For the NL Berhalter had these guys listed as Forwards FORWARDS: Sargent , Pulisic, Reyna, Pefok, Weah MIDFIELDERS (AMs): Aaroson - I think he subbed in for Reyna in the NL He started Sargent, CP and Reyna in the final. Berhalter likes 3 up top, so we could take 6 forwards. This is how I rate them for now. Starters on the left. Sargent - Pefok Pulisic - Weah Reyna - Aaroson Has Zardes, Dike, or Hoppe done enough to take Pefok, Aarson or Weah's spot? I think Hoppe is the closest, and I think it could be Pefok who loses out. Hoppe's versatility as a winger or a CF will help, but Zardes has this same versatility. I just like Hoppe's 1v1 ability. This late in the cycle, I don't see Sargent dropping out of the 23. He might not be the starter in WCQ or in the WC, but at the very least I think he will be on the roster... the second CF spot in my opinion is up for grabs, and it very well could become a starting position.
Of those near enough to the top of the depth chart to consider for the qualifiers and the World Cup, I think it shakes out something like this: Center forwards: Sargent, Dike, Pefok, Zardes, Pepi, Ferreira Center forwards who can and have been played as wingers: Hoppe, Ebobisse Wingers who can play center forward: Weah, Morris (if he recovers his level in time), Cowell "Inside winger" types who can play in the midfield: Pulisic, Reyna, Aaronson, Clark (more of an AM that can play winger) Wingers: Arriola We have room for about 6 of these guys on any given roster. At this point, Pepi, Ferreira, Ebobisse, Cowell, and Clark are guys to look at for the future more than genuine options in a competitive match, and Morris is out until next year, and who knows when he'll be back in form. So that leaves us with this group: Pulisic Reyna Aaronson Sargent Hoppe Dike Pefok Zardes Arriola That's roughly how I rank them, but honestly, after the first three, it gets hazy. In most cases, though, I think that Sargent and Hoppe are on the team, and one of Dike/Pefok/Zardes. Arriola is more of a veteran fill-in option when someone's down.
Hoppe is trying hard to make himself just too good to overlook. I like that he wants to make something happen, like CP,Reyna and to a degree Aaronson do. He fits with what Berhalter's 'offense' needs: a creator. Add that he can finish and is an asset on set pieces with his skill and height is more reason to want him to displace someone on your list (I want all of them)
I keep a depth chart, thereby showing my soccer nerdiness. The ranking is not for current or future depth, nor meant as a comparison of quality among the players. It is a ranking of the likelihood to be a forward on the 2022 World Cup roster. For instance, I don't think Weah is or will be the starter. He's just the most likely player here to have a roster spot. I think he will go as a bench FW/winger. Also, I rank undeclared dual nationals at the bottom for each position. Those players could advance quickly, possibly, just by declaring. Pefok has. Tim Weah, Lille (France) Josh Sargent, Werder Bremen (Germany) Gyasi Zardes, Columbus Crew Matthew Hoppe, Schalke (Germany) Ricardo Pepi, FC Dallas Jordan Pefok, Young Boys (Switzerland) Daryl Dike, Orlando City SC Nicholas Gioacchini, SC Caen (France) Cade Cowell, San Jose Earthquakes Jesus Ferreira, FC Dallas Haji Wright, Antalyaspor (Turkey) Mason Toye, Club de Foot Montreal Rubio Rubin, Real Salt Lake Folarin Balogun, Arsenal (England) Malick Sanogo, Union Berlin (Germany) Weah is very likely to be there. I think he'll be better in France this year. Hoppe just needs to do it against a quality opponent before rising further. Zardes vs. Sargent is interesting. It would be hard to leave Sarge off, due to his BL experience. But with Hoppe rising, that experience looks more expendable. Especially if you think Zardes and his talent for wacky playmaking can shake things up off the bench better than Sarge, who strikes me more as a guy who starts and contributes little things over the course of a game. If Hoppe (or Pepi) takes over up top, then Zardes, the USMNT's all-time cheap goal artist, might be a better bench choice. Pepi is a growth stock. He's grown to dominate every level he's played at. I don't think that is going to stop. It's a question of whether he can get there at the international level in the next year or so. Pefok hasn't been great, but he has made plays against decent opponents. Dike hasn't done that yet. Niko is a weird one, and hard to judge, but he hasn't hurt himself at all yet. .I have Cowell here, because of the depth at winger. Ferreira ...... could in theory sprout up the chart quickly, because he plays like GB wants a striker to play ideally. If he took a step up, he could shoot up the chart. Wright just seems like persona non grata, no matter what he does. Toye and Rubin are this year's flavors. The dual nats will be interesting to keep an eye on.
