Wow, this thread is a cluster####. Lets get back to happier topics.
Before the Copa started someone asked who the must starts are for the USMNT. Lets do that again, now that the meaningful games are over. I'll go first.
Must starts - Zardes, Wood, Yedlin, Cameron (possibly at 6 in the future), Brooks, Fab. Probably Germany Jones also, but I'm not sure for how much longer.
I'm really pleased to add Zardes, Wood, and Brooks to the list since prior to the tourney. Very positive step.
Yedlin, Cam, Brooks, Fab are probably our 1st-choice D (and probably the heart of the team) for the forseeable future, but after that there are a lot of Qs.
I think we have a real problem at GK. IMO in-their-primes Howard/Friedel/Keller might have saved one or both of the first two goals. Hopefully one of the younger guys steps up in the coming 18 months.
Like the QB pressure comparison above for our midfield, but just because Ryan Tannehill isn't Peyton Manning c. 2004 doesn't mean he's not still your starter. Who you going to replace him with?
So Bradley is an auto start despite his limitations. Ditto that for Zardes. He's got faults, but does some things well that help the team. I also think we've seen more than enough to say Bedoya >> Zusi, so he's going to get a lot of starts too for the time being. None of them are world-beaters, but they can be cobbled together into something ~good as a group. At least until someone better shows up.
Jones is tricky IMO. He showed up huge in this tournament, but he's also old and at the very least you'd better groom a replacement for 2018. Which is complicated by the role Jones plays and the way that Jones/Bedoya/Bradley fit together. We don't have a like for like replacement at the same level that Jones played in the WC and the Copa and it's not clear that you can both groom a replacement and keep the same formation/style of play.
Nagbe and Pulisic are totally different players. Pulisic got rag dolled a couple times by the grown ### men he was playing against last night. Maybe he grows into a true two-way player, but I suspect his ultimate role will be more attacking. We already know that's true for Nagbe. And we haven't been playing with those types of guys in our midfield recently. If those guys are going to feature we'll have to switch things up. And figuring out a style/formation for 2018 while getting minutes for any "new" guys while also qualifying won't be easy.
Think Deuce is also tricky for exactly the same reasons as Jones. I don't think he's an autostart if sacrificing him lets you set the entire team up better. That's a crappy choice to have to make during qualifying though and I expect he'll continue to play.
I'm still higher on Altidore than most people, but the team looks better when Wood is in (at least with the current setup), so he's also an auto start for the time being. But I'm not convinced he's so good yet that we might not find a replacement (including possibly a healthy and in-form Altidore).
We've seen the last of Beckerman and Wondo I think. Besler sticks around. But there will be probably be 5-6 spots available to new players for the WC.
Just a guess, but I won't be surprised if we muddle through some or all these questions until Spring of 2018, when we (once again) see our "best" lineup revealed just ahead of the tournament.