I see this question a lot and think it would be really beneficial for us to go through a case study of exactly this so that we’re all on the same page going into Copa America.
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This is going to be quite an in-depth diagnosis of tactics, so if you’re a nerd like me who is hungry to learn that’s amazing!
This is not a defense of or an attack on Gregg Berhalter. This is meant to be an objective study on tactics. I’m not here to tell you that they’re good or bad, right or wrong, but just what they are and what they look like.
So let’s start at the basics. Gregg has been the coach of the United States for 5 years, and throughout that time he’s changed how his team has played, but never wavered from the why which in his words is “disorganize the other team with the ball.” Okay… What does that mean?
One thing I try to coach young kids on is the fact that the ball moves faster than you can run. So Berhalter essentially wants to find ways to possess the ball and move it with passing patterns that create opportunities and space for his teams to attack.
The modern approach in the “how” to do this is pretty simple - create numerical advantages, often called “overloads”.
To understand where we currently are I think it would be helpful to know where we came from and how it developed.
Phase 1 | 2018-2019
At the beginning of his tenure with the USA, Gregg berhalter was just coming off of a generally good stint as Columbus Crew manager. His teams were famous within the league for being good in possession and one of the ways they did that was having a defensive midfielder drop between the centerbacks with the ball.
What this does is give you an additional player who is good with their feet to help build out of the back and break a high press. When Gregg took the reins with the US, he tried to build a similar style, but there wasn’t necessarily a reliable defensive midfielder who fit the profile. Tyler Adams at this point in time was still a teenager and Wil Trapp - Gregg’s guy in Columbus wasn’t a national team caliber player. Jackson Yueill was another option but again was quickly found out as a player below the level needed for elite international football.
The other issue with dropping a midfielder into defense is that the midfield and center of the pitch is where you want more players and to hold the ball. Think about it… the goal is in the middle of the pitch, the closer and more direct line of sight you have to goal, the more dangerous your possession is. This first possession-based style was like moving your queen in chess from the center of the board and trapping it in a corner.
Remember - throughout all of this we want to disorganize the other team with the ball. In his first approach he tried to do this by providing an extra passer in the deep buildup, but the player profile wasn’t available, and against opponents that absorbed pressure the US found it difficult to break through compact teams. On March 21, 2019 Gregg Berhalter made his first significant change in the how while keeping the why.
Phase 2 | 2019-2020
Tyler Adams started against Ecuador as a right back, with Tim Ream starting at leftback. Ream is usually considered a centerback. Gregg’s idea was to still hold three players across the backline, but this time invert Tyler Adams into the midfield next to Wil Trapp. With possession the team lined up in a 3-2-2-3 formation, an early sign of trying to find a more modern approach borrowing ideas from the greats like Pep Guardiola.
Having a fullback invert into the midfield means that instead of staying wide near the sidelines, the fullback moves into the middle of the field during possession.
By moving into the midfield, the fullback helps out the other midfielders, giving your team more control over the ball and making it easier to keep possession. This move also creates an advantage in numbers in the midfield. With more players in the middle, your team can pass the ball around more easily and find gaps in the opponent’s defense. When the fullback moves inside, it opens up space on the wings. This allows your wingers or attacking players to stay wide and stretch the opponent’s defense, making it harder for them to cover everyone.
Now this idea didn’t really work for long or in practice. First because Tyler Adams is a much better natural midfielder than he is a right back, and second because in the end the US still lacked fire power across the front 3, and didn’t have a creative player to find passes from the midfield. In this GGG era there was a lot of possession, but not a lot of goals.
While Gregg did scrap the Tyler Adams idea quite quickly, it was obvious he was trying to find the next iteration of the system. He didn’t settle on one specific idea until after the long Covid pause where the US restarted their play in a 6-2 win over Panama on November 16, 2020.
Phase 3 | 2020-2024ish
The next phase is the longest and most successful so far, from about 2020 until the end of his first tenure after the 2022 World Cup and somewhat up until right now. I would most simply explain it as a focus on overlapping fullbacks.
The first two iterations of Gregg’s system required three players as part of the backline, and the one constant across those systems was the lack of goals being scored or in general danger being created. As Antonee Robinson and Sergino Dest developed into complete fullbacks that contributed in both defense and attack, Gregg decided the best course of action was to utilize the strengths of his squad.
Overlapping fullbacks are when the fullbacks move up the field and run past the wingers or wide midfielders. This tactic is used to add extra attacking support from the flanks. By doing this, the fullbacks create an overload on the sides, which can confuse the opposing defenders and pull them out of position. This movement allows the wingers to cut inside towards the goal or take advantage of the space created by the fullbacks' runs.
Additionally, overlapping fullbacks provide width to the attack. By staying wide and moving forward, they stretch the opponent's defense horizontally, making it harder for the defense to stay compact. This extra width can create more crossing opportunities, allowing the fullbacks to deliver dangerous balls into the penalty area for strikers to attack.
Now we’re cookin. When it works it looks beautiful, and it was working more often than not for the United States, helping them win three consecutive Nations Leagues, a Gold Cup, and qualification to the knockout round at the 2022 World Cup. When it doesn’t work there are usually two main issues.
The first regularly occurs against teams that bunker inside their own box. Remember how I said the goal is in the middle of the pitch and therefore the dangerous areas to possess the ball is in the middle? Well having your fullbacks overlap the wingers adds players into the wide spaces instead of the middle.
The second issue is somewhat connected. Having only two defenders to stay back means when you lose possession with your fullbacks high up the pitch, suddenly the wide channels are open for the other team to counter attack. There is no better match to showcase the issues with this system than the USA’s 3-1 loss to the Netherlands in the round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup.
This is a Gregg Berhalter paradox. Against good teams that are happy to sit back and let us keep the ball we get hammered. Netherlands 3-1, Colombia 5-1, Germany 3-1. Against good teams that also try to possess the ball and press high the USMNT regularly looks better with a simple eye test. Ghana 4-0, Mexico 3-0, Morocco 3-0, England 0-0 and Brazil 1-1. My personal opinion is that in general, a more open game favors our squad’s speed and provides more space to find our best players in dangerous areas.
Phase 4 | 2024
So the overlapping fullbacks are where we currently were up until about three games ago. There’s been a trend in the recent 2-0 Nations League win over Mexico, the 5-1 loss to Colombia, and the 1-1 draw against Brazil, which is that Gio Reyna or a two-way midfielder has been recycling into the spot usually reserved for the fullback during build-up. Only once the ball has safely made it into the middle and/or attacking third does Gio Reyna move back into his regularly scheduled position.
Now… I can’t read Gregg’s mind but I do think this is his next evolution of trying to get the best parts of each of his systems without as much downside.
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