How about a compromise? Johnson starting LB, Villafana his back up. If we go to a 3 man back line, Johnson the starting LWB, Saief the back up LWB.
I'd be fine with this. I used to think that it was an important thing to get Johnson out of the back and into the midfield to improve the attack, but Johnson has been underwhelming in midfield. I'm not really sure that he offers more than someone like Nagbe as an outside mid.
Johnson's underwhelming at every position, but with LB being so weak, we can lessen how weak we are at that position by putting him there.
Present-day, I think I'd like Fabian at left back. He is a safe, solid option at outside back. Certainly would test Saief at left back in camp, too. In the end, wouldn't mind seeing some combination of those two on the left side, while Villafana, Lichaj, Chandler provide depth on the bench. Looking ahead beyond 2018, the three biggest youth prospects would probably be Chris Gloster, George Bello, and Xuxuh Hilton (Xuxuh is a right back but left-footed, and may translate to left back long-term; there are other RB options like Marlon Fossey, Matt Olosunde, Corey Anton, Sergino Dest, Jaylin Lindsey, etc.). Saief, Brandon Vincent, John Requejo, Danny Acosta, Marco Farfan, Marcello Borges, and others are certainly in the mix as well. As for dual-nationals not currently with the US program, it'd be nice to get one or more of Antonee Robinson, Niko Hamalainen, Noah Powder, Edwin Lara, and Kik Pierie. This position looks *very* bright for the future.
Hasn't Antonee Robinson only played for US youth teams? Believe his only national team game was a half for the US u18s. Wonder if Everton wasn't willing to let him go or if Ramos just wasn't interested in him for u20
You're correct, he has only ever played for US youth teams, just one cap with the U18s in late 2014. I wouldn't consider him currently with the US program, however, because he hasn't been to any camp since then, which is odd since he has done well with Everton. There was a rumor from the DailyMail that Ramos was considering calling him in for a U20 camp in April 2017, though that never came to fruition.
With Ives reporting that Howard, Dempsey, Bradley, Altidore, Nagbe and Gonzalez will be the six replacements on the Gold Cup roster, it appears Bruce is prepared to move forward with the current fullbacks. I'm surprised because I was assuming Lichaj would go back to England and join his club for pre-season. However, that's unlikely if the above names are correct. I wonder if Lichaj will get some looks at LB during the remaining games.
Realistically, who else is there to call in? Our best fullbacks are in Europe for preseason. I'm comfortable with Villafana and Lichaj. Hopefully Arena doesn't keep trying to make Zusi happen