Is Berhalter BAD or are the USMNT players OVERHYPED? Debate W/ Joe Lowery 

Berhalter is an average manager who’s saved by the talent. It’s obvious when watching the USMNT keeping the ball but barely moving in the final third

Joe Lowery just says a lot without really saying anything at all.

Here's the thing. Two things can be true at once: 1. Even in a hypothetical situation where we had the best possible coach at the international level, we don't currently have enough collective talent and depth to win the World Cup or to realistically expect that in 2026. At best, with many things falling in our favor, we'd make the semifinals. 2. The current pool of USMNT players is deeper and more talented than any in the federation's history, and given the talent at his disposal, GGG has obviously underperformed. Also, the delta in talent between ManCity and a team like Wolves is nowhere comparable to the delta between the USMNT and teams like the Jamaica squad we just essentially tied in the 95th minute, nor between the USMNT and Trinidad & Tobago, or El Salvador, or Panama, etc. It's a ludicrous comparison. The easiest thing to point to is that we have apples to apples circumstances we can compare. The most direct is 2023 Nations League Semis/Finals versus 2024 Nations Leagues Semis/Finals. In 2023 we faced Mexico and then Canada with 3-0 and 2-0 wins, respectively. In 2024 we faced Jamaica (with a very inferior squad missing at least 5 key players from top leagues like the Prem) and Mexico, with a last ditch win in OT and a 2-0 win, respectively. Let's even argue that the Canada team we beat 2-0 was equal to the Jamaica team we were 30 seconds away from losing to. (They aren't the same, and that Canada squad had more talent than the Jamaica squad we played) Even if we grade them equally, one result is vastly inferior to the other. Mexico is the same today as they were in 2023, which is generally at a lull in their trajectory, but nonetheless essentially equivalent teams between now and a year ago. In 2023 we beat that same Mexico team by an additional goal, and completely demoralized them to the point of that game devolving into a shit-show of fights and red cards. The difference in those 2023 results and 2024 results isn't one of player pool availability. The only real difference was the coach and downstream decisions such as starting lineups. An interim coach in 2023 started Reyna in both games and let the team play a style more attuned to their talents. In 2024, Berhalter made some obvious lineup errors against Jamaica and let out a team with very little creative answers to a defensive posture that every reasonable observer would have expected we'd face. The guy just doesn't know how to lead this team properly, from the sporting sense. Frankly, despite all the accolades he gets for culture building and dual-national commitments, I'd also argue that he's deficient in leading them off the field as well. Other than the Steve Sampson era, have we really had so many dramatic moments like the Berhalter/Reyna family drama, or certain talented players just black-listed from the team? Berhalter of course doesn't own full culpability in the Reyna fiasco, but he has his share of it (most notably the wild decision to undervalue what Reyna could contribute going into the WC, combined with the naive airing of team dynamics during a speaking engagement). Those sorts of player management and cultural failures are holding us back just as much as his tactical failures. Another example: you think Dest does what he did versus T&T if we have a respected coach at the helm? No chance. It's obvious that Dest and Xavi aren't fans of one another, but if Dest were to return to Barcelona over the summer, he wouldn't dream of punting a ball into the stands at Camp Nou, regardless of whatever grievances he felt from the ref. You think he's not being clipped in games versus bottom of the table Eredivisie teams? Sure he is, but he respects Peter Bosz and lives an entirely different cultural experience (specifically the sporting culture) to even dream of doing such a thing during a PSV game.

30:58 Argentine players also loved playing for Diego Maradona and liked his coaching, and I think we can all agree on that Diego Maradona, as a coach, was a disaster for Argentina.

It’s fairly simple, this is the best talent pool the usmnt has ever had but it’s not the best performances we’ve had

Berhalter is terrible, but not all the blame falls on him, our federation is equally subpar.

Can we chill with the ONE example of the England game??? Southgate is basically the British Berhalter They neutralized one othet with their ineptitude and incompetence The England match wasn't the chess match Berhalter apologists like to pretend it was Also also proof of the exception never disproves the rule

'built the culture' these guys played in youth teams for years and have been childhood friends, play at the same clubs in europe, etc etc etc. he committed the cardinal sin of culture by not keeping in house matters in house, setting an awful precedent of trust between player and manager

Yes our coaching is holding us back the usmnt roster is sooooo much better than just crossing the damn ball as tactics and our set pieces are 💩

Appreciate you having Joe on for the conversation. Appreciated his nuance and perspective.

