One I’m Absolutely concerned about……as our lock start hugger and vibes guy…… is Lund. I hope Poch holds hugging in high esteem
Where are you getting this? Because Meola didn't say anything about that. And also, I really doubt that had input into basically anything that Meola mentioned specifically, either. It's a council instead of a single captain. Do we think they were selecting the cities we played in?
Meola mentioned that there are 10,000 people to handle such things. He went off and might not have given specific examples, but it highlights the focus on irrelevant issues for players. On-field leadership was Brooks helping McKenzie get through the match after a crucial mistake or if Turner & Ream yelled instructions on how to play a man down versus Trinidad. Something went amiss and the team lacked the player-to-player leadership and accountability.
But I don't see any actual evidence that they were focused on any of that. This just sounds like an old man rant. And there certainly wasn't talk of perks unless you have a weird idea of perks.
I'm piecing together with prior McBride comments that a NT coach needs to have a more of a relationship with the player's club coach and less with the player. I may be right or wrong, but these comments from these former players led me to assume Pochettino was being hired. Tab Ramos recently discussed why he left, which I'll paraphrase as the work environment changed from a start-up one where the US was expanding youth teams to one with lots of committees and little growth. My guess is that many former players are also trying to piece together what happened and coaching with a rule by committee approach is not one they would use for a competitive men's sport. Tab also used the term 'ingrained' (more so to discuss youth teams), but it also seems the team has developed a number of players with a dual role to publicly speak for the team. Perhaps, Tony was an old man rant or maybe he was trying to hammer Adams to convey more of a player-to-player message to stop speaking and allow the new coach and potential different captains to represent the team. Pochettino is to stay with the US for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics . This may make his potential impact on the larger organization much greater than fans have expected during the hiring process.
There's also a reason nobody else hires these guys like Meola, Wynalda, and Ramos. Lots of time on their hands to podcast. They're unemployed. All of them have an axe to grind with the USSF, because the USSF won't hire them either these days. Tab Ramos failed as a coach in MLS with Houston and in the USL for Harford. What I hope Pochettino does is instantly render all of these people useless. We will quickly realize that it isn't amateur hour any longer. i have no clue which players Pochettino will pick. He'll probably watch tape of the Nations League final against Mexico and see a wonderful performance that day from Tyler Adams. If he watches tape of the USMNT since the start of 2022 (say) he'll believe Tyler Adams is one of the most talented and important players on the USMNT. An oft-injured one, for sure, but one of the most talented.
Don’t know but his first roster will be fun. Will we see surprises? Popular or not so popular ones maybe both? These are the fun times at the beginning of a stint like this.
The thing with Adams if you want to play a high line and press aggressively I think he pretty much has to play a key role as there’s no one in the pool who covers ground like he does. He’s got to be healthy of course.
Brooks first needs to find a club. With both him and Ream it will come down to how much does he want to play a high line versus how much does he want to play from the back. As Brooks is good for the latter and not great for the former.
If he gets healthy Dest is definitely someone who will do well. Someone who may be a bad fit is Scally (though I wonder if Pochettino might experiment with him at center back).
that old "every manager has 'his' guys" trope is in a little trouble, for a while at least. unless youre expecting yedlin, ccv and gaga at the front of the line i think the guys in various stages of limbo with their clubs are obviously on high alert, but i also think its fair to say intl performance is going to be just as vital as club in the beginning. he (and presumably his assistants who arent any more familiar with our pool) literally cant build 40 club dossiers in two months. theyve got a lot of usmnt tapes on hand though. so reyna, for example, if poch is just looking at club situation isnt in a position of strength. but how many nats matches does he need to watch to see that really investing time in malik or luna or whoever right off the bat isnt quite the cut-and-dried decision some of you dummies try to make it out to be.
I still have some hope for Tessman but I don’t think he’s quite there yet. Jonny is a lock atm, and Adams will get first crack if he’s able to come back before summer 2025.
