On Friday, U.S. Soccer released its U20 roster for the upcoming series of matches in Spain from Nov. 12-18 for a tournament against Russia’s U21s and the U20 squads from Ireland and Canada. This is that roster.

This is is how that roster might look when distilled into an XI for the first match against Russia.

Some notes on Tab Ramos’ options.

– This is a good roster. In fact, it’s the strongest U20 roster I can remember Tab Ramos bringing to a non-vital competition. It features a true striker in Reading’s Andrija Novakovich, a Clint Dempsey-type shadow striker in Tommy Thompson, pacey attackers in Lynden Gooch (who’s being shoehorned into this formation due to his ability, I know) and Junior Flores, a true metronomic No. 8 in Emerson Hyndman, a pair of real fullbacks in John Requejo and Kellyn Acosta, and two live central defensive prospects in RBNY’s Matt Miazga and Spurs’ Cameron Carter-Vickers. The latter of those two actually got his first ever YNT call-up on the U23 level as a ’97. So U.S. Soccer clearly likes him.

The only real soft spot on this roster is, bizarrely, at goalkeeper, where the U.S. has been deepest for decades on every level. Santiago Castano has yet to prove he deserves a seat in the hype train, while Ethan Horvath isn’t getting games. He’s currently buried on Molde’s depth chart.

– Let’s move back to Thompson for a second. For all the highlight reel-worthy moments Thompson unsheathed during his late debut for San Jose in 2014, there were no goals in a league game. Let’s talk about why that was.

The way he’s developed, Thompson is positionally and mentally analogous to Clint Dempsey. He drops into spaces between the midfield and forward line to both facilitate and create spaces for his own one-on-one runs at defenders. In the same way we’ve struggled to define Dempsey’s actual role, so it will be with Thompson for the foreseeable future. Only Thompson is physically less imposing than Dempsey, so he needs to be attached to a real No. 9 to operate. He needs cover. Chris Wondolowski is a lot of things, but positionally tethered to the area is not among them. So as San Jose Striker X rotated back into the build-up, Thompson was often left stranded, operating as an occasional lone striker. Which absolutely kills his effectiveness.

This lineup, at least on its face, is perfect for Thompson. While Gooch may end up filling that role in the hole, Thompson can do it as well as anyone with a strong striker like Novakovich commanding the respect of the back line’s biggest player. That should take some heat off Thompson and allow him to find pockets, dance through tackles and set up his teammates. Just like Dempsey.

– Don’t read too much into the fact that Acosta was listed among the midfielders. It happens occasionally that the roster sheets aren’t reflective of what happens on the field, and it’d frankly be a surprise to see a player who’s been playing semi-regular first team minutes at fullback suddenly be repositioned on a whim.

That said, there are options that could lead Ramos to tinker. Shaq Moore is one. Moore was once a huge part of the U17 cycle as a holding midfielder during his age group’s run. He largely played that position during his early years at IMG Academy in the DA until the need at fullback on the YNT level forced coaches to tinker with his position. He’s played some at center back, but it seems his best position (and the one where he’s gotten the most recent play) is at right back.

With the amount of pacey wide talent on this team there