re: Roster and tactical problems leading into the WC

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Would be curious to see how Mckennie looks up top considering our desperate situation there

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What the frick?

M Robinson and Zimmerman are both solid and perfect for CONCACAF, but we cannot effectively play Gregg’s style in the WC with a CB duo who can’t pass, especially if we start Turner or Horvath and they don’t improve immensely in that facet.

For me, you start Richards and either Zimmerman or MR. He’s young and needs to re-emerge after the injury, but I think Richards is our most dynamic CB. I also think Zimmerman over MR as the former is in the Captain rotation and thus a leader, but either works.

He’s 23 and he’s played fullback, center back, center mid, and wide mid professionally. What a wild concept that he couldn’t do a better job than than Pepi or Sargent up top. He finds space in the box better than anyone in our pool. The Dutch called it total football once upon a time. Don’t act offended that arguably our best player in the pool wouldn’t be a better option at center forward than anyone else we’ve got. I’m not advocating or suggesting a full time switch, he doesn’t play there. I’m saying we’re entering a knockout tournament in November and all options need to be explored to solve our goal scoring woes. Gareth Bale started his professional career at fullback. Heaven forbid a guy have the capability of doing everything

How will a winter tournament help or hinder the MLS players vs non-mls players. And how will a compressed tournament in terms of time factor into player selection and possible rotation

Personally, I think it is time to experiment with a midfielder at false nine, i.e., McKennie. You don't need a true #9, just someone who can drop deep, distribute to the wings, and finish in the box. IMO that role has McKennie written all over it. He's proven to be pretty versatile at Juve, and he's got a knack for scoring in the box, especially on headers.

Before you call me crazy, I'll just point out that Pep does this all the time with City. He routinely plays midfielders (Gundogan, Silva) or wingers (Foden, Grealish) at false nine and gets good results.

Time to accept that we simply don't have a serviceable striker and move in a different direction. Playing McKennie at 9 would leave Reyna and Musah in the midfield, allowing us to take advantage of Reyna's creativity as a deep-lying playmaker.

The goal at this World Cup is to show just enough promise to get a real manager to come in and take GGG’s job!