Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - Episode 115: The December Scuffed Top 40

Episode Date: December 6, 2019

We choose our Scuffed Top 40 for December, the last one of the year. Pretty straightforward episode, we start with our #1 player in the pool and work our way down to a spitballed #30 through #40. In any case it’s a good chance to discuss player selection and take another good look at the player pool.  Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the scuffed podcast. I'm Adam Bells in Minneapolis. With me is Greg Velasquez in Des Moines. We talk about U.S. men's soccer. Hey everyone. Hope you are enjoying the preliminary stages of this holiday season. Just want to start by giving a long overdue thanks to our Patreon subscribers. We don't mention it enough, but we really appreciate your support. And it makes this podcast possible in a very real way. Thank you. Today we will catch up on the scuffed top 40. Greg? What are we hoping to accomplish? Bells, I think the assumption is that over at Soccer House, the Monday scouting call will basically just be a hitting play on this recording and making their future call-ups accordingly. Yeah, so two things, two things about that. Speaking of Soccer House, they're having a board of directors meeting today, later today at 2 p.m. Central Time. So by the time you listen to this, it'll probably have happened.

and there's going to be a talent update from Bocanagra and Stewart somewhere in the middle of that meeting. Not a talent update, a technical update. A technical update. Yeah, a technical update. There's also going to be a talent update. I don't know what that means. I feel like I actually do think that's basically what your pod is. They could actually play your podcast or just read through your timeline for the talent update.

Yeah. Hopefully it's nothing that brings like human resources crashing down upon everyone's head. And then the other thing is, so we've gotten some, I don't want to call it a groundswell, but we have gotten some requests to do the top 40. So people are asking for it, and we are going to deliver here. Should we get started? Let's do it. All right.

Number one on the list. New number one. New number one. So that we're starting off some excitement right away. Christian Pulisic. The kid from Hershey is back on top. That's what happens when you get six goals and six assists for Chelsea Football Club. in a couple of months.

He's gone off since we last did a ranking and surpasses Tyler Adams who has yet to see the field this season for R.B. Leipzig. Oftentimes with these things, absence does not make the heart grow fonder. But the reality is

we've never had an American shining on the kind of stage that Pulisic is shining on, not even close. A tip of the cap to Christian, number one on the list. I just want to reiterate because it's easy to sort of

get accustomed to things like as they as are happening in real time over long time spans. But, you know, think back to like Clint Dempsey in his heyday and all the excitement around Clinton Dempsey, which was justified. Clint Dempsey, absolute legend and American hero, deserves his place. For sure. Deserves his status there. But it was, you know, he was a, it was a mid-table guy in the Premier League doing a bang-up job.

But yes, it just, there's a league of difference between the top four in the Premier League and Fulham. I mean, there's such a massive difference in scale there. So, yes, this is something that we should continue to be excited about. Like, as much as you can, try not to just sort of ho-hum Christian Pulisik's sort of new rise. Because it does feel like a bit of a new rise. I mean, he had a meteoric rise to be playing for Dortmund. But this is like a new development in the Christian Pulisic era.

Yeah. Even yesterday, do you play yesterday? Yeah, even yesterday or the day before that. He didn't score. He didn't get any assists. He's just electric on the ball right now, you know? I mean, he's bringing the ball down and just caressing it around him and then exploding in whatever direction he wants to and making stuff happen.

It's really a joy to see. And there's something special, you know, there's a tie between Dempsey and Pulisic in that there's something special about the, I don't know, the London crowd. right up close to the, right up close to the field, just exploding, you know, when a, when a goal is scored. You don't see that in Germany or Italy, really, not even that much in Spain, but they're right there. It's almost like a basketball game. And I love seeing that when Pulisic scores. All right.

So there you go. That's a new number one, new number one, and deservedly so. Number two, Sergenio Dest. Why don't you take this one? Well, I think a lot of this is because I think, you know, the last time we did this, he wasn't committed to the U.S. His decision to play for the United States, basically the best thing that's happened to U.S. soccer in,

since probably the 2014 goal against Portugal. And I kind of am not joking. So an amazing development there. And we've seen his playing time, his minutes for IACs kind of taper off a little bit as some guys return to fitness. In fact, sort of there's been a roller coaster where he,

He fell into his sort of backup role and then the guy ahead of him got hurt again, so he's sort of back to starting. But it seems like that's sort of right where he is. He's right on the edge. Might be a backup at full strength, but when there's any kind of hit to the IAC starting 11, Dest is right there to get his minutes. Yeah, it brings us swagger and creativity and ball progression to the buildup. There's nothing comparable in our pool, especially as a fullback.

And I think the complaints about his defensive shortcomings, while somewhat justified, have been greatly exaggerated. He's, you could see in that second Canada game, the one that we won, how big of a difference he makes. Yeah, I'm not going to be, I'm not upset to see it. I'm not upset to think about what the possibilities are with him, with him in the pool now. Number three, Tyler Adams, he's back in training. After what's essentially been an eight-month layoff, his return to the field is starting to feel imminent. Is it imminent? No, it absolutely is not.

You need a better piece of wood to knock on. No, it's never imminent until you see his name in this substitution list because these injuries, man, they just have a way. They just have a way of leading to new injuries and different part of the body acts up compensating for the recovering part of the body. And he's crossed another milestone, which is great. but the milestone that matters is the fourth game that he plays in. Yeah, for sure. So there's still some, we're not out of the woods there. Burrhalter, I think, will mention Adams's absence repeatedly in the chapter about 2019

in his autobiography, because I think he will make us immediately a much better team when he's back. Hopefully that's fairly soon. Yeah, and that's the reason he's fallen from number one. I think the past two instances of the top 40, it's just, it's so hard to, there's just, you just have to hedge a little bit with somebody who's been out for this long.

Right. And we've sort of learned in some ways, started to figure out how to play without him. You know, the lineup has, has evolved in that way. Anyway, number four, John Brooks. Greg, you didn't like how he played against Canada very much, if the listeners will remember.

