How Could Gregg Berhalter Win You Back?

Maybe he never won you over in the first place, but I recall most people being pretty positive about Berhalter after his first January camp. The team looked somewhat competent against Panama and Costa Rica. They had a style of play they were going to work on and a plan looked to be in place.

Things have gone off the rails a bit since then. Rosters have been consistently underwhelming. Results have gone from bad to worse. The team has not noticeably improved in any way that I can see. We are easy to play against when the opponent has the ball and almost totally impotent while in possession. There is no transition offense to speak of. Things are bad.

My question, and I threw this out on Twitter recently, is what could Berhalter do to turn things around and halt the negative momentum that has built up?

There were many responses of: Resign. 😂😂😂 Let’s assume for the sake of argument that he’s not going to do that. So other than resign, what could Gregg change?

Press, for the love of Mike

Jurgen Klopp, who may be almost as good a coach as Gregg Berhalter, said, “No playmaker in the world can be as good as a good counterpressing.” The US has a young, energetic team and imo should be pressing much more often and with greater intensity. Several of the team’s players already play with teams that run some sort of pressing system (McKennie, Pulisic, Adams, Sargent, Long, Dest) so it wouldn’t be too difficult for them to institute some version of it with the national team.

The US has been pleasant to play against for a while now. Let’s try to make the opponent uncomfortable. Sure, Mexico might be able to play through it and score some goals. What’s the worst that could happen…we lose 3-0? Wait…that already happened. It’s not exactly like we’re pitching shutouts with the current set up.

A decent press/counterpress would also help solve some of the offensive issues the US has been experiencing. If the team could create turnovers in advantageous positions it wouldn’t have to struggle so much to break teams down with ponderous possession.

The team doesn’t have the talent to break teams down with the ball. We’re probably a year away (optimistically) from having the players to be able to pull that system off. Until Adams, Ledezma, Mendez, Weah, Llanez, etc. get healthy/come through it’d be nice if we could occasionally score a goal against even mediocre competition.

Dutch Example

US Soccer has more or less patterned it’s style of play after the Dutch model. Earnie Stewart is Dutch American and Berhalter has been heavily influenced by his time playing in Holland. Guess how the Dutch play these days? They combine their attractive possession with an effective press. Here’s a clip of Holland v. England (I know England is no Canada, but still). When was the last time the US created a goal like that?

Changing the defensive system from the more passive mid-block 4-4-2 (or 4-2-2-2 🙄) wouldn’t even require a change in call ups. I would like to see a few different guys, but even if the current underwhelming group tried this, I’d feel a lot better about the direction of the team.

I know Gregg’s objection to pressing was that it requires too much energy to play like this in a tournament setting. Two things about that. 1) I don’t care. I’d like to make it to the World Cup to find out. 2) Chile seemed to do okay. And lots of other teams btw. Lame excuse.

Keep “The Group,” but shake up the reserves

Bobby Warshaw made an interesting point on TSS the other day. To summarize, it was that the US isn’t going to win the World Cup on talent, so what can we do to create an advantage? He thinks Berhalter is trying to treat the NT like a club team and spend as much time as possible with a core group of players in order to build cohesion and really get a system of play ingrained.

Okay. Fine. That makes a certain amount of sense to me. Problem is I don’t think most people would say any progress has been made in playing the system well. I think you could keep a core group and start rotating out the back end of the roster without too much disruption to “The Group.” Let’s say this is your core group:

Christian Pulisic	Weston McKennie
Zack Steffen	Aaron Long
Tim Ream	Paul Arriola
Michael Bradley	John Brooks
Jordan Morris	Sergino Dest
Josh Sargent	Jackson Yueill
Alfredo Morales	DeAndre Yedlin
Reggie Cannon	Whoever

That’s 16 players. Even if you stick to a 23 man roster that still gives you 7 spots to play around with. The starters are more than likely coming from that group and if these guys don’t know the system by now…that’s on Gregg. These guys can teach newcomers the style of play and Gregg can still spend most of his time with a core of players. And who knows? If you’re calling up guys like Duane Holmes, Ventura Alvarado, Uly Llanez, and Richie Ledezma maybe one of them turns out to be better than you thought. The worst that can happen is they’re not good enough and they go back to their club for more seasoning.

Drastically Change the Formation

The USMNT has set up in a 4-3-3 that turns into a 3-2-2-3 in possession and a 4-4-2 on defense since Berhalter took over. What if he set up in a 3-4-3/5-4-1 with Yedlin and Dest as wingbacks? I think this is the least likely of the suggestions I’ve made, but it would certainly pique my interest. In my mind, it would look something like this:

There would be more numbers in midfield where we typically get overrun and it gives Bradley some defensive cover while keeping his passing in there. This is another option that wouldn’t even require a change in call ups.

Crush Em’

Channel the evil, rich kid team from the Mighty Ducks and just kill teams. I hate to break it to ya, Gregg, but if the US beats Canada 2-1 on Friday…people are still going to be ticked. The USMNT is going to have to start steam rolling teams if you’re going to get them off your back.

If Berhalter trots the same team out there and plays the same way and keeps calling up the same guys…he’s gotta win big. Based on everything I’ve seen this is a fool’s hope, but it could be very well what we see attempted on Friday.

*SIGH*

This help anyone feel better?

If you enjoyed this and would like to be informed of future articles type your email address in the box and you’ll be notified of each new post. Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter @blharreld 🤓