and that he thinks he's one of the team's best players already.
That’s what camps and friendlies should be for. Are we better with Reyna at the #10 and Morris on the right or Reyna on the right and Lliget @ the #10 as an example.
The SBI quote is the reason I think he COULD be the most important player for us soon. GBs system is in dire need for a #10.
Not quite, imo. It is where Reyna is best at. Then whatever place is left is competed for. Not a trade off between Morris and Lletget. Is Reyna better at the 10 or the 7? He is the player Gregg has to get the most out of. Morris and Lletget are simply space holders. If Gregg is coming to camp and watching the guys for a day or two in training, then trying to figure out where and how to play Pulisic, then he should be fired. He needs to have a plan for optimizing Pulisic, Adams, and Brooks. He needs to figure out how to fit in Reyna and McKennie and Dest to that. Then whatever is left is players that complement what he wants to do with those six. Reyna could be coming off the bench to start his NT career. No harm in that. But that has to be in a plan for integrating him. If Morris is subbed out or Holmes, that is what has to be done. It is a subtle difference, but I think an important one. Our best players are generally playing better for their club teams and that is a problem for our coach to fix.
If Weah is a key player at Lille, Llanez is key player at Wolfsburg, along with Reyna at Dortmund, Pulisic at Chelsea, that leaves little room for Morris or Boyd or Arriola. Moving one of them inside loses a spot for Lletget. If Holmes is playing in the EPL, he will need a spot too won't he? There are more young players coming along. Scoring against Canada and Cuba is not going to keep you on the field. The team should be moving quickly away from Roldan, Lletget, Yuiell, Zimmerman, and Morris.
That is encompassed by "a", which I said was selecting the best players (for his system is implied). And his system, by most accounts, stinks, which is why he's going away from it.
And Adams clearly views Gio as one of the best players RIGHT NOW and has been actively sending a message about getting him integrated as one of our difference makers RIGHT NOW across a variety of mediums. Yet certain BS posters insist that Gio is about potential rather than RIGHT NOW. The quickest way to destroy team morale is to play lesser players over better ones - that was a big part of our downfall in 2018 (and was continued during Gregg's first year) and I hope that we don't continue the stupidity. If Lletget gets his feeling hurt (which I have no reason to believe that he will) because he immediately moves to a reserve role (quite frankly, where he's always been), that's a small price to pay for not only being better on the field but also not pissing off a large portion of our core players (Adams, Pulisic, Weston, Brooks) who know what it takes to break through as a regular for a top 3 Bundesliga team and want to field the best players.
History shows we will probably need plan B at some point but it would be a nice development to make those guys backups and injury replacements.
Well stated. Do you think this also holds true for Dest (he plays where he's best at)? Other than the obvious reliance on MLS players (67% in every single camp!!!), the biggest issue with Gregg is that he hasn't optimized any of our core players - all of them are playing well below their ceiling....
It is concerning that Gregg ran Dest out, in his first cap, out of position. All the guys here who want to slow roll with the kids, I doubt any would think you put the any kid in out of position. In the first game Dest played that mattered, he played Dest in position and let him attack in the way he liked. That game missed Adams and Pulisic, so less for Gregg to worry about. That game in Orlando, when possibly Gregg had real pressure to get a result, he was very pragmatic. He used Zardes in a way he can succeed, his game plan for Brooks and Ream made sense. He let guys like Long and Guzan just clear balls and not try and do anything too technical. McKennie was used like he was against Jamaica in the GC (one of his best games for the USMNT). Morris was given a role that fit him. But of course, if he got it right then, what was all the nonsense before that?
Gregg's defenders have said he is an"experiential learner". Gotta have the experience to learn, if you're that kinda guy. Ok.... but what they forget to add is one little adjective; "Gregg Berhalter is a slow experiential learner". Of course there is nothing wrong whatsoever in having a slow experiential learner as the national manager. It's what every ambitious program dreams of....
Whether he is a slow learner, or he thought he had time to try something radical; I doubt he would have handled 2019 as he did if he thought 2020 was going to be washed out. Or at least you hope.
Not that anyone could have predicted the Coronavirus but I, like a few other posters, pushed back pretty hard against the oft-stated opinion that "there's lots of time to go back to the "boring" USMNT style" which I would define as: strong defense, counter-attacking offense, top notch fitness and a never-say-die attitude.
It’s fine to have your own opinion. It’s what makes coaches different. I was always a players coach because my job as a coach was to develop players. If I was coaching at the Nats level I would be about developing a team. And so I would be looking at how the team looks as opposed to any one player. That’s why I feel that Reyna would help the team more as a #10. Reyna would probably play better on the wing at least to start. I’m worried that’s how GB will see him.
Dest is a great example of why I chose team over player. Let’s pretend A Robinson doesn’t exist. Dest clearly plays better as a RB, but he would be our best LB. The team has two other quality RBs to choose from in Cannon and Yedlin. So the team would be better if Dest played LB, if you believe Dest @ LB + Cannon/Yedlin @ RB > Ream @ LB + Dest @ RB. So I would play Dest @ LB while Patrick would play Dest @ RB.
I expect Gregg will envision something fluid. Whatever positions they start in, they will move around quite a bit. If Gregg still sticks with the 3-2-2-3 offensive shape, I can see Pulisic/Reyna/Dest/McKennie being the two behind the front 3, but also Pulisic/Reyna/Sargent/Llanez being in the front 3 at any time. Llanez also interprets space well and you could have 6 players filling the five spots in any given possession. At least, that is what the modern game is headed for. I do feel that Reyna opens up many possibilities where more two dimensional players have been used.
I was watching Brian Kleiban's U20 series and he is very adamant that he doesn't care about pedigree. He asked if people would think different about Will Trapp if he played for Real Soceidad instead of Inter Miami. No doubt they might. But that ignores the fact that Will Trapp doesn't play for Real Sociedad; he was sold recently for not much money from the Crew to Inter Miami. It is like saying, do you think if Mark Wahlberg was on the moon that you might think he was an astronaut? Maybe Brian can watch a Sunday league game and see a player that would be on his U20 or full NT. But to me, what Brian is saying is that the directors and managers all over the world are simply not able to do their job. That there isn't anyone in any club in Germany or Spain or Italy that can look at Will Trapp and not realize they should buy him for $250K instead of whomever they are buying for that spot at $20 MM. That Trapp is playing for Inter Miami because of randomness I guess. Maybe this is the thinking of the posters around here that throw around Euro Snob or Euro Pixie Dust. That all of world soccer has no idea how to scout talent. Because that is basically what Kleiban is saying when he says pedigree (i.e. club situation) is meaningless.
When Arena picked his squad for Couva, he picked guys who fit Adams' description and they lost. Adams has a lot to learn.
Moving away from your best scorer/assist guy? Sometimes I think Morris should just quit and watch the team squirm to another disaster like the last time he wasn't available due to injury.
In other words, Beckham has no clue? World football is a business. England doesn't pour money into MLS to help them compete against them when MLS doesn't pay big money for EPL or Champleague players. Trapp had a good offer from Championship but it doesn't make any sense for him to go there. I.o.w., championship where Holmes plays, is below Trapp's level and Holmes should never see the shirt - right?