Yet you still rated him as our number three player in the pool. what gives? Well, I have Christian Pulisick as the number one player in the pool, and I don't think anyone thinks Christian Pulcic had a great game against Canada either. No, that's really what it was for me. It was just I know Brooks is a good player. I think everyone recognizes that. It was just weird that, you know, for as much as everyone could see,

Pulisick had a rough game. Everyone was, like, glowing about getting John Brooks back in and what a difference he made. And I think that was just very narrative-driven because, you know, the outcome swung so much from the Toronto leg to the Orlando leg. And so one of the ways that we were trying to explain that was the return of John Brooks. And I just didn't see it actually happening on the field or his involvement leading to any of the things that led to the turnaround and result. Yeah, fair enough. I'm not going to prosecute you over it.

But I know he's going to give us those things. And we saw some of the things that I think intentionally Burhalter was trying to do with John Brooks in the lineup. at dummy run posted a couple of good clips of it. In the pattern, we could move the ball to Brooks's left foot. And then when short options were taken away, it was clear that we trusted Brooks to sort of float a ball directly to a forward's chest. Now, whether we could do anything with that ball once it got to the forward's chest is TBD. But it definitely is something that, you know, it looks like Burrhalter is game planning for,

is the John Brooks left foot. Right. And I'll add he's been playing well for Wolfsburg to Wolfsburg as well. Let's see. Number five, West McKinney. A confounding player. Mistake prone and still uncomfortable in the roles he's played under Burrhalter, but also pretty much an automatic starter.

He has bite on both sides of the ball and is capable of hitting that surprising pass that few others in the USM&T player pool can hit. He's also kind of a start guarantee. I don't know if guaranteed starter is what we should say, but he's pretty close to a guaranteed starter for Schalka right now. So there he is. Shalka, what, top five in the Bundesliga, currently out of Bayern Munich,

a third of the way through the season. Yeah, it is. It feels like Weston McKenney is still a question in the sense of how are we going to get the most out of him for the U.S. men's national team. We haven't hit on it yet, which in a way is a good thing, because it seems like there's still so much we can tap into. We get glimpses of it.

Yeah. So if we can start answering that, and it's the same kind of applies to Pulisic, obviously. So if we can start to get the most out of players like these, you know, that's one of the reasons to be optimistic about the U.S. is there is plenty of room for improvement, clear room for improvement based on some club form of some of these guys. Yeah, totally.

Number six, Josie Altador. It's just hard to imagine him not flourishing with Pulisic on one wing and Morris on the other. He's more technical and clever on the ball than Zardis and more physical and clever off the ball than sergeant. And I'm not sure I would have said this a year ago, but I look forward to seeing him back in the shirt. Well, I have him high as well.

I think I had him at 6 too, but I'm going to push back a little bit, and it's kind of easy to imagine him not flourishing with Poulosick and Morris because he didn't flourish all that much in the Gold Cup final against Mexico with those two guys around him. That's right.

He had the, I mean, that's, that's, that's, that's a little bit harsh maybe because he had the great holdup and lay off to Pool Sick for the first chance. And then he had the ridiculous turn and scuffed shot that he did do himself. But then he went completely silent and disappeared for the next 55 minutes before he was taken off. So it really is, even with Althador, as much as you see that he has the ceiling that's way higher than what Zardas or Sergeant offer at the moment. you still have to get 60 minutes out of him, at least it's quality and not just three good sequences. Yeah, and then he's gone for the game. Yeah, that's fair. I also think Pulisic and Morris have risen in my estimation over the past several months since the Gold Cup final.

How could they not have? Morris had a really good year and has really delivered for the U.S. And Pulisic, these two, three months at Chelsea, I think have solidified him as like legit, legit, legit. I know everybody would have, a lot of people would have said he was before that, but he had a pretty spotty season for Dortmund. And then, you know, wasn't outstanding at the Gold Cup either. So I guess my expectations for Pulisic, the next time I see him on the field are higher than they were the last time he was on the field. I know.

We're actually kind of also setting ourselves up for an even more crushing disappointment. Yeah. All right. Number seven. Paxson Pomacall. Why don't you take this one? Well, I'll say once again that we have more or less divorced ourselves from Greg Burralter here

because I don't know that Burralter rates Pomacall. It's interesting because, you know, Pomacall got his call up in, what, October, got the five-minute cameo. And there was some grumbling. I think I grumbled. Left out in November. But then obviously, you know, it's revealed that he's been battling through an injury for the last two months of the MLS season undergoes surgery afterwards. So it's possible that Burholter does rate him very highly and he simply wasn't fit enough to play any more of a role than he did for the national team.

But we are still very high on him from his sort of breakout year at MLS, from his performances with the U-20s. So that's why he's coming at number seven. He's got a freshly repaired groin. And he is making some non-rooky dollars for FC Dallas. Yeah, that's for sure. $6.50 a year. Covers a lot of ground, secure on the ball, hits a line splitting pass. He seems tailor-made for that midfield with Adams and McKinney for now, you know, until others break through.

But it seems like it's his job to lose. in my opinion, obviously, like you said, it's not clear at all that Burrhalter sees it that way. Right. And the Olympics throw another wrinkle into that as well. So many Olympic wrinkles. That is the big wrinkle. I'm getting kind of fed up with all the Olympic wrinkles, to be honest. Number eight, Timothy Wea. The winger forward has been hurt at Lille, most of the fall with a hamstring injury.

You had them a little higher than me, actually quite a bit higher than me. What are you thinking? Why is he ahead of Morris and Sergeant in your book? So I still have this high based on his appearances in 2018. And he got in in 2018, and I thought he was a clear upgrade over what we'd seen from some of the other players in the pool. And I'm talking to experience guys. Like he looked better than Paul Ariola. He looked better than Julian Green.

He looked better than what we'd seen at the time from Jordan Morris. So for me, you know, the fact that he didn't get any run out before he got hurt, I'm not going to sort of change my assessment of him. I feel like we were assessing him and that's where we had him. So we'll see when he gets back. He's back in training at Lill. I don't know if he's with the team or if he's simply just relocated from Madrid back to Lill. Doesn't look like he's with the team based on social media photos.

Has his own trainer. He's doing some one-on-one work. But yeah, it's just another one where when he comes back, it wouldn't surprise me if he can plug right into the senior. team and potentially work his way into the starting 11. Wouldn't surprise me. And that's giving Jordan Moore's full credit for the production he's had over the last three or four games for the U.S. national team.

