For Mauricio Pochettino, there is a power in ignorance for USMNT players

The thing to know about Mauricio Pochettino is that, in his view, there is knowledge in not knowing.

In a meditation on his unifying theory on the nature of knowledge that called to mind Donald Rumsfeld’s famous “unknown unknowns” diatribe, the Argentinian explained on Thursday why he never tells potential United States men’s national team players why they weren’t called up.

“In our philosophy, players don’t need to know,” Pochettino said, launching into a six-minute monologue. “If a player needs to know, it’s because they don’t really feel the sport in the way that I feel it. Because you really know when you play why you play; and when you don’t play, you also deep down know why. The rest is …” and here he waffled, saying he preferred not to use a term he used last window (“bullshit”), while also offering no alternative.

“The player wants you to justify; they want to know the evidence,” he continued. “If you explain, you are going to make the player happy. The players, they need to know. The players that were not called today, they need to be desperate to perform better [for] their clubs.”

Related: USMNT squad: Antonee Robinson returns as Pochettino calls up 26 for friendlies

Pochettino spoke on the occasion of his calling up 26 players for friendlies with Ecuador on 10 October in Austin, Texas, and Australia on 14 October in Commerce City, Colorado. Which is to say that the 33 players who were previously called up in the former Tottenham, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain manager’s year in charge of the USMNT weren’t this time around, and won’t know why (with the exception of those that are injured and Tyler Adams, who will miss this window due to the upcoming birth of his second child).

There are notable returns: Weston McKennie, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Mark McKenzie, Miles Robinson, Aidan Morris, Tanner Tessmann and Haji Wright were all brought back for another look. James Sands will return to the US camp for the first time under Pochettino. Left out were Yunus Musah, Josh Sargent, and Joe Scally, all of whom have been playing well for their clubs.

Some players will have been left out strategically; some are just out of the picture. Which is which, nobody knows but for one man and his staff. To everyone else, it’s unknowable. But the players, at least … maybe they should know.

In September, in the previous episode of the team’s angst-ridden road to the 2026 World Cup, the Americans slogged to a mirthless and panicky 2-0 loss to South Korea in New Jersey. But they followed this malperformance up with a spirited 2-0 win over Japan in Columbus, when a 3-4-2-1 system yielded ample scoring chances and some momentum and optimism at last.

Fans and observers alike had hoped that this camp, with just two more full international windows to follow in November and March before the US assembles for the World Cup, would offer more definitive insight into Pochettino’s thinking for his first-choice squad.

Related: The USMNT’s 2025 has been tumultuous, but it deserves an optimist’s view | Leander Schaerlaeckens

But Pochettino continues to use his roster selections to send messages, as he has since the two-loss debacle at the Concacaf Nations League in March – the last time several erstwhile regulars, like McKennie, were seen in a US jersey.

“It’s not because your name is one [thing] or another, you’re going to have a place for sure on the roster for the World Cup,” said Pochettino on Thursday. “That’s an idea that we were fighting in the last year to try to fix. To change the culture. To change the idea of, ‘OK, because in the past I perform in some way, or because I did well four years ago, now I am ready to come and to use my place because that is my place.’ I think that has changed a lot.

“It’s an open system,” Pochettino added. “They need to convince us to come again. They need to come here and to perform, to follow the rules, to behave in the way that we want [them to] behave, and try not only to win the games but to think and to build something important.”

Pochettino has also been pragmatic in his roster choices, deliberate in which players to pluck from their club environments and when. He has carefully managed the travel and minutes expected from players who have recently had major injuries, or high workloads, sometimes leaving players like Sergiño Dest and Antonee Robinson with their clubs in deference to their long-term fitness in a World Cup year.

Robinson, who has played just 64 Premier League minutes for Fulham since returning from knee surgery, is in camp this time around, but likely won’t play anywhere close to 180 minutes. “It’s important that he can be with us, his teammates,” Pochettino said. “It’s not only about tactics; it’s about giving some benefits to our players. The challenge is to help him start to feel the confidence again.”

In that same vein, Pochettino has let players who were settling in with new clubs stay there during the September window before calling them again. Forward Patrick Agyemang, midfielder Malik Tillman and goalkeeper Matt Turner have all returned to camp after remaining with their clubs last month in the wake of transfers.

Related: World Cup 2026: how worried should the USMNT be as the tournament looms?

Pochettino has suggested that he may call in fewer Major League Soccer players in November – there were 11 in camp in September, and 10 this time around – as their clubs will either be in the middle of playoff runs or already in their off season.

In a sense, he’s behaving like a club manager – which he was all his coaching career after all, until taking the US job. Or at the very least, he’s operating in a way a club manager might appreciate.

There is often tension between club and international coaches over players who aren’t entirely fit. Barcelona manager Hansi Flick was understandably upset when his teenage prodigy Lamine Yamal was reportedly called up to Spain in spite of an injury, injected with a painkiller and reportedly made to play against his wishes, only to return to the club with the injury aggravated.

Then again, he’s also behaving like an international manager with the luxury of considering something beyond the short term. The US, after all, qualified for the World Cup automatically. And in his efforts to build depth and consider the players’ workload over an 18-month period – from his appointment through the World Cup – Pochettino has had the freedom, and relative absence of pressure, to worry about more than merely winning the next match.

At times it’s paid off. Pochettino let Christian Pulisic sit out the summer (though not without some controversy), and the player has gotten off to a blazing start to the Serie A season. He is now the league’s leading scorer, helping Milan to first place through five rounds.

“I think we can say that he is the most important player now for the national team,” Pochettino said of Pulisic on Thursday.

Correlation might not be causation here, but chances are the time off helped refresh him and may well pay dividends for the US next summer. This is a calculation that Pochettino has made, that it’s better to manage his players than to assemble the full A-team at all times, no matter the issues that may ensue downstream.

“We are preparing the World Cup,” Pochettino said. “We are not only preparing these two games.”

• Leander Schaerlaeckens’ book on the United States men’s national soccer team, The Long Game, is out in the spring of 2026. You can preorder it here. He teaches at Marist University.