I think it will be 3 forward, including a hybrid Weah. Which winger/midfielder would you leave off to accommodate, you know, Gyasi Zardes or Jordan Pefok? Morris? Ledezma? Konrad?
I realize that I somehow managed to leave Gioacchini, Ledezma and KDLF off the list, though they're all still near the bottom of it at present, prospects rather than picks.
The infatuation you guys have with leagues is ridiculous. It is basically big 5 and the rest. I have no idea why anyone would assume a player not in a big 5 league would be our starter. I am not sure why people couldn't see the issues with his game in MLS, the Champioship, and even USMNT. Demanding a call up for a guy having a couple good games in MLS is exactly the same type of ridiculous over reaction I am talking about and since they aren't really good as they think, they will have to tear the player down for the cycle to continue. I dont see any reason to care about where Gioacccini plays. He was one of the few euro based fringe players to get a shot. He played well enough show he was in fact at the level of the fringe players (mostly MLS players) berhalter had included. He hasnt had a great GC playing out wide, but it doesn't have anything to do with where he plays.
hoppe and p-funk have scored game winners in actual comps in the last two months. dike scored 2. but still sarge is the incumbant, huh? so youre saying weah is our starting striker?
Until Sargent starts scoring he is similar to Aaronson, and as long as there is no scoring Aaronson is way better.
He has proven many times that he can be an asset in CONCACAF. Gregg will have him involved in some capacity in qualifying for sure. By the time WC rolls around, he should be nowhere near the team though.
By the time the WC rolls around, I'd be willing to wager that things look quite a bit different with the pool. Zardes doesn't have the chops to play at an elite international level IMO. I already think that both Sarge and Hoppe have a skill set that would translate better at a WC right now.
Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. Shalke wants advancement next season, and Hoppe will be needed.
I think he's a useful tool off the bench against any competition. He's fast and he pressures extremely well. He also has shown an ability to score, sometimes ugly but they all count. If we need a goal late in the game or if we're protecting a one goal lead, he's a good sub to create challenges for the opposing team. I like Hoppe's potential to be better and long term Pepi's. I feel like Dike should be better but he hasn't shown that.
It's hard for me to believe anyone in WCQ (30 man roster) will not be a threat to make the 23 man WC roster.