Yeah. Okay. That all makes sense to me. I think I would love to see where back in that 11. Number nine, Dwayne Holmes. For me, he's kind of an older version of Paxton Pomacall to whom we cannot credit a few extra years of unstoppable linear development. He covers a lot.

Guaranteed, guaranteed linear development of the tax of Tomko. Right. Yeah, because we're sort of building that in, right? We're thinking, well, Pomacal's was that good at 19.

He's going to be even better at 20. A little. I don't want to go too far with that. Like, I think Pomacol right now is, is a U.S. men's national team starting 11 caliber player. And if he gets better,

that's gravy. Okay, okay. Well, they're similar, Holmes and Pomacol, in that they both cover a lot of ground, both like to make incisive passes. They both sometimes dribble into trouble and give the ball away. But, you know, Holmes isn't in the group, the Burrhalter group,

and that does appear to be the least defensible roster decision of the year, in my opinion. That definitely seems to be the one where, you know, even people who are still pretty firmly on Burrhalter's good side, is that how you'd say it? Yeah, like Santa with the good... The good list. They're still scratching their head at that one. Yeah, Holmes can be a little sloppy. You're posting some of his clips.

I know at Watkey has posted quite a few compilations, Holmes included. And he does have a bit of sloppiness to him. He does kind of give the ball away at times. But at the same time, there's a payoff for the other things he does that I think could be worth it. And I think you could also, if you wanted to rein him. in a little, I think you could. You might lose a little bit of the daring attacking that he provides, but I think you could probably mitigate some of his, some of like his tendency to turn the ball over.

Okay. Number 10, his position is unchanged in the rankings. Josh Sargent. He's not there yet, but he's a solid Bundesliga attacker at age 19. He came in off the bench and immediately created a goal scoring chance with a long run. and a long run after a long ball and then he did a nice little one-two to eliminate John Brooks,

none other than John Brooks, and then crossed it for what should have been the go-ahead goal for Verda Bremen against Wolfsburg. So he does some nice things when he's on the field for Verde Bremen. He's not starting right now, and he does some nice things for the U.S. men's national team, but he didn't do very many nice things

in the way lost to Canada. So, I don't know, he still lacks the focus. and bloodthirstiness of an elite striker. And I think we've just all got our fingers crossed that he's going to become more ruthless. Right. More ruthless, more, I don't know if he'll ever have

sort of the ability like Josie does to just dominate a defender who's on his back. But Sergeant very much can be a good complimentary forward to a Christian Pulisick running around him. And that's sort of what I think we see is if we're going to play, if we are going to get back into the possession heavy attacking style that Burrhalter's talked about, that Josh Sargent could be the next guy up for that style of play to Josie Altador. We need him to.

I mean, we basically need him to. Yeah, we do because we can't depend on Altador. And Sergeant, you know, I think it's all just mental. He just has to get a little sharper, sharper mentally, and that'll go a long way. Because the technique is there, and he's not like a big bullet. of a striker, but he's got the physical tools to be adequate at that stuff. Number 11. Aaron Long, you want to take this one?

Yeah, he seems to really compliment John Brooks well at centerback. He's got speed. He's got speed and he's got quickness, which, you know, two separate things, but I think he brings both of those. And he is just very stable, right? Like he just seems like a rock back there. And he's been that in games that we've controlled, and he's been that in games where we were getting overrun and he's sort of been that competent last line of defense when we've

needed somebody to scramble or we've needed somebody to really make that last challenge. He's been there to do that. So, you know, maybe the drop off from Aaron Long to the third and fourth centerbacks isn't that great, but I think at this point it does feel like there is one. Yeah. And even if Brooks is hurt, which, you know, does happen from time to time, Tim Ream would be the left centerback who plays in Brooks' spot. And Long is kind of a good compliment to Ream, too, because Breem and Brooks have a lot of similarities in their profile.

All right. Number 12, Darlington Nagby. He was not... Darlington Nagby. He was not rated. He was not even rated in the last list, but we have, you know, we have divorced ourselves from Berhalter's list. So, Greg, why don't you take this one, too? So Nagby's a specialist in my mind. And if we're, again, if we're going to try to play this possession style, we need guys who can do something besides possess to nowhere. And I feel like we've seen that in at least half of the 17 games that Berlter's coach is that even when we possess, it does, it has no real thrust. So Nagby provides possession and thrust in, I mean, he in such a different way than like a Christian Roldon does, even in such a way than Weston McKinney does, that I think that justifies trying to, get Nagby back into the fold to see whether or not that changes the way that we can attack. I guess I'd push back a little bit on the thrust part.

I don't know how much thrust he provides, but definitely ball security. Some ball progression. Am I underselling him? No, not necessarily. I think it's probably just, I mean, he's not going to progress the ball the way. He's not going to maybe hit the incisive disguise, surprising pass that we've seen. seen at times from Weston McKinney, but he is able to shrug off a challenge and get the defender wrong side and then sort of, I mean, it's the Nagby glide where he can move the ball up the field

and buy a bunch of real estate and eventually just get the ball to say a Christian Pool Sick who can square up his defender 1V1, like that kind of a thing. And that's really what I think we need most is we need guys who can get pool sick into 1v1 situations. Jordan Morris get him into some space. And right now, Roaldon's not the guy to do that. And McKenny's sort of jumping back and forth between a couple of different roles. So, yeah, I just feel like a nagby. Nagby in that center midfield would be something that I'd be very interested in seeing.

And that's really as simple as it is. Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. Number 13, also unchanged in the rank? No, he's not unchanged. He moved up a lot. He's the biggest mover. Yeah, moved up like 13 spots.

It's Jordan Morris. I'm a well-documented skeptic, and I don't believe he's a fit for the, you know, the sort of aspirational version of the U.S. men's national team that we like to talk about, and so does Burrhalter. But he has performed for his club and country this year. Works hard, scores goals, can deliver a left-footed cross at this point, which was not the case a couple of years ago. Until Raina or Yanez established themselves as pro-sucker players,

we won't see them with the national team and Morris is better than all the other options aside from Polisic and perhaps Pomacol if Burrhalter sees Pomacall as a winger. So there he is. Number 13. Can I just push back quickly on that?

