champions league teams don't start gyasi zardes

Deadspin got bought by an *******, then everyone quit. They hired replacement staff who aren't as good.

The actual deadspin team started a new site, the undefeated.

the (original) deadspin losers like Drew Magary are HOT ****ING GARBAGE and should NEVER be read

This is a really good article and good breakdown and well worth the read. This is the kind of stuff I expected from The Athletic which lasted for like the first month of their existance then went to puff pieces and politics. I'd never venture over to mlssoccer.com so really appreciate the share.

The idea the Gregg is playing a system that is used by Manchester City is amazing and not surprising. I bet Gregg thinks he can perfect the system even better or some ****. The problem is great isn't Pep and has zero idea how to actually get the best out of his players. It's like watching a high school basketball team run an offense that they did 100x in practice against no defense. Then when a defense gets in they just try to force that same offense with zero improvisation and zero creativity from their most creative players.

The Gregg quotes at the beginning of this article are just so cringeworthy. Everything this guy says is cringeworthy. How the **** is he our manager?

Lastly, I do have a minor issue with the author of the article saying the system working well against Mexico AND El Salvador. I'll maybe give him Mexico, because they are the 1 team that came to attack us and the one game we actually looked like the sum of our parts for large spells of the game. The El Salvador game was an embarrassment, but still got the fart sniffing response from Gregg.

I love tactical breakdowns with video to reference like this though so I really really enjoyed this article. I'd love one of these for every team after every game. Well done.

no offense but you've **** on Doyle no less than 10 times ITT

Basically no national team plays like the top club teams
You don't get enough training time to work on the passing networks and buildup that the club sides do. The international game is much less complicated.

Well God forbid anyone addresses things people say and do and believe on an individual basis these days instead of painting them with a broad brush and holding steadfast to any opinion of said person and their work. This is a good article. I'm sure Doyle still sucks but if he keep churning out stuff like this I'll continue to read him. He kept the MLS homerism bias to a subtle minimum in it. Though there was this:

"Gyasi Zardes, Jesus Ferreira, Jordan Morris and Paul Arriola are out of season. I’ve been watching January’s Camp Cupcake friendlies for more than 20 years and I am in no way surprised to see these guys involved in a bunch of sequences that almost came off, but didn’t. That is the nature of out-of-season players – we saw the same thing with the Euro contingent in the first set of qualifiers, remember."

Yea that must be why they "almost came off, but didn't." Couldn't be that they're all **** players. Gregg level excuse making right there.

Maybe Low's Germany teams? But yea. And Gregg out here trying to out-Pep Pep (in before Zardes at CB and Dest in a false 9 or some ****) but really has zero clue how to do it, zero clue what he's doing, and has handicapped our best players and castrated any creativity that was in this side

Teams like late 00s Spain and 2014 Germany were probably better at passing mostly because they had cesc/xavi/Iniesta and kroos/khedira/ozil rather than huge works on the training ground imo.

They just had a huge talent edge. No one in the world has that this world cup cycle. Brazil are current favorites and I like their squad but don't love it anywhere near as much as Spain 2010, Germany 2014, France 2018. Those were all the clear talent favorites going in and got the job done.

I also don't love soft factors like WIM, culture etc but the Canadian players would run through a wall for Herdmann. You see Davies streaming the matches online when he's hurt. It's a close knit group who love the manager. I dont get the sense the US stars respect the manager or enjoy playing together.

Yea but they still put in a system that either their players were familiar with and/or actually played to their strengths. Not necessarily a complex system.

I'd argue that there is a huge talent gap between USMNT and non-Canada CONCACAF

I see you've read The Athletic article today but yea I agree. I think that's pretty obvious.

we should throw honduras on purpose

mystic futbol rhythms

That's good photoshoppin! A+

the USA on the mousepad is A+ lmao

Brazil vs Champions League winner, who wins.

Champions League team ldo. If they wanted to be Brazil they'd just buy all the Brazilians

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Actually fun to think about. If you made it current World Cup Champions (France) v. current Champions League holders (Chelsea) it would be a very good experiment in what we're talking about itt. Think France has the more talented roster but Chelsea still rolls them since they play together 10.5 months a year and have a more intricate, organized well-drilled system

City, Pool and Bayern would be favorites over Brasil.
Rest (Chelsea, Juve, Atletico, Madrid) would be slight dogs imo. Chelsea/Madrid being very close to call and could argue either way imo.

any WC winner if they got 9 months together just like the CL winner

Nope. Also that's not the question

Biggest difference between elite clubs and country right now is elite full back play.
Pool have Trent and Robertson.
City have Cancelo and Walker.
Bayern have Davies and Pavard (who isn't great)

France 2018 and Germany 2014 had weak spots at FB. Huge gaps from the top guys to what most teams have.

Trents actually been pretty bad for like 2 months now but I obviously get your point.

Pavard is also ironically French and in 2014 Lahm was still there. Different game and all that tho

Yeah, Germany had one good FB but the top club teams have 2. France was able to succeed without attacking FBs because Pogba/Kante/Matuidi covered so much ground while Griezmann/Mbappe was an offense in and of itself.

Fwiw I think Portugal has the most talent right now but we haven't seen it come together. Cancelo was hurt for the Euros, Jota/Bernardo/Ronaldo on paper is amazing but we shall see.