U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino wants his team to play with more intensity. Can Brenden Aaronson help bring it?

Mauricio Pochettino has gotten his point across over the last few months.

Whatever the talents of the players he calls in to the U.S. men’s soccer team, the manager wants them to match the intensity he brings from his native Argentina.

“If we want to be good in one year’s time, we need to think that today is the important day,” he said when he unveiled his roster for this summer’s Gold Cup and two friendlies before it. “Because we need to build, from today, our way. Not to say, ‘OK, I wait, I wait.’ Now the World Cup is in one year, it’s in six months, it’s in one month, and then it’s late.”

When that didn’t happen at March’s Concacaf Nations League final four, the outcry was swift and sharp. What might be the most talented generation in program history didn’t bring it like the team’s past eras, and as a result got beat by opponents who did.

“I think we learned a lot in the last few camps — for sure in March,” Pochettino said. “And I think it’s about to be, maybe, a different way to approach this [summer].”

So he laid down the law, starting with the example of the usual calendar for a national team gathering.

“We only have time to come to maybe train one, two, three times; play, compete; one, two [days of] recovery, then play [again], and then go home,” he said. “And then maybe wait two months to be all together. If you arrive to the camp and you want to spend a nice time, play golf, go for a dinner, visit my family, visit my friends — that is the culture that we want to create? No, no, no, no, no.”

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The Nations League flop was accompanied by the knowledge that stalwarts Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, and Gio Reyna were guaranteed to miss the Gold Cup because they’d be at the Club World Cup at the same time.

That created an opening for the best way to create intensity in a national team: competition for roster spots.

Thursday’s roster announcement was the starter’s gun. Former Union midfielder Brenden Aaronson is back, as are forwards Folarin Balogun and Haji Wright.

There are also significant newcomers, including Sebastian Berhalter (coincidentally the son of Pochettino’s predecessor, Gregg Berhalter) and the Union’s Quinn Sullivan in midfield, and German-American Damion Downs among the forwards.

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Diego Luna, Brian White, Patrick Agyemang, and Union product Jack McGlynn are MLS-based players with another chance to show they can run with the big names at European clubs.

One of those names, Johnny Cardoso of Spain’s Real Betis, is in after missing March’s games with an injury. Another, forward Josh Sargent, is out for having not scored for the U.S. in 5½ years.

“[With] one year to the World Cup, it’s true that it’s possible that, to me, [this] is an opportunity to have all the players that maybe you [will] have in your head in one year,” Pochettino said. “But I think at the same time, it’s so exciting to see different players, young players, players that maybe have not played or they are going to make the debut in the national team. People that maybe can challenge different names that everyone considers as maybe going to arrive to the World Cup.”

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Those are words that a lot of people wanted to hear.

“I think it’s important to create this challenge,” he continued. “I think [with] all the considerations that we were working [on] in the last few months after March, I think we created the best roster that we think can deliver what we want.”

At one point, Pochettino said, “I don’t like to punish” players in his job. He’d rather use this moment to be constructive. But a screwdriver is just as good for taking things apart as it is for putting them together.

“You need to fight. You need to show [the] right attitude,” Pochettino said. “But not only that, perform and be brave, and follow the rules that we are going to set in the group. And of course, they need to know that [if] they do, and we are satisfied about the performance, they are going to compete in a fair way with different people that maybe are not involved today, in this squad.”

Aaronson’s return after not making the Nations League squad is a symbol of that. Yes, he has been touted often in his hometown paper, but not just because of his roots. He has the right kind of spirit on the field, and Pochettino made that clear.

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“The most important [thing] is that he keeps bringing his energy, positivity, enthusiastic passion,” Pochettino said. “I think this type of player, that transmits to the rest of the team these feelings and these emotions, that is really important — and of course after [that], he needs to perform. But I think he’s a player that already has the experience.”

That experience includes 47 national team games and a place on the 2022 World Cup team. Since then, he has played for Leeds United in England’s Premier League and Union Berlin in Germany’s Bundesliga and the Champions League, and this past season he helped Leeds gain promotion back to the top flight.

Pochettino is also aware of his own role in this, and that it isn’t all positive. His approval of Christian Pulisic’s request to skip the summer doesn’t just deprive the team of its best player and biggest star. It sends a message that not all commitments — and Pulisic’s overall commitment is unquestioned — are created equal.

It’s fair to say, as U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker did, that Pulisic just had a second straight long season at Italy’s AC Milan and has earned the right to rest. It’s fair to say he’s one of the only players whom Pochettino doesn’t need to judge. And it’s fair to say Pulisic’s long injury history matters, as the time nears when a new one could be disastrous.

» READ MORE: Why the USMNT's Nations League flop became about who wasn’t there, not just who was

As Pochettino said: “When you assess all the circumstances and the things — not only for Christian, [but] for different players — it’s to take the best decision, thinking [of] the principal objective that is the World Cup.”

But it’s also fair to say his absence now muddles the message. Pochettino acknowledged that.

“Everyone can have different opinions,” he said, and on social media they very much did. “Many people can say it’s really important for us to be all together for the last [extended] time before the World Cup. But always, [as] a coaching staff, we always listen to the player. And then, of course, we take the decision.”

That did not quiet all the critics, including those in the media who had some tough questions for him. One was what message he’d send to an increasingly frustrated fan base.

“I think it’s important for them to trust us, but it’s our responsibility to send some signal to them,” Pochettino said. “Our fans need to see our team fighting, and playing, and performing — and playing well, yes, but fighting for the flag and being always in every single game [with] the aggressivity of the opponent.”

He then repeated the message in Spanish, to get the point across further.

“I think that’s our responsibility to convey,” he said. “And if we do that, people will come to see us and cheer us on, and give us their energy.”