What is your ideal US starting XI at this point?

Steffen

Cannon - Long - Brooks - Dest

Adams

Morris- McKennie - Reyna - Pulisic

Jozy



Zimmerman and Miazga are my 1b/1c options at RCB. Love all three of those guys next to Brooks, but Miazga is the lowest option of the three.

Love the idea of McKennie running roughshod through the MF box-to-box, with Reyna free-roaming in an advanced mid/number 10 slot.

Pulisic on left wing and Morris on the right.

Jozy is still a better hold up player and passer than Sargent right now, so combining that with Reyna and the two wingers running in behind is our best current option if you ask me. Add in overlaps from Dest and Cannon and we have tons of options.

Call it what you will, a 4-1-4-1 or a 4-1-3-2, but I think this would give most teams fits and with actual chemistry being a focus could launch the USMNT into the fricking stratosphere.

Edit: Did this without Musah since he hasn’t been cap tied. If Musah comes into the equation, I think one of either Gio/Morris is the odd man out (likely Morris).

That would give us probably a 4-1-2-3 or a 4-5-1 with Pulisic and Gio/Morris on the wings complementing Jozy with their runs.

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Put Musah in the middle, move Pulisic to the left wing and I’m good with everything else. I realize that puts Gio on the bench, but I think you gain more having Pulisic playing his club position, and musah in the middle.

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I’m inclined to agree- Gio can always be a spark off the bench. But I do like what he adds to our attack, and Musah isn’t fully committed yet, so I am hesitant to pencil him in.

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Cannon - Long - Brooks - Dest

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I like this but kind of want to see Zimmerman where Long is. I think Miazga is better than Long but god damn does he do some stupid shite sometimes. That said he brings a nastiness and CONCACAFiness that I love. We haven’t had that since Jones and Dempsey were in the team.

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Jozy is still a better hold up player and passer than Sargent right now, so combining that with Reyna and the two wingers running in behind is our best current option if you ask me.

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I agree with this in theory but Jozy is a bigger cripple than Pulisic these days. His hold up and combo play is clutch with our fast runners like Pulisic and Morris, plus late runs from McKennie and possibly Musah. Sargent is pretty decent at this though, if anyone watches (suffers through) his Werder Bremen games.

A great player rating breakdown from the Panama Game, from Half Spaces:
LINK
Has some good gifs illustrating some the individual performances. I also like his rating system. And he’s a pretty entertaining writer.

It's still crazy to me that the SF era is over. Well, maybe it's just moved positions now.

Hard for me to make a first choice 11 without Musah in at after watching him.


Our weakest position is a true number 9, so I wouldn't be upset if Greg tinkered with a false 9 formation and slotted Gio or CP in that spot.

Pulisic-------------------------Morris
---------------Reyna---------

Musah-------Adams----------Mckennie

Dest------Brooks------Miazga-----Yedlin

No way Musah doesn’t start.

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No way Reyna doesn’t start.

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He won't be starting if he plays like he did in these last two games.

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I think he’s still our second best fullback

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I think Cannon is easily better than Yedlin. Much better defensively, good crosser, and can still take on players one-on-one even though he's not going to try it every time.

Not sure why that is laugh worthy... it’s basically a flip between he and Sargent right now.

Hopefully Dike shows up and establishes himself in some form or fashion. He could be the missing link this team needs up top.