Sigi Schmid Discusses the United States Men’s National Team’s Need for a Playmaker
In a long interview with Alexi Lalas for the Mutant Gene Podcast, Sigi Schmid discussed a wide variety of soccer topics including his belief that Jürgen Klinsmann should be starting a playmaker on the United States Men’s National Team.
This discussion included a detailed discussion of positions, formations, and playing styles. Schmid also articulated his belief that Michael Bradley isn’t a playmaker or a defensive midfielder, and that Klinsmann often had Jermaine Jones and Bradley playing the same position without a playmaker included. He also expressed his belief that Klinsmann has used wings, but he has neglected to use a central midfielder who can playmake.
Below is one of Schmid’s comments about the need for a playmaker, and how Schmid identified Benny Feilhaber, Sacha Kljestan, and Lee Nguyen as playmakers over 10 years ago in 2005. You can listen to the episode of the Mutant Gene Podcast here.
“But those three playmakers (Feilhaber, Kljestan, Nguyen) that I just mentioned you know if you add those three players together, caps under Jürgen (Klinsmann) are under 20… You can play a DeAndre Yedlin on one wing and a Julian Green on the other wing and those guys are gonna have speed and they’re gonna try and attack people, but you’re not gonna get any playmaking out of that position. Pulisic now is a little different. He can playmake a little bit.”
This writer has criticized Klinsmann’s reluctance to use a playmaker going back to 2011, and Bob Bradley has also been guilty of not starting a playmaker either, although Bradley was starting Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan at the same time, which gave the team much more playmaking that it has seen under Klinsmann.
Recently, Klinsmann has in fact been starting Kljestan as a playmaker, but Schmid’s comments might carry more weight with Klinsmann who values a fellow German’s opinion on his tactics.
World Soccer Source has written about Sebastian Lletget on numerous occasions, and Schmid named Lletget as a player with playmaking abilities who he liked as a wing player. Based on Schmid’s comments, you could almost infer that he wanted to see Lletget on the national team as a winger, but he still wanted to see either Feilhaber, Kljestan, or Nguyen as the central attacking midfielder or playmaker.
Whenever a respected coach has constructive criticism for the United States Men’s National Team, the American fan base benefits. The United States is still seeking to be a technical and better national team, and any commentary that helps the national team go from a hustle team to a skill team is needed.