The question isn't really if Berhalter is to blame. It's that he's not succeeding, IMO, in getting the team where we want it to go.

You give GGG Man City and he'll probably get them relegated in a season or two...🤷

Gregg is the safe option. Everyone in US soccer gets to keep their job this cycle. We won’t over achieve much we won’t under achieve much. We strive to be the best in the US. Average isn’t good enough. Why should I watch if we only beat the teams we should?

gregg bad. debate over.

also reyna said himself he was out of the forest matches for two weeks due to illness, not injury, and played over 150 minutes in a handful of days. but that doesn't fit the narrative i guess

Berhalter is a known known at this point His ceiling has been established

Both things can be true. Berhalter is a bad coach and our player pool is greatly over hyped by the usmnt fanbase.

Great video! How could anyone know a coach would be a good fit for a team? There have been many cases where good fits just don’t work out. I feel this guy would only fire someone if the house is on fire and you have no other recourse or somehow someone convinces him a coach is a perfect match, but after a few moments of objective thinking, would know there is no such thing. He feels Gregg will likely not elevate the ceiling of the USMNT given the 5 years of data. I feel an average coach could continue to do what he has done given what Gregg has done has been average. There are some coaches who have done better with worse, and they will likely not do worse than Gregg, but may do better.

"Golden Selection", what a joke! After an entire cycle of utter mediocracy. Why would you double down on the same manager? The dude doesn't think there"might" be a better coaching option??? He says the players all like Gregg. What the heck do you think they're gonna say if they EVER want to play?

Tac, I’ve been following your channel for 3/4 years now. Your content continues to get better and better! I love the videos you make and the interviews you’ve done. I don’t always agree but I appreciate the videos always. Keep it up brotha

Joe’s best point was perhaps that this team loves to come in as an underdog scrap. I believe they’d do that against a clearly outmatched team like England, Brazil, or Netherlands. Germany and Netherlands were two counter examples where they let the USMNt have the ball for a half and more or less observe the game and make halftime adjustments (which Gregg didn’t do). But on the dual nat point: even if we credit Gregg with that, going forward, who is Gregg going to recruit that can make a difference on our squad? At this point, a starter level talent who has a passport for a proper football country would likely try to hold out for their other country. Maybe the scraps from Brazil, France, or England could do something for our squad.. but those are countries with relatively few dual nats.

Good conversation/debate, need more of these!

The system put by Gregg handcuffs the player's abilities to perform at a higher level as a team. Case in point... BJ and Hudson had the US team play in a much free flowing way that yielded good results with good offense (no stagnation), good defense. As soon as Gregg came back with his system, things clearly regressed. Coaching IS a big part of how the team runs/functions and there are coaches that position the players to punch above their weight. Joe's argument is made null by the simple fact that very good coaches exist at all. Seems that Joe almost thinks that any team could go without a coach and just play and that with their abilities they could go far on their own. That's ridiculous. Good coaches manage personalities, and allow their players to maximize their abilities as opposed to setting a system and jamming it down their throats.

Honest question. What is the "culture" worth if the team underperforms versus weaker teams and doesn't have any real examples (and by extension optimism) of being able to punch above their weight? I don't actually agree that Berhalter has created a great culture, but even if he had, what's that worth without the results in the sporting aspect? Results should be the real goal. There are countless examples of bad "cultures" where teammates were at odds with each other or with the coach. Or where players got in trouble off the field, or had poorly regulated emotions on it, but nonetheless the teams won and achieved great success. Culture, in the sense of "everyone here likes everyone else on the human level, and we all get along, and don't get into any trouble", is very overrated in sports.

