#please vlatko

See the thing is, she keeps having great assists?

I said this for another uswnt where she started and stayed all 90. She had significant input in every goal. She absolutely sucked in individual plays and in shooting to goal but every goal had her on the assist.

I don't know that luck is the word actually, because it takes skill to still be involved in plays, but she is NOT a player that can score individually there and that is as much a part of the game for this NT as multiple player plays.

I mean, think about it. Look at our amazing defensive options. CB: Becky, Abby, Tierna. FB: Dunn, KO, Midge, Alana (take your pick for Sonnett because she can play any position in the backline) I'm pretty sure Andi is more of a defensive mid so I'd have her holding with Julie. Sam, Rose, Lindsey (Kristie too if Vlatko decides to keep her on the team, hopefully) could be the 3 attacking mids. With 2 forwards up top, I'd love to see a Preath combo. I also like the idea of Mal and Sophia up top too (or even Alex and Lynn) Jill was very set with a 4-3-3 and I get it, it's an old reliable. But just like you and anon, I too would like to see different variations of lineup formations in the near future.

welcome to the "enough with 4-3-3 GET CREATIVE" squad

it truly boggles the mind that no matter who they're playing against, the uswnt walks out with the exact same formation every single time. It always manages to piss me off and I hate it.

I think that commentators/journalists are not immune to seeing league potential and skills and expecting NT greatness. And that's as true for Lynn as it is for a lot of other players. Please don't make that mistake. Great club players don't always make great NT players and that's perfectly fine. The NT isn't everything, and players can still have stellar careers without the NT!!!!

By the time the world cup rolled around there was so much going on about Lynn setting league records in goals and assists, and on her absences from the NT. Some journalists are more focused on the perceived sly that is ignoring a player of this skill, and not on the contentious reality of being a coach. Let's not forget Lynn was in the same list as Tobin, Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd and Alex Morgan to name a few. Players that not only aren't coming from a league team that is years ahead of its competitors in terms of resources and coaching, they're also players that have consistently fit the mold for the national team. They play the game that their coach asks them to play, and as a coach it's very hard to balance a winning team full of potential and a fan base asking for everyone under the sun to get called up. Jill Ellis suffered, much like Paul Riley, from an embarrassment of riches. But if she didn't see Lynn's talent translating appropriately to the chemistry she was building in the NT, then she wasn't going to get called up, and that was that.

Vlatko for all his good choices seems to be focusing more on the players that were "overlooked" in the Ellis era, as well as the prospects. And that isn't a bad thing! But it is a bad thing to ignore the prospect pool left behind by the old coach just to bring in a player because of their league record. Lynn Williams may still be a consistent scoring machine, she may run really fast, she may be a great player for her league team, but none of these are good reasons to try and shoehorn her into a team she doesn't fit into properly. It's like fitting a square leg in a triangle shaped hole, it's just not gonna work.

Commentators are seeing her raw potential, and there's plenty of that! She has a great mind for the game, quick feet, really good passing skills, she's pretty strong, remarkably confident on the ball, and she clearly loves what she does. But it doesn't mean that the reward for her hard work should be a spot in a national team she can't seem to blend into. That's where coaches and journalists differ and I think the differences are important!

(That being said I still think she'll keep getting call ups because keeping her off the team would cause a massive kerfuffle and I imagine Vlatko and his staff want to avoid that at all costs, which sucks because I think she's taking up a spot that could be better filled by other players, and she would probably feel more confident in her own game if she was always with a team that she can fit into)

OH YES

I do love a 3-2-3-2. Any variation that leaves any 3 midfielders free to support one or two strikers up front is a beautiful thing. Especially because the two up front would probably be a 7 and a 9, the 3 in the middle would be two 8s on the wings and a 10 in the middle making the plays, and the 2 ahead of the backline would be defensive midfielders that would be in charge of recoveries and creating a buffer that would be hard to get through. Does it leave the field open for long passes and more onside room? Yes. But if your midfield is on its A game and the backline has good side defenders that can work like a well oiled machine.

If one of these days the uswnt listens to me about changing their formation, this would be one I would support, especially against teams that like to play from the middle (kind of like the netherlands).

Love to see former soccer players dropping in that good good experience!