U.S. Men’s National Team coach Gregg Berhalter only deploys the 4-3-3 formation, and his tactics consist of high-pressing the opponent in order to pressure them into making a mistake and giving the ball away. Therefore, the defense is the offense, so he doesn’t believe in deploying a playmaker because the high-pressing itself is the playmaker.
Berhalter’s soccer philosophy is something of a combination of nerd tactics and gimmicky tactics based on Dutch football. He thinks he can choreograph the ball’s movement before the game on a whiteboard or diagram, and this philosophy runs contrary to the artistry and impromptuness of Brazilian futebol arte or Spanish football or French football. Former U.S. international, Herculez Gomez, now an ESPN FC and ESPN Deportes pundit, has described Berhalter as a diagram or whiteboard nerd, and it appears that Berhalter is basically unwilling to alter his tactics or use a playmaker.
Since high-pressing is used by many of world football’s top club teams and coaches, you might wonder why it’s a problem for Berhalter to use similar tactics. The answer is that high-pressing doesn’t work against top teams who can easily pass around your pressing while you run around in vain wasting your energy. In short, it’s an inferior solution compared to fielding players who can keep possession, pass out of trouble, and create scoring chances.
During Berhalter’s tenure, a small segment of the USMNT fan base has focused on criticizing Berhalter’s player selection over his tactics, and their rationale was that Berhalter isn’t going to change his tactics. It doesn’t make sense why these critics think that Berhalter would change his player selections when he wouldn’t change his tactics. If someone is opposed to changing his tactics, why would they change their player selections? If the coach doesn’t listen to criticism on one aspect of his coaching, then why would he listen to criticism on another aspect of his coaching?
These critics think people complaining about the tactics should stop complaining, but they think they themselves shouldn’t stop complaining about the player selections. But, these people are nonsensical, as they also accuse Berhalter of being biased towards MLS players, when he barely selects any and when he himself played 15 years of his professional career in Germany and The Netherlands. Therefore, if people are going to criticize Berhalter’s player selections, then it’s just as valid to criticize his tactics.
The problem with Berhalter’s tactics in CONCACAF was that the U.S. wasn’t able to create scoring chances through the middle of the field from the run of play because the opposition bunkered with eight guys, and it was difficult to break down the opposition with the U.S.’ midfield formation. The reason why it was difficult for the U.S.’ midfield formation to break down the midfield and the defense was that the opposition’s midfield essentially double-marked the U.S.’ two 8’s who were essentially playing as right and left midfielders.
The opposing teams’ right center midfielder and right wing would double-team the U.S.’s 8 on the left side and vice versa. The opposition’s two forwards would double-team the U.S.’ defensive midfielder Tyler Adams. Since the U.S.’ midfielders were separated so much, it was hard for them to combine with each other to break down the opposition, and they didn’t attack through the middle because they would get the ball so far out wide that they had to dribble too far to get to the middle. Many fans and the media praised Yunus Musah and Weston McKennie’s ability to dribble forward to advance the ball, but the distance they had to dribble to get into the final third or near the penalty area was too far. It was like trying to swim across a pool of crocodiles or sharks without getting eaten.
Despite the same problem of lack of creation through the middle, Berhalter wouldn’t change anything, and the fans blamed Sebastian Lletget for what was a tactical problem. Fans falsely accused Lletget of not being up to the level despite his obvious technical ability, attacking flair, assist ability, and scoring ability. Fans who didn’t understand tactics focused their criticism on an MLS player, even though in later games when Adams, McKennie, and Musah made up the three-man midfield there was still no creation through the middle, and the problem wasn’t solved.
According to FotMob, Lletget received ratings of 6.3, 7.1, 8.0, and 6.8 in his last four World Cup qualifying matches, and FotMob isn’t an American company – and it isn’t affiliated with MLS. Lletget received a 6.8 rating in the game where a small subsection of the fans labeled him ”awful.” Herculez Gomez pointed out the bias in the criticism of MLS players in a video interview with USMNT fan media YouTubers, Tactical Manager and 11 Yanks, but this subsection of the fans simply didn’t care. This helps to prove that tactics and no playmaker rather than Lletget or MLS players were the real problem with the USMNT.
Many top teams and coaches stick their playmaker somewhere in the Front 3 if they use a 4-3-3 formation, but Gregg Berhalter doesn’t do that. What the team needs is for Christian Pulisic or Gio Reyna (if healthy) to drop centrally to play this playmaker role, but it seems that Berhalter is opposed to this. One of the players will just have to do this anyway. Gio Reyna has done it before, and so has Pulisic, who oddly was criticized by the fans for dropping too deep and for trying to force too many things and for holding the ball too long. It would appear that the American fans and media weren’t smart enough to understand what he was doing. Even Ricardo Pepi dropped back from his Number 9 position because he wasn’t getting service, and the fans and the media also criticized him for not scoring when he wasn’t getting any service.
Both the coach and the fans are getting their tactics wrong. The U.S. must use a playmaker to link the midfield to the attack and to help break down teams who park the bus and bunker. Using gimmicky high-pressing isn’t a recipe for beating Brazil or any of the other soccer giants like France, Portugal, Argentina, Germany, and Spain who can’t be defeated by gimmicky tactics.
It’s important to note that Brazil, France, Argentina, and Portugal don’t base their tactics on high-pressing. They may press when they lose the ball to win it back, but they don’t press in lieu of possessing the ball.
These Berhalter tactics aren’t working, and the fans and the fan media are mistaken to think that player selection is the primary issue, as almost any American soccer fan knows who the best American soccer players are, since there aren’t too many in European football.