I would agree that he has shown growth in his player-selection choices, and that by the end of the cycle very few people could argue with his choices (and of those, usually only the peripheral ones). And nobody has questioned his recruiting and culture-building, which have been roundly praised by everyone who's paying attention. Those inclined to critique everything about US soccer generally acknowledge that and then move right along and pretend it has no value or weight, but I think we all know it does have a lot of value and weight, and Dest and Musah are merely the most obvious examples of that. There's plenty of meaningful risk in going with someone else, particularly if that other person lacks the american cultural awareness to perpetuate that culture and have success at recruiting.
Where the bigger worries are is around Berhalter's tactical planning abilities. When playing some talent-level peers like Canada, we routinely got out-tactic'd. We did impose our will on Mexico, but that generally said more about Mexico's player pool than about Berhalter vs Tata. Outside of CONCACAF, we got run off the field by Japan and looked unthreatening against Saudi Arabia. We kicked Morocco's ass (and it turns out theirs is an impressive one!), but Uruguay had no problem looking threatening against us and largely neutralizing our attack (though you can argue we are not talent-peers with Uruguay). 18 months ago, we took a mostly-A-team to Switzerland (a talent peer, I think) and honestly it presaged our results against UEFA teams since then: we controlled the midfield, our press gave them problems, but they were ultimately able to create a few opportunities and convert them at a high rate. In the WC group stage, we definitely played our style and had success with it, but failed to adjust to Wales' halftime adjustments (ultimately costing us through Kieffer Moore), and then of course LVG game-planned rings around Gregg.
And then the other critique you often hear is that he's way too slow to make substitutions, often riding 10-20 minutes past when he should have made subs. A hallmark of (say) Playoff Tito and other good tournament managers across all sports is the willingness to be ruthless and make a sub too early rather than too late. Berhalter has been known to be slow with subs since his Columbus days, if I'm not mistaken, and everyone saw his team run out of gas in all 4 games, but especially vs England and Iran. You can say part of that is down to the player pool, but we were protecting a late lead in two of those games, and surely better legs are preferable in defense over a more skilled player who's gassed. This is probably a lot more learn-able than becoming a better tactician, but someone needs to insist that he learn it. Who's gonna do that? You, Lieutenant Weinberg?
I think evaluating a decision to keep Berhalter needs to fairly evaluate the plausible alternatives on all of those fronts before you can draw any firm conclusions. Pellegrino Matarazzo has never coached a national team, even a youth one; are we going to bet the farm that he'll figure it out and be better than Berhalter quickly enough to matter? Hugo Perez has never coached club at a high level and his defensive tactics for El Salvador, while impressive, may not be what our team needs to go to the next level. Most other plausible candidates come with a lot of cultural risk, and while you'd probably roll the dice if it got you Mauricio Pochettino, would you do so for your average sacked EPL manager who's never worked with a national team? USMNT Twitter of course thinks it's a slam dunk and that we'd get an upgrade by replacing Berhalter with a potted plant, but if we're going to actually consider the question, we need to start by acknowledging that all alternatives come with risks and drawbacks, and be willing to name those factors and weigh them.
Where the bigger worries are is around Berhalter's tactical planning abilities. When playing some talent-level peers like Canada, we routinely got out-tactic'd. We did impose our will on Mexico, but that generally said more about Mexico's player pool than about Berhalter vs Tata. Outside of CONCACAF, we got run off the field by Japan and looked unthreatening against Saudi Arabia. We kicked Morocco's ass (and it turns out theirs is an impressive one!), but Uruguay had no problem looking threatening against us and largely neutralizing our attack (though you can argue we are not talent-peers with Uruguay). 18 months ago, we took a mostly-A-team to Switzerland (a talent peer, I think) and honestly it presaged our results against UEFA teams since then: we controlled the midfield, our press gave them problems, but they were ultimately able to create a few opportunities and convert them at a high rate. In the WC group stage, we definitely played our style and had success with it, but failed to adjust to Wales' halftime adjustments (ultimately costing us through Kieffer Moore), and then of course LVG game-planned rings around Gregg.
And then the other critique you often hear is that he's way too slow to make substitutions, often riding 10-20 minutes past when he should have made subs. A hallmark of (say) Playoff Tito and other good tournament managers across all sports is the willingness to be ruthless and make a sub too early rather than too late. Berhalter has been known to be slow with subs since his Columbus days, if I'm not mistaken, and everyone saw his team run out of gas in all 4 games, but especially vs England and Iran. You can say part of that is down to the player pool, but we were protecting a late lead in two of those games, and surely better legs are preferable in defense over a more skilled player who's gassed. This is probably a lot more learn-able than becoming a better tactician, but someone needs to insist that he learn it. Who's gonna do that? You, Lieutenant Weinberg?
I think evaluating a decision to keep Berhalter needs to fairly evaluate the plausible alternatives on all of those fronts before you can draw any firm conclusions. Pellegrino Matarazzo has never coached a national team, even a youth one; are we going to bet the farm that he'll figure it out and be better than Berhalter quickly enough to matter? Hugo Perez has never coached club at a high level and his defensive tactics for El Salvador, while impressive, may not be what our team needs to go to the next level. Most other plausible candidates come with a lot of cultural risk, and while you'd probably roll the dice if it got you Mauricio Pochettino, would you do so for your average sacked EPL manager who's never worked with a national team? USMNT Twitter of course thinks it's a slam dunk and that we'd get an upgrade by replacing Berhalter with a potted plant, but if we're going to actually consider the question, we need to start by acknowledging that all alternatives come with risks and drawbacks, and be willing to name those factors and weigh them.