USA-Ecuador. The midfield

Morris has got to be more precise in his challenges.

Everyone else played solid to great. Tillman probably is a Bayern (Munich) level player (he's not the complete product yet and he's already this good. Tessman finally had a good a game at the perfect time and translated his club play to the national team.

 

Not a word about MOTM Malik and his 6 chances created, assist and usual stellar defensive work?

Morris and Tessman both proved to be competent international players now against a very good opponent, Tessman’s hockey assist on the goal, immaculate.

 

Morris, Tessman, McKennie, Tillman. That foursome rather bossed Ecuador until the subs, and Roldan and Luna didn't drop the level too much after they settled into the match.

I want to see better, cleaner, crisper from Morris. It wasn't a great game for him, but he didn't muck it up apart from one fatal mistake, either.

Tillman was a boss.

Tessman was better than one might notice.

 

Haha touché!

 

If I’m a midfielder in this pool…and I wasn’t here this window. (Rather voluntarily or hurt or not called in)…. I’m not feeling very comfortable about next summer. Particularly if I’m not named Tyler.

and even if my name is Tyler….im not feeling certain about whether my spot in the lineup is safe.

 

I don’t think morris is a starter and maybe doesnt make the team but he bounced back in second half.

 

Yep.

In 2022…. I said there were gonna be a couple of really good players that weren’t gonna start for us and people shouldn’t complain about it because that’s what happens on good teams ( turned out to be Reyna and I disagreed with that but he was only gonna replace another real good player)

next summer….unless Poch goes insane….there are gonna be a few good players who don’t make it and the players they’d replace are…also really good players.

 

It depends on who it is & how you deploy them. Pulisic & Weah are much more forward-ish in a 433 or 4231 setup.

The 343 is a lot more fluid, and Tillman & Wes come inside more, play underneath more to form a MF square more, etc. Both those dudes have some CM in their soccer DNA. And the WBs do really provide most of the width.

One could make a not completely silly argument it plays like 325 when we are attacking.

 

I thought he was good both halves. Not perfect, certainly. But good.

 

In fact, Poch was asked in the post-game press conference about the formation tonight, and he said it was a 4-2-3-1 when we didn't have the ball, and a 3-2-5 when we were in possession.

He also didn't think the formation was very similar to the one we used against Japan.

 

Generally, I'd agree with you, but today McKennie and Tillman almost unquestionably played like midfielders, and it mostly played like a box midfield in front of a back 3, with two wingbacks were were definitely primarily attackers.

Pulisic less so when he came on. He played more like a deeper forward or trequartista...

 

All I can say about the midfield - Bossed Ecuador around. Well done. Some pretty good midfielders aren't going to make the final roster.

 

this is hard for me to parse, because tactically i think we are using our cms in a truly asinine way.

if you accept the premise that we are/are going to continue playing 3atb/wbs with 2 6/8s to shore us up defensively thats an awful lots of numbers in "defense". obviously arfsten, for example isnt a "defensive" player- but positions/roles that presumably require some level of defensive effort, right?

so why are we seeing them (morris and tesserman last night) crazy high up the pitch, on one of the sidelines, combining with that sides respective wb and "10"? we vacate the middle entirely too often, and see those guys scrambling back (and back inside) so much. now, adams doesnt tend to go on walkabout too often, but we saw seb taking up very similar positions throughout the gc window.

and thats all super if you think we are even potentially some overwhelming offensive side with attacking wbs and even our 2 mids pushing high. but look at the goal last night- morris went all in on a tackle in a defensive transition which is what we want, right? how many times have we complained about our cms not stepping to the ball, trying to stop it rather than just backtracking?

i dont think that instinct was wrong at all, it just didnt come off. it happens. but importantly, we had our back 3 in position (though a bit too high, which i guess you have to do in an offensive juggernaut). richards got beat in an essentially open field and ream was never, ever, ever gonna get back to help.

theres a disconnect in the setup and the way we are playing in it. we have the numbers and within the confines of our pool the guys to fill these roles to "make up" for less than impressive cbs and keepers. i get that. it makes sense.

but we arent playing like that. we are still isolating our cbs (while playing right into that keeping another/better field player off the pitch trope) and leaving our keepers facing an attacker clear of our backline.

despite the setup, the appearance of solidifying our defense, we are just cheating entirely too much. and the irony is- exactly how much do morris, tesserman or a theoretical cardoso bring as wide playmakers? if thats what we are going to do why isnt wes in that role?

so the question is how does that change when tyler is in/poch decides we need at least one of our cms to actually stay in the center of the midfield? do we have one "6" and the other pushes higher, hopefully at least centrally to support our all out attack?

cause right now our cms in practice are ream/rcb. the very reason we "need" to play such a seemingly defensive setup are even worse cbs backtracking from the halfway line.

we still cant defend. we still cant build out of the back. and its not even improving the attack (play wes and malik as the cms if you want to have 7 attackers on the pitch). either one is more mobile and probably better defensively than our other cms anyways.

it just doesnt make sense to me at all. sit adams and tesserman on top of the back three (with tanner distributing and very selectively getting a bit forward) and we can talk but i think we are a hot mess.

 

Ecuador has an incredibly stout defense. Not generating a ton of chances against them is expected and we definitely were more likely to win. Meanwhile they had basically one real chance.

Nothing about the last game was “completely asinine.” However, i do get what you’re saying about sometimes the midfield being left a bit open for counters.

 

There is no game situation at the World Cup where we need Roldan.
If we’re up a goal, bring in someone more defensive like Morris, Tessman, Musah.
If we’re up against a bunkering team, bring in Tessman or Cardoso.
If we’re down a goal, we need someone with more offensive skills. Brendan, Musah, etc.

 

I was with until you put Musah in the offensive skills part. Too funny.

 

I have no idea how much is tactical, how much is instruction and how much is confidence (and how all those things can be wrapped together) but the team is just slowing evolving into being more confidence and aggressive offensively.

Guys are trying shit on the dribble or the pass they wouldn't previously. Even guys that maybe have no business doing it. And they mostly pulled it off. But even when they didn't ... and this is the big thing for me ...

... the counter press got it back. I think a lot of the change comes from really adapting the mindset of "it's okay if I turn it over ... I can just get it right back." Or, "my teammate will get it back."

You've got Tanner Tessman with fancy footwork in his own half, or Alex Freeman trying to pop up a pass over the defender and run around him. Weston hitting a one time long ball over the top.

Definite mindset change.

 

so if we’re down a goal, you want Roldan coming in off the bench to save us? Maybe not Musah, but there’s like 7 guys I’d want in before Roldan.

 

Musah certainly has much more offensive skills that Roldan. We have already seen that at the World Cup level.