What did Pochettino change since the last time USMNT took on Jamaica?

The last time the USMNT took on Jamaica it was March of this year. Gregg Berhalter’s squad narrowly avoided defeat in the 23/24 Nations League semi-finals in a 3-1 win. The narrow part came from the fact that the US needed a 96’ minute own goal to get to extratime, and two Haji Wright goals to come away with the victory.

Since this was Mauricio Pochettino’s competitive opener, I was curious to see how the shape and strategy changed since the last match against the same opponent. The changes aren’t groundbreaking, but it does signal specific markers in how Pochettino is creating his own mark on the squad.

Back in March, the US opened in Berhalter’s preferred flat 4-3-3 formation with Yunus Musah as the holding midfielder.

The obvious difference in Pochettino’s competitive debut came with a 4-2-3-1 with the creative use of Yunus Musah on the right side of the midfield five.

Can we give a round of applause for our graphics department actually putting the formation?

Let’s now walk through the different phases of play and how Pochettino’s approach differed.

Buildup

Berhalter

This was a classic Berhalter 4-3-3 with wide fullbacks pushing high up the pitch. The buildup strategy centered around two options: Using the two centerbacks and Yunus Musah to create a central triangle, or get it high and wide to Robinson or Scally to isolate the back on the wings.

Jamaica was able to stifle this pretty much all game by matching numbers in the middle, being physical when Musah received the pass, and therefore Jamaica forced the ball into tight areas near the sideline. Since the midfield and defensive line didn’t leave much room between for the US to exploit, most passes to the fullbacks ended up being recycled back to the center backs to start again.

In this match, the US had 78% possession with 0 big chances created in the 90’ regulation time.

Pochettino

Pochettino’s squad in comparison (while on a completely horrible pitch not made for possession) kept 59% possession but had three big chances created. One of the most glaring differences is a move to build up in a back three, while moving Antonee Robinson into a position to occupy the same defender marking Christian Pulisic.

Joe Scally created an additional option on the backline, and the build-up formation resembled a much more “meta” shape similar to what we see at Arsenal and Manchester City affectionately known as “the box” midfield.

Manchester City’s build-up shape

Using the two holding midfielders allowed the US to keep a much more stable shape while in possession while still providing additional passing lanes from the build-up. The additional benefit to this is that your team in general is in a much better position to stop counter-attacks which can be especially helpful against quick attackers like Leon Bailey and Andre Gray.

Attacking

Berhalter

One of the biggest gripes in Berhalter’s time with the US was his insistence on possession vs quality chances. Despite having the majority of possession, many of the chances against Jamaica were created from isolated 1v1 dribbles where Timo Weah or Christian Pulisic tried to cross into the box where the majority of our attackers were congregating.

There was very little creativity in this, and it showed by how easily Jamaica thwarted our attacks. What I noticed in this game was that we were forcing the ball to the feet of Weah and Pulisic to isolate them against the Jamaican fullback. Rarely did we try to create a numbers advantage or overload the side where the ball was.

Pochettino

Last night’s 1-0 win and our attacking creativity stands in the starkest contrast to the Berhalter era. The 4-2-3-1 gave the USMNT options to break through the middle, or create overloads on the wings.

What I thought was particularly interesting was that the two fullbacks were not interchangeable in the buildup. Joe Scally was explicitly the third defender, while Robinson was the one pushing higher and asking questions of the back-post defender to either mark Pulisic or pass him off to a central defender.

This is exactly how the goal was scored - with Pulisic floating central, pulling a central defender out of place, and leaving the space for Ricardo Pepi to run in and scuff a shot off the post and in.

Other areas

Unfortunately with two young children I don’t have time right now to do a complete breakdown of every facet of the matches, but I do want to also say it wasn’t all perfect. Jamaica had a good twenty minute period in the second half where they had all the momentum. It’s a credit to the US that they stuck through it and came out of an away CONCACAF match with a win.

Mark McKenzie absolutely is running up the depth chart, and when Tim Ream turns 70 years old next year, we may have finally turned a corner on our center back talent pool.