Mauricio Pochettino's USMNT tactics questioned as World Cup nears

USMNT boss Mauricio Pochettino has not managed to get the best out of his players, and with nine months to go until the 2026 World Cup, the Argentine coach is starting to be heavily criticized by the press and fans.

This was the case with The Athletic's Paul Tenorio, who, in Monday's edition of CBS' "Morning Footy," did not hesitate to strongly criticize the management of the former Chelsea coach, pointing out that there is little time left to get things in order.

"We’re too close to the World Cup to keep messing around with it," said Tenorio. 

"Right now, the system is scrambled," he added. "It’s different. You know, the Gold Cup system was different than the system we saw the other day (...) We have to start to get the starters back in, and we need to get the system down. That’s critical in October."

In the USMNT's most recent match, it lost 0-2 to South Korea, which was the better team on the field in terms of decisiveness, on Sept. 6.

Even though the statistics may reflect that the USMNT had some level of superiority — it has 17 total shots against South Korea's five and 54% possession — the reality is that opposing team looked better even in terms of quality, not to mention that it took advantage of the opportunities it generated.

'Not a lot of time' remains for USMNT to prepare for World Cup

American fans had the hope of finally seeing a coach who would make the team perform at the level that the individual talent and potential of the players promised.

However, the reality is that Pochettino, aside from his time at Tottenham, has never proven to be a great strategist. The Argentine coach is, rather, a great player-manager.

This was evidenced, for example, during his time at Paris Saint-Germain, where the team lacked a strategy or a defined game plan and instead resolved certain situations only with individual flashes of brilliance.

"At this point, now, you’ve got October and November and March to get ready before the pre-World Cup camp. That’s not a lot of time," Tenorio said.