No, I was fine with Yedlin's performance.
I am actually more focused on Dest.
Dest is not on the field for his defense but for his offensive and, specifically, his 1 v 1 skills. Can we agree on that?
Absolutely.
If not, we can further debate his role.
However, if we do agree on that, then let's discuss what defines success for Dest and what is required for him to be successful.
I believe that Dest's ability to influence a game relies on two things:
1. Getting him as many touches as possible in the final third
2. Having both really good spacing and good interplay with the left winger.
I saw neither of those things happen on Thursday.
Well, in Dest's defense, moving him from side to side, experimenting every game, isn't helping him develop chemistry with the winger on either side.
Otherwise, I agree. He's in there to take people on, to rampage down the flank.
So, why is that?
As others have mentioned, our ability to possess the ball, other than for a short time at the beginning of the game and then against towards the tail end of the game, was non-existent on Thursday. Passing triangles and quick little 1-2s either didn't happen or were consistently off-target.
Yes, against El Salvador, their passing from the midfield to the final third was just not there, and they all took on people one-on-one, often dribbling into dead ends. They needed a guy to be looking for those one-two's, and Reyna is the key to that.
And there was way too much of guys picking the ball up in the middle third and trying to dribble into the final third (Adams, McKennie, Reyna, Aaronson, Dest..) they were all guilty of it.
Yes,
That is the absolute worst way to try to get into the final third as, when you do that, you are dribbling directly into pressure and the most likely result is a turnover in a really bad spot. We really only have one guy who can pick the ball up in the middle third and go at the defense and that is Pulisic.
I kind of disagree here. I think they showed poor judgment in this last game, but we've seen a bunch of these guys dribble past people, run into spaces and use the channels, play smart one-two's to progress the ball up the sidelines against a press. We've seen the long diagonal balls out of the back, which have largely been accurate.
Yesterday was growing pains. For the fact that so many of these guys are playing on elite teams, none of them are really "The Man" who a team leans on to win matches. None of these guys have matured to that level yet. This is part of the process.
But there are a lot of guys on this team who can play the way you (and we) want them to play. We saw it already earlier this summer. Just not in such hostile atmospheres - both of those cup wins were on US soil.
In order to get Dest into the final third, the team needs to possess the ball long enough to actually allow Dest to get into the final third. That rarely happened.
And, the few times that Dest did get into the final third, the spacing between him and Reyna was poor. They were inevitably on top of each other. This is another reason why I thought we missed Pulisic a lot. Pulisic loves to pick up the ball and then run at the middle of the defense which, if we had had better possession, would have left Dest 1 v 1 with the left back and given Dest a chance to do what he does best - run at a guy in a 1 v 1 situation. Reyna tended to stay wide with Dest leaving a 2 v 2 where it was easy to support the defender marking Dest.
So, yes, Dest had a bad game but a lot of that had more to do with his teammates not being able to put him into a position where he could leverage his strengths, rather than anything in particular that Dest did (other than defending poorly which we already know is an issue).
As a result, Dest really had little chance to influence the game. Combine that with his poor defending and it is understandable why he was subbed off.
I think Dest is a wingback, not a fullback, because he doesn't defend well enough. He is kind of like a Calum Hudson-Odoi - the final product should be better, he needs to be more consistent, but sometimes produces spectacular plays or bits of skill.
You always hope you can channel that guy into being productive for the team. For me, Dest is too good to give up on at such a young age. But playing 4 at the back is something that he's just not ready to do in CONCACAF.
Playing in CONCACAF is like playing in some central European league where half the refs are crooked, and people hurl insults and debris at players every game.