It's really not a hard concept. Our players consistently play at a considerably lower level when they come to the national team than they do at their clubs. Obviously outside of the few national teams that recruit from a handful of clubs, this is to be expected to some extent. However, we see this to a greater degree than most national teams. If you truly want to evaluate what expectations should be, just compare the outcomes of our national team when we had a considerably worse selection of players compared to todays team. We are currently not going above and beyond those outcomes when our talent pool is SIGNIFICANTLY better. There's one key variable in this equation that needs to be evaluated in order to tell the whole story.

I'd like to see different lineups. 3-4-3/5-2-3, 4-4-2 diamond, 3-5-2... I'd also like to see Dest try different positions under Berhalter (winger, attacking midfielder, second striker).

Joe is right that players are the most important factor in winning or losing. A team that has better players is typically -- but not always -- going to beat teams with weaker players. But at the same time, league play is different than national team play, so the analogy doesn't quite hold, even though national teams are not together often to create a tactically cohesive whole consistently. But if Man City were a national team, they would clearly go deep in any tournament, if not win it, even though tournament soccer is very hazardous and random. My problem with Berhalter is not that he doesn't create a good camp morale and loyalty form his players -- he clearly does, despite his dishrag personality in public -- it's that tactically his approach is plodding. Want to break down a low block? Don't bang your head on the door -- counter attack. With our speed and skill we shouldn't be playing our weaker brand of tiki taka football. Let the other weaker sides have the ball, press, and counter where we use our amazing speed and pretty good finishing ability to ram it down their throats. In other words we need to play transition soccer against virtually all opponents, even the weakest of the lot. The one thing we do not do well is press hard -- here I fault Berhalter. Let the weaker sides have the ball in the middle third but put them under pressure so BAM!! we get the ball and ram it down their throats.

This guy says that Gio is clearly our best player and yet defends Berhalter, who barely played Gio at the WC. I'm perplexed.

Fun discussion, thanks

I hear so often how 'talented' our players are, but few of them are real leaders on their teams. Mostly they are supporting or complementaty players. On past teams we had players like Brian McBride, Carlos Bocanegra, Tony Sanneh, and others who were not super talented, but were real ballers and leaders for their clubs. Claudio Reyna was a leader and even captain for his club teams. Clint Dempsey was a total baller and led by example, landon donovan was slightly less technically talented than Gio Reyna or even Pulisic, but look at his scoring and assists production - he is the USMNT GOAT. The current group has very few true leaders for their clubs. "Talent" is not the only measure of quality. Leadership and determination are also very important to overall quality.

Tell me you don’t watch serie A football and pulisic every week without telling me. Hey everyone’s got their opinions and that’s what we’re here for. But there have only been two teams to try and play end to end football wgaisnt them. Intet, and fiorentia. And bologna. And how many GA does puli have 22, all while dribbling in tight spaces on his “weaker” Foot. And two games he’s played the ten. 2 goals and an assist. I think what you’re missing is that all We do is cross but the 9 apart from haji that he chooses now has been balogun. And he is terrible in the air and needs a 10 like gio pulisic to thread him the ball. But ggg plays an outside to in style. It’s literally always been that way until he saw BJ win the nations league with gio at the 10.

--> Tac, you're really stepping up your game lately. I'm loving these debate-style interviews. Plus, you're getting great guests. --> US Soccer had a great opportunity to go with someone else and blew it. Berhalter has the team performing as expected, but no better. There was enough time to know what he can do. There had to be someone else worth taking a gamble with.

Lack of offensive ideas in the final third is a root problem with Gregg. So many games vs minnows with 0 shots on goal in a half. There was a Honduras or El Salvador game with 0 shots on goal the whole game.

how about hiring coach who played high pressing football instead ? with current usmnt roster, high press football probably gonna work well

To blame under-performances explicitly on the players is to imply AC Milan, Juve, PSV, Fulham, etc. wouldn't destroy any USL or Jamaican Club in competition. That's just silly. The vast majority of blame is clearly on the coach who failed in the swedish second division & whose dismissal has vastly improved every club he has coached for.

I agree that breaking down a low block is incredibly difficult but a) not every low block is the same and better defensive players are able to produce a better low block more consistently. And b) the issue is that we struggle against a lowblock almost every time we go away in concacaf against teams that don’t have the same level of talent as you. To me that’s not good enough.