Yes, please. I just have to throw Tim Weyau's name back in the mix because that's the guy who I think does have the opportunity to jump Jordan Morris, obviously once he returns to health. But yes, Jordan Morris, huge jump for him because I think at this point he's

he's well ahead of Paul Ariola as sort of our, you almost wouldn't even describe Morris at this point as a placeholder. Like I'd still consider Paul Ariola a placeholder center mid, and I know he does a lot of little things and he does a lot of dirty work. But as an attacking, you know, as a winger, somebody who we need to provide a lot of attack, Ariola seems like a placeholder. Morris is not that right now, right?

Morris does generate some threat. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's his ability to go either with either foot, really does make a difference for him. And, yeah, he's been on the end of some relatively easy chances as well. He's not, let's face it, he's not an elegant soccer player. If we can just get out and run, then Morris and Pulisic are really going to cause problems for defenders.

For Honduras and El Salvador. Number 14, Sebastian Leggett. He dropped a little bit in the rankings, dropped three spots, but I don't know that there's any good reason for that. He finally got his big chance against Canada in Orlando and delivered the kind of transition-hungry, forward-thinking performance we've been hoping for from a midfielder. In some ways, I put him in the same category as Morris. He's not the aspirational central midfielder that I think we're all hoping for, but he's more cultured than Morris. And he's done some good things like that, particularly earning that first corner kick for the early goal against Canada.

the way he just got on the ball, quickly zipped it up to Areola. That's what we've been hoping for, and he provided it. Right. That's really what it is. He might not seem like a game-changing talent, but he is if the alternative is someone who doesn't push the game forward.

I mean, he, at the very least, pushes the game forward and not in, like, a reckless way that it just is aimless. Like, he can hit a well-crafted pass. You know, the one that actually stands out most of me is the pass that he hit in the Mexico-friendly that drew the penalty. The ball up to Jordan Morris.

Yeah. You know, that was like a 45-yard ball that he found immediately and is able to curl it around a defender into the space behind, which is exactly where you want to put Jordan Morris. So it's that kind of thing that we see, and we see him do it time and again in very limited opportunity. So it seems silly for Sebastian Leggett to have only gotten the few opportunities he's gotten. And I'm really hoping that come January, come March,

He's one of the guys who's played his way into the starting 11. Number 15, Reggie Cannon, drop two spots. Again, not a great reason for that. I think he's the second best right back in the pool behind Dest, and should start if Dest plays left back, which I think, you know, might be our best lineup. Dest to left back. Well, it could make sense.

Canon's a little bit less valuable now that we have Dest fully committed. You know, he does drop to a backup, and if we choose to use Dest to right back, I don't think he's anywhere, I don't think he's anywhere close to pushing ahead of desk. And I think, you know, we're still going to get some pushback

that he shouldn't be ahead of Yedlin. But, but yes, he seems like a relatively stable, stable guy to have included on the 23. Number 16, Matt Miasga, snubbed in the last camp, maybe coming off some injury,

but not really. In my opinion, he's our third centerback right now. That's where I'd put him to. So you have him ahead of Tim Ream in your book? Yeah, I mean, I guess they're kind of neck and neck. I guess there'd be three and four and whichever way you want to organize them is fine with me. You could make an argument.

Ream should be ahead of him, I think, a pretty strong one. How about this? A Brooks and Ream centerback pairing doesn't work, right? Like you can't play Brooks and Ream together at centerback. Right. So somewhere, like if long goes down, you wouldn't have, be like, oh, well, Reams are next centerback. So you put him in. In your mind, like, Miazka would be the guy who you'd have.

have to put in for long, right? Yeah, there are two discrete positions at this point. Right. Where Ream is the second left centerback and Miazga is the second right center back. But also in Miazka's favor, I think you could run a Miazka long centerback pairing. That is true. That's true. So that's what tips the scale for Miazka to be considered the third in this completely

meaningless distinction. So he's ahead of Tim Riem. All right. Number 17, Jackson Yule. there's a possibility that he's played his way ahead of Michael Bradley in the depth chart. I mean, would you say that that's possible in the Burrhalter chalkboard? I would be, I still would be kind of surprised if that were the case. I mean, on Burrhalter's chalkboard.

And on the chalkboard of my heart, I think he's played his way past Bradley. Not because he's more elegant, not because he's a more elegant passer. I don't think he is, but because he's a more committed and serious defender. than Bradley. And he's just a bit more mobile, not only without the ball, but with the ball at his feet. And he's good enough at spreading the field. Well, in my sort of every podcast sort of rant on leadership, like Bradley, people are still talking about having Michael Bradley's leadership.

And I'm not saying that Michael Bradley's leadership hurts us, but I think it's really hard to make a case that Michael Bradley's leadership helps us. because Michael Bradley was on the field for that Canada game in Toronto, and it's like if his leadership translates to the performance in some way, like I'd be really curious to hear how that happened. Very good point. You know, how many times can we have listless performances with our supposed leaders on the field? And this kind of goes for Tim Ream too, because you hear leadership for Tim Ream.

He was on that field for the away leg at Canada. So did he just sort of have an off-day leadership-wise, or is maybe like leadership not as important as everyone seems to think it is. Yeah, that's a really good point. Let's go to Tim Riem. Yeah, speaking of leaders. Versatile, comfortable on the ball. He's a left center back behind Brooks,

and he might be the first choice left back at this point, which augurs for his place in the 23 for sure, would be great if younger options could get in there and unseat him at left. left back, but that doesn't appear to be imminent. And it's the next guy up is Daniel Lovitz and we don't want to see any more of that. No, yeah, the next guy up surely is Serginio Dest at this point. If we don't use Riem out there and we're not moving on to like a Gloucester or an Anthony Robinson, then I think I think it has to be Dest and Cannon on the field rather than test it right back and Lovitz at left back.

Right. But yes, once again, Tim Riem on here because of his ability to play soccer. has nothing to do with providing a veteran presence or leadership. Right. Yep. Leadership out. Number 19. Number 19, DeAndre Yedlin, he's dropped two spots in the rankings.

I don't know. I don't know what else to say about him. He's a limited player with a great pedigree. I don't know what to do with him. His pedigree is not amazing. It's relative to the rest of the pool, it's... That's fair. For now.

