The return of Tyler Adams to the U.S. men’s national team midfield corps is majorly important however the veteran midfielder isn’t just going to slide right into his former starting role.
Adams looks back to his best for English Premier League side Bournemouth, helping the Cherries to a current ninth place spot. The 26-year-old overcame a frustrating first half of the season by making a total of 18 appearances to date (1,167 minutes of playing time).
Most importantly, Adams is starting matches consistently in Andoni Iraola’s squad, being a defensive leader and showing his versatility and range on numerous occasions.
While Pochettino admitted that Adams’ USMNT return is great for the program, he also praised the competition that Adams will compete against for minutes.
“He is a very good player, but of course he needs to prove that he’s better than the others,” Pochettino told media Tuesday following his CONCACAF Nations League roster release. “It is a good competition in the midfield.
“We are going to have [Tanner] Tessmann and Johnny Cardoso, [Yunus] Musah, Weston McKennie that can play in that position,” Pochettino added. “We have very good competition and it is good opportunity for us to feel him, to see him and it is great to have him again.”
Whether it is in the starting lineup or off of the bench, the USMNT will greatly benefit from having an in-form Adams back and available for competitive action. First though, Adams will need to avoid any potential issues in final domestic matches against Brentford and Manchester City in England.
hmmmm, seems to me no one was coronated by anyone before. Adams was the best choice when healthy, easy. all coaches have favorites or the opposite (see jk and LD, lol). Berhalter called in a ton of first time caps over the years and benched others (like Gio)
anyway, all of this is whatever. the key will be how our games are officiated. I have a feeling we’re going to be loved by the refs for the first time in my lifetime, for various reasons. we’ll see
Being productive & being versatile are two different things. Just because a player can play multiple positions, doesn’t mean they are productive. Adams not starting over his only competitor, Cardoso, would be bs. Musah, Mckennie, & Tessman aren’t 6s or defensive midfielders. Besides not using the full range of vision (no helmets to limit neck movement), not consistently using they’re left feet; these 3 players weakest ability is defense. If Poch views any of these 3 as defensive midfielders, the Argentine w/ Italian tactics, who’s getting paid the most out of any international manager is short sighted. Musah as a winger is a joke and a serious reallocation of valuable talent. This point is enough to have me skeptical.
IO2T,
“Being productive & being versatile are two different things. ”
Usually, when you refer to a player as versatile it means that they can be useful and productive in a number of roles. For example, if Timmy Weah absolutely sucked at right back and center forward then his versatility would be a myth and somewhat useless. You’d only use him as a winger.
It turns out that he can be useful in all three roles. So he is versatile.
” Musah as a winger is a joke and a serious reallocation of valuable talent.”
Joke. This is a terminology question. Semantics.
Whatever the proper term is, both the Italians and Pochettino seriously use him a lot somewhere to do something in games that matter.
So he must be doing something right and doing it better than the “real winger”.
The question is, what is he doing when he is on the field? It should be obvious to anyone that when it matters Yunus’ managers want him on field.
As long as they don’t call him late for dinner, it doesn’t matter what they call him.
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Pochettino says a whole lot there if you just listen. For starters, he’s a 4-2-3-1 guy and he looks for double-pivot co-6’s, guys who are sort of 6/8 tweeners…and he named what he clearly regards as his current pool of potentials for his defensive midfielders. Tanner Tessmann was also the first name out of his mouth when he talked about “really good players that can play that position”…which, personally, I agree with. Tessmann’s got the engine, range, intensity, and bite of a guy like Michael Bradley, but he’s even bigger and more physical, he’s more technical and better on the ball, an even better long passer, and he’s got an absolutely lethal shot from distance and dead-ball capability that give him a whole ‘nother dimension. I personally see Tessmann as potentially the highest-upside guy in the pack and a future team captain, a guy like Xabi Alonso or Stephen Gerrard though obviously it’s a steep climb up for any young guy to ever reach that hallowed level. But the upside is there, IMHO.
Poch also has also been deploying McKennie as a double-pivot 6 and not a 10, despite the fact that Juventus has played McKennie higher up the pitch…and in fact against Jamaica, Pochettino played McKennie and Tessmann alongside each other. That strongly suggests he’s going to be looking at Reyna and Luna as 10’s…and Poch’s style seems to be: earn it. And Adams and Reyna have proven nothing to Poch thus far…whereas Tessmann and Luna have.
Mind, I’m sure those two will get minutes, but just to judge from the limited example set we’ve seen thus far, I’d lean into the idea that Pochettino is a clean-sheet-of-paper-type coach and will start the guys who have indeed proven something in prior camps. So it wouldn’t be a total shock to see the same attacking midfield three we’ve seen before – Timo at LW, Pulisic as the 10, and Musah at RW – but the fact he only brought three wingers and Musah is listed as one of them suggests we actually may see some combination of Pulisic, Timo, and Luna as the wings and 10 against Panama. (I’d personally do it Timo at LW and Pulisic at RW with the two flipping regularly, and go ahead and insert Luna at the 10, but Poch could also play Luna at LW like he plays at RSL and start with Pulisic as the 10.) Either way, Luna absolutely proved how serious he was last camp, and if Pochettino’s coaching ethos is indeed “prove it because nothing will be just given”, I strongly suspect Poch may feel it’s Luna turn to get onto the field and into the mix. And Panama’s absolutely a better opponent to get Luna acclimated than Mexico-in-a-final is.