Good video, more debate is good.

We aren’t over hyped. I think, like all US teams, can perform better than the perceived skill in the team with the right coach and approach. For example, the USMNT under Bob Bradley at the Confed cup against the greatest national team roster of all time in Spain.

Who was your favorite substitute teacher? The one that let you get away with everything and was your friend. The players love Gregg not because he’s a good coach but because he’s easy on them and doesn’t push them to get more out of them. He’s their buddy not their coach, and that plays a big role on why we can’t over perform

Thing is I feel like blaming their own national manager is common to ALL countries lol. At the end of each competition I’m pretty sure almost all managers not in the semifinals are fired. I’m French and even Deschamps is highly criticized here despite an impressive record and almost the same things are said : the team has never played well enough, he is too conservative, too stubborn and selects players out of form. Don’t get me wrong USMNT should have tried another manager but it is one of the most ungrateful job : you can literally never really work tactics, team chemistry, you can’t control the talent pool and the usual injuries at the end of the season. Not to mention the pressure from the entire country criticizing constantly ALL your decisions. There is something mystic about national games you can’t control either and at the end, players are the only ones on the field. I believe the manager’s job is mainly political and psychological.

So Joe is saying stay with average. Play it safe. Of course no coach can guarantee you results, otherwise they would be zillionaires. But nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I think Joe is just so used to mediocrity that he’s scared of changing directions with this team. Insanity is doing something repetitively and expecting a different outcome & that’s what he’s experiencing, meanwhile true fans understand that this team should raise their expectations and standards and should be able to compete with the best.

Joe just dunked all over this guys agenda, tac should have him on more

BJ vs Greg, coaching doesn't pale in comparison to players. Joe's clearly biased. Keeps using the 'did not over-achieve'. It should be "met expectations, no more". And characterizing Berhalter as 'not seeming like the guy to take USMNT beyond ceiling'..... It's proven already over 5 years; not SEEM. @31:00 Liking playing for someone doesn't mean you play your best. @53:00 cause you know exactly what you're going to get. the same place. The risk is worth the reward; the alternative is not good enough.

See Gerard’s Villa vs Emery’s Villa, Flick’s Bayern vs Tuchel’s Bayern, Spalletti’s Napoli vs whoever is coaching them now lol. Coach might be the most important position on the field

I've always said, until our players are consistently influential players at their clubs we will never be world beaters or challenge for global trophies. We aren't there yet, and that's fine, but we have to stop acting like we're right there if only we had a different manager

Besides good selection, there two important things a national team coach needs to bring to a team: 1. an awareness of which players on the roster are best suited for the situation at hand; 2. the willingness to allow players to play freely within the context of their own talents. In terms of a low block, the question is who has the style of play that is more likely to break it down when allowed to play his game. Thinking in those terms, Gio must be in the game. However, neither McKinney nor Musa should be because it is not their strength. So, who else would play with Gio to accomplished it? The answer is Luca De la Torre. A national team coach can neither get locked into a system, nor a starting lineup, and must allow the players the freedom to do what they do best. It does not have to be a big-name coach. Remember the stints of Hudson and Callahan. The players played as if a straitjacket had been removed. This is why Berhalter should go sooner rather than later.

I do not even need to play the video to know that this is gonna be fierce

tbf to joe, the talent pool with coaches/managers globally is downright trash for everyone right now tbh

As average as Berhalter is he has a lot going in his favor. He’s going to have the benefit of playing a lot of home games in the next few years. Many of his shortcomings have been exposed while on the road

In addition to selecting the best players, or the 23 best players together. The coach has an importance in the human management of the collective. In a tournament, if there is an injury, the replacement must be able to give 100% as soon as he enters the field. Repeat each time “this is the most important match of your life, give it your all” you can do it 1 or 2 times. He must therefore find the words in each match and sometimes to each player individually.

To Joe's point about us not having players able to pick the lock on a low block other than Reyna, Halogen and Pulisic do have that ability as well and Dest to an extent. It is the coaching that hampers them from being able to do so

Berhalter has overachieved with the available talent. This can be shown at an objective level by looking at how we rank as a nation in participation in top leagues, minutes earned in top leagues, goals scored in top leagues and so forth. If you aren't going to cite some actual objective numbers, then well, you are just pulling opinions out of your nether regions. Until this year, there was no reason to think that on paper we were even a top 20 team.

