Welcome back to the Thursday Q&A series, where we focus on one particular topic – today's being the USMNT friendlies against Peru & Brazil – and ask you to react, share, and discuss in the comments section. However, feel free to ask about anything game-related (MLS, USL, NASL, USMNT, CanMNT, etc.) over the next several hours.
In the year following the 2014 World Cup, Jurgen Klinsmann used his friendlies mostly for experimentation. He tried new players, put them in new positions (remember Mix Diskerud at d-mid?) and lined them up in new formations (3-5-2 vs. Chile!). He was a mad, Teutonic scientist.
A willingness to experiment and a certain amount of tactical flexibility are good things in any soccer coach, and some of Klinsmann's gambles have paid off. DeAndre Yedlin, for example, has become a useful sub as a winger, even though he's spent the vast majority of his professional career as a right back. I've long thought Brek Shea's best long-term position was left back, but nobody ever played him there... until Klinsmann. And Brad Evans was mostly superb as a central defender for Seattle earlier in the year before they were rocked by injuries, international call-ups and suspensions.
However, there is a level at which tactical and positional experimentation produces diminishing returns while undermining chemistry. This culminated in the US team's worst Gold Cup performance in 15 years, as the coach repeatedly trotted out players in positions and formations in which they'd had little practice, either together or separately.
Klinsmann, as is his wont, blamed the officiating for the result and insulted the fanbase:
While I find that level of excuse-making to be frustrating, what truly boils my blood is the process (read: lack of a clear one) by which Klinsmann has built his roster and scheme.
To put a fine point on it: "Experimentation" is not a virtue in and of itself, and if you "shake things up" every single game, you're not actually shaking things up -- you're just creating a culture of instability and reducing your chances of learning something useful about a particular player or players. Soccer is a game of context and chemistry built through partnerships and repetition, and under the current manager, they have lacked all of the above.
Thus, almost none of the young players he experimented with in late 2014 and early 2015 succeeded, because the structure around them was not designed for them to succeed. This is as true for Ventura Alvarado and Timmy Chandler as it is for Wil Trapp and Steve Birnbaum
Friday night's friendly against Peru (7 pm ET; FoxSports 1 | FoxSportsGO | UDN | UniMas) is the next chance we get to see what he's come up with. There will likely be a back-four that's never started together before, and a midfield that's never started together before, and I'm not brave enough to guess how many forwards we'll see.
Are you?
Ok folks, thanks for letting me vent.
