Can the United States Play Attacking Soccer Under Bruce Arena?
Talking on Sirius XM Radio, Bruce Arena said, “There’s enough young attacking talent to be aggressive going forward. That young energy will help our pressing game as well.”
So, who are those attacking players? Bobby Wood and Christian Pulisic top that list, and the third name on the list has to be Sebastian Lletget who played for Bruce Arena on the LA Galaxy.
Lletget is the attacking midfielder or Number 10 that the United States needs, and having both Pulisic and Lletget playing behind Wood can only help the United States to be a more dangerous attacking team. Benny Feilhaber and Lee Nguyen are also on that list. Those two attacking midfielders are widely considered the best playmakers in the American player pool along with Sacha Kljestan, who is slightly below those two in terms of skill and creativity.
Both Wood and Pulisic are dangerous enough to allow the United States to attack opposing defenses, rather than bunkering in and trying not to lose. The fact that the United States also has playmakers to feed Pulisic and Wood only makes those two more of a scoring threat. What the U.S. was really missing was link-up play between the midfield and the attack, and that connection was missing when Jürgen Klinsmann would start both Jermaine Jones and Michael Bradley in the center of the midfield with no attacking midfielder.
With the LA Galaxy, Arena favored the 4-4-2 formation, and he used his outside midfielders to provide more of the creativity and playmaker. This formation isn’t much in the way of attacking soccer, but Arena could use the 4-2-3-1 formation to have more of an attacking lineup.
There can be no excuse for Arena not playing attacking soccer against CONCACAF opponents in the next World Cup qualifying games. Arena has the personnel to provide enough defending in the midfield while also having a midfield that can keep possession and create scoring opportunities.
It’s hard to see Feilhaber or Nguyen and Lletget not playing under Arena. He’ll have to figure who he wants to start with Bradley in the holding midfield roles, and maybe this is the spot for Darlington Nagbe to play his preferred Number 8 role. Almost anything would be more attack-minded than Klinsmann’s overly defensive and illogical tactics.
Looking at the available players right now, a Front Six of Bradley and Nagbe behind Lletget, Feilhaber, and Pulisic, who would be behind Wood would certainly be more of an attacking lineup. There is definitely hope for a more exciting and effective brand of soccer under Arena, who at the very least knows the player pool better than Klinsmann.
To be very specific, both Feilhaber and Nguyen are qualified to orchestrate the United States’ attack and control the team’s passing, and both Lletget and Pulisic and technical, creative, and quick wing options who can beat people 1v1, create for their teammates, and score. The United States has found an exciting and dangerous striker in Wood, and he has scored and can score against top opponents.