thenry712

Mike Grella here to skulldrag Van Dijk like some League 1 scrub for Yeovil Town.

TYFYS

I understand your criticisms. Players have giveaways. It's very rare to see a central midfielder complete 100% of his passes, even seemingly easy ones. Again, Bradley shouldn't have cheaply given away possession like that, but he's the only central midfielder in that formation. Giveaways will happen when there's no option to support him centrally. Aside from protecting Pulisic, a big reason why Bruce put in Dax McCarty in the game was to ensure that we keep possession. Diamond midfields are a novelty in today's game because the almost no manager wants to cede control over the center of the park.

Cameron is recovering from a light injury and had to travel from England for this game. He also hasn't played alongside Besler or Gonzalez during this qualification round. Despite being our second-choice pairing, Besler and Gonzalez have played alongside each other multiple times during qualifying. Bruce opted for continuity for this game.

Villafaña isn't terrible, but he's not great either. This isn't a Bornstein situation. Fabian Johnson prefers to play on the wing, but he hasn't impressed there in recent outings. I do think playing Johnson in defense would open up some space for Nagbe, who has been reduced to playing dropping deep for an attacking-minded player to compensate for Villafañas weaknesses. He completed 22 straight passes last night, which got overlooked, because he didn't contribute much during the build-up to our goals and chances.

South Korea, Japan and Australia are quality teams. Iran plays a very defensive, pragmatic system that works against their qualification opponents. Outside of that, it's a pretty dire confederation.

It'll be interesting to see how much support Bradley gets in the midfield. Nagbe will track back enough to give him an easy outlet. I just hope that our defenders don't just start hoofing up long balls to our forwards when Bradley is being man-marked.

Michael Bradley is the most important player in that formation. As good as Pulisic can be in the middle, Bradley is going to have to find creative ways to get him the ball, especially if Panama resorts to hacking both players.

Howard

Yedlin-Besler-Cameron-Villafaña

---Bradely---Acosta------

Arriola--Pulisic----Nagbe

-------Altidore---------

I'm concerned about our depth, but this lineup looks feasible. My worry is that Arena plays it conservatively and opts for someone like Bedoya or Nagbe in the middle. Nagbe is much more effective for us when he's deployed higher up the field. He provides cover for Villafaña even when he's used in an advanced position.

Acosta played well at the Azteca. If Arena trusted him in that game, he should be trusted at home against Panama.

Switzerland
Peru (Low probability of qualifying)
USA
South Korea

Probably my preferred group.

I wouldn't want to play a host country, even if Russia is pretty lousy right now. Peru probably isn't going to qualify, and I'd like our chances against them, versus against a team like Wales. South Korea isn't very good right now, and our strengths match up well against them. I'd also like to play Nigeria who we've beaten in the past, or Saudi Arabia who don't score goals.

Granted most teams would want to face us in our current state.

Just for research sake I looked up Jozy's goalscoring record compared to other marquee strikers:

Jozy: 39 goals in 108 caps, a goal every 2.76 games.

Thomas Mueller: 37 in 87, 2.35

Lionel Messi, 58 in 120, 2.06

Wayne Rooney: 53 in 119, 2.2

Cristiano: 78 in 145, 1.86


Before the but MUH CONCACAF argument is made about Jozy, it should be noted that UEFA players for top national normally get four games against teams like Gibraltar and Estonia every qualification round where they can score four goals against some olive pickers and third tier Finnish players.

Now let's look at Jozy's mark compared to some of our players:

Bobby Wood: 9 in 34, 3.77
Clint Dempsey: 57 in 138, 2.4
Landon Donovan: 57 in 157, 2.75
Christian Pulisic: 7 in 18, 2.5
Wondo: 11 in 35, 3.18

So he's only been outperformed by Clint Dempsey and an 18 year-old prodigy, and Landon Donovan but barely.

I can't fathom how Arena rates Zusi higher than Eric Lichaj, other than one error Lichaj made in the Gold Cup that led to a goal.

Also, again Fabian Johnson should probably just play in defense if Yedlin isn't healthy.