I don't think they're better but they fit better right now and have veterans at more spots. Our team is sort of weak at some up the spine positions but is starting to solve a few (mostly center forward). I think some scheme tweaking could really help the central defenders so they have more passing options and that should in turn help the keepers. So we'll see after about six months if our pool looks much improved against Canada's.
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Absolutely dreadful half from Trusty against a good, but not outstanding Dortmund side. No real surprise as he looked out of his depth in the PL last season. 5-1 Dortmund at the half and Celtic were fortunate not to concede more.
Some people were rating him, or Trusty-curious. Last year kind of nixed that for a bunch of people. I think that's done. I just threw him in the pile of the rest of "Not good enough's" like Miazga and CCV in '23.
New rule is you're not allowed to play for the USMNT if you have ever stepped foot in Scotland... can't be too careful
I think you're being a bit harsh on Trusty. There were several glaring errors by other Celtic players.
Nah, he really was dreadful. Looked completely out of his depth and was probably the worst player on the pitch today. Of course there were, and if those glaring errors had been committed by USMNT eligible players (this forum's topic) I'd have brought them up here.
Yes suspect that in almost every 7-1 loss in the long history of soccer there have been errors by more than one player... unless maybe the goalkeeper was involved in match fixing.
I think you guys are too harsh on American players in general. Every player makes mistakes no matter what their nationality.
"The football finance expert Kieran Maguire pointed out on Wednesday that Celtic’s squad cost 185 times that of St Johnstone [who Celtic beat 6-0 on Saturday]. Dortmund’s was six times that of Celtic." This just emphasizes the disparity UCL money is causing in domestic leagues and how big a step up it is to continental competition in Europe. Salzburg hadn't conceded in 4 domestic games before losing 4-0 at home to Brest last night.
This is a schtick iad does on US players, mainly in the UK. I’m not entirely sure what the point is tbh
Europe is increasingly a story of the haves and have-nots. And the haves are increasingly hording the talent. And Celtic..................because of the league they play in.................is a have-not. I mean, as recently as 2022 they were knocked out European competition by Bodo/Glimt. I'll grant you that they were forced to play both Bodo and Glimt. Still. In 2021 they lost both home and away to Sparta Prague. In 2020 they lost to Copenhagen. Great success for Celtic is reaching the group stage of the Champions League and getting their heads caved in repeatedly. Last year they lost to Athletico Madrid 6-0. Why would this result against Dortmund be a surprise? I don't know.
I honestly don't know how fans there can be fans of the have nots. Without any chance of winning I'd stop watching. It's bad enough in MLS to have one of the poor teams but there's always a chance and a change in coach or FO can mean better chances down the road.
A good deal of people overrate our players, placing our pool in the top 10. Other people being idiots in another direction doesn’t change that.
Arnie Slot said last week that the gap between the best and worst Premier League is a lot lower than the gap between the top and bottom of Eredivisie. So maybe we shouldn't be so cock-a-hoop when a yank signs for Heerenveen.
This is something we should have faced long ago. I don't want to retroject too much, but when I and others pointed this out under the previous US coaching administration, we were ripped for being USSF apologists and part of the "Berhalter Brigade." Very few wanted to deal with the subject of player accountability. So, it does come off as a bit convenient when people are suddenly very aware of the limitations of our player pool the moment that we go from Berhalter to Pochettino.
Probably annoying and maybe erroneous, but I know over the years I've often argued were in that 10th-16th zone, and I've always had a brain block arguing that point because my context for the argument has always been: "Top 10-16 at a WC". It goes w/o saying that nearly every cycle a good 2-5 teams from UEFA, Conmebol, and sometimes even CAF, have missed the WC entirely due to qualification, and aren't there to claim their place. Some examples include England and France in '94, Portugal in '98, Netherlands in '02 and '18, Cameroon, and Nigeria in '06, Croatia and Serbia some cycles, Colombia and Uruguay periodically, Ivory Coast and Egypt out of CAF etc. I've often lazily just written those teams out of my mind, but the fact that Colombia wasn't at WC '22 did not change the fact that Colombia was very much one of the best 16 teams in the world at the time, ELO or no ELO. To me, once you lay out the 32 teams at WC's in '22, in '14, in '10 etc, the US pretty consistently amongst qualified teams has very much belonged somewhere in the 10-16 zone, are they a top 10 side in the world when in peak form over the last 22 years at any given time? Probably not. I'd really struggle to find a time other than maybe Summer of '02, and Summer of '09 before Davies was injured and even then, that team still got smashed by Brazil and Italy to start the tourney before they woke up.
I would say that most people were about 95% fine with the players Berhalter selected for the Copa America squad. It was mostly the fringes like Shaq Moore that they complained about. Success for Pochettino is really about putting this existing pool in a better position to succeed. Yes, there are decisions to be made within the pool. The American Zlatan Ibrahimovic isn't going to appear tomorrow, though.
Who are we talking about here, the social media accounts that hype up USMNT players and get into pissing contests with fans of rivals teams like Mexico and spam US flag emojis under social media posts of dual nats just like every country has fans that do the same? I may not be one of those people myself but I'm glad they exist.