For the first time in the Gregg Berhalter era, US men's national team fans can hope to see Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie on the field together just three months away from the 2019 Gold Cup.
Each can feature in diverse positions and roles, and they could even become Berhalter's preferred midfield trio. Imagine that.
“I’m really excited about (the flexibility)," Berhalter said on a media conference call Tuesday. "We’ll do something in this camp, and it won’t be set in stone. It’s not to say that these guys are always going to play that position, but this are our initial ideas. We’d like to see how they interpret those positions. We know it’s not going to be perfect, and that’s fine.We’ve been talking to them about where they’re going to play and it’ll be nice to actually see it.”
Pulisic has featured predominantly as a winger for Borussia Dortmund throughout his nascent club career and is expected to do the same when he moves to Chelsea this summer, though at times he has played centrally for the US while earning 23 caps and scoring nine international goals.
When US Soccer released the squad for March, Pulisic was listed as a midfielder, a hint toward Berhalter's plan.
“We want to find a spot where he can affect the game, where he can get more out of his teammates and bring more out of him to score goals and make assists," Berhalter said. "In this camp, we’re going to look at him as a No. 10. Within that structure, there’s flexibility. Sometimes you see the wingers going inside and the 10’s going wide. We just want to see how that looks, we want Christian to be flexible, take advantage of 1v1’s and get him in front of goal.”
That leaves two more midfield slots. McKennie is expected to start alongside Pulisic in Berhalter's duel-10's. But what about Adams?
Berhalter has several options for how to use Tyler Adams, left | USA Today Sports Images
The RB Leipzig midfielder may well be perfect for Berhalter's inverted fullback wrinkle, having excelled at right wing-back early on for the New York Red Bulls at times before being promoted to defensive mid.
“He can play the right back tucked in, naturally when you look at his skill set," Berhalter said. "He’s slanted to the right a lot with RB Leipzig, especially when he’s pulling out in the buildup to open up and get the ball but he can also play central midfield. For us, it’s going to be looking at him in one of those positions, evaluating him and moving forward.”
Berhalter teased of some of the options, explaining how the positional fluidity can create another dimension to the USMNT.
“If I’m thinking about Weston as a No. 10 who defends as a No. 8, or Christian as a No. 10 who can also move wide, or Tyler as a right back that can also come inside," Berhalter said, "those are the things that are exciting to me.”
It's day-dream material that will finally come to life.
