Pochettino, pitch control & penetration

On the early differences between the new USMNT head coach and his predecessor

I wrote what I think might be my first USMNT column since the 2022 World Cup this week, and it’s mostly just a boilerplate breakdown of who I think should be rostered for this year’s Camp Cupcake. Nothing groundbreaking here.

Buried within it, scattered across the “right back” and “central midfield” segments, though, is the one big observation I think it’s fair to offer about the US under Mauricio Pochettino thus far, in comparison to what they were under predecessor Gregg Berhalter. It’s about the risk sliders, which were set to about 95% “mitigation” under Berhalter, but have been bumped down substantially under Poch.

Here:

That’s when it looks good (thanks to Ben Wright for that vid).

Here:

That’s when it looks bad (thanks to John Muller for the clip).

Releasing the central midfielders to make aggressive, direct, off-ball runs like that – sacrificing pitch control for penetration, and thus putting more pressure on the backline to choose harder, more aggressive passes – is, though four games, basically all of it. And understand that this isn’t really a tactical shift, nor a formational one. Pochettino is still using a 4231ish 433 that morphs into either a 3-2-2-3 or a 2-3-2-3 in possession, just like Berhalter did.

The shift, instead, is philosophical. Poch wants his central midfielders to explore space both between and through the lines more often than Berhalter ever did. Poch definitely wants his backline choosing riskier passes than Berhalter did. He is less concerned about rest defense throughout all of it.

The US scored five goals in two games against Jamaica because of that. They conceded two and a PK (that Matt Turner saved) because of it.

This was the change I expected, and the one I (and almost everyone else who’s watched the USMNT the past few years) asked for. I am, at least, getting what I wanted.

I think there’s reason for optimism. But it’s early, and even aggressive, front-foot managers can change their minds if they start seeing too many crooked numbers. So keep an eye on what the midfielders are doing off-ball next month, and what the defenders are doing on it. We might not learn much about the depth chart, but we could pick up some hints as to how committed to this philosophy Pochettino is for the long term.