Gregg Berhalter Explains Why John Brooks Doesn’t Play for the USMNT

The USMNT is finally going to the World Cup in Qatar. Gregg Berhalter and his men ensured that a repeat of the 2018 World Cup did not occur as they didn’t participate in it. However, they are here now and there is only one goal in sight, winning it all.

While that might be a bit presumptuous, it will certainly not happen if Berhalter doesn’t address the problems in his squad. Two key positions under scrutiny are a striker and a goalkeeper. Several players were given the opportunity to make that spot their own, but they all failed to do so.

Moreover, there is a possibility that the coach is not happy with his center-back pairing. In that case, Berhalter has a lot of decisions to make before the World Cup in Qatar.

Why John Brooks doesn’t play for the USMNT

However, he does have an option in USMNT veteran John Brooks. The 29-year-old center-back is currently playing for Wolfsburg, and has been in fantastic form for the Bundesliga side. Yet, he hasn’t made an appearance for his country in 10 months.

Berhalter explained why in an appearance on ESPN’s show, Futbol America.

“I called [Brooks] before the November camp, and I said, ‘John, listen, here are some things that are lacking in your game, that I don’t see fit our game model, and that we need to address,” he said.

Gregg Berhalter has some advice for Brooks

He didn’t stop there and added that Brooks needs to adapt to playing with a high line. Wolfsburg do not play a high line and Brooks is at a major disadvantage because of that.

“We want to play with a very high line, right. So ideally, if he went into a team that plays with a high line, and we can see that every week, how he’s dealing with space behind him, it would really help us get a picture of what he can do for our team. So, he hadn’t been doing that with Wolfsburg,” Berhalter revealed.

It’ll be interesting to see how this situation plays out with such little time left before the World Cup.

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