Herve Renard won AFCON in 2012 with Zambia.

Hey Tac, off topic, but my favorite NFL team, the Packers will be playing in Brasil this year! I've heard that there are a TON of Packers fans in Brasil because of the colors. Do you expect the stadium atmosphere to be similar to a Selecao match? Prob not as crazy, but I would expect a little bit of home field advantage and a sprinkling in of Brasileirao Serie A culture which will be amazing.

Why is the case for getting a new manager being that they are guaranteed to "transform" this team? Any improvement is a good thing. It's such a loser mentality to stick with Berhalter because you aren't sure that there is "an obvious and gettable improvement."

Players win games not coaches. Still think Berhalter is over his head though.

Bolth? The coach is BAD... but the players are a little overhyped compared to where they accutually are

Here is what I think of the valid example of a coach making a difference. you had garecca, who'was coaching the peruvian national team and those players weren't in any of the top leagues yet he consistently made them competitive and you even got them to quarters, semi and I think even the finals of conmebol. Can you imagine what a guy like that would do with the squad that the US has? Instead the team is saddled with an unquestionably below average manager

Both

Joe going on and on about data and Greg was super misleading. Greg has the worst away record of any modern day USMNT coach. Also, soccer isn’t just about data, national teams can’t ride or die on data analytics because it’s not a club team and you have all year to draw data from. At the end of the day, it’s prioritizing data analytics when it should be a supplement to choosing coaches and making decisions. Because let’s be real, no one is fighting and dying to play for ggg. They just like him as a person. And haven’t really know anything different because he’s been around so long. But results and the eye test shows ggg assistants knew how to play the game better and make it more fun to watch. Ggg is so boring to watch that it is mind boggling

Wait....... i better coach than Gregg is not attainable? You don't think a Renard or Gareca could've been hired or even Matarazzo? Or hell even BJ Callahan?

Is wolves starters better than usmnt starters?

Both can be true....and it is.

Why are people arguing that the U.S. doesn't need more good players?

Morocco definitely did more with less in Qatar Can you imagine an actual proper manager helming USMNT

I agree with Tac. I acknowledge that Berhalter has been successful as coach of the USMNT, but we need to make a change and try something new. I think these players are too comfortable under Berhalter, and we all know you don’t improve at anything in life if you’re comfortable. It’s time to make a change and hopefully take the next step.

Explain why we looked so good in the previous Nations League games against Canada and Mexico under BJ? We never have looked that good under GGG.

Take a shot every time Tac calls Twitter X

"master debater"... Uhhuh... I see what you did there... 😆... Also it's absolutely shocking to me, that US soccer couldn't find a better more qualified manager than Berhalter...

The only thing about his argument is how he’s saying we aren’t winning cuz the team is just worse than our opponents is that in the past we’ve had worse teams that could pull out a win against better opponents idk how he doesn’t see that

Joe Lowery speaks well and has a lot of data. Leaving crap because players like him just because we don't know if there better crap is utterly ridiculous. It's like dating that doesn't really make you happy, just because you are scared to see if anyone else will date you.

Based on this dude's thinking, we don't even need a coach. He is wrong and naive on so many levels

The US will not only play Mexico and Jamaica in Copa America or the World Cup. We will see if they can beat Sudamerican, Asian, European or African world talent teams.

The truth is that our best players (while amazing for us) are only "better-than-average" to "good" in the hierarchy of Europe. Pulisic might be classified as "very good" but the bottom line is that we have no truly game-changing players. The kind that start for the Real Madrids and Manchester Cities of the world. We are miles ahead of where we used to be and are moving to "solid" status as a soccer nation. If we continue our trajectory then we will one day have the players to compete for a WC. But that is still a couple of decades away.

The answer is Yes to both. I think the 2014 USMNT with Klinsmann would beat the current roster with Gregg. Neither are very good managers, and the roster today isn't that much better.