For now, we'll say that. Because, again, what you get into with the... league comparisons is like can we really not imagine like is it impossible to imagine that reggie canon could could get picked up by a mid table premier league team or you know bottom third table premier league team and and hold his own like i don't think that's impossible to imagine it you know because you have to go to hogworts first and get a special hat put on your head before you can go to the primarily yeah no i i can't i can't imagine canon not just doing exactly what Yedlin does for Newcastle.

I think you would be better at it. Number 20, Richie Ledesma. Believe it or not, Greg rated him higher than I did. Everybody's heard my Ledesma schick. Why don't you tell people what you think? What make the case for him at number 20? So my case for number 20 is that with any of these guys who haven't, you know, proven it, either at the first team level or for the U.S. national team,

because that's really where the ultimate proving has to happen. There's just sort of this cloud of what they might be able to deliver on the field. We don't know for sure. Maybe Ledesma would get called in and be, and sort of be overwhelmed and drown on the field. Or maybe he'd come in and hold his own and actually improve us. Like we don't know for sure. But in my mind, like the priority is to get these guys out there and to check them out,

to sort of kick those tires, see what they look like, see if they're better than what we have now. Plus have the potential to get even better over the next 12 to 36 months. But what gives you confidence that the tire kicking exercise might yield some fruit? There's a horrible mixed metaphor. So we watch him. We watch his involvement in every young PSV game. And yes, the caliber of the league might be suspect.

But he's playing like a guy who looks like he's on the verge of, You know jumping into PSV senior team and he looks like that because he it looks like he's just almost like playing around In those young games every time the ball comes into his feet like there's just something in his body language that is like I can do whatever I want here I can you know I can receive this ball however I want it He's starting to remind me body language wise of Clint Dempsey Where where like he's gonna like his first priority is almost to like toy with the first defender like it's not even about playing the most efficient optimal soccer he's like oh how could I make this guy look even a little bit silly to sort of prove that I that I like have done him yeah and so he's got kind of that look to it now obviously

Dempsey was doing it in World Cups and in the Premier League so the the standards a little bit different there's for sure for sure but but you're starting to see that with Ledmo that he just will try shit and a lot of the stuff he's trying is actually coming off at the young PSV level which I think is sort of the sign that he's definitely about to make that jump over to the senior team for PSV and if he can do even remotely there what he's been doing at the Young level like he's going to be a whole brainer for the national team. Yeah. Yeah. It's also worth pointing out again that, you know, young PSV plays a pretty idealistic style of soccer.

They're trying to find his feet in the middle of the field and make him possess the ball through the defense. through often a low block to create goal scoring chances, to disorganize the opponent and score goals. Yeah, yeah. They're not playing a lot of like transition soccer. It's not like a lot of breaking out into open space. It very much is him with a ton of finesse, receiving the ball with somebody on his back

or finding that pocket within the low block of a defense, shifting them around a little bit with some misdirection, you know, lying a little bit with his hips. and then springing somebody or just creating that next little window. Yeah, yeah. Seven of the last 13 goals they've scored, or seven of the last 14 goals, I guess. So half of their goals since his big two-goal one-assist performance have been created through his feet, either with the pass before the pass or the pass that set up the penalty.

Enough about Ledesma. Let's take a little break and then come back and do 21 through 40. Got it. All right, we're back to do 21 through 40. 21 on the list is Paul Areola. I mean, what else do you even say about Paul Ariola that hasn't been said? The guy does everything you ask him to do. You can't ask him to do all that much.

Certainly when you have the ball, he's just sort of the good soldier. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if he's on the next World Cup roster just because he gets the job done, except for in front of goal. Exactly, exactly. I might come back to Ariolo a little bit later when we get to a guy that. That's going to shock everyone. Okay. 22.

Miles Robinson. Centerback, young centerback at Atlanta United, showed well when he got a chance a couple months ago, then got hurt in a U.S. camp. I'd take him over Zimmerman. I guess that's where I put him right now. Yeah, he's, I mean, he's a MLS best 11 caliber centerback, and he has a couple of skills that I think could translate well to us as we're trying to beat a press for the national team. namely his ability to try forward with the ball at his feet against that first line of pressure. Yeah, and we had Doyle on the podcast last week, and he said, Matt Doyle, that is. And he said, I think Jeff Lorenowitz or somebody at Atlanta said Robinson's the best one-on-one defender he's ever seen.

So that's high praise. Number 23, another centerback. Chris Richards at Byron 2. Greg, tell us why. A lot of some of these sort of prospects go back to the U20 World Cup and how they fared. And then you think of some of the other guys like a Serginio Dest who fared very well at the U20 World Cup. And then you say, all right, well, Chris Richards had a comparably good tournament against the same competition stands to reason that Chris Richards would also be able to compete at the level of the U.S. men's national team. Most people thought Richards had a better tournament than desk.

Yeah. Yeah, including FIFA. I think Richards was by far our bet. By far, yeah, I'm going to say by far our best player in the tournament. Yeah. We're about by far, but he was our, I think he was our. By some, by some, the best player of the tournament. Number 24, Michael Bradley.

He's way down here because of you, Greg. Why? Just too old? I mean, yes, he's not the solution. He's not the solution for this cycle. And it's possible he's not even the solution to my. There are guys, I think we've seen, again, Ewell's at least capable. We don't even necessarily have to play the Michael Bradley type in our system.

So, yeah, for me, Michael Bradley is a guy we have to get out. We have to sort of have him get out of the way, and we've got to get new guys in. Again, I don't think his leadership provides anything worthwhile. So it's, it has to just, we have to start moving on. Okay. Number 25, Anthony Robinson left back at Wigan Athletic. scored his first goal of the season over the weekend or maybe his last weekend. But his defensive shortcomings are a real problem, aren't they?

Maybe. He has them, but we don't have a lockdown left back. When Tim Reams playing left back, he has some defensive shortcomings as well. We sort of assume that they're made up for by his ability to pick out a pass. And I think so far we've mainly seen him against teams that were better than a left back. Mexico aside. It's true. So, you know, he hasn't actually been tested defensively all that much.

