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Bruce Arena's top priority today must be fixing the USMNT's back line
One of his biggest failings of the Jurgen Klinsmann era of the U.S. men's national team was a lack of a reliable, cohesive back line. He constantly tinkered with it, never settled on a core group and threw together disjointed, patchwork back lines with regularity.
Now, that's new coach Bruce Arena's problem – and it's one of the first things he must try to fix when the USMNT faces Serbia today and Jamaica next week. It's a two-fold problem: the player selection itself was problematic at times under Klinsmann, but worse still was the constant rotation and changing of duties.
Arena can start addressing it immediately by figuring out the players who are up to the job and sticking with them. Although Arena doesn't have the full player pool now – only domestic players are on break for the USMNT's January camp – he does have players who could vie to become first-choice fullbacks.
At left back, that means players like Jorge Villafana, Greg Garza and DaMarcus Beasley could make the most of a chance they weren't given under Klinsmann. None of these players are at their peaks – Villafana and Garza have lacked playing time with their clubs lately while Beasley is getting up there in age – but they have shown they can do the job, particularly if they can get comfortable in the role.
Klinsmann seemed to prefer Fabian Johnson, a winger for Borussia Mönchengladbach, at left back. But Arena has hinted he will look at keeping players in the spots they play on a regular basis for their clubs, which could free Johnson to move higher up the pitch, where he is probably more effective. Klinsmann had no problem using players out of position.
At right back, similar uncertainty looms. Johnson has also played at right back under Klinsmann, although the former coach often turned to Timothy Chandler, who has always struggled on the international level despite his good club play. DeAndre Yedlin fell out of favor with Klinsmann and it's not clear what Arena thinks of the Newcastle defender. Michael Orozco and Ventura Alvarado never showed that well in all the opportunities Klinsmann gave them.
Arena has brought in Graham Zusi to try out at right back for a reason. The USMNT needs both a go-to starting and back-up right back and Zusi, who has been a midfielder for most of his career, is good on the ball and got some fullback experience in Kansas City last season. The experiment went well enough that Sporting Kansas City coach Peter Vermes encouraged Arena to try it with the national team. If Zusi does well in camp and in upcoming friendlies, Arena may be able to count on him going forward.
Then, once Arena gets his group sorted – the centerback spot probably can't be addressed much further with the group Arena has in camp – he will need to give them time together so they can get on the same page, which is something Klinsmann never did. After the the World Cup in Brazil, Klinsmann didn't use the same back line in back-to-back games until Copa America last summer, mere months before he was fired. That was more than 30 straight matches of rotation.
Sometimes, of course, the rotation was due to injury and player availability. But oftentimes, it came down to Klinsmann's penchant for tinkering, which many blamed for hampering the back line's chemistry and cohesion. If defenders aren't on the same page and can't anticipate one another's movements, then the result, of course, is conceded goals.
Luckily, Arena seems to realize that. When asked what the team's most glaring weakness is shortly after being hired, he pointed to defense: "If you looked at the last two games you would say the back line, right? I happen to think that if we have the right group of guys together it’ll be a strength."
While bringing players into the fold and expanding the pool for new talent is a good thing, it needs to be part of building reliable depth rather than tinkering for tinkering's sake. That is one way Arena can – and should – set himself apart from his predecessor.
As Arena put it recently: "Certainly DeAndre Yedlin has been a good addition over the last couple of years. Fabian Johnson has played on the left side a fair amount of times. But there's been a bit of musical chairs at other times, so I'm trying to build two or three deep in those positions so they're ready to contribute to the program."
Qualifying for the World Cup resumes in March, so it's not as if Arena has a ton of time to figure everything out. This friendly and next week's will be his only tune-up matches before facing Honduras in qualifying. But Arena can start addressing the team's troubled defense immediately, which he has no choice but to do.
