5 questions for UK USMNT players in 2023

To Charles Boehm – WASHINGTON, DC (January 5, 2022) US footballers – The UK football festivities are coming to an end. The traditional exhausting euphoria of the holiday period has now given way to a more regular grind of league action interspersed with cup games and, for the lucky few, European campaigns.Autumn Worlds The Cup has created a unique backload calendar with many important matches scheduled in the coming months.

For the 15 USMNT players in the nation’s top two divisions, this is a major turning point, both personally and for the team. As important races take shape in both the Premier League and the Championship this winter, there are some questions to ponder.

Where are Chelsea and Norwich City going?

Christian Pulisic Chelsea entered the 2022-23 season with, as usual, competing for trophies on multiple fronts. A Premier League winner in 2015 and his 2017, he has only finished outside the top four twice in the last decade. Chelsea entered the new year in a disappointing eighth place. With the January window open, ample transfer gossip, both inbound and outbound varieties, is swirling around the club. A revival at Manchester United, Newcastle and Matt Turners Arsenal brought new competition to the top of the table.

There was optimism at Norwich that they would soon rebound to the Premier League after being relegated in the spring. They had similar results in his two most recent stints of the EFL Championship, with him placing first in the second flight in 2019 and 2021.

The Canaries got off to a strong start thanks to Sargent’s consistent scoring. A slide down the table led to the dismissal of manager Dean Smith on December 27th. They are now sitting in his eleventh place, with a big test in the third round of the FA Cup and Blackburn where he is suspended for a matchup against Rovers.

Both the Blues and the Canaries will need some stability and some positive results to piece together. Pulisic and Sargent, who have started Chelsea’s last three games, are likely to be key to that hope.

How long will Tim Ream keep doing this?

2022 has been a special one for the St. Louis centre-back. He, Anthony ‘Jedi’ Robinson and their Fulham teammates won the championship in the spring and have since shown their return to the top flight. With Ream’s constant and steady influence, the Cottagers are currently ranked seventh with his engaging style of play and his impressive 8W-6L-4D record after 18 games. Thanks to that, he finished 11th in the USMNT’s starting lineup in his World Cup and continued to perform well until he was nominated for soccer’s Male Player of the Year award.

He also earned a contract extension with the FFC through the summer of 2024 and is a fan favorite who often wears the captain’s armband. Liam closed out his contract with his first Premier League goal, scoring from close range against Crystal Palace on Boxing Day.

Fulham manager Marco Silva said: “It’s been an incredible year for him. He’s been great for us as a football club and for him as an individual.” , a very good player, a really important player for me and a role model.”

At the World Cup, Ream talked about “riding the wave” he was riding, after which he stated his plans to continue with the USMNT for as long as possible. Bringing a valuable veteran presence to both club and country.

Who can sustain the promotion push?

The annual battle to claim one of the championship’s three prized promotional slots into the mighty Premier League is one of the fiercest in European football. We’ve already talked about Sargent and Norwich, but there are several other USMNT players from him at the race this year. The difference between 3rd place and 15th place is only 7 points, and they are in a runaway state.

Zach Stephen When Matthew Hoppe Middlesborough sits fifth in the standings thanks to a dramatic fall revival. After a struggle early in the season and a change in coaching, Boro have lost just one league game since the end of October. It was Burnley in first place. That 7-1-1 stretch gives FiveThirtyEight.com Middlesbrough a 23% chance of promotion and a 48% chance of making the playoffs. Not bad for a team that was in the relegation zone not so long ago.

Ethan Horvath Luton Town have the same number of points as Boro and are currently 7th in the tiebreak. Keeping up with the solid work of Horvath and his defense, the Hatters were hard to beat. They reached the promotion play-offs last season, losing to Huddersfield Town in the semi-final round. In the last round in the Premier League’s pre-modern top division, Luton have yet to set their sights on that promised land.

in the meantime, Daryl Dyke The Baggies have risen dramatically up the table at West Bromwich Albion. , but now sits in 9th place. With two goals and one assist in his last six games, Dyke has proven himself to be a major force in the championship.

Chris Richards returns to fitness

Defender after a long absence due to injury after joining Crystal Palace Chris Richards It seems to be perfectly mixed for quite some time.

“[Richards]was unlucky with an injury, so it’s good to be back. Now he’s fully fit and he’s going to challenge the guys behind him and we’ll try to “He’s had a really good few weeks, played a few matches and was doing really well in training.”

The Eagles are 12th in the Premier League. Just 17 goals in his first 17 league games and his 4–0 home defeat against Tottenham this week was a worrying statistic for him, but more of a concern in attack than defense. And it seems. Richards, who was on the bench that game, was working and waiting for his chance. Perhaps it will be offered in the coming weeks.

Can Leeds United escape the trap door?

American coach Jesse Marsh of the West Yorkshire Club and USMNT players Tyler Adams and Brenden Aaronson have made headlines on this side of the Atlantic in 2022. Playing life in England.

United’s final gasp on the last day out of relegation in May brought both elation and relief. Desire has dominated the first half of the current campaign. Leeds are currently in 14th place and the club have yet to reach where they want to be.

“The mentality to fight when you have your back against the wall is always there,” said Marsh after a tense 2-2 comeback home draw with West Ham. “It has to match the desire and fearlessness to play real football and the desire to play aggressively, always against the ball and against the ball, the way we want it. If we don’t understand that, and don’t get more of it from each individual, then a little bit of every match will look like this.

Charles Boehm is a Washington, DC-based writer who soccer wire. Please contact him: [email protected]Follow him on Twitter:http://twitter.com/cboehm.

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