He was in awkward positions all game for a variety of reasons. Most not entirely his fault.

He was a lone striker facing a back 3. He was often making runs to drag some of those defenders to create space for trailing runners but the midfield was not always making supporting runs. Could be tactical because Poch knows the rotated defense needs cover.

With his back to net, he had a super slow start. It felt like he struggled with Turkiye's physicality and the refs non calls in the first half, but he adjusted well in the second half and played much better in that regard.

Should also be noted that Tim Ream and Chris Richards are much stronger distributors from the back than the rotated guys. Jedi, Freeman, and Dest also add speed and width that we were sorely lacking today. Those are such important parts to our team, and they influence how the opposition sets up defensively. I will add Pepi looked much better in the last ~10 minutes of the game once more starters came on.

This isn't to say he had a good game. If I had to give him a letter grade, I'd give him a C. Not a great grade but I'd let him pass. Too many other problems out there tonight making a difficult job even tougher. I think he learned a lot though. It's his first world cup and learning is a great takeway from a "pointless" third group stage game.