Just nine months from the start of the 2026 World Cup, U.S. men's national team coach Mauricio Pochettino is still figuring things out.
Before slumping to a 2-0 loss on Saturday to South Korea in a friendly that featured his 14th different starting XI in 17 games, the USMNT coach was blunt about his willingness to extend his tinkering for -- at least according to him -- one more international window.
"[This] is a camp that I think is going to be the last camp to have the possibility for us to see players, new faces," Pochettino said in late August when the roster was announced. "No one has their place [assured], and that is my message for everyone that you need to fight, need to fight because that is an open system.
"If we want to be a team [that's] really competitive, we cannot nominate 13, 14, 15 players -- these guys for sure are going to arrive to the World Cup and the rest, they need few places to fight. Come on."
The message is clear from the Argentine coach. Though his World Cup preparation has featured setbacks through injuries, complications around player availability, and frustrating results, he also has shown in recent international breaks that he's willing to look past high-profile starters and give opportunities to fringe players.
Captain and star attacker Christian Pulisic? A headline-stealing absence from summer friendlies after the AC Milan player wanted to rest during the Gold Cup. Juventus midfielder Weston McKennie who has 60 caps with the USMNT? Left out as the most noteworthy omission from the current squad, with Pochettino attempting to justify the decision by stating "we know Weston."
The list goes on, and while continuing to examine a growing group of alternate players along the way, those decisions have led to six losses in his past 11 games. The USMNT failed to win the Gold Cup with an experimental roster, and even with more established names at the Nations League, they stumbled to an underwhelming fourth-place finish in March.
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When asked after Saturday's loss to South Korea about when he has to start getting more results in his favor, the Argentine coach brushed aside the idea of needing victories on the path to next year. For Pochettino, it's not about the journey, it's about the 2026 destination.
"We need to start to win when the World Cup starts," Pochettino said.
Including the current window, the USMNT have only four international breaks before the start of World Cup preparations next summer.
So does Pochettino have enough time? And more importantly, has he cemented the idea of what his best XI looks like? When diving into the overall minutes ahead of the September window, the data tells an interesting story.
(Due to Sebastian Berhalter's positioning in a more advanced role during the Gold Cup knockout round -- as opposed to his typical central role -- he has also been slotted on the right flank.)
Few analysts and fans of the USMNT, if any, would say that this is the strongest XI.
Boosted by a steady diet of appearances at the Gold Cup, the players with the most minutes (divided by goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, and forwards/attackers) are those who took part in the summer tournament. The tallies changed after Saturday's loss to South Korea, but the only player alteration made to the XI with the most minutes is Matt Freese surpassing Matt Turner.
Looking at this list, the noteworthy absences are glaring.
Key figures such as Sergiño Dest, Antonee Robinson, Timothy Weah, Folarin Balogun, Pulisic and McKennie, among others, are nowhere to be found. Of the players included with the most minutes, you could confidently say that Chris Richards and Tyler Adams are members of the strongest XI, along with some arguments for 2-3 more, but that's about it.
Of course, injuries, club adaptations and other behind-the-scenes hurdles are significant variables that a coach can't fully control. Any national team manager rarely has the benefit of a fully fit and available squad, but with that in mind, it's confusing as to why Pochettino then hasn't taken advantage of the increasingly limited windows he has had.
For former players watching this process that provided plenty of minutes through the alternate Gold Cup roster, there are worries.
Herculez Gomez believes Mauricio Pochettino "doesn't care" after his recent interview about the USMNT.
On their "Unfiltered Soccer" podcast, retired USMNT greats Landon Donovan and Tim Howard voiced their concerns after the September roster was released.
"I'm a little confused, because it seems like the experimental phase is still going on, and my opinion ... it's better to just say, here's my 15, 20, 25 and let's roll with it. Maybe I miss on a guy or two, and we can bring a guy or two in here or there," Donovan said earlier this month. "In fairness to Pochettino, there's lots of injuries, there's lots of things going on that prevent him from calling certain guys, but some of these ... they're a little bit head-scratching, to be honest."
Howard also chimed in: "We're in September, we're running out of time," the former goalkeeper said. "This is a home World Cup ... it means something to U.S. Soccer that there's momentum, that there's a buzz, and guess what, if you go [zero] for two or one for two in these friendlies, and then October the same thing and in November, there's no buzz. There's no buzz."
In what appeared to be a home atmosphere for the visiting South Korea national team over the weekend in New Jersey, the USMNT are so far zero for one in the current international break.
Though Pulisic, Dest and Weah were brought back into the starting lineup, the XI still represented the aforementioned 14th different formation of the 17 games in the Pochettino era. With Richards not fully fit, the defensive duo of Tim Ream and Tristan Blackmon, who earned his first cap, was also the ninth different center-back pairing of those 17 matches.
To be fair to the coach, his players don't seem to be as troubled by his varying permutations. When asked how much of the messaging from Pochettino highlights that roster spots are still up for grabs, winger Alejandro Zendejas noted that it's a positive for certain players.
"He definitely let us know that there's a bunch of people that do deserve to be here as well and that he wants to be able to see everyone ... we each fairly get a chance," Zendejas said ahead of the South Korea friendly. "But then, at the end of the day, it all depends on us and how we respond to those opportunities that are given to us."
The USMNT's woes continue, as they fall 2-0 to South Korea in a friendly played in New Jersey on Saturday.
Noting the growing list of MLS players being given minutes, instead of relying heavily on European-based options, Ream also praised Pochettino's methods ahead of Saturday.
"It's one of those things where we don't really look at the roster and say, oh, there's this many guys in from this league, or there's this many guys in from Europe. Like to us, it's competition," Ream said. "You have to go out there and earn your place and earn your spot.
"It's one of those things where he's giving guys opportunities to impress, making sure that he can get eyes on everybody who they've been watching from maybe from afar. That sends a little bit of a message that places are open, and I think that's only a good thing. It's a good thing, competition can drive you and push you and it prepares you and hardens you for the coming months."
We'll see how that plays out, not only in the upcoming friendly against Japan on Tuesday, but in the handful of international windows that are left for Pochettino & Co.
Results are (at the moment) secondary for a coach who maintained a glass-half-full perspective after the latest defeat, but even his players are starting to recognize that they need to generate some momentum ahead of the World Cup. Although Pochettino said he felt his team was "better than South Korea," most U.S. fans won't be holding their heads high in yet another window in which the coach is exploring new ideas.
"I mean, I love the feeling of winning, so I would like to win games before the World Cup," Adams said postgame Saturday. "But I understand [Pochettino's] thought process and we talked about it in there is you could still have good performances and not necessarily get the result. But yeah, I think at a certain time it's important to have some results."
Perhaps the question isn't if Pochettino knows his best XI, but instead, if he's now truly willing to commit to one as the clock is ticking to the World Cup.
Will he have enough time? That'll be the big question for a national team coach who hasn't provided enough on-the-field answers.