re: You gotta admit, the U.S. using a 4-4-2 to frustrate/neutralize England is pretty funny

Gregg has set us up nicely to begin both games.
His substitution timing and choices have been awful. Now that Gio came on late, can someone justify Jordan Morris coming on against Wales? I don't understand his logic.

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Gregg has set us up nicely to begin both games. His substitution timing and choices have been awful. Now that Gio came on late, can someone justify Jordan Morris coming on against Wales? I don't understand his logic.

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Agreed, at least on the timing part.

But the fact that Gio got a whopping 11 minutes today tells me Gio is nursing an injury. There’s zero chance Gregg actually prefers Morris to Gio.

It definitely seems like we’re are playing 10.5 against 11 with how little we ask of our 9.

If Gio was the 9, I would think he has the confidence and the reputation to not worry about inserting himself in the game more frequently.

Yeah, I wish we were a tad more aggressive at times with the press, especially when Aaronson came on.

But there were moments were Weah and Pulisic pressed. It was definitely not a point of emphasis but I think it would have been helpful to see more of it.

The English defenders were uncomfortable on the ball on their own but it’s not as if Haji was dropping back much on defense from what I could tell.

The US definitely did well against the speed of the English attackers, and besides an early Saka run and a couple of nice plays from Kane, they were pretty quiet. Sterling did nothing and I didn’t hear much at all from Rashford after coming in as a sub. Grealish looked good on the ball a couple of times but nothing incredible, so I’m pleased with the general strategy.

I do think the English players left alone tended to pass the ball around a lot and waste their own time, but wouldn’t Haji in tandem with Weah have been able to cause more issues at points? And then especially with fresh-legged Sargent and Aaronson?

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Agree about Wright. He's massive but he played like he's 5'9. I get the thought process of trying to occupy both of the center backs and force them to stay engaged and not help the wings, but Wright wasn't making much happen.

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This is where having Jozy for such a long time comes into relief. Jozy would have absolutely tried to match Maguire and Stones physically. Maybe the only player we have in the pool who actually fits that role is Dike. It was also an obvious way of getting Pulisic closer to the box. If Wright had at any point gained inside position on Stones using his body when Pulisic was driving from the left, that would have been an opportunity to either combine with Pulisic or for Pulisic to drop a ball into that left hand channel. There was an opportunity like that just before Wright came off, but Pulisic over hit it.

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I don't think it's a bad idea to have Gio play there to occupy a center back by forcing him to pick up a little further up the field. May help us in creating some passing lanes that we struggle to find against a low block.

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I would even take a heavily rotating front three. Weah is adept enough at and can probably play across the front line, Gio can play either wide position, and even Aaronson is positionally versatile. I'm happy enough with the play to the final third, but having a competent striker is pretty much a necessity to chance creation, and we don't have a competent striker at the moment.

Exactly. Haji was tasked with sagging back and cutting off the easy pass for Maguire or Stones to Rice.

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Also interesting that Haji was pressing less than Weah or Pulisic against the English defenders-none of whom looked good in distribution besides Trippier.

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the one thing you want to do against maguirre is press him, and we did not

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Yes we do. And his name is Pepi

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Meh, he is no more competent than Sargent and Wright presently. But he does have the most upside for the next cycle though.

England are figs too now, not quite on the German level but I imagine theyll get there.