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Mauricio Pochettino’s first international break as manager of the United States men’s national team has ended with mixed results. The USMNT managed to beat a Panama side that didn’t punish them for their mistakes, but as the challenge for Mexico grew, that’s where the Red, White and Blue disappointedly lost 2-0 in Guadalajara.
It is a shame to see a seven-match unbeaten run against Mexico fail with such optimism in these times, but that is also the match that offers the opportunity to look at the group as a whole. Some issues that were a problem under Gregg Berhalter persisted despite the change in management, while others began to improve. So let’s assess Pochettino’s first stint in charge of the USMNT.
Results
You can’t hide from it, this is a window that should have delivered better results in terms of results. The match in Panama was a solid result to get back to basics for the USMNT with a shutout win, but going to Mexico without Christian Pulisic before Mark McKenzie had to be withdrawn from the line-up during pre-match warm-ups , a situation arose where the team had no punch. The USMNT put just one shot on goal and created a truly disappointing 0.27 expected goals total against Mexico. All that xG has also been created by replacements Kris Lund, Haji Wright and Brandon Vazquez.
In a way it shows how far the players have to go, but not testing Mexico is hard to swallow, even if it was a special moment for Andres Guardado’s retirement from the national team. Like Berhalter, Pochettino can’t go on the pitch and make the players execute a plan, but that doesn’t mean the plan couldn’t have been better in some cases.
Grade: C
Tactics
On the way to Mexico, Pochettino tried to use a similar system to the one that could beat Panama. The problem with that is that Pulisic created the most chances in the match against Panama and Mexico is a much better team than Panama, even with their recent problems. It led to Yunus Musah and Malik Tillman being isolated, while no one could get the ball to Josh Sargent, so he had to continue dropping deep rather than getting the ball in areas where he could lay off the other members of the attack.
Musah also looked great in the first game, but was forced to withdraw at half-time against Mexico with just ten touches to his name. This shows how far the USMNT drop-off is without Pulisic, but that will worry Pochettino.
Grade: C
Team management
There was much debate about Pochettino’s decision to send Zack Steffen, Marlon Fossey, Ricardo Pepi, Weston McKennie and Pulisic back to their clubs to address load and injury issues, but this could be one of his best moves of the period are. Of course you want to beat Mexico, but if you notice any problems with members of the team, it is crucial that you don’t push them beyond their limits. England were already dealing with the loss of Buykao Saka and if someone like Pulisic were to get injured for the USMNT, it would impact the USMNT’s chances in the Concacaf Nations League and beyond.
No friendly match is worth that and it also gave Pochettino a glimpse into his depth options. Their failure to make an impact could lead to him hitting the ground harder than expected in recruiting dual nationals. The fashion in the USMNT in recent years has been that these are the boys. The starting XI is great and rivals most teams in the world, but get past them and there are plenty of questions. It’s good for Pochettino to experience that firsthand, but now the focus must be on solving it. It will take buy-in from the squad to reach the next level, but if they can’t do that under Pochettino then there’s a good chance they won’t improve under any manager.
Grade: A