22:52 yeah man gonna call bull shit because the same talk was around Adam’s and he started Adam’s.

Tab Ramos… SHOULD BE OUR COACH!

Under Gregg Berhalter USA Soccer Team Will Never Gonna Be Win The World Cup In The Home Land Soil Believe Me, Gregg Only Favors His Boy Friend Pulisic Captain Forward Promoting Advertisement What About Other Players Which is Better Than Pulisic.

Disappointed that you didn't mention possibly the strongest argument against Berhalter, and that is how much better the team looked under BJ and Anthony. With those two, we have evidence that the US can actually perform better than they do under Berhalter.

Joe keeps saying Gregg is ok and I don't see anyone else out there. But if your girlfriend keeps disappointing you and there is little chance for change, do you keep putting up with it and settle? Or do you get back out in the dating pool and look for the one, at least see what it is possible. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of crazy.

This guy wants a better coach. Go listen to mitrovic talk to the u23’s how inspiring and motivated and passionate his praise and encouragement of the players is. Then listen to how boring bland cringe and cliche Gregg is with the players and how the players give this half baked answers to his questions because they see through the facade too.

berhalter out, adam johnson in

goat video

BJ should been "Coach" until The America Cup 2024 results.

Berhalter is inexperienced. That doesn’t make him a bad coach, what’s more, he can only work with what he’s got, as the USMNT consists of average players. There’s an old English saying that sums it up. Quote, You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear! You guys have ridiculous expectations regarding the US team…

Joe is right! Berhalter is not nearly the problem that most of the U.S. fans & media believe. There are other factors too besides just quality. I would however say that what is extremely important for a nation's coach, versus a professional league coach, is that he can highly motivate a team for the matches. John Herdman was a great example of this with the Canadian team in 2022. The U.S. team is clearly overhyped. I believe that one of the main reasons for this is because the FIFA rankings gives the average fan a false sense of the team's quality. Sorry but the U.S. being ranked #11 in the world is a total joke (and Mexico being ranked #14 is an even bigger joke). I'm also not a fan at all of dual nationals, who have never even lived or played for a reasonable amount of years in a country, being able to play for that country, just because they were born there. Look at Balogun, who was treated like the savior when he agreed to play for the U.S. (I wonder how much money was exchanged under the table?). Let's be honest, the U.S. did not have a legitimate #9 until then and maybe still doesn't. What does that say about the nation's development system? It simply hides the true gaps & blemishes. The other issue that the U.S. media & podcasters rarely discuss and just take it for granted, is the huge advantage that the U.S. team has over all of its CONCACAF competition, in that they almost always have the homefield advantage (Gold cup, Nations League playoffs etc.... This unfortunately (for the U.S. long-term) will also be the case in the Copa America & in the next World cup. The team rarely is challenged and put under adversity, as they should be. Of course, always playing at home, also results in the higher false FIFA rating mentioned above. I believe that the reason that the U.S. struggled so badly in the 2022 qualifiers (they actually only tied 4th place Costa Rica in points) is because they were forced to play on the road so much, which they are not used to doing. Let's be honest, the U.S. lucked out on getting such an easy first group in the 2022 World cup, so that being 'on the road' effect was not so obvious until the 2nd round. So if we look at the future, looking past 2026, if this trend should continue, with the constant home field advantage & a lack of adversity, the U.S. team will predictably, almost certainly, struggle again in the qualifiers for the 2030 World cup & then in the cup once again, because for the first time, 3 countries from 2 continents will host the competition, with Spain, Portugal, and Morocco as host nations. So to Joe's point, the U.S. management should address these issues as soon as possible. Although I doubt that they will ever change the homefield advantage issue because both FIFA & CONCACAF will want their share of the revenues from the matches held in the large U.S. stadiums, which is enhanced by large numbers of Central & South American fans attending those games

If you aren't sure that your coach is the best man for the job, then you might as well fire them and try your best to hire the best person you can get. It's simple

38:40 bro literally throw a stone and hit somebody. You’ll get someone better than GGG. Unless a new coaches tactics are literally “go out there and try to lose” it can’t be worse than trying nothing new. Yeah great he was flexible against England and guess what it worked and that still won’t embolden him to try new things at other times. This team does the bare minimum every time so we can’t get worse without him. And if we can’t get worse that means the only other option are stay the same or get better so USSF owes it to the fans (and if they really wanna achieve Gregg’s cringe goal of change how the world views American soccer) to at least try to improve if there isn’t a risk of getting worse. Which clearly there isn’t because we do the bare minimum already.

