Gregg Berhalter is a system coach. And right now that system isn’t working…
Men in Blazers recently said this on their podcast:
I think to use a biblical quote Gregg Berhalter is "a stiff-necked leader" and after the dust settles on a week of total bad vibes, I do fear we are paying a price for Gregg's club-infused emphasis on "system, system, system" because (and we've talked about this a lot) international football is such a fleeting creature. The teams are flung together, they are just beautiful fleeting things. They have barely an opportunity to train. And Gregg's ambitious desire to play out of the back, to deliver American, aggressive, vertical football--that needs repetition, that needs practice, that needs understanding, that needs chemistry, and the time that Gregg has as an international manager--not the club manager, loads of bloody time as a club manager--it just does not allow it.
But banging on--in every press conference--about "system, system, system" Gregg is inadvertently delivering a message to his young players: That the system is both more important than his player's form, but also their ability to influence games in key moments in games as individuals. It's deeply deeply restricting, constricting, all the -ictings. And the annoying part of it it is that so many of our players are just blessed with such skill: Pulisic, Brendan, Gio when fit, Weah ditto, I'll even say Pefok, but those improvisational skills are buried alive because they become slaves to that system.
And second, speaking to people on the inside: these players are training on so many things just to get Gregg's system in such little time that, not only are the mentally overwhelmed--as Gregg hinted upon reflection post-japan--but they're feeling physically exhausted too before they even take the field for the actual games. And we have less than 50 days to go before kickoff. Gregg can make changes--all is not lost. I want to be clear: we can still believe...but Gregg must simplify, simplify, simplify.
Wow… Let’s break this all down.
The first is that Gregg is a stiff necked leader and has a club emphasis of system, system, system. This is absolutely true. Even former players that defend Gregg’s coaching of the USMNT - looking at you Alexi - confirm that Gregg was not especially well liked as a player. An intense defender who took no shit from anyone. That’s great - but it provides an inflexible framework as a coach. One specific trait of some of the world’s best coaches is that they are malleable with their system and will take feedback from trusted partners. They’re able to be challenged. Klopp moved from a 4231 to a 433 and Pep has recently been pressing his teams in a 442.
We’ve seen what happens when someone challenges Gregg Berhalter on the field and in the press conferences. John Brooks was never to be seen again after arguing on the sideline during a World Cup Qualifying match.
Not only does this make the system untouchable, but it also puts everyone involved on edge. There are tangible outcomes because of this - just look at the japan game. USA kept playing the same way over and over even though it wasn’t working because nobody on the field is able to step up and challenge the system.
“Gregg’s ambitious plan to play out of the back needs practice, repetition, understanding, chemistry.” Yes - and national teams get together max five times a year. You won’t always have the same players available, and you may not have competitive fixtures. Consider this - Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola didn’t build their teams and their success in a day. In fact they both came under fire in their first few years for the growing pains that instituting a system cause.
Gregg Berhalter has coached less than 60 matches for the USMNT. Even if those were continuous games where he had a club team’s worth of practices and time, that is barely one season of games. An MLS team with preseason, cup matches, league matches, playoffs, and other friendlies can play upwards of 50 matches in a season.
If Gregg Berhalter was the coach of “club USMNT”, he would be just starting his second season. That is not enough time to successfully build a successful way of playing.
The entire second paragraph from Men in Blazers is spot on. Putting the system over a player is damaging to a roster that requires you to pick a best XI. To leave out a top producing striker in the Bundesliga and the captain center back of a mid table Premier League squad is criminal. Then we have to consider the mindset it puts into his players. With the system ever-present, the natural ability of someone like Christian Pulisic and Gio Reyna are constricted by what they must give to the system.
If Pulisic’s natural intention is to run at a defender and create chaos in the box, but the system demands that he recycle to his midfielder then that in itself is an issue. Multiply that by the 11 players on the field and you get a system that reduces the impact and effectiveness of our most talented players we’ve ever produced.
Players with skill and improvisation can’t replicate their club success with the national team, and we have to start asking questions why that is.
Speaking to people on the inside, players are exhausted physically and mentally. I’ve personally spoken with some that were in the September camp and the subjective opinion was that players were generally sad. Their body language and interactions did not promote a positive environment. That is a worry 50 days away from the World Cup.
At this point we have to hope. We hope that Gregg simplifies and unshackles our best players. We hope that players enter a positive club environment to get healthy and in-form. We hope for all of these unlikely things to push the USMNT past the group stage. Hope with me.
At this point my only hope is that if we fail at the WC (which looks likely) we fail spectacularly. Few if any shots on goal, zero goals scored and many goals allowed, exit with zero points. Then Berhalter will get fired and we have a chance of building toward 2026.
If we do even a halfway reasonable job in Qatar, he'll be retained and the nightmare will continue.