6 of 11 players played out of club position by JK last night. 7 defenders called in, 6 are CBs(iirc). The heat turned up a bit after last summer's gold cup, it is now really high. Anything other than a win Tues and the usmnt as well as JK one would hope, are in trouble.
I saw some wonderful statistics about possession, possession in the attacking 3rd, scoring chances, set piece effectiveness, etc. after the 2014 WC and JK's crew had the worst showing since 98 iirc. Down in virtually every meaningful metric.
This USMNT group isn't great but it is far better than they have shown. I'll say additionally that the player pool has taken a dip but there are a lot of bright young prospects emerging and the coming decade looks exciting. It is almost inexcusable that JK hasn't delivered on anything he's promised or 'talked up'.
I say all of this as someone that supported him for the HC job, while always believing he'd be a better TD than HC and believing there would be some give in order to get the benefit of his bigger vision. After the 2014 WC the US should have gotten a new coach and should have at that time promoted JK to overall TD ... but even that is a huge stretch considering how the youth teams have performed, not in results but style. The program has moved backwards in so many ways and it is the federation's fault more than anything else. Sunil should have some very VERY tough questions to answer.
Well, I don't agree with the position thing.
It was basically Cameron and Yedlin really playing out of position.
Someone said Orozco was out of position, but first things first is Orozco was playing because Brooks and Besler couldn't go. If either of them could go, he wouldn't have played. Second is that he's a center back.
Even with Cameron and Yedlin, they've often played and succeeded for the USMNT in the roles they were put out there for. Being "out of position" is an excuse.
Cameron is a flex player, he's played Central defense, Central Mid defense, and rightback for Stoke this year. His biggest strength is he's incredibly flexible as a player.
To get to 6 I'm assuming you're going with Cameron, Yedlin, Bedoya, Bradley, Mix and Orozco.
Bradley and Mix were in the middle. Regardless of if Klinsmann wants one forward and one not, they were in the middle playing with each other. Would I have rather had mix in a true 10 role, yes, but that's not really an option without moving Bradley to CDM and Bradley is way too important to the attacking game for the US to not be. THe goal of Klinsmann having Mix be more defensive is likely to have Bradley paired with someone who'll hold back and let BRadley go forward without fear of leaving the back exposed.
I don't get the Orozco thing, He's beena center back for ages, I don't care if he's started playing out wide as well. He's also talented in that fashion. But he's been a CB for ages.
Which comes to Bedoya. Bedoya was deployed on the left mid. That is different than his club role where he was playing CAM or RAM. Firs tthins first, we do not run a 4-2-3-1 which is seemingly Nantes's chosen formation. Second, he's done this, this wasn't the first time he played on the left side. It's a different game than the right side, but Bedoya's play on the left wasn't why we lost. We lost because of execution. Mix ****ing up the corner, and then whatever in god's name you call that Ruiz goal. That was just a colossal ****up from the Back line.
I think overall the game was showing that we didn't ahve the right defenders and that's on Klinsmann, I don't know why Evans or Chandler, or someone else wasn't called in. He's using yedlin at RM because he's not ready to be a RB yet, but he wants to play him. IMO if he's not ready to be RB he should be on the bench. But that's my opinion. I also don't think Yedlin was our problem.
When I step away from the game and think about it, it reminded me a lot of the loss to Jamaica. We played the better technical game, but lost becuase of critical mental lapses. I didn't watch the whole match (fell asleep in the middle of it like an old man) but what I saw we were the more dangerous side, We had the lion's share of possession (63/37) we took more shots and more importantly had more on target. THey just had the ones that counted.
Now to look at the optimistic side of things. we win out we still win the group. Beating Guatemala would give them a max 12 points. Beating T&T would give them a max 13. But we have a massive goal differential advantage over T&T so far as they barely beat St. Vincent who we shelacked.