‘No One Is Safe’—USMNT Star Reveals Mauricio Pochettino’s Key Tactic Ahead of World Cup

The USMNT manager is just weeks away from naming his final 2026 World Cup roster.

Mauricio Pochettino runs a training session in Atlanta ahead of the March friendlies. | John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images

U.S. men’s national team star midfielder Tyler Adams has revealed the key tactic manager Mauricio Pochettino uses to keep his squad playing at the highest level in the weeks leading up to 2026 World Cup kick off.

“What Mauricio Pochettino has done is establish a sense that no one is safe, and I think that requires an enormous amount of respect because every single game and every single training session that I am having here in Bournemouth, I’m working hard to improve,” Adams told Men in Blazers on Tuesday. “This is not only going to affect my time here in Bournemouth but also the bigger picture and my opportunity to play in the World Cup.”

Adams is a key starter for the Cherries, who have gone unbeaten in the last seven Premier League matches he has featured in, dating back to December. He has had similar success at the international level, captaining the USMNT at the 2022 World Cup (where he played every minute of the campaign) and earning 2022 U.S. Soccer Male Player of the Year. Fifty-two total caps aside, the midfielder is still kept on his toes by Pochettino, who has not given any player certainty of a roster spot this summer.

“I like the sense of uncertainty,” Adams added. “I feel like it brings out the best in my performance and allows me to compete at an even more advanced level.”

Pochettino has undergone heavy experimentation with players and formations alike during his journey to piece together the most deadly team, even receiving some criticism along the way.

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Pochettino’s Experimentation Raises More Questions Than Answers

Pochettino has invited many players to training camps over the past year. | Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images

Pochettino has just over a month before he announces his final World Cup roster of 26 players, a squad he needs to see in action together in last-minute tune-up friendlies against Senegal and Germany at the end of May. However, Pochettino has trialed so many players and formations that is largely unknown who will fill out the roster and where.

Just when it appeared that Pochettino had found consistent success with the Stars and Stripes in a back three last fall—going unbeaten across five matches in September, October and November—he went and rearranged everything last month. The Argentine boss employed a 4-2-3-1 in the 5–2 loss to Belgium and 4-3-3 in the 2–0 loss to Portugal on March 31, unafraid to switch things up even against the European powerhouses.

Pochettino has invited over 45 players to camps since September, casting a wide net and routinely overlooking some of the USMNT’s biggest stars like Adams and veteran forward Christian Pulisic in his lineups.

“No one’s special,” Adams said last month before the March camp. “When you come into camp, you’re a U.S. men’s national team player, you deserve to be here. [He’ll] make sure that you get better each time you come into camp and feel worthy. But at the same time, it’s required from you to put what you’re going to get in and get out of it.”

Pochettino has also been scrutinized for some of his far-off choices, including the inclusion of Gio Reyna in the November and March camps. The 23-year-old midfielder, previously exiled from the USMNT due to a spat between himself, his father—USMNT legend Claudio Reyna—and previous manager Gregg Berhalter, had logged just 26 minutes of first-team soccer with Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2026. Nevertheless, Pochettino saw him as a “very special talent and very special player” ahead of the March international friendlies.

The unpredictability of Pochettino’s lineups has been further emphasized by recent injuries to the player pool, including striker Patrick Agyemang who suffered a severe Achilles tendon injury earlier this month, left back John Tolkin who suffered an inner knee injury last week that will keep him sidelined for weeks and goalkeeper Jonathan Klinnsmann who suffered a season-ending spinal injury over the weekend.

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