Anonymous wrote:What people don’t seem to realize is that none of our players are world-beaters at the top club level, not even Pulisic, who’s still developing. We need a coach on Bielsa’s level who can make the players better when they’re with the national team, because you’re not getting finished articles from the respective clubs quite yet. The players have either been overvalued, are not getting enough opportunities with their clubs, or have not been complemented with younger players breaking through. Our scouting and hierarchy have been essentially the same for a decade and it’s more about how much money you have and who you know. I don’t mind being patient for something worthwhile, but it seems we’re just being spoon-fed more of the same old mediocrity.
Completely agree. And your Pulisic example is a good one. He had a stretch at Dortmund (kind of like what Sancho is having right now for them) where Pulisic looked like he
might become one of the top players on that team, which was one of the top 4 teams in Germany and a Champions League team at that time. However, he has not been that player for over a year now, and he is arguably the best US player.
It is always depressing to look at the rosters of the top teams and see where the 23 guys on the roster play soccer. I know England had a surprising run to last year's semis in the World Cup, but, let's be honest, they are not one of the top teams in the world. Yet, all of the guys on their 23 person roster are
meaningful contributors for Premier League teams. And it only gets worse when you look at the rosters of top teams like Germany, where a player like Sane does not even make the roster. Let's be honest, if Pulisic had the year for Man City that Sane had last year before the World Cup, then Pulisic would be compared to Pele by the US soccer press. Sane, on the other hand, cannot even make the team. From a talent perspective, the US is so far away from the other top teams in the world that you cannot even compare the two, and no coach is going to solve that talent disparity.
With that said, a good coach could get more out of this team, and maybe they can be competitive with Mexico during the WC qualifiers in a couple of years, even though Mexico has much more talent right now than the US team (and a good national team coach to boot).