USMNT: The big Gregg Berhalter debate

The USMNT attempted to play out from the back against Mexico on Friday night. It didn’t work. As a result, Gregg Berhalter has been widely criticised for his tactical approach. Here is my take on the raging debate surrounding the US head coach.

If you were to read the comment boards and social media feeds afte the U.S. Men’s National Team 3-0 shellacking at the hands of Mexico on Friday night, you would think that head coach Gregg Berhalter has never coached a football team in his life.

People calling for his immediate sacking, saying that he is in over his head, others protesting against his apparent stupidity and tactical stubbornness, more still wailing at USSF’s decision to hire him in the first place when he clearly was the not the ‘right man for the job’, whatever that even means.

The USMNT were wildly outplayed by El Tri on Friday. The 3-0 scoreline was utterly fair, which shows the gaping disparity between these two teams at present. And a lot of the US’s problems stemmed from Berhalter’s insistence to play out from the back. Indeed, Mexico’s second goal came directly from an ill-advised Zack Steffen pass that was intercepted and then slotted into the bottom corner.

There have been plenty of calls for Berhalter to abandon his identity, change his system, and look to use a more pragmatic approach. After one game. But Berhalter veered the opposite way. He actually said he was ‘happier about this game than the Gold Cup final’, in which the USMNT lost only 1-0 to Mexico earlier this summer.

That may seem mad to many, and indeed fans have not been shy in letting their feelings known here, but Berhalter is right. He should be happier. This is Graham Potter, now Brighton and Hove Albion manager, speaking — when he was the manager of Swansea City — about his playing-out-from-the-back style:

"“This is the challenge, because we can talk about identity but if you’re losing 1-0 or 2-0 at home and you make a backwards pass [to invite the opposition press], because you want to play through teams, it’s not greeted with universal: ‘We’re working towards our identity here.’ ‘Identity’ and ‘philosophy’ are words that, if you’ve not won, there’s quite a lot of people that don’t care about that.”"

Swansea City were extremely inconsistent under Potter last season, but their underlying tactical philosophies were clear to see and they ended the season a far more complete team than when they started. They also handed Potter no money to invest, stripped him of his best players, and asked him to perform miracles. With a clear identity, he did.

And then there is England manager Gareth Southgate. If there is one team in world football that should not be playing out from the back, it is the egregiously ancient England, who much prefer a blooded Terry Butcher to kick lumps out of attackers and lump footballs into stands. After England’s defeat to the Netherlands in the summer, in which several mistakes were made when playing out from the back, Southgate said:

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"“It’s easy to turn round and kill them, but we have some defenders who are prepared to take the ball in areas where many defenders in the world aren’t, and it’s been the bedrock of how we’ve progressed and we have to continue it.”"

And it is not just the managers. Southgate was supported by his left-back Ben Chilwell:

"“The style that we want to play, that has been brought in over the past few years, is obviously a style of football which can be risky, but the rewards are high if you get out of the press.”"

You see, Berhalter, like Southgate and Potter before him, is trying to develop an identity, a style, a system, a way of playing that the USMNT can learn and eventually master. And as the modern game is increasingly illustrating, that must involve an ability to play out from the back, with the greater control through possession it provides critical to consistent success.

Next. USMNT Vs Mexico: 3 things we learned. dark

Was this a bad performance by the USMNT? Yes, absolutely. And were mistakes made by Berhalter and his players? You bet. But results do not matter in friendlies. These are the matches to experiment, to set out your stall, to teach the systems and the philosophies that you want your team to play with and in. But as Potter rightly says, ‘‘Identity’ and ‘philosophy’ are words that, if you’ve not won, people don’t care about.’

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