So, you know, if Anthony Robinson were trying to beat out like a shutdown left defender, then yeah, that's going to ding him. But he's not. So it's a matter of, does Joe Robinson's attacking abilities outweigh his defensive liabilities? It's just an accounting system, Bells. Let's kick those tires. Let's kick those tires again. Number 26, Fabian Johnson.

Speaking of left backs. Not rated in our last top 40. Hasn't played since August, though he did make the bench last weekend for a very good Gladbach team. What's the Fabian end game here? He's clear that he's getting older and his body is not allowing him to get, you know, sort of regular appearances. What do you think?

So I think it's just a matter of, so he started. I think two out of the three first games for Gladback then got injured and is just now coming back. So I think it's just one where we have to sort of monitor him. But if he is even like a 20 minute a game guy for Gladback, if he works the way back into that, you know, Gladback's top of the table, the Bundesliga seems like, seems like in our sort of left back haze that we're in right now, Fabian Johnson would be a worthwhile guy to sort of hold it down until one of the kids, can hopefully make it theirs. You know, that's essentially what Ream's doing.

And I guess it'd just be, Fabian would be the same, but maybe with more attacking verve. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, a lot of this comes back to Burrhalter's group and sort of the whole idea around the group. And I would love to talk, I would love to hear more from him about that, maybe even more candor about from him about that. Like, why, what is he trying to accomplish there? Because it's clear he's, he's, um, he's doing. something that requires like a certain group of players to be called in.

That's blindingly obvious. But is there something where you just, you're not going to bring in Fabian because of this group stuff? I don't know. It's, it's a scene for miracle, right? We've all seen miracle. I have not seen miracle.

You live in Minnesota. You've seen miracle. The story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team? Nope, I haven't. Oh, my goodness. All right. Well, this is before NHL players. So it's a bunch of college kids playing, and they all go through tryouts,

and they've been working so hard through camp. And then suddenly, like, a ringer comes along that is eligible for them to pick up and add to the roster. And the coach is about to do it in the team like mutinies because, you know, he isn't part of the group. He hasn't put in all the work that they've put in. And, you know, the captains are talking to the coach. And the coach is like, you don't want him? You don't think he'll help us? And they're like, we've got this coach.

And so they leave him off. And it's all inspiring. and it's all about camaraderie and team building and, you know, and then we beat the Soviets and won the Cold War. History. Correlation causation. Yeah. That's what it feels like.

It feels directly like that where Burlter not necessarily that interested in upsetting the Apple cart with the group. Yeah. You introduce one Apple at a time. And I mean, I got to be honest, I'm not, I've never coached a team. I don't know. Is that totally wrong? Maybe it's not wrong.

I don't know. That's the thing. In this case, I think it probably is wrong because of the gap, the vast gap. But the other thing is, I mean, overall, the principle of it, but Fabian Johnson, maybe a lot of people would say shouldn't be considered a ringer at this point. Like, he's not someone who's going to come in and change everything. I think he does have, like, relative to Levitts, he's a ringer. Right. I think he does have that level of class and, like, ability to play the game of soccer.

that in my mind would make it a no-brainer if he's willing to come play, you gotta take him. But what if, I mean, just wild speculation here, but what if Burhalter had this in his mind? He's like, we're gonna spend 2019 establishing the culture with this group of players so that the culture is so deeply ingrained that in 2020, I can start dropping guys and bringing in new guys and it's, and they'll just be, you know,

they'll just be like, you know, German immigrants arriving in the Midwest. They'll be like German immigrants arriving in the Midwest in the late 19th, century, they just basically become Midwesterners, you know, immediately. They can't help it. That honestly is like the optimistic take. And we've basically been making that case since March where we didn't get a lot of the call-ups to March that we want.

And we're like, oh, it's just because he's integrating them very slowly because he wants to build the culture first. Since then, the performances on the field haven't necessarily vindicated that approach because we don't have some slick style of play that everyone's doing so well in. and now we just get to upgrade parts one at a time. But yes, that continues to be what I cling on to for 2020, is that we will start to see one or two guys here and there replacing the weakest seven to eight guys of the group.

Okay. Well, enough of that side note. Number 27, Bobby Wood, languishing at Hamburg a bit, but just did get a start over the weekend. Did you watch? How did you play? So I watched. He's working hard.

It looks pretty similar to what he looked like at the end of his Bundesliga spell where he's not putting having too much of an impact on the game. All this to say, I still think he could do the job for the U.S. national team because he was able to do the job for the U.S. national team when he looked like this for the Bundesliga. So I don't think he's, again, changed that drastically as a player. So if he was able to do it well enough for us before, well enough even might be called into question since we didn't qualify for the World Cup. But, you know, he was able to do a job for us through the 2018 cycle. I think he could still do it better than some of the guys that do get called up.

Okay. Number 28, Keaton Parks, club situation a tad unclear, but was a good player for a good NYCFC team in 2019. I'm kind of just in wait and C mode with him, honestly. Yeah, we don't even know where he's going to. be playing next month next next next march who knows where he's at 29 ulysses yanez yanez he's a u19 bundes league a player but probably not for too long winter training camp is coming up and he did show that what he could do against pros when he played against france at the u20 world cup and and really tilted that game in our favor against a bunch of bundleslega and league one regulars has a winger skill set that's pretty much unmatched in the pool we just need him to keep

working his tail off and break into that Wolfsburg side. Yeah, that's, that's apparently what needs to happen in Berlter's mind. And there's even questions about his role within the U-Nex cycle's U-20s versus Olympics, which we don't need to get too far into, I don't think. But the case I want to make for like an Ullianas versus, say, a Paul Ariola, who's clearly, you know, the option to take for an all-around guy if you're going to play a 30-game season and you need a pro, you know, you take Paul Ariola.

But, you know, one of the driving factors of this whole possession style that Burralter is trying to implement, I think is how to break down Conccaf teams that play in a bunker, because that's a huge part of what went wrong in 2018 cycle. Like, Paul Areola is exactly who a bunkering defense wants to see on the wing, like a guy like Paul Areola, because, you know, the ball goes out to Paul Areola. The bunker sort of one guy leaves the shape of the bunker to sort of go out and get in the Michael Bradley stance in front of. Paul Areola and Pariola is not a threat to beat the guy one-on-one. He looks at him, looks at the bunker behind him and plays a safe pass back and we recirculate possession. Like that we have to, if we're going to play, if we're going to have to break these bunkers down, a guy like Ullianez has the skill set to do that.