They're also broke. There is a dollar figure that will be "too good to turn down" for Schalke. I just don't know if they'll get that. My point with bringing up the fact that we only have Weah in a top 5 league..........................is that the competition at forward is fairly wide open. If any of these top 6 or 7 forwards get on a hot streak, and are the "in form" guy, he can zoom up the depth chart. We don't have the American version of Lewandowski clogging up the top of the depth cahrt. So people are down on Dike right now after a couple of games, which is an over-reaction. If he goes back to Orlando, and does exactly what he did last season in MLS/Championship play, he'll be right back at the front of our minds. I think Dike just needs a break after going non-stop for the last year and half. He hasn't had a break. My #9 queue as we enter WCQers is something like: 1) Sargent 2) Pefok 3) Dike 4) Hoppe (fast riser) 5) Weah (who I really want to play as a right winger) 6) Zardes 7) Pepi (unlikely to be involved until January camp) 8) Ferreira (started the last two post-January camp friendlies) 9) Wright 9) Gioacchini (has done almost nothing to warrant being called up over other guys) 10) Cowell (I'll involve him on the wing before I start him as a #9)
I’m inclined to agree with you. I guess I should have said, “I”, would have him nowhere near the team at a WC. All I know is I’d much rather see Josh, Hoppe, or even Timo out there trying to combine with Pulisic, Reyna, and Dest relative to Zardes. Gyasi is smart and he knows how to move off the ball and put himself into dangerous positions and good stuff often follows. Whether that’s Karma or some sixth Burro sense, he may not even know. Those “cheeky flicks” like he had against Haiti seem to dry up as the competition gets tougher though. If we make it to the final, and play Mexico, let’s see what he does. My guess will be not much, but I’d be pleasantly surprised if I was wrong.
Shit, who isn’t broke in European football? Schalke gets stuck in B2 for more than one season, broke won’t be the only thing they will need to worry about.
Just not a good pool. Its almost come to a point that I'd like to have Aaronson on the field and have a different formation or CP as a striker. Aaronson is clearly better than all of these guys at their position, and there is no reason to have a suspect player on the field if you don't need to.
I think its why Sargent is still #1. He may not get the goals, but his hold-up play, etc.benefits the team. Hold up................get the ball to Pulisic, Reyna, Aaronson, etc. Also defends from the front in a way that some other options don't.
He wasnt up to it against Mexico. The drop off from Altidore to Zardes in the 2019 GC was huge and negatively effected the team substantially. I hate this idea of good enough for cocncacaf (especially if not all of it). If that is what is said about a player, we should be looking for a replacement.
Two thoughts that are relevant to this conversation (as well as many more on BS). One, the nature of international soccer is that the sample size we see with the national team will always be incredibly small. If you watch basketball, American football, ice hockey, or any other sport you know how much players’ stats can fluctuate from game to game. You need a bigger sample size than you can get playing with the national team. So you have to look at club form and factor in how difficult the competition is. Two, the main challenges to looking at club form are a) the level of competition the player is facing and b) how well the player could fit into the national team’s style of play. Ultimately how much you weigh those two factors against each other says a lot. I think Hoppe’s ability to score high-quality goals in the BL for a team that gave him almost no service/support (and certainly even less service than Sargent) should put him high on the list. To me he shows signs of being able to do everything Sargent does as well or better. (Obviously we want to see a bigger body of work develop.) I think the arguments that Dike needs some rest are valid. But I also think he’s shown that maybe he isn’t as far along as we’d hoped. Still, the the sublime chip goal (plus preceding touches) that he had in group play, along with some of his goals this year with Barnsley, show that he’s got a ton of potential. Pefok produces, and does it at a high level. The only questions I’d have with him is if he fits what the system wants as a striker, and then does his production come because YB are generally the far-and-away best team in the league? Zardes gets ripped on because he’s in the MLS, but if you didn’t know that already and were watching him play for the NT so far you’d say he belongs. What I’m most interested in is what factors of the above GGG uses to choose his strikers. Will he go for pure production/who he thinks is playing the best? Or will he look at who fits his idea of a system? I think we’ve seen with Tyler Adams that GGG can be made willing to change his preconceived ideas of a system, but that it has to be a special player. If it were me (which it isn’t, so who knows what he’ll do) I’d pick the most in-form players, regardless of what style they play. If anything I’d pick a variety of styles to have more weapons. I’d even consider playing with a pseudo-striker—I think Hoppe could be a false 9, or even a rotating front three comprised of some combination of Pulisic/Aaronson/Reyna/Weah that has no true out and out striker. If our best players up front don’t involve a natural striker than don’t force it; we’ve seen teams that win without one. But again, that’s what I think, not necessarily what GGG will do.