I know this may be the lazy answer and he's already our best player, but I think Pulisic stands to be a major benefactor. I keep going back to how Son played on the left in his system, and I can absolutely see Pulisic in that role. On first glance, Weah might be a player whose role under Berhalter could be changed a lot under Pochettino. Wild card for me is Reyna. I'm trying to remember what Dele Alli's role with Tottenham was before he kind of fell off the map, but I thought he was more of an attacking mid. If Pochettino goes with two players up top who run in behind, I could see Reyna really doing what he does best. Big question for me will be how Poch wants to use the 9. He used Kane in more of a false 9 / 10 type of role, but that very well could have been because that's Kane's best game. He really didn't have a true 9 at either PSG or Chelsea, so it would be interesting to see what his preference is when looking at the current US 9s and seeing how we would want to use that position.
Aside from the banger that was not a wonderful performance from Tyler. He must’ve gambled and missed three times in that first half alone, leaving his defense ass-naked way more than acceptable. He hasn’t shone that well in awhile.
McBride was part of the last cycle staff and has not grind any axes. He shares a podcast seat with Meola so it may be possible that they were cued in that Pochettino was happening. Ramos as a youth coach was isolated from senior teams during and after his employment. He has some insight on the players just below the Leadership Council. In the interview I watched, he was an informative and careful commenter on youth and NT soccer on Tactical Manager YouTube channel, where his audience is not likely to hear things presented as so. My assumption is part of why Pochettino hired until the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is to address the lack of relationships we had with the players' clubs and to their development plans with the NT needs and usage. The previous approach of having close relationships with a subset of players seems like one Crocker would want to change now that he's had the time to communicate with any club and all player. As for Adams, he's one that has also been thrusted into this dual role of public speaking. None of the player interviews discuss how to beat a low block or resemble player interviews from our other sports where tactics and what went right or wrong is more freely discussed. For on-field leaders, you need players that have honed their ability to diagnose and communicate adjustments. My question is if we have a leadership group without any field leaders and what happens in the future. With longer tenure, I expect Pochettino to expand the player pool and have a better method to project players to fit his systems. If he's building off Pulisic, how many really complimented his game. Using Wales/Iran as an example, it was too easy for teams (Wales) to diminish his game by repeatedly fouling him. Without Christian creating extra space and time on the ball for others, we saw these teams tilt the field. The eleven never capitalized on the set pieces he generated and the defense outside of Concacaf has allowed 2 goals or more too often. To complement Pulisic, he needs players that can combine at his play speed, create space for him, and get him the ball without his retreating. To beef up the set pieces and make the defense more stout, it may require different players than the regulars. It's too early to predict who will wear the armband in two years; however, with a leaky defense shouldn't the regulars be at risk to changes to position role definitions and the desired attributes. If so, the leaders for 2026 will more likely come from the younger pool.
Pochettino is known for bringing up youth and letting them grow. It'll be interesting how he rates some of the younger newer guys like Tillman, Cardoso and even Gio.
Heads up to all our players. You’re going to be running a lot under Pochettino so lay off the ranch. #USMNT pic.twitter.com/clyFJC3lZ1— project mbappe (@starboysfc) August 15, 2024
I could see him using Reyna in that role. Kane wasn’t super fast, saw the pass and could make it, and could finish. I could see Poch seeing an analogy there. He drops in and complements speedier wings.
I was thinking the same thing but didn’t want to really say it. I’ve said before that I could see Gio as a false 9/Firmino style 9. If we had that, Balogun could be on the right as a Salah-style right winger with Pulisic on the left.
How long does Tim Weah keep his starting winger job under Poch with his current level of production? Wonder if Poch has reached out to Luca Koleosho yet.... Images I didn't need to see today: Haji Wright under Pochettino pic.twitter.com/v3qb2H0wzt— Harry Smothers (@CFCpocketmeat) August 15, 2024
In fact it is a fairly common practice used by lots of coaches not just Southgate or Berhalter. The idea is having the leaders of the group being able to communicate their preferences to the coaching staff and also for the coach to have a smaller group of players he can ask things of when considering various options (like where to set up camp, giving guys a break beforehand, etc). There’s nothing inherently bad or wrong with the concept.
The players voted for the captain for the World Cup and they voted for Tyler Adams. And I don’t think anyone would question that guys like Pulisic or Ream are leaders amongst the group. There’s a lot of much to do about nothing going on here and complaining about things just for the sake of it. There’s nothing wrong with trying to create a good environment in camp and taking the players preference into account.