If we must play a 4-4-2

Bob Bradley's empty bucket midfield has exposed the USA's lack of a dominant central midfielder. With only two players in the middle you generally expect one to do the dirty work; winning loose balls, shutting down attackers, covering lots of ground; while the other bridges the gap between defense and offense, carries the ball foreword and orchestrates the attack. With the empty bucket (two defensive central midfielders) you expect both players to do the dirty work, and rely on the team to be able to transition to offense through strikers checking back and wingers tucking inside. Unfortunately for the US, our midfield seems to not cover enough ground in the center to disrupt the opponent, nor pose any sort of a quick transition to offense. We don't even seem to build the attack very well from the back. The obvious solution is that we put another man in the middle of the field, bringing the total to three central midfielders. We could swap out one of our forwards who seem to be useless without that transitional midfielder anyways, making a 4-5-1 formation, or push someone up from the back line and play a 3-5-2. Bob Bradley seems reluctant, if not adamantly opposed to playing anything but a 4-4-2. So then the solution must be found in personnel. We must find two central midfielders who as a tandem are able to both cover ground in the middle and play consistent balls to our attackers and wingers. We must also choose attackers who are able to check back to support the midfield, create space for themselves to receive passes, as well as hold possession longer than usual.

Why our personnel failed us against England:
Wolfe couldn't create space for himself, therefore rarely received the ball. And when he did get possession he could not keep it.
Clark and Bradley simply cannot cover enough ground in the midfield. Both are prone to reckless tackles and inconsistent passing. Bradley is the more promising of the two, and may be out of position based on his performance in Europe this season.
Beasley is out of form.

I believe the key to the USA's midfield struggle is Pablo Mastroeni. Until someone is able to disrupt the opponent the way that he has in the past and still can, he needs to be on the field. Let's hope that is why Bradley called him up for this next game. I think that with Pablo Mastroeni and anybody as our two central midfielders we can then get on with figuring out which of our attackers are the least useless. We have to start Freddy Adu. Here is how I'd like to see us start out against Spain unless Donovan can play or Bradley finally bails on the 4-4-2:


                 Freddy Adu Eddie Johnson

    Eddie Lewis                            Clint Dempsey

             Maurice Edu       Pablo Mastroeni

Heath Pearce                               Steve Churundalo

          Oguchi Onyewu       Carlos Bocanegra


                              Tim Howard

But really I think this would be better:

                               Jozzy Altidore

   

    Freddy Adu      Landon Donovan      Clint Dempsey

         

                  Maurice Edu    Pablo Mastroeni

Heath Pearce                                       Steve Churundalo

 

            Oguchi Onyewu     Carlo Bocanegra

                                  Tim Howard

USA friendly roster and line-up hopes

Here are the initial 33 players that will be used for the 3 upcoming USA friendlies against England, Argentina, and Spain:


G:
Dominic Cervi - no team
Brad Guzan - Chivas USA
Tim Howard - Everton
Troy Perkins - Valerenga
Chris Seitz - Real Salt Lake
D:
Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham
Dan Califf - Midtjylland
Steve Cherundolo - Hannover
Jay DeMerit - Watford
Frankie Hejduk - Columbus Crew
Oguchi Onyewu - Standard de Liege
Michael Orozco - San Luis
Heath Pearce - Hansa Rostock
Jonathan Spector - West Ham
M:
Freddy Adu - Benfica
DaMarcus Beasley - Glasgow Rangers
Michael Bradley - Heerenveen
Ricardo Clark - Houston Dynamo
Maurice Edu - Toronto
Benny Feilhaber - Derby County
Eddie Gaven - Columbus Crew
Sacha Kljestan - Chivas USA
Eddie Lewis - Derby County
Pablo Mastroeni - Colorado Rapids
F:
Jozy Altidore - New York Red Bulls
Brian Ching - Houston Dynamo
Kenny Cooper - Dallas
Clint Dempsey - Fulham
Landon Donovan - Los Angeles Galaxy
Nate Jaqua - Rheindorf Altach
Eddie Johnson - Fulham
Robbie Rogers - Columbus Crew
Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich

Here is who I'd like to see starting against England:

           Jozy Altidore

Landon Donovan   Freddy Adu Clint Dempsey

Maurice Edu    Michael Bradley

Eddie Lewis Steve Churundalo

Oguchi Onyewu  Carlos Bocanegra

Tim Howard

And really Pablo Mastoeni could be in there instead of either Edu or Bradley, and the attacking midfielders could be in any formation, just so long as we've got 3 guys in the middle. And for God sakes, will a left sided player please step up so I don't have to keep typing Eddie Lewis's name into line-ups.