I definitely think we’ll know a whole lot more about Pochettino after this window.
Poch played McKennie as almost a 10 in the last camp, and considering Juve has been playing Wes as a 10 lately, I’m pretty sure we’ll see Wes as the middle player in the front 3, with CP and Weah on the outside. There is no way that either Reyna or Luna starts ahead of Wes in that role
Q: I agree with Ronnie, especially in the 2nd leg when Jedi tucked in next to Tanner, Wes was operating in an attacking role. Juve also only moved Wes to the #10 role in February well after Poch’s last camp with him. I’m not sure on the Wes will start over Gio, I think how that shakes out is an unknown. Except I don’t see Diego playing a big role in these games. He’s off to a slow start with RSL perhaps due to the mask he’s wearing for his nose.
JR,
If you watch CP, Yunus, Weston and Timo all season it’s fascinating to see how all four are important core plyers for their teams, play a lot of games and yet are quite flexible in the roles they take on for their teams.
I felt it would make Pochettino’s tactical job a lot easier and I’m curious to see how Pochettino works with that in the NL.
That and how Adams and Gio work out are what I will be watching.
This is Gio’s chance to kill off Malik Tillman. If Gio shows well, who does Malik, assuming full recovery, replace?
If you think about it Luna’s competition for PT is Pulisic, so how that works out will be interesting.
You guys could be right and I haven’t watched RSL this year so I didn’t realize Luna was off to a slow start.
I just think Luna has some unique attributes no other player in our pool – even Gio – really offers…I see it, a fair number of other people also see it, and it very much appears Pochettino does as well. I personally would want to work that into the active part of our pool as quickly as possible and I suspect Poch will as well. I also think Tyler and Gio aren’t just going to be handed starting roles because they started under Gregg and are back healthy again. We tend to view players as static commodities with an EA Sports FIFA rating on them, and all you have to do to build the best team is just scoop up all the guys with really high ratings, right? And a whole lot of owners and pundits and sometimes even coaches seem to think that way.
I myself think like a developmental coach, because I was one…and IMHO even the great ones at the very highest level never stop player development either. Clearly Poch doesn’t. And a good coach who wants his players to grow doesn’t allow the guys on his roster to ever get fully comfortable – and I saw a lot of guys who got way too comfie and certain of their places and roles under Gregg. And stuff duly got static, stale, predictable, and uninspired.
Back when I was an Academy coach, I had a pool of around 45 players. I personally loved pool play…you could level your rosters week-to-week based on opponent, move guys up and down to either build their confidence or challenge (or humble) them, and move guys around to different positions either to just get a look at them or get them experience defending or attacking and operating in different spaces on the field. Ideally you’d get them two or three games a week, all at different spots and at a couple different levels, and while I had semi-regular groups those groups were fluid and changed frequently. I’d often put my stronger players in the back to encourage overlapping runs, taking space, and playing 1-2 combos to get themselves into scoring positions from deeper spots on the field…and I’d get the weaker ones closer to goal to involve them more.
Regardless, I never, ever allowed any of them to get comfortable. I never, ever allowed a “star” mentality to develop. You’re good at this position? Awesome. Now play this one, and work on a different part of your game. I didn’t put an emphasis on scoring goals, finishing was just another skill – a valuable one, to be sure, but also just one of a whole constellation of skills a player needed to really develop.
I would have loved Timo and Weston. I’m playing the 10 today, or the false 9? Right back, left back? The wing? I don’t care, I just wanna play…put me in, coach, I’ll get it done. And they do.
So I’m genuinely uncertain what Poch intends or who will feature or where. I do see a coach that’s constantly challenging his players, and is building a mentality and mindset within the group that’s very different than Gregg’s was…and I similarly think he’s going to constantly surprise us. I do think Luna’s almost certainly a part of his plans…and I’m genuinely curious to see how Pochettino manages all these moving parts. It isn’t going to be by just coronating the usual suspects by default, though…of that I am almost certain.
FWIW.
quozzel,
“I definitely think we’ll know a whole lot more about Pochettino after this window.”
Pochettino already has a long track record. What we will know more about is how these players are responding to whatever his plan is for molding the mentality of this team.
At some point, everyone will get healthy and in form. Hopefully that happens in time for the World Cup. And if it does happen we already have a pretty good idea of how good these guys can be but it won’t be the biggest thing.
That would be what their belief and their attitude as a team is during the World Cup.
Pochettino can’t make these guys significantly more talented but he can make them function better as a team. And get more out of that talent.
How that is coming along is what we will learn more about.