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Message: [QUOTE="Forza Azzurri, post: 3984293, member: 1452"] After doing what I thought was an outstanding job over the summer, the bloom is clearly coming off the rose and there are some serious questions that need to be asked. At the end of the day, winning the Nations League and the Gold Cup are nice, but they are the equivalent of the regular season in hoops. Qualifying for the World Cup is all that matter just like the tourney is all that matters in hoops. And, these first three games, despite ending up right on track in terms of points, provided some worrying indicators: Roster management - He clearly did not bring in enough guys. Unexpected things happen and he ended up having to start Bello in a must-win game and the kid failed to track Moya on the goal. I know that, technically, Moya would have been Brooks' responsibilty but, Brooks had stepped so the space was vacated and someone needed to track the run into that space. Bello was that guy. Substitutions - We all saw what a difference subs make in the Honduras. One really has to question what he was thinking waiting until the 83rd minute to make substitutions in a game where, after the Canada equalizer, the US never looked dangerous. Formations and players - the decision to change to a 3-4-3 against Honduras, put Adams on the right and Sands in the middle was almost disastrous. And, although Berhalter both changed formations and made the substitutions that changed the course of the game, and the outcome, I am skeptical about giving him too much credit. I think the format of these qualifiers clearly plays to the strengths of both the US and Mexico in terms of roster depth (assuming that the manager takes advantage of it, of course). Honduras started 8 of the players who started their first qualifier. We started four. Was it really the formation switch and the substitutions or did Honduras simply run out of gas? And in the first qualifier against Panama, Berhalter set the team up in a 4-3-3 with Reyna up top on the right and Aronson on the laeft as part of the midfield triangle. Why? Reyna seems to like to play more centrally. As a result of that, Sargent, Reyna, Aronson and McKinnie were all on top of each other. That is easy to defend. I think that both the biggest challenge, and biggest opportunity, for a national team coach is to figure out how to put the pieces together so that they are effective even if players are playing in a different formation or a different position or even something more subtle like playing the same position but with different responsibilities relative to their clubs. The above are pretty serious errors in multiple areas in three games. So far, Berhalter, in my opinion, has not shown that he has that capability. I cannot give him an because we are right on track in terms of points but I give most of credit for the points to the 3 game format which, I believe, allowed our superior depth to gain those three points against Honduras. Superior depth is talent, not coaching. We'll see what the next three-pack of games brings and what, if anything, Berhalter has learned. [/QUOTE]

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