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1. i am not a fan of wingbacks who cheat way up and are soft on defense, but if that is the idea, sorry, don’t even pretend ream or brooks will have help. the whole reason those type players are gone is 2021 — teams like the swiss countering with robinson caught up — an inherent risk of pushing the fullbacks way up — and finding CBs who couldn’t island defend behind them. if you are going to take wide defending risks you need reliable backs who can defend by themselves. they may have no help at all on a counter. in that situation brooks and ream are both pushovers.

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2. CP stuck with Sterling, an English man playing for Potter in a World Cup year…who is going to get the playing time? Predicted all of this months ago and it was easy to do

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3. lol…..Tim Ream just continues to silent the “Nay-Sayers”. Regardless of what anyone here might think my mans is playing at the highest level, higher than any other US centerback in the USMNT pool. No other CB is consistently starting at his level……absolutely no one. What Ream lacks in “speed” he more than makes up for in tactical intellect, tackle timing, positioning, passing ability, ball distribution etc……and it shows as his Fulham still believes in him to start, in the Premier league. Some people thought he’d be replaced by another defender after the transfer window…..but he still continues to start strong and in regular fashion.
   Congrats on the win!!!!

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   • I agree.

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   • Robinson–Ream–Zimmerman–Scally I would not mind seeing that Bizzy. That would be a interesting backline against Wales and Iran.

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     • +1

     • It would probably get ripped apart.

       Gregg likes to play a high line and at this point playing any other way with no real practice probably won’t work out well.

       Ream is playing very well but he also plays a certain way that fits in well with what Fulham do. The USMNT can’t play the same way either because their players and coaches are not as good or because they do not have as much practice time.

       At this level soccer is not a pick up sport, especially if you are talking about a disciplined defense.

       And even if it was, Ream is not a world class talent. He has some flaws and no USMNT manager has ever figured out how to cover for those.

       You want Ream to play for the USMNT?

       Fine, put a better team (players and coaches) around him than what we have.

     • Vacqui Iran and Wales not England. I could see England giving it issues, but not Wales and Iran.

     • “I could see England giving it issues, but not Wales and Iran.”

       I don’t know about that. Of course, anything is possible but Wales are well coached, are a very tough, tournament tested, battle hardened team.

       You can’t say that about this edition of the USMNT. And this is the USMNT’s opener and they really don’t like openers. And this USMNT is soft.

       In Bale, Wales have a guy who is a spent force but is also perfectly capable, for one fricking game, of rising out of the grave and gelding the USMNT.

       Remember, this is one game, basically a knockout playoff game for second place. Whichever team loses will have a very hard time getting out of the group. So expect Wales to be amped up to the max. Realistically, a 0-0 draw, which is a good result for both teams , is the most likely result.

       Iran, I know less about and they probably are less talented than the USMNT but that doesn’t really matter so much. In Quieroz they have a very good manager who they will run through a wall for and recent good results suggest that his recent return has excited and galvanized them. They are another team who are tougher than a very soft USMNT.

       I expect the USMNT will have their best game vs. England.

       I expect the USMNT will underestimate Wales and Iran and could lose to them. But the English are like Gregg, arrogant and overconfident. I expect them to be unable to get it up for Ariolla, Long and Roldan and fail to show up. Then again England beating the USMNT 6-0 wouldn’t surprise me either.

       As I said, there is a lot of drama to look forward to in Qatar.

   • Fulham this time around decided maybe it wasn’t a good idea to completely rebuild their team. They are able to use Ream’s leadership and organizational abilities to keep the backline mostly together. They also set their defense to protect his lack of speed. If you set the NT up to play this way you’d hinder some of our better offensive players. So it’s not so easy, you can play Tim in a way that benefits him but holds back Pulisic and Reyna or you can play Tim to benefit them but be stretched defensively. I’m not against including Ream on the roster, but I don’t think it’s open and shut just because he plays at Fulham. The US has more talented parts than maybe they’ve ever had but they aren’t all to the same piece. Even a master IKEA engineer can’t always attach a table leg to the couch and hold it all together with the screws from TV tray.

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     • Great post Johnny, explained it well imo

     • ream gets exposed other games than “leeds and villa,” who will both be fighting relegation. what it basically boils down to is in the world cup you have most of the world’s best players and the more your progress the more they will break down your cute systems and make it mano a mano. can you juke or outwit their defense? can you hold the greatest attackers in the world? ream’s caps suggest when he steps up, at this point in his career, he can’t hold elite attackers and he gets exposed. villa and leeds are not the world’s elite. it’s a poor comparison for playing england or france.

       when i was a kid, my theory on tactics and selection was you want something that works on the sort of team you see in the state playoffs, not the minnows. you build a team to win the final, not the easiest quali games. and yet the US seems to routinely set ideas based on do they work on someone like northern ireland or honduras. we need to work on punching up — what beats the best — and not on punching down. and everything GB. does is designed to embarrass already bad teams.

   • Good for Ream

     For the USMNT he has been found very wanting in many systems with different coaches. Playing a high line? No way. The USMNT playing defend/counter? Since when did US fans think that was cool? I’m fine with it, like I was with Bradley…he got skewered for it

     Let’s face it, for some, it’s always going to be complaints however we lineup and play

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     • kind of related to what you say but i think the best players have varied and multiple abilities and can flourish in more than one tactical concept, as opposed to are a one note player who has to be perfectly supported. things rarely go perfectly.

       sorry but to me their line of argument sounds like dynamo fans saying we need to not drop sebas ferreira (our DP who had just 13 goals) but get him better service. except IMO he can’t keep up with fast wings and does little holdup play. he is a good finisher but lazy and thus requires silver platter service. but to me it’s like i want a 9 who can do things in varied tactics and when things don’t go perfectly. i don’t get betting on players who i think their form is actually meh (if they watch their full schedule) and who require perfect coverage and shape and support around them. in the world cup it won’t go perfect and they can’t depend on 100% support — particularly if the plan is have robinson 20 yards upfield down the wing.

