Mauricio Pochettino reveals why he wants organized chaos for Pulisic and USMNT: ‘I hate being predictable’

Morristown, NJ – With nine months to go until the World Cup 2026, the American national team of the American gentlemen is the purgatory of the timeline and they experience the friction of the calendar, the stop-start character of international football and the weight of expectations. It is still unclear how much time is enough time for a host country to prepare for what spectators hope that he will be a groundbreaking performance next summer, but almost a year after the job, head coach Mauricio Pochettino has determined his agenda – this month’s friendly matches against South Korea and Japan Will be the last chance to expand the player pool, the approximately 10 games on the calendar afterwards enough to refine things.

The Pochettino agenda is rooted in the fact that the mission was reached during this summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup, even when his group surrendered an early lead and eventually lost in the final of Mexico. Spending a large part of the summer with inexperienced players instead of the veterans of the team, the team describes this month’s camp as a continuation of the lessons of the Gold Cup, a tournament that offered his first real chance to work with the USMNT more than a few days at a time.

“[Being] It is successful to keep what we started building in the Gold Cup, “said Pochettino on Friday prior to a friendship to South Korea.” It is always good to win, because that gives you the trust and trust, but I think the goal is to add players, new faces that are really starting to buy what we started to buy in the world cup in the world Cup in the world Cup in the world Cope in the world Cup in the world Cope in the world cup. They must know each other. “

For the players who played at the Gold Cup, the fundamental elements of Pochettino’s intense, attack-oriented style of the game are starting to become clear, and the fact that they have almost had a full week to prepare for South Korea, made it easy for them to help the others catch up.

“I think they will definitely remain the same,” midfielder Jack McMlynnsaid a participant of Gold Cup, about the core principles of the team, “starting with intensity and just fighting for each other. … I think that probably just a few of the ways we insist, just work with some of the new guys here in the camp. It is pretty similar to how we were in Gold Cup because we will have a good week to have them in it and just have them in it and just have them in it and just have them in it.”

The responsibilities differ for defenders who act as an anchor for the team.

“Offensing he gives us a lot of freedom to do what we want,” Defender and colleague Gold Cup participant Chris Richards said: “But I think defensively, I come from playing a five in the back, so I may be less aggressive if I get out, but make sure that people around you are in the right position.”

That juxtaposition is a key file of Pochettin’s tactical vision for the USMNT and a grim memory of an important pain for this team in recent years. The USMNT currently has several impressive attacking players such as Christian PulisicHe described Richards as ‘Our Star Boy’, but the group has rarely closed a really impressive attacking performance together. Injuries for different players have made it difficult for Pochettino to find that balance with a first-choice group, but is a priority of him, especially because this month he chooses the performance above the result.

“That is the thing that I hate, be predictable,” said Pochettino, “but you need these kinds of talents, talented players who can do different things by respecting the organization, but have the opportunity to also create the chaos in the opponent because he creates the chaos in the other team, but I don’t know if I can do it.”

His attempts in creating organized chaos will be helped by the reintroduction of Sergino DestWho is finally back with the group after an ACL injury last year that kept him outside for about a year. Richards said Dest, “brings something to the team that we might miss in the summer” and is “probably the most attacking fullback in the world”, the player comfortably on both the left and the right flanks. It is unclear how great a role that Dest will play this month describes itself as close by, but not yet with full fitness, although he is perhaps the key to Pochettin’s freely flowing stylistic plans for the USMNT.

“He is a player who we definitely see a ability to play high, to play with him, his quality, use him as a midfielder, using [him in] Different setups, different positions, “said Pochettino.” For me, the most important [thing] Should we find the right organization, but from this organization, from that position, you must have the freedom to move, to create superiority. When he plays inside, he also has the opportunity to create … and to have room on the line because he is a player you see there and has the capacity to move forward and be a player who scores goals. “

Dest met Pochettino for the first time in June for a pre-Gold Cup training camp, although the coaching staff wanted the player to give a complete return to fitness to fitness instead. His first impressions of Pochettino and the company, however, are positive because he plans to re-confirm himself as a go-t for the USMNT.

“I feel that it might be a bit stricter at the moment and we have some more things we have to do,” said Dest about the current vibes compared to what he experienced among the predecessor of Pochettino, Gregg Berhalter. “The staff sometimes visited me during my injury, so I really appreciated that. … I love the staff. I just like them. They approach me well and also, they helped me too. When I returned to Europe in June, I went Barcelona And of course they live there, so they have some contacts, so they helped me set up some training sessions. “

The strictness is perhaps the point. Pochettino used his first year at work to extend the player pool to around 60 players, a daring choice that some has seen as sacrificing chemistry, which increases the pressure on a team with a lot of potential, but with few versions or results show for it. However, the head coach has insisted on not leaving stone undisturbed in the recruitment of players. Noahkai BanksThe 18-year-old 18-year-old who was able to earn his first limit this month.

“He’s very young, but it’s good to see him and because he can go to the next level quickly. These kinds of players always, you have to understand, because then you can be surprised and say that we did not have the opportunity to see or know how he is,” Pochettino said, afraid of the idea of ​​learning the talent of a player too late. “That is things like that you have to prepare [for] And prepared because sometimes his transformation or the way his path is, may be faster than another and he can arrive [in] six, seven or eight months and he can be the best center back in Germany. … At the moment it is not as if we have 10 center -backs and then he is the 11th because the team is really open. “

The argument is reminiscent of a well -known theme in the first year of Pochettino at work. They must actually earn the observed leaders for World Cup selection. This period of experiments, also surprising for many who are considering the limited run-up to the World Cup, has been designed to do that exactly as Pochettino can make it a little further on to answer questions about answering questions whether or not this experiment has worked.

“I agree that there is probably no hierarchy anymore and that you are just as good as your last camp, so I think that is a kind of mentality that the training staff gave us,” said Richards. “Every time there is a chance to come in here and earn your place and if you would choose the selection tomorrow, it can change completely, probably in the next day. Every time you enter the camp, there is a chance to earn your place so that your place is never safe.”