USMNT midfield makeup takes center stage as World Cup training camp opens

On Tuesday, Mauricio Pochettino was joined by his 26 players and hundreds of fans for a grand reveal in Manhattan. In truth, it was a nationally televised confirmation, more than 72 hours after the United States’ roster was reported in full by the Guardian.

A half dozen or so of those fans scrawled signs to be held overhead during the broadcast. A few were fitting entries in a proud litany of “Rah-Rah USA” fare. One begged: “Please do better than Canada.” Three that were easily legible on Fox’s broadcast bore players’ names. One backed Matt Freese, the likely starting goalkeeper, who plays his club soccer for nearby New York City FC.

The other two signs got the most attention, thanks to the event’s staging. As Tyler Adams was interviewed, a sign over his shoulder read “Poch We Want Diego Luna.” When it was Weston McKennie’s turn to address the nation with sports platitudes, another sign demanded: “Give us Luna.”

Over the three days which followed the Guardian’s report of Pochettino’s squad, which the coach said underwent deliberation until “the day before” he notified players (21 May, for your diaries), fan reaction elevated Luna to headline status among the snubs. The Real Salt Lake playmaker hadn’t just been an on-field mainstay since the Argentinian took over for Gregg Berhalter. He was regularly singled out by Pochettino as the type of character he hoped his whole team could embody.

So when a manager drops a player he had once praised for his “big balls”, an event such as Tuesday’s was an obvious place for him to justify such tough calls.

But Pochettino was not interested in explaining the decision-making process behind his final squad. Pochettino twice said it was time to “move on” from players who weren’t on his 26-man roster and instead focus on the impending games. When asked by reporters about Tanner Tessmann’s exclusion, Pochettino dismissed the question, as well as any concerns about players who hadn’t made the cut.

“We cannot talk about the players that are not in the roster, because I think it’s very disrespectful to the player that made the roster,” Pochettino said. “ … That was my decision, to pick the 26, and now we need to respect [that].”

Pochettino is one of a few managers making their first forays into the international game at this summer’s World Cup, and each has handled his first squad reveal with differing amounts of tact. Carlo Ancelotti parried away Brazil’s typical win-or-fail expectations: “It may not be the perfect group, but it is a focused, concentrated, humble, selfless group.” Thomas Tuchel defended his England squad by contextualizing why his less-popular picks were made, rather than identifying the outsiders by name: “What we are trying to achieve in summer can only be achieved as a team.”

Instead, Pochettino regaled yet another crowd with now-routine stories of how he missed World Cups when he was a player. It’s clear he was hurt by his omissions from the Argentina squads in 1994 and 1998, as they’ve become mainstays of his patter over the past two months. A toastmaster would admit this is textbook establishment of ethos, but it does little to help the fanbase understand why he preferred some players over others. That kind of evidence, whether tactically or appreciating the soft skills that keep a locker room from growing toxic, was scarce Tuesday.

Once the initial shock of who did and didn’t make the cut subsided, the obvious eyebrow raiser was the paucity of options in central midfield. Johnny Cardoso’s ankle injury couldn’t have come at a worse time, but Tessmann and Aidan Morris both seemed to finish the year well enough to warrant at least one, if not both, a place on the roster.

When asked about his midfield quartet, and the corresponding surplus of defenders, Pochettino began to provide some context, just perhaps not as specific as journalists and fans hoped. When asked why he chose 10 defenders in his squad, he questioned whether the reporter considers wing-backs to be defenders or midfielders. When asked who else can deputize in midfield, Pochettino named four players (attacking midfielders Malik Tillman and Gio Reyna, plus wide defenders Sergiño Dest and Alex Freeman) as options before admitting his team may not play with any holding midfielders at times.

It’s a worrying dispersal of vagueries considering they come after arguably the ugliest window of his tenure. March’s friendlies against Belgium and Portugal saw much of the tactical evolution from the preceding autumn windows left by the wayside. After Pochettino had found success with a back-five, Belgium carved up the USMNT’s back-four with Tim Weah starting as a full-back for the first time in his international career. While the team reverted to a more stable shape against Portugal, Pochettino gave Christian Pulisic a rare start at center-forward in hopes of breaking his 18-month international scoring drought. (Spoiler: he didn’t.)

Rotations were muddled. Considerable minutes were given to players who ultimately missed the cut for the World Cup. If the hope was that this squad would speak for itself without Pochettino needing to justify his decisions, recent evidence did little to fill in the blanks.

Sacrificing a fifth central midfielder and reassigning that “extra number” to defense is a tacit admission of where Pochettino and his staff harbor the most anxiety. No matter how his team lines up, there’s a surplus of depth along the back and a corresponding scarcity in midfield. It invites opponents to test the softness of the American underbelly, as Belgium and Portugal did to great effect. If Adams picks up two yellow cards in the group stage – or, worse, an injury under an immense workload – then Pochettino has few, if any, alternatives. Tournaments can be made or broken in the heart of the park.

The knock-on effects of a squad that leans so heavily on defense will also be felt in the final third. When playing with a back-five, Pochettino has preferred a midfield double-pivot with two attacking midfielders operating in the channels rather than a pair of wingers. Assuming McKennie will play a more withdrawn midfield role, despite looking capable as one of the dual half-space operators in March, it cuts into the roster’s other area of depth.

Attacking midfield is an ideal fit for Tillman, Reyna and Brenden Aaronson. All three primarily play the position for their clubs, and each suffers diminishing returns when stationed as a winger. Those wider roles, however, have been the primary homes of Pulisic and Weah throughout their careers, the places they’ve earned most of their international caps to date. Alejandro Zendejas, who has thrived amid immeasurable pressure as the star lock-picker for vaunted Club América, has had a similar path.

Pulisic remains undroppable for the national team despite his recent poor form for Milan and the US. Weah has been a steady contributor since breaking into the senior national team. Benching either would be a surprise, as both are comfortably among the program’s 11 best players regardless of role.

If Pochettino opts to get as much attacking talent on the field as possible (that is, two wingers and one attacking midfielder), it would require a four-man defensive line … which has left the USMNT overexposed throughout this cycle and would see at least three defenders guaranteed to be unused substitutes. Simply, the balance isn’t readily apparent in this squad.

Somehow, the US’s chance for a deep run at this World Cup has become harder to project in the first half of 2026 than it was in the back-half of 2025. The longest answer of Pochettino’s press conference came when he defended his decision to use email to notify players who didn’t make the squad. The comments came roughly 15 minutes after he said it was disrespectful to focus on anyone but the players he picked for this tournament. In that answer, he admitted to sleepless nights over the past few weeks.

“Even today, I cannot enjoy the 26 guys that are in front of me because I am thinking of players who are out,” he said.

So are the fans, Mauricio. If only they had a better sense of how these decisions were made.