Pros and Cons of USMNT Hiring Mauricio Pochettino as Head Coach

It's Poch!

Multiple reports indicate that former Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino will take over the U.S. as the Americans prepare to host the 2026 World Cup.

When we named him among our potential candidates just after Gregg Berhatler was fired, we noted that Pochettino and Matt Crocker, the United States' sporting director, crossed paths at Southampton. The question was whether the Argentine would want to dip his toe into international waters.

As reports indicate, there are items to be resolved on his exit agreement from Chelsea after he left with mutual consent in May.

The deal will get signed, the ink will dry and we'll all move on to the question sports fans truly care about—especially when it comes to a national team—is this good? Will it help the U.S. win more matches?

Let's take a look at the pros and cons of hiring Pochettino.

Pochettino comes in with perhaps the most impressive résumé ever for a manager of the U.S. men's team.

Jurgen Klinsmann did more on the field and had coached Germany to a third-place finish at a World Cup. But he had been out of coaching for several years when he agreed to take on the U.S. job. Pochettino most recently led Chelsea and before that coached at Paris Saint-Germain. Prior to that it was a long spell with Tottenham Hotspur and the jobs that launched his career at Southampton and Espanyol, where he played more than 250 matches.

This is a manager who has coached at the elite. He understands better than most the demands of the modern game, both physically and mentally. He knows what it means to prepare players for the biggest moments of their lives, and he often incorporates developing players in a savvy way.

He knows how to manage huge stars who often have huge egos to match, having worked with Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe at PSG and Harry Kane at Spurs.

At the age of 52, Pochettino's background puts him well above other candidates reportedly in the mix for the U.S. job. Very few managers are on the market who have the experience at the top he boasts.

Here's a list of national teams Pochettino has coached: ...

That's right. This will be his first-ever job leading a national team. While he did play as a center-back for the Argentina national team, playing under Bielsa in the 1999 Copa América and the 2002 World Cup, even his international playing experience isn't as robust as that of other managers he'll be facing off against.

If there were a guaranteed formula to find a successful international manager, everyone would follow it. Instead, the world champions are led by a coach who previously only had overseen a U-20 team while the runners-up and the Euro champions have a coach who also came through the youth ranks in the international setup but previously had worked with a club.

While that "development-first" mindset may seem revealing, other nations have succeeded with long-time club managers taking over their national team. France won the World Cup in 2018 with Didier Deschamps in his first international job—albeit one that he had been performing for six years at that point—after spells with Monaco, Juventus and Marseille.

Pochettino is definitely the candidate with the splashiest résumé and perhaps the biggest name the U.S. could've gotten. However, it's possible to poke holes in that CV. Or, rather, it's possible to point at a trophy case that has a few too many empty spaces.

The 52-year-old had the near-miss in 2018-19, guiding Spurs all the way to the UEFA Champions League final but falling short in a loss to Liverpool. He had the success of 2021-22, winning Ligue 1 with PSG. He also lifted the Coupe de France the year before that. But in Paris the trophy everyone actually was after was the UEFA Champions League, and Pochettino never was able to deliver.

The demands with the U.S. won't be to win the World Cup. And it's easier to win the Concacaf Nations League or the Gold Cup than it is to win the Premier League or the UEFA Champions League.

Still, if the U.S. falls short in some of those regional competitions, don't be surprised if there's some chatter about the failure to get the job done when it comes to actually winning silverware.

Despite having worked with those top players, Pochettino has plenty of time for player development, a skill it seems will serve him well as an international manager and especially leading a nation like the U.S., which has a young player pool full of rising stars.

On the field, he often puts an enjoyable, attacking style of play on the field. That can be demanding, with Pochettino's teams notable for covering a huge amount of distance per game as he asked players to press aggressively, then make the runs necessary to capitalize on transitions moments after winning the ball back.

Coming from the Marcelo Bielsa school, he also wants his team to keep possession and build from the back, looking for the chance to create numerical superiority in certain areas of the field and either take advantage of that or set up one v. one opportunities with a quick switch.

Despite being the biggest star in the group of candidates, he may be able to tap into what made the United States team special in eras like the 2002 World Cup or the 2010 World Cup: A team that wants to work harder than any team it lines up against.

Perhaps this is not as much of a con as some people would sell it as, but there's been little to indicate Pochettino has been a devoted follower of the sport in the U.S. He can learn how things work here, working out the intricacies of a place where the game truly does function differently than many places where Pochettino has experience.

That takes time, and the manager does not have an abundance of time. U.S. assistant Mikey Varas is set to step in as the manager for September friendly matches, even if Pochettino's arrival is finalized this month. After that, Pochettino will have two friendly matches, the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinals, ideally the Nations League Final Four, and a Gold Cup ahead of him.

It seems like a lot, but considering that most of those international dates will give him less than a week to actually work with his players on the field, time is short for Pochettino to find the players with whom he works best, put a style of play on the field, and ultimately do what he'll need to do in order for the U.S. to make a deep run in the 2026 World Cup.

Some more background on the U.S. might be helpful, but Pochettino should already be working to get up to speed.

Will the hire work? Nothing is guaranteed in sports, but the U.S. took a swing and brought in one of the most renowned managers currently on the market. For now, the pros outweigh the cons, but the proof of the manager will be in the results he earns.

The manager leading the U.S. into the 2026 World Cup will be the most famous USMNT manager ever. Beyond simply leading the team into the most anticipated tournament ever on U.S. soil, there will be opportunities for contact not just with soccer fans and sports nuts in the U.S. but also in the mainstream. Sponsors will look to bring Pochettino and his players into advertising campaigns. Morning shows and magazines will want to interview and profile the boss.

Pochettino has the right temperament to balance things out, to do the interviews but not to let fame go to his head. After all, he's been famous for a long time now.

And as someone who speaks English and Spanish, Pochettino will be able to connect with the United States' largest immigrant communities. That will lead to benefits far beyond simply the commercial side of the operation. For too long, U.S. Soccer has taken Mexican-American players and other Latin-American players for granted. It's difficult to see Pochettino falling into the same trap.

This is a man who believes in the mystique of soccer—and it would be hard not to with his background. As a boy in Rosario, he was brought into the Newell's Old Boys setup by legendary sporting director Jorge Griffa, and then started working with Bielsa—the current Uruguay manager who has legend status not just at Newell's but all throughout Latin America.

Working with young players, speaking Spanish with their families and doing it with a smile good enough for Good Morning America? It's an excellent fit.