u/Queasy_Vegetable5725

Pierre started off extremely shaky, two incomplete passes when the easier option was available. One header back to the opposition as well. Fair for trying. After that, he became the most important player in our back line for playing out from the back.

He kept making deep gorgeous ground passes and tried to be a young leader. I was impressed and his performance grew on me.

Miles Robinson on the other hand looked jittery, didn’t know when to commit, always played it safe and looked overall out of his depth. I really expect more from a senior team player.

Edit:

So many passes from Pierre in 60 min, wow:

89 percent pass accuracy. 63/71 complete. 4 successful passes into the final third.

They’re not safe swing passes - everything was going through him. In 60 min compared to 30, he attempted almost 5 times as many passes as Richards. 71 vs just 15. Also evidenced by the four passes into the final third.

I think he could really succeed in either position. His struggles with 1v1 dribbling and losing the ball made me think about how City changed Raheem Sterling. Miller’s obviously nowhere near Sterling’s prime, but the way he plays reminded about how City got Sterling to use his speed more than his technique. Sterling was insanely fast and a decent dribbler, but not like some high-level technician.

Before becoming a 20,30 goal a season winger, he really struggled to score. City fixed that by basically retraining how he used his pace. Arteta spent hours with him after training working on his positioning and movement near goal. Instead of needing to dribble through people, they focused on creating “easy finishes” by using his speed to get in great positions to receive the ball first.

All of this to say, watching him play a few times, I think he could be trained to be a very clever winger kinda like this in a few years.

Miller is still pretty raw technically, but he’s ridiculously quick and has enough moves to be dangerous if he polishes his game and develops. If he improves his crossing, he could also be a very interesting left back.

Excited to see where he’s at in a few years.

Any updates from the club?

The two were left out of the squad following their disappointing performance against Man City. Seems like Sage felt that there was no risk in dropping them for Zavier Gozo, probably because he felt the youngster Gozo would be able to do the job if called upon.

Despite missing out on the Europa league squad, that seems like a subtle vote of confidence for Gozo by Sage, and it seems he wasn’t upset with Gozo’s performance the way he was upset with the other lads. Granted, Gozo didn’t really get into the game, but didn’t really do anything ‘wrong’ either.

(It’s hard to get into the game when no one on the team is pressing, and I’d be surprised if the new guy is taking charge and leading the team press on his debut, so Gozo gets a pass for me).

I hope he gets a lucky break and consistent run at his club. He’s been struggling to dislodge Villareal’s starters this season, and he hasn’t gotten many minutes. He finally got a start and his family came to watch him this weekend. I hope that will be the first of many, but it’s hard to be certain since Villareal has a deep squad.

Would that consistency help? This weekend, Palace moved Richards back to RCB after some tough performances at CCB. Their fans have been making really good points online recently that he looks better on the right of a back-three instead of centrally, and it honestly makes me wonder if the national team should look at trying the same kind of adjustment down the line. I know, Belgium aside, we usually see a pretty different version of Richards in a US shirt, but his club supporters are pointing out that RCB lets him step out aggressively, use his pace, and win 1v1s, whereas playing central can sometimes expose him a bit aerially or positionally as it requires a lot of complex movement compared to the wide CB positions.

I know the central center-back spot is tough, and I don't want to sound overly critical because I know how much he cares and how much he gives for the team, but his aerial and positional struggles right there in the middle are just pretty glaring sometimes. Maybe we could experiment with it in an upcoming friendly, or even look at someone like Neil Pierre, George Campbell, or someone else like Freeman in that central role just to see how it flows.

What do you think?

Who’s looking like the best for the job post World Cup and why?

I’ll start: Mathis Albert. Not really a risk that he’d ever play for France or Germany, but I want him integrated with the senior squad ASAP.

Edit: Oh yeah, Neil Pierre too. We gotta add him to the list. Haiti has already started the social media charming campaign. We’re a more glamorous draw 100%, but let’s lock down our assets from others’ sticky fingers.

Boy it would have been nice to have a cool, calm head that knows how to play out from the back. Has Noonan said anything about his plans?

I know the "give him time, the World Cup just ended" crowd is going to be out in full force, but it’s the end of the business week and there's still no Friday news drop.

For the people saying it's only been a week since the tournament ended: US Soccer offered him a contract extension almost a full month ago. He had the offer well before our exit. Yes, waiting until the tournament was over made sense to avoid distractions, but Pochettino himself told the media last weekend that he would make a decision this week. It's Friday. The delay is entirely on his end.

And for those arguing "there are no big European club jobs open right now anyway," that actually makes his hesitation *worse*. If there are no immediate club options, what exactly is he holding out for?

Let's talk about the elephant in the room: Argentina 🇦🇷. Scaloni literally just gave a tearful press conference after losing the final to Spain, saying he needs to "reset" and that "it hurts his soul." It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots. Pochettino is arguably the highest-profile Argentine manager available. Is he just using the USMNT as a safety net while he waits to see if the AFA president hands him the keys to the Argentina job?

We have a couple months before the next competitive fixture, but waiting paralyzes our program. We can't plan rosters or retain staff if the manager isn't committed. The federation clearly wants him, but we deserve a manager who is actually ride-or-die for the rebuild, not someone keeping us on read while he waits for a better offer.