It feels bizarre to say this, but it’s time for Clint Dempsey to come in off the bench for the USMNT.

Dempsey is unquestionably one of the greatest players to ever play for the United States men’s national team. At 33, he’s still an extremely effective attacking player who can create goals from nothing.

And as the friendly against Ecuador showed us on Wednesday night, this team as its currently constructed isn’t right for Dempsey. He shouldn’t be starting in the Centennial Copa America this summer.

Dempsey is at his best as the second, reserved striker in a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 formation, running back toward his teammates to receive balls in the space between the opponent’s defense and midfield. He’s not a target striker like Jozy Altidore, a physical player who can hold the ball up, and he’s not someone who pushes way up high up the pitch and looks to get in behind the defense.

These aren’t knocks on Dempsey; it’s just not who he is. That’s where he feels comfortable and plays his best. But with the absence of Altidore, USMNT head coach Jurgen Klinsmann tried to play Dempsey as a target striker to start the game on Wednesday night. It didn’t work. Dempsey struggled to hold up play. His instinct wasn’t to push the line but to check back into space, which compressed the field for the USMNT midfielders. It gummed everything up, and the hideous, boring half of soccer was partly a result of that.

The USMNT’s one moment that looked promising in the first half happened when Dempsey came into that space in front of the defense, and Gyasi Zardes, supposedly a winger, ran in and took on the role of central striker. It almost immediately resulted in a goal.

Dempsey still provides great looks for the U.S. team, but it has to be on his terms, with the team playing the way that he needs it to.

The Americans don’t have that team right now. It’s not Dempsey’s fault, either. The USMNT doesn’t have the fullbacks to play a 4-4-2, and the midfield isn’t strong enough to just play two centrally. Dempsey’s stamina and work rate aren’t enough to justify him in the third central midfield role, and he isn’t pacy enough anymore to thrive on the wing. He doesn’t fit in, at least not right now, and that became very clear in the second half of the match against Ecuador.

In the second half, Klinsmann brought Darlington Nagbe into a 3-man central midfield, then eventually put Bobby Wood up top in the place of Dempsey, and inserted 17-year-old Christian Pulisic out wide on the left.

The game immediately changed.

It started with Nagbe, the 25-year-old Portland Timbers midfielder who’s taken his game to another level in the past year. Nagbe provided a composure on the ball that the Americans didn’t have with Kyle Beckerman and Jermaine Jones in the first half, and his vision and chemistry with the young Pulisic on the left side of the field is what caused every exciting moment for the U.S. in the second half. This included the goal that Nagbe scored in the closing minutes.

But also aiding in the Americans’ markedly improved play was the work of Wood up top. Wood was constantly pushing the Ecuadorian line higher, not only making it difficult for the defenders to compress the field but also opening up space for Pulisic, Nagbe and Graham Zusi in the space between the midfield and defense.

It all made sense. After the game, it became clear to many people what the U.S. starting lineup should be:

(Via LineupBuilder.com)

(If you don’t trust Pulisic yet, I can understand putting Fabian Johnson up at left wing and bringing in Edgar Castillo to try and hold down the left back spot, but the USMNT doesn’t really have any good answers at left back.)

This all isn’t to say Dempsey shouldn’t play at all — he’s an extremely intriguing substitute, and if the U.S. ever falls behind a goal and wants to bring in an extra attacker, or needs a confident player to play alone up top and kill off a game, he can be used in both those roles.

But right now, with this team, that starting 11 is the starting 11 I like. It doesn’t have Dempsey in it, but for a team looking to move forward and grow, that might not be the worst thing.