A lot will depend on health and form but whi is your starting 11. Right now best I could say

Pulisic - ??? - Weah

Musah - Adams. - McKinney

Robinson - Robinson - Zimmerman - Dest

Turnerr

It's nice to have good options at 9 positions.

wangus12 said:

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If Reyna is playing well, you've got to find a way to have him on the field

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Agreed. He was obviously very rusty in the last round of qualifiers but shows amazing flashes. If Weah could score consistently as a 9 you could start Pulisic, Weah, Reyna.

AustinScubaAg said:

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wangus12 said:

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If Reyna is playing well, you've got to find a way to have him on the field

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Agreed. He was obviously very rusty in the last round of qualifiers but shows amazing flashes. If Weah could score consistently as a 9 you could start Pulisic, Weah, Reyna.

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I want to see us try Pulisic at false 9. He's been one of our best scoring threats when he's in/near the box. He hasn't been that great at serving up crosses into the box.

Weah does well at crossing. I'm assuming with more time in the squad, Reyna will too, even from the left.

I'm probably too pessimistic, but I think the likelihood of us finding a suitable 9 in the next 7 months is low… meanwhile we have 3 attacking mids playing for champions league caliber clubs. Let's play Pulisic at false-9 (where Chelsea have used him, so it's not unheard of) and get all three of these guys on the field at the same time.

deadbq03 said:

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AustinScubaAg said:

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wangus12 said:

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If Reyna is playing well, you've got to find a way to have him on the field

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Agreed. He was obviously very rusty in the last round of qualifiers but shows amazing flashes. If Weah could score consistently as a 9 you could start Pulisic, Weah, Reyna.

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I want to see us try Pulisic at false 9. He's been one of our best scoring threats when he's in/near the box. He hasn't been that great at serving up crosses into the box.

Weah does well at crossing. I'm assuming with more time in the squad, Reyna will too, even from the left.

I'm probably too pessimistic, but I think the likelihood of us finding a suitable 9 in the next 7 months is low… meanwhile we have 3 attacking mids playing for champions league caliber clubs. Let's play Pulisic at false-9 (where Chelsea have used him, so it's not unheard of) and get all three of these guys on the field at the same time.

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I think he struggled in that spot at Chelsea, and if anything I think we need to do a better job of getting him on the ball in space.

That said, we haven't tried it yet for the national team and we do run a different setup then Chelsea. He does seem to not want to stay wide ever for us either, like you will see Weah or Arriola do.

So that is something I would not mind seeing us try out in a friendly or nations league game (if we even call in our top players for that).


I'm guessing with Reyna, ideally would could play him advanced centrally but we currently rely on all 3 of our center mids to do a lot defensively. From watching him play for Dortmund, he is not super involved in that regard, and definitely not to the energy/effort level we would need.

Lot of questions to answer before Qatar.

Good points.

I do think with Jedi and Dest being willing and able to get up the field, it's ok for them to all play as inside forwards more than wingers, so I'm not super concerned about that.

We don't seem to have a problem getting downfield and jacking up crosses… we do seem to have a pretty big problem having guys in good positions to receive crosses and/or convert those chances.

AustinScubaAg said:

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A lot will depend on health and form but whi is your starting 11. Right now best I could say

Pulisic - ??? - Weah

Musah - Adams. - McKinney

Robinson - Robinson - Zimmerman - Dest

Turnerr

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You are pretty close for me. I am thinking that Reyna in the 9 makes the most sense. He is comfortable there.

GK, to me, will be all about who is playing well and consistently between Turner, Steffen and Horvath. If they are sitting pine this fall then they don't need to be the starter.


Pulisic----Reyna----Weah


Mush-------------McKennie

----------Adams--------------

Robinson-Robinson-Zimmerman-Dest


----------?????-------------------

My super subs off bench:

-Aaronson
-De La Torre
-Acosta
-Any 9 that gets hot this fall
-Long
-Arriola

I would love to see what Reyna could do at a false 9. Maybe we'll give that a shot during one of our friendlies in the run-up to the WC.

jeffk said:

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I would love to see what Reyna could do at a false 9. Maybe we'll give that a shot during one of our friendlies in the run-up to the WC.

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My only concern with Pulisic, Reyna, Weah top 3 is size. Reyna is the tallest at 6'1" but he will get pushed around given build.

Yeah, it's definitely a trade-off. But with our bigger 9s often disappearing for long stretches of games, I'd still like to see if it could be a viable option. It's nice to be able to change attacking angles with a single sub.

Man, I would have thought Weah was much taller than that.

ChipFTAC01 said:

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Man, I would have thought Weah was much taller than that.

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Yep he is only 6'0". Shocked me too.

I agree with Clint with the exception of Turner over Steffan

wangus12 said:

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I agree with Clint

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Really steffen

**** didn't notice that. Turner instead of Steffan

Turner is supposedly still dealing with frostbite in his toes from the game in Minnesota. Word is he's lucky he didn't lose any toes.

The only problem with Dempsey's lineup is that you don't have a player that'll stay in the box. Pepi will do that. Ferreira does very well playing in the same system that the USMNT plays now that Berhalter's old asst coach is the head coach at FCD. If he scores 20 goals as a false 9 in MLS, he could end up being the starter in the WC. IMO, that deops Weah to the bench as the supersub with Puilsic and Gio on the wings.

Generally agree with all this and do think we need Reyna on the field, Dempsey's lineup is solid with the exception of Turner. I like Weah but I can see Ferreira or Pepi there if either of them gets on a hot streak. Would be interesting to see what flexibility Reyna as a 10 might bring to the lineup as well.

Aaronson has had a really strong run of form recently till his injury and is one I expect to see significant time, though he might be our first off the bench rather than first XI.

jessexy said:

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Turner is supposedly still dealing with frostbite in his toes from the game in Minnesota. Word is he's lucky he didn't lose any toes.

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Is this real?!?

Everyone is talking about Turner over Steffen, but I'd take Horvath over Steffen too…

Out in Left Field said:

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jessexy said:

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Turner is supposedly still dealing with frostbite in his toes from the game in Minnesota. Word is he's lucky he didn't lose any toes.

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Is this real?!?

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As real as the death reports from the Mexican soccer riot. RIP Turner toes.

Based on what we've seen so far, and on everyone being healthy, this would be the squad, right?

Overall pretty close, though off the bat I might swap Johnson for Horvath (but I think Gregg likes Johnson).

I like De La Torre but don't know that he's earned a spot yet, same for Scally, Morris, and probably Richards. The fullback spot behind Dest also has a lot of options like Cannon, Reynolds, and Moore.

Other guys I think get a look: Miazga, Brooks, Sands, Bello, Busio, Lleget, Dike, De la Fuente, Hoppe, Arriola, maybe Zardes (really out of form right now)

There's some speculation that they'll expand squad allowances to 25 players as well, so that'd be a little helpful.

3 or 5 subs for the WC?

FYI for the frostbite truthers out there.

Update for you all: pic.twitter.com/1f2sWCLb12

— Matt Turner (@headdturnerr) April 2, 2022