About a year and a half ago, a new group of U.S. Men’s National Team YouTubers and fans appeared on the scene, and I don’t recall ever seeing them on Twitter or YouTube before. I’ve wondered where they came from, and it appears that the most likely answer is that almost all of them are new soccer fans who decided to start participating in the discussion and producing content. Almost all of them accept for Tactical Manager appear to be new to soccer, and you can tell by their ignorant opinions.
These new content creators have resonated with a group of U.S. Men’s National Team fans on Twitter, who appear to understand very little about soccer, except that the level of play in European club soccer is above that of MLS, which everyone knows. Therefore, this new group of fans and content creators isn’t capable of analyzing the play of USMNT players beyond calling for a player playing in Europe to replace any MLS player in the lineup. So, the quality and accuracy of the criticism from this segment of the fan base is low and off base.
One of the main problems with the U.S. Men’s National Team is the lack of a link between the midfield and the attack because coach Gregg Berhalter doesn’t deploy a playmaker in the Number 10 or central attacking midfielder position. Frequently, he starts a playmaker in the lineup, but it’s usually out of position as a wing in the Front 3 or as a center midfielder or Number 8 too deep in the his three-man midfield. Better teams and better players have their playmaker drift into a center attacking midfielder role, even though they may be deployed as a wing or center midfielder on paper.
Rather than criticizing Berhalter’s tactics and formation, this new group of fans and content creators focus 100% of their attention and criticism on harassing and mocking whatever MLS player happens to be in the lineup; this is their scapegoat. It doesn’t matter what’s actually going wrong with the play. This new group insists that if some player playing in Europe were in the lineup over an MLS player, then all of the team’s problems would be solved.
Currently, these fans are mocking and harassing Aaron Long, a complete center back who’s been playing well, and this new crowd insists that John Brooks needs to be in the lineup because he can pass a little bit better. It doesn’t matter to this crowd that he’s slower and not as quick and that he lacks the ability to change directions quickly, which would result in him getting beaten. Somehow a center back possibly passing a little bit better is more important than a center back who’s harder to get past.
Prior to the crosshairs being on Aaron Long, they were on Sebastian Lletget, who was one of those most skillful, creative, and exciting American attacking players to emerge on the scene in a while. He lacked the explosiveness of Christian Pulisic and he wasn’t quite as dangerous as Gio Reyna, but he was a skillful, creative playmaker or forward, who are in short supply in the American talent pool.
Berhalter had Lletget playing as an 8 in a three-man midfield that frequently faced CONCACAF teams who bunkered with 8 players, which left almost no space or ability to unlock the defense. Lletget didn’t make any mistakes in the games or look like he wasn’t up to the level, but he was an MLS player, whom this new crowd saw as preventing Yunus Musah from starting. The idea that Lletget should be used in the Front 3 or as 10 in front of the three-man midfield of Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, and Musah was too complex for this new crowd of soccer fans. They lacked the nuanced understanding to say that Lletget was being used out of position or that he could play with Musah. Rather, they focused their attention on mocking and harassing Lletget on Twitter and on YouTube.
One YouTuber, Jack Landau, even made a video accusing Lletget of not being focused and not “giving his all for the shirt” after his sister’s death and therefore he should have removed himself from the lineup. Never mind, that Lletget received good FotMob ratings (6.3, 7.1, 8.0, 6.8) or that ESPN pundit Herculez Gomez totally disagreed with this new crowd’s assessment of Lletget. Berhalter and the USMNT have been using a three-man midfield of Adams, McKennie, and Musah for over six months now, and the U.S. still isn’t producing many scoring chances through the middle or from the run of play.
The scoring chances are mostly coming off crosses and set pieces, and Berhalter’s lineup is based on defending and high pressing the opposition as opposed to keeping possession and creating scoring chances. Attacking players like Pulisic and Timothy Weah are relegated to wide positions where they are supposed to high press the opposition and produce crosses, even though crosses are supposed to be the purview of the outside backs like Reggie Cannon and Antonee Robinson, who is doing a good job in this regard.
Berhalter’s refusal to deploy a playmaker has resulted in a goal scoring drought for the team’s top Number 9, Ricardo Pepi, who has been blamed for the lack of goals even though there is zero service. Berhalter even told Pepi to take a “mental break” to restore his goal scoring form even though the lack of goals had nothing to do with Pepi’s mentality or form and everything to do with not receiving service. Anyone with even a basic understanding of soccer could have diagnosed this problem, and famous American coach, Hugo Perez even pointed out the problem with Pepi not receiving service on Jimmy Conrad’s podcast and the coaching staff still didn’t listen or change anything in their tactics or formation.
Now, the U.S. is some five months from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and the U.S. isn’t even close to the level of the favorites to win the tournament. The U.S. can’t pass or keep possession remotely close to the top teams, and the team can’t produce scoring chances either. The solution for the new crowd of soccer fans is to drop the MLS players, even though there’s very few of them and all of them are international caliber players.