Chaos is a ladder, said Lord Baelish. Especially when it comes to international soccer, where injuries, manager changes — both with country and club — a bad transfer or run of form can shift a player’s standing with his national team within a week or two. Getting together only every month or longer leads to a lot of variance.
So with the USMNT’s matches for 2023 in the books, we thought it was a good time to see who is most important to the team, who isn’t, and everything in between, in a fashion that we’ve totally lifted from Football365. But they do theirs about England, and we’ll do ours about a team that might actually win something one day!
To be clear, this isn’t about who is the best player in the USMNT player pool, or who is better than whom. This is ranked on terms of importance to the team, which not only takes in quality, but replaceability or uniqueness, as well. We’ll come back before the Copa America to see what’s changed and who’s shifted where. Let’s kick this pig!