Every USMNT coach has managed at least one game where the team has been more than the sum of its parts and over achieved except GGG. No USMNT coach has gotten less out of more in our history.

I feel like these two positions aren't mutually exclusive right? I don't think USMNT players are overhyped but can't you have overhyped players with a bad coach still succeed in a really bad region? International football is about building up you player-pool to over-perform, whether that's tactical or simply just a coach who can motivate player to be better than the sum of their parts (I think of Germany's turn around right now for the tactical side, and I think of countries like Morocco, Japan, Equatorial Guinea as nations who play more together and passionatelly to become better than their player pool (although obviously Japan has an entire academy system built up on this technical and tactical baseline)). Ultimately is a mentality thing, and mentality is all about the coach and the player development environment, the US isn't necessarily the best development environment to create players who what the killer instinct because of things like pay-to-play, and Berhalter's mentality both in tactics and motivation is extremely languid and passive. That create's a product on the field where the USMNT isn't living up to their potential both because there's basically zero pressure or competiton in CONCACAF, the US development environment is less competitive, and GGG is allergic to being motivational or passionate to instill any level of visible confidence in a USMNT squad that is still extremely young on the balance of things. Tactially something that is paramount in International football is fluidity, Berhalter is extremely rigid both in his overal approach and in his positional roles (he has been loosening up a bit) but the best way to get players to play well in international football is to instill a sense of freedom and to make it fun for guys who have been spending 95% of their time learning and training a specific system and club level instead of trying to drill a whole new system that they have to hold in their minds while they play half-way across the world for a week or so just to go back to their old system that is ultimately more important to their career. It's important to have the ability to adjust on the fly and that means not being so rigidly detailed with his primary approach. The point is also to adjust to the player pool you have rather than molding the players into what you like philosophically, if we have more players who thrive in transition they we should be playing more direct and more counter attacking.

Both...

It's not that one individual moment up the ball going off burkes head it's the other 90 plus minutes of the game afterwards that we kept trying the same thing over and over again even with a break at halftime in between we came out with the same tactics..... That's why burkhalter should have been fired if we lost that game but luck and select players bailed him out...... Again

25:58 great our coaches best achievement is recruiting… so why is he not just front office and let someone that can actually coach… coach?

Why give GGG a 2nd term? Because another coach will give us worse results than what has been the bare minimum? Why not try someone new to see if something better can be achieved?

Exactly how many US players are playing the UEFA champions league? None

In other news, Reyna getting a start today!

39:56 good thing we dont expect them to dominate everyone we play. We only expect to dominate jamaicas B team and other teams with inferior players and to occasionally be put in the position to catch a better team off guard. Idgaf if you think the only lock picker is gio for a low block, a sledge hammer also breaks down a door. So we should be able to get through even if it’s difficult, but instead we just knocked on the door a couple times didn’t get in then did the turn around and fake stomp your feet away to make Jamaica think we left and got lucky Jamaica fell for it and opened the door to let us in. Like ffs

It looked like Greggy might have actually improved a little in this last window. His weaknesses are obvious to all. But it should be said that he's a pretty good man manager. However badly he sets them up tactically, he manages to get them to play for him. And the fact that we've got some *very* talented *and now very experienced* players makes them look pretty good at times... against mid-level teams. *But that will never be good enough to compete at an elite level.* And Greggy's favorite motto "change how the world sees... blah blah blah", is him all over. It is carefully non specific with no actual tangible goal, which allows him to spin almost anything into a "win". And it's a default negative position to start from. Winners don't worry about how the world sees them. We'll never know how far our first truly great generation of players can go until we get a quality manager.

Does anyone actually think we'd be worse with a different coach than Berhalter? We might not be much better, but it's hard to see the harm in trying someone new.