   • you don’t know what you’re talking about. FFC has been relegated multiple times with awful GA numbers with ream in the back. their GA this season is again poor — they allow goals like a team bottom half the table, and more than some teams in relegation zone now. no, be real, what is good about FFC is their offense, which had 100+ goals in the c’ship last year and is similar to liverpool and spurs numbers this year. so the goal is win games 3-2. that helps offset having a defense no better than other recent EPL stints. but when FFC stayed up for years they had a functioning defense.

     on a related point robinson got abused on goal 1 to leeds. faked out of his shorts. they aren’t good island defenders which is my idea of a good defender i want on my NT — someone who can defend their position without a bunch of system and shape help, and not just in a vague zone.

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     • this sort of stuff is precisely why the club form folks get it wrong. they don’t watch every week so they don’t see ream’s bad nights. so they don’t actually know the form that well. and they neglect the sort of basic “this is what his toolbox is” or “this is how his caps went” questions that better inform a NT selection. brooks and ream could play out of their minds in club and unless they got younger and faster so what.

4. Great watching Ream with consistent, starting play in the Premier League. I repeat, the Premier League. And yet, he isn’t even a thought by Berhalter.

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   • +1

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5. Leeds losing 2-0. Have to say Marsch is on the hot seat. Should have made defense a bit more of a priority in the transfer window.

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   • I was thinking the same thing. Even if having trouble scoring, at least prevent scoring. That defense looks disorganized and absolutely out of sorts. It’s like no emphasis was placed into it whatsoever by Marsch.

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     • Funny, that’s pretty much what they said about Bielsa’s teams.

     • Vacqui, they go about it differently but Bielsa and Marsch have a similar philosophy to force turnovers well before the ball gets into your opponent’s attacking third. If teams get past that Leeds CBs are not very good, the keeper kept them in a couple early by standing on his head.

     • JR
       “Bielsa and Marsch have a similar philosophy to force turnovers well before the ball gets into your opponent’s attacking third. ”

       Well, being “Bielsa -lite” isn’t going to save Jesse. Bielsa has/had a lot of street cred while Jesse does not.

       If he wants save himself and be true to his philosophy he’s going to have to go Bielsa one better and figure out how to stop leaking goals.

       I thought Tyler was supposed to stop this sort of defensive foolishness? Maybe Leeds should buy Long and Zimmerman.

     • JR: leeds ran around like headless chickens for about 20 minutes and then FFC owned the balance of the game. klinsmann c. 2012 initially had the US playing frenetic like this and they could barely last 50 minutes doing it with the most fit and gifted soccer players in the country. bluntly it’s the sort of thing i was taught that weak teams do, expend all their energy at the start of the game, that you needed to match that initial hustle then play them off the park the last hour. some of these tactics might be interesting in small doses or pointed at specific matchups where a player want to take their time or is sloppy. but personally unless your roster is loaded i find this high energy press stuff to be childish and easily exploited by similar high level opponents. leeds played very hard but FFC rode out the storm then had the better technical attack.

       as a defender i also agree with the poster who said leeds was surprisingly soft in the back. free headers, etc. if your sales pitch is a swarming defense you can’t hand away a couple cheapies a night. but then i think a lot of coaches these days seem confused between personnel and tactics whether they are trying to emphasize attack or defense. marsch’s RBNY the carpet matched the drapes, they had some backs who could mark. these guys, once the press got tired, you could get after the backline.

     • Mr. Voice,

       “but then i think a lot of coaches these days seem confused between personnel and tactics whether they are trying to emphasize attack or defense.”

       I doubt those coaches are confused at all.

       Most times I see them as being handed a bag of shit and told to make instant brownies.

       So they do what they can with what they have.

       Jesse’s squad is comparatively weak. It’s hard to lose two players like Rafina and K Philips and NOT be weaker the next season.

       Leeds tried to buy better players but just being in the EPL is not enough of an attraction. No one worth a damn wants to play for them. Especially when there are other actual big teams which have more resources and are perceived as having a better future.

       Leeds was once a big deal and may yet again be one in the future but right now in 2022, they are a Championship team trying real hard to stay in the EPL.

       Their best players are attackers. So they gamble. If you score early suddenly it gets much harder for the opposition and Leeds gets a second wind.

       Their biggest failing is not scoring more goals when they are offensively dominant as they have shown they can be at times. They should have beaten Arsenal and had they done so they’d be feeling a lot better about themselves and that can carry over onto the field. If they were less wasteful with their chances there would be much less pressure on their makeshift defense and they would not be in the relegation zone.

       That’s another way of saying their offense ignites there defense. And that probably is not a formula for long term success in the EPL. Bielsa pulled it off for a long time because, well, he’s a God, a legend and a fricking genius. But he got every ounce of goodness out of these players and for a lot of the leftovers, it looks like they have nothing left.

       Jesse is a very good manager and I’m sure he knows all this but he has a clock on him and he can only do so much.
       They must have known this was coming because they tried hard to sign a Bamford successor and failed to do. Patrick looks either not fully recovered or washed up.

       Jesse has to beat Liverpool. If Forest, the worst team in the EPL can do it, then Leeds can.