By: COLIN REESE
Without Landon Donovan or Joe Corona on the USA World Cup roster, Mix Diskerud should be started as the central attacking midfielder because he frees up Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore to score goals.
Starting Diskerud, Dempsey, and Altidore together maximizes the American’s potential to be effective in the attack because Diskerud helps the USA to keep possession and set up goals, in addition to linking Jones and Bradley to the attack.
Ideally, Jones should play the stay-at-home defensive midfield role with Bradley being free to play as the box-to-box midfielder, and Diskerud is the needed piece to link Bradley to the attack, so that Bradley can also support Jones defensively.
As of right now, the United States’ 23-man World Cup roster looks set up to start Tim Howard in goal with Timothy Chandler, Geoff Cameron, Matt Besler, and Fabian Johnson forming the likely starting Back Four.
As the two-man defensive midfield, Jermaine Jones and Michael Bradley are locks as starters in the line of two in the 4-2-3-1 formation, but time will tell if Jones can play his deeper more defensive role in the defensive midfielder partnership and let Bradley have the freedom to play the box-to-box role.
The idea that Bradley is some sort of attacking midfielder or playmaker is a misunderstanding of his special ability to play the box-to-box midfielder role that is so vital to trying to win the battle for the midfield. Playing as a box-to-box midfielder or as a defensive midfielder doesn’t mean that Bradley isn’t heavily involved in the build-up play and and chance creation for the Americans.
In the attack, which for the U.S., is the line of three attacking midfielders plus the striker, Clint Dempsey will likely start centrally or out left with Jozy Altidore at striker.
Will Jürgen Klinsmann start Alejandro Bedoya and Graham Zusi as the right and left wings, or will Klinsmann roll the dice and start Julian Green at left wing?
Mix Diskerud has been used by Klinsmann as a central attacking midfielder, which is why he is on this roster, so will Klinsmann start Diskerud in the center with Dempsey out left? If this happens, who starts out right: Bedoya, Zusi, or Green?
Lots of questions and possibilities about the starters in the attack, but no clear answers.
The decision really comes down to which other two players start with Dempsey and Altidore, and where will Dempsey and the other two players besides Altidore start?
The USA might line up with Bedoya, Dempsey, and Green starting in the line of three attacking midfielders, or the United States might start Bedoya, Dempsey, and Zusi as the line of three.
The option of using Green, Diskerud, and Dempsey as the line of three is an interesting possibility, and perhaps using Diskerud as a central attacking midfielder will prevent Jones from venturing too far into the attack.
Diskerud has shown well as a central attacking midfielder, and the arguments can be made that Dempsey’s position on paper doesn’t matter and that he’s played his best soccer out left. Thinking of Dempsey as stuck out on the left just because he starts at left wing doesn’t reflect Dempsey’s fluid movement without the ball all over the field.
Starting Diskerud changes everything. If Diskerud is started centrally and Dempsey out left, then Klinsmann is maximizing the talent and experience he has available to him among his attacking options.
There’s little question that Diskerud can keep possession and display creative and quality passing at the World Cup level better than most of the USA’s roster, even if Diskerud’s passing and skill is not even close to being on the same level of say a world-class playmaker like Oscar.
By way of another example, the USA’s opponent, Kevin-Prince Boateng, as a box-to-box midfielder that frequently plays as a playmaker, is light years beyond Diskerud in terms of passing and scoring ability, overall skill, athleticism, and effectiveness against elite competition.
The fact remains that any examination of the midfielders and forwards available to the United States in the World Cup reveals Jones, Bradley, Diskerud, Dempsey, and Altidore as five of the six best options for the USA’s Front Six.
If Dempsey needs to be moved to left wing – a position that he excels at – then so be it. Diskerud helps link Jones and Bradley to Dempsey and Altidore.
Let Green, Bedoya, and Zusi fight for the final spot in the USA’s Front Six, but given the need to maximize the skill of the United States, Diskerud deserves to start at the Number 10 spot.
As of right now, the USA appears to be set to use a 4-2-3-1 formation in the World Cup, but Klinsmann said that they may use three different formations in the World Cup.
What could two USA XIs look like if Diskerud is started at the central attacking midfielder role?
NOTE: Just today US Soccer seemed to imply via Twitter that the USMNT would be using a diamond midfield formation against Azerbaijan in the first warm-up friendly before the World Cup. This formation is sometimes referred to as the diamond 4-4-2, but it really is a 4-1-2-1-2 formation because it uses four defenders, a defensive midfielder, two box-to-box midfielders or wings, a central attacking midfielder, and a first and second striker or two center forwards.
Whether or not the USA will use the 4-2-3-1 or the 4-1-2-1-2 or both in the World Cup has yet to be seen.