Horrible hire, for many reasons.
GGG would never have put out this starting XI. We would have seen Roldan, Zardes, Morris, Long, Arriola, Acosta.
No, I think one of the conditions of Gregg's rehire is to add a couple more assistant coaches to diversify the input into his game tactics.
The new GM of the program said in an interview that they are especially looking for an assistant who can bring some new ideas to the offense, as well as another defensive assistant, and maybe replacing the set plays coach that they hired last year. Gregg is going to skip Gold Cup to put together a new staff, under the supervision of the GM.
Gooch Onyewu is tasked with being the connective guy to be able to talk to the players and get their input for the national program management, kind of like Petr Cech was the player liaison to management at Chelsea.
If they do the things they say they're going to do, they are indeed focused on reaching the next level, and giving him the resources to do it (while also acknowledging that he could use some tactical help).
I think the Berhalter haters out there should give him credit for successfully implementing the kind of system Jurgen Klinsmann had hoped to do.
In Klinsmann's defense, he inherited a squad that played the "old" US style of defend, fight in midfield and hope to hit on the counter. Guys like Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones were not really built for the modern game, as it has changed in the last 10 years.
And to Klinsmann's detriment, I think it's pretty clear that he was neither the hands-on teacher Gregg or Jurgi Low were, nor did he have Low's tactical sense. Gregg lacks a bit of Low's tactical sense, too.
Gregg did not foresee that the Netherlands recognized that our midfield was a meat grinder - so they simply passed over it, to put our defense under more direct pressure. Instead of having only Adams as our holding defensive mid, Musah should have stayed back too. But Van Gaal lured us into attack, drew us forward, and then threw it out deep to the wings into open space to bypass our midfield and create one-on-one runs against our defenders.
But that could be a major turning point in teaching him that he has more to learn. It could make him a bit humble that he could be better at these things.
As much as Pulisic and McKennie came out publicly for Gregg, you had Joe Scally saying "He could work on simplifying some of his instructions, and realize this is a national team, not a club team."
Players, generally speaking can't take on all that information in such a short time in a 2 week international window. We maybe didn't play instinctive enough on offense because everyone is always concerned with taking up proper positions on the field instead of just attacking the opponent's goal.
On the other hand, this is the upside to coaching continuity right now, because he has implemented a whole new system unlike what the US has ever done before - although they were smart enough to make the stylistic change based around young US guys playing in Europe, where they are being trained in this style already.
So think about how having the same message sometimes gets stale when a coach stays too long; this time it might actually be to the team's benefit to better take on new more sophisticated concepts (at least for some of them ...).
And remember, Gregg has been our winningest coach, ever. And he did it building a new team from scratch. I feel like he has done an excellent job at recruitment and creating a culture. He froze out some guys that were talented (Brooks, Reyna), but were maybe a bit prima donnas.
That's not a bad thing, though. I just saw a Twitter clip of Weston McKennie apologizing to his team for getting a red card and missing the Canada final, and saying he hoped we all would learn from that, and not repeat his mistake. But he ended by saying, "There are enough great players in this room that I feel confident we are going to go out and win this game and raise that trophy."
Also hearing the Twitter leak of Pulisic saying to the team before the Mexico game, "We are NOT the ing underdogs against these guys any more. Let's go out there and make a statement!"
That is the kind of culture that Gregg Berhalter has played a huge part in building, by trusting an entire new generation of young American talent to grow into their own leaders. And it seems to be successful, because I honestly never remember such a talented US team before, from front to back.
