Player Focus: Does McInerney Warrant Place in the US National Team?

For Jurgen Klinsmann and the US national team the past two weeks have made the route to the World Cup appear a little less treacherous. Qualification wins over Jamaica and Panama, as well as a friendly win over Germany, has put the US top of the pile at the halfway point of the CONCACAF Hexagonal.
 
But had things instead gone awry a number of questions would’ve been angled at Klinsmann, one of which has been asked by MLS supporters for some time. Why was the league’s top scorer Jack McInerney not selected in the USA squad?
 
The Philadelphia Union forward leads the league in goals scored, with ten, winning the MLS Player of the Month award twice this season and lifting his side into the play-off places in the East.
 
But it’s not just the 20 year old’s cutting edge in front of goal that suggests Klinsmann should be considering McInerney for selection, but his knack for finding the net at the most important time.
 
His tenth goal of the season, scored against Toronto FC, came in third minute of stoppage time and salvaged a point from an otherwise below-par performance for the Union. His eighth proved to be the game winner in a 1-0 win over the Chicago Fire.
 
This trend stretches all the way to the start of the season, when his first goal gave Philadelphia a 2-1 win, netting the decider with just ten minutes of play remaining. Goals decide games, but McInerney’s goals seem to decide games more than most.
 
Despite representing the States at Under 17, Under 20 and Under 23 level McInerney insists he has yet to even speak with Klinsmann, supporting the premise that the German has a tendency to overlook homegrown MLS talent.
 
But does McInerney deserve a place in Klinsmann’s squad? Should he be preparing for Tuesday’s World Cup qualifier against Honduras rather than the Union’s clash against the New York Red Bulls next Sunday?
 
Goals in each of the USA’s wins over Germany, Jamaica and Panama over the past two weeks have strengthened Jozy Altidore’s case for a starting berth at next year’s World Cup (assuming the USA qualify), with Herculez Gomez assumed to be Klinsmann’s second choice up front.
 
But while Altidore undoubtedly enjoyed a successful season in the Dutch Eredivisie, was he more prolific than McInerney is proving in MLS? Altidore netted 23 times in 33 appearances for AZ Alkmaar, meaning he scored in 69.7% of the games he played, while McInerney has scored ten in 14 starts, giving him a games to goals ratio of 71.4%.
 
Of course, despite the growing stature of MLS, Altidore is operating at a higher level, coming up against better defenders and opponents, but statistically McInerney has held his own against Klinsmann’s favoured attackers this season.
 
So if comparing McInerney to Altidore is somewhat unfair and perhaps irrelevant, how does the Philadelphia forward compare to his domestic counterparts? Eddie Johnson represents the best of the MLS’ attackers in the US national squad, so how does McInerney line up against the Seattle Sounders forward?

 
In terms of goals McInerney leads Johnson by some distance, holding ten goals to his name compared with just four for Johnson. And indeed the Union forward’s conversion rate edges Johnson’s, with McInerney scoring 20.4% of his shots on goal compared to Johnson’s 18.2%.
 
But beyond pure statistics, like goals scored, it would appear Johnson is a more all-round attacking proposition, contributing more to the team than just his presence in front of goal.
 
While neither player can boast an assist so far this season, Johnson contributes more to the Sounders’ attacking movements than McInerney does to the Union’s. The former contributes an average of 17.8 accurate final third passes per game compared with the latter’s 9.7 per game, with Johnson attaining a final third pass accuracy of 73.2% and McInerney a somewhat feeble accuracy rate of 64.6%.
 
If Klinsmann prefers a more prudent forward he should probably stick with Johnson, who despite holding a lower shot to goal rate than McInerney boasts a better shot accuracy, with 45.5% compared to 42.9%. And indeed Johnson justified his selection by scoring in the USA’s 2-0 win over Panama on his home field in Seattle.
 
This shrewdness in front of goal is also demonstrated by Johnson’s lower average number of shots per game, standing at 2.8 per match compared to McInerney’s 3.3.

Who should make up the USA’s attacking roster seems to be up to personal preference and for the time being Klinsmann’s is doing the job. But how long can the US head coach ignore McInerney and the most valuable statistic of the lot, goals?