USMNT grades: After Mauricio Pochettino’s first window, USA Soccer has a long way to go under its new manager

Mauricio Pochettino’s first international break as manager of the United States men’s national team has come to a close with mixed results. The USMNT were able to defeat a Panama side that didn’t punish them for their mistakes, but when the challenge grew facing Mexico, that’s where the Red, White, and Blue disappointed falling 2-0 in Guadalajara.

It’s a shame to see a seven match unbeaten run against Mexico fall during these times with so much optimism but that’s also the game that provides a chance to take a look at the pool as a whole. Some things that were issues under Gregg Berhalter persisted despite the managerial change, while others did begin to improve so let’s grade Pochettino’s first window in charge of the USMNT.

Results

There’s no hiding from it, this is a window that should’ve gone better results wise. The Panama game was a solid result to get back to basics for the USMNT with a shutout victory, but going to Mexico without Christian Pulisic before Mark McKenzie had to be withdrawn from the lineup during prematch warmups created a situation where the team lacked punch. The USMNT only put one shot on target creating a truly disappointing total of  0.27 expected goals against Mexico. All of that xG was also created by substitutes Kris Lund, Haji Wright, and Brandon Vazquez.

In one way, it shows how far the depth players need to go, but it’s hard to stomach not testing Mexico even if it was a special moment for Andres Guardado’s sendoff 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 that in some cases the plan couldn’t have been better.

Grade: C

Tactics

Heading to face Mexico, Pochettino looked to use a similar system to the one that was able to defeat Panama. The issue with that is Pulisic created the most chances in the Panama match and Mexico is a much better team than Panama, even with their recent struggles. It led to isolating Yunus Musah and Malik Tillman while no one could get the ball to Josh Sargent so he had to keep dropping deep instead of getting the ball in areas where he could lay off to the other members of the attack. 

Musah also looked great in the first game but had to be withdrawn at the half against Mexico with only 10 touches to his name. This shows just how far the USMNT drop off is without Pulisic but that will cause worry for Pochettino. 

Grade: C

Squad management

There was plenty of discussion about Pochettino’s decision to send Zack Steffen, Marlon Fossey, Ricardo Pepi, Weston McKennie, and Pulisic back to their clubs to deal with load management and injury issues, but this may be one of his best moves during the window. Of course, you want to defeat Mexico, but when you notice issues with members of the squad, not pushing them past their limits is critical. England already had to deal with losing Buykao Saka and if someone like Pulisic was injured for the USMNT, that would impact the USMNT’s chances at the Concacaf Nations League and beyond.

No friendly is worth that and it also gave Pochettino a look at his depth options. Their failure to impress may see him hit the ground harder than expected to recruit dual nationals. The mode with the USMNT for the past few years has been that these are the guys. The starting XI is great and competes with most teams in the world, but go past them and there are plenty of questions. It’s good for Pochettino to experience that with his own eyes, but now the focus must be on fixing it. It will take buy in from the squad to get to the next level but if they can’t do it under Pochettino, odds are that they won’t improve under any manager.

Grade: A