Like if he can skin the first defender, even before that, when the ball goes out to a Christian Pulisick, that first defender goes out, but he's not comfortable. He's afraid. And a second defender automatically has to go out with him. So just by getting the ball out to a Christian Poulosick type, you know, you weaken the bunker. And that's the kind of thing that we need. And Ullianas at least has the potential to provide that. So when we talk about breaking down bunkers, like we've got to start thinking about guys like Ullianas, if that's the whole idea of this possession style.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and I think people, you know, people see the U-19 Bundesliga goals from Yanez and think, oh, I know, he's just like getting on the end of chances and scoring goals. curlers from 20 yards, which he can do. And I think that's a really important skill set that we don't have a lot of wingers who can do. But he's a really good passer. And he's a, he's really good in combination. He's been that way for since he was, you know, just a baby.

And he's got a, there's a lot going on with his skill set. He's not just some guy who comes on and runs at people and shoots. Like he can, he can hit a very clever pass and he can combine up the flank, uh, delightfully. So just pointing that out. But that's where I get. And that's where I think it's totally worth having a guy like that in your 23, even if he is still very green. Like you need him for certain situations.

Maybe when you qualify for the World Cup, he doesn't help you as much because you're, you know, maybe you're having to do a lot more of the Paul Ariola stuff. But you need different types of guys. So it's almost like, all right, well, we got to qualify with one team and then we got to go to the World Cup with another team. but in the games against weaker opponents who are going to sit in bunker, I think Ullianas could offer something. And I think he wouldn't have to be starting for Wolfsburg to be able to do that for the U.S. Okay. Number 30, Walker Zimmerman hasn't played well for club or country in the past several months,

but he was on one of the better teams in MLS. I think he's still in the mix at centerback somewhere around fifth or sixth. Yeah, and we'll just see. I mean, his availability gives him the advantage. over a meoska because I'm sure he'll be in camp in January. Right, right. Number 31, Jazi's artists. If we're going to play transition soccer, and I think sometimes we should, he is useful.

His movement is smart. He works his butt off and he scores goals. He had two against Canada the other week. Yep, he deserves a lot of praise for that Canada performance because it wasn't just the pressing and the attacking in the spaces. he did combine well in the few chances he had to combine in tight spaces, which is not something you get a lot from Giazzi Zardis. So, you know, that's one game.

It's a small sample size. There's going to be some recency bias to people saying that that proves Zardis should be the guy. But it's some evidence that we're going to need to see more of, I'm sure, in January, that he can continue to do that. Yeah. Number 32, Tyler Boyd. I'm not a big fan, but the. realities is he's going to keep getting call-ups because he's a little more dangerous than ariola and after him the winger depth chart you know it's sort of pulisic Morris kind of

pool is in a class by himself Morris and a second class by himself and then ariola and boyd kind of at the same level roughly areaul is probably a better player but boyd's a little more dangerous so yeah i don't know man i don't i don't even think i had tyler boyd my top 40 i don't know that he's that more dangerous and i feel like it's a he's a usage problem because he's taking chances to be dangerous away from like Christian Poolzick. Does that make sense? Maybe, yeah. When Boyd drops his head and tries to dribble and create his own shot,

where Ariola would have just given the ball to somebody else. I'm like, oh, I actually prefer Ariola to just give the ball to someone else and eventually get it to Christian Poolzick. I agree. I agree with that. I mean, I give Boyd a little credit for the assist on Sergeant's goal against Cuba. That was a kind of thing we need to do against a low block, a nice little, combination with Cannon down the right wing. Cannon plays a ball at the back post and then Boyd just saves it. Yeah, he saves it as a deaf touch back to Sergeant for the assist. And I don't know. I think he's got to keep getting called up. Yeah, he's, I'm not going to quibble with a guy who's 32nd on the top 40. Okay, 33. Alfredo Morales. He'd be higher if there weren't so many center mids who are more effective. But for me, there are three or four full strength midfield iterations I'd prefer before one that includes more Morales. That's my mind.

Yep, I'm the same. And because of his age, if you're sort of in that third, fourth backup guy, I think I had him ahead of Michael Bradley. So you must have really, you must have really dropped him bells. Or you must have really had Bradley high because, but overall, yeah, agreed. He's, he's, I don't think he's a first 11 guy. And he's getting up there in age. He's a bubble guy on the 23, I think, if everybody's healthy.

Number 34. In our 23. I don't know about Burrhalter's Twink. Yeah, no, I mean, he seemed to be totally bought into the group, the culture, which is, which is encouraging to see, you know, a guy who has been on the outs with the national team for most of his career, he comes in under Burhalter, and he's, like, cheering hard when we score goals and seems to be happy to come in and play a bit, bit role late in games. So I love all that. Yeah, honestly, like, that's the kind of, like, leadership, if there's going to be some leadership,

like, what Morales was doing leading up to that Canada game, like, that's actually what I really enjoy seeing. a little bit of character. Yeah. Not just a bunch of like dull dolards. Yeah, he said we're going to kill them before the candidate game. Number 34, Nick Lima, full back depth chart filling out now. I don't know why he dropped 18 spots in the rankings, but I think I dropped him out. I think divorced from the Burralter rankings, like he's our, even with Burralter at this point, he's our fourth right back.

Like, what do we, what's he doing? Yeah. What do we need? Why do we have him? I don't know if there's injuries. Because I don't think there's that big of a difference between him and Canon, really. Just that Canon's gotten more playing time over the last seven months. And I honestly don't think there's that much difference between Lima and Yedlin.

I actually kind of prefer Lima. I know that's sacrilege, but anyway. I guess I wouldn't hate it. I'm just thinking at this point, if he's third string behind two guys who are 22 and 19, like Lima, Lima probably not going to have a big role to play outside of January. Maybe I'm wrong. Fair enough.

That's sort of where I'm at. I'm starting to get ruthless, bells. Get ruthless. Get ruthless, baby. 35. Alex Mendez. He's still work in progress at Iax. Definitely more one for the future than right now.

But I don't want to drop him. The talent is there. And, you know, when he gets on the ball, magic happens. The problem is he needs to get stronger. and tougher and more tactically alert defensively and needs to find more of the ball. But if he can do all those things, which seem correctable, and they may take time, he's going to be a great player. That's why Iax sign him.

He does things on the ball that few players in the pool can do. He's got what you can't teach. Why do you have him on this list? I have him on for the same reason as Oolie, and I think I have him higher than you, to be honest. It's because if we're trying to beat a bunker defense, I don't really care that much about his defensive shortcomings. Like if we're just going to be trying to pick apart a team, then one of the guys who I think is going to be good at picking a part of a team is going to be Alex Mendez.

That is true. He is a he's a bunker beater. Probably wouldn't start him in a group stage World Cup game against Brazil. But if we need to sort of pick apart Jamaica, then let's get Mendez in there. Yeah, I mean, we have to acknowledge how ridiculous some people are going to think this is, because he doesn't even, he's not even a regular starter for young IACs right now. And when he does start, he often, he usually comes off at the half. So.

Well, that's fine. He's, he's 35 on this list. I don't think that's out of bounds. I mean, would, would Georgie Mihailovich be out of bounds at 35 if he'd shown up? No one would, no one would go nuts about that. That's true. It's true. Okay.

Number 36, Chris Gloucester, injured at PSV, which is too bad because I think he has a chance to play his way into that first team. Maybe he does next spring. Who knows? he just needs to get healthy. Steady left back. He's always going to sort of have an inflated value because left back. Right.

Number 37, Christian rolled on. Perhaps more than any other player, he signifies the Burrhalter era because of the immense number of minutes he's gotten. 950 and counting. Okay. Why is he on this list still? You bragged him, bells. I didn't have him my top 40.

Okay. You tell me, because it's 40. It's 40 guys, and it's not like whoever replaces rolled down on this list. We're actually going to, I see one actually made the list that you'll have a chuckle at, but whoever else we throw on this list isn't going to somehow, I don't know, maybe Brendan Aronson should have been on here instead. Yeah, who knows? It's kind of hard.

It's getting pretty messy down here. Number 38, Brandon, Servania, strong season at Central Defensive Midfield for FC Dallas, a rangey ball winning six slash eight. Can't have too many of those. We don't have any of those. Well, we have Tyler Adams. I know. Well, we do we.

But that's why Surveillance is so high on this list is because we see how thin it is without Tyler Adams. Number 39, Markey Delgado. That's the one. Back in the game. That's me. That was all me. He was not ranked before this. He might be better than rolled on.

I feel like for our possession system where you need, because the big part of our possession system is, You need like, we don't have one true playmaker, so your playmaking has to sort of be a combination of a bunch of different guys doing it. And I think Delgado does that better than Roldon. I think Roldon at Seattle benefits in a huge way from having Nico O'Daro do all of the heavy lifting from a creative standpoint. And Roldon's job is just to sort of not screw things up. And we don't have that player for the men's national team to sort of spring Pulisic. Like it has to be this group effort. And I think Delgado does that a little bit, is capable of doing doing.

that more than like a rolled on can. Yeah, man, I couldn't agree more with that entire passage of talking. Passages of talking. Can we just make that the scuff podcast tagline? Number 40, final name on the list, Cameron Carter Vickers. He's a bit unpredictable at centerback, but he also is still pretty young and has time to polish his rough edges, and he is an absolute unit, as they say. A couple, a few players to watch who didn't make.

the list, but let's just mention three of them. Nicholas Giochini, who's now scored two goals, three goals in all competitions for SM Cayenne. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly in the French second division. He's a 19-year-old striker born in Kansas City. And he's kind of like a, I see him as like a young Bobby Wood, a left-footed Bobby Wood, maybe with a little more, a little more mobility and a little less physical strength. And the other two are, you want to take the other two real quick. So it's Otisawi who's been making the match day 11s for match day

18s for wolves. I think we'd seen him some U-23 action where he looks apart. He's a U-20 eligible centerback for the U.S. Just wanted to really keep an eye on because of that development. Maybe it'll turn into nothing and he won't ever really play. But yeah, keep an eye on him. And then

I threw this guy on there, Shaq Moore. You all remember Shaq Moore? You all remember Shaq Moore? I remember him. Yeah. Remember Shaqmore? So he's in the Segunda, the second division in Spain, playing for Tenerife. And he's on here because he's just recently been starting games after going the first third of the season without playing. There was a red card to one of their starting defenders at right back. Shackmore came on to replace him and then has continued to start. But the right back has come back.

They've moved Shackmore to left back for the last two games. So left back, Shack Moore and played value. Yeah. And you watched one of his, both of those performances? He looked okay. He looks okay. And the thing is, Tenerife play a really pleasant game of soccer to watch. So he kind of fits in well. He's not doing a lot of the, he's not like constantly involved in their slickest action. But he looks like he's sort of capable of moving the ball to the guys who are.

He's not like a liability where they can't play slick stuff around him. Awesome. Good for him. Good for him making his way back into the end of the game. Let's give, I'm going to give my full strength starting 11 and then want you make any corrections to it from your perspective and then let's get out of here. All right. Stefan at goalkeeper, although I don't really feel strongly about it. Dest at left back, Brooks at left center back, long at right center back, canon at right back, Adams McKinney and Palmacall in the midfield. That's McKenny at the 8, Palmicle at the 10, although he's really not a 10 in my opinion. We don't need him to be like an absolute 10 in that position.

as we all know, because we've watched all these games. And then Pulisik, Altador, and Morris across the top. Holmes and Sargent, probably the first subs for me. All right. Put Waya on that first subs list. And I'm basically there. Waya and then throw Nagby on there. It's the Nagby Wildcard.

Okay. All right. In that sort of cloud of a central midfield that's sort of all untested. Right. Because it's possible Pomacall could come in and not play very well. and then Legette, you know, Legette takes that position. It's also possible when Kenny continues to not play well, and Nagby takes that position.

I don't know. Who knows? But that's, yeah, that's an 11 that I'd be like super, super buzzed to watch. Yeah. Be jazzed. Buzed and jazzed. All right, Greg, thanks a lot, man. Thanks everybody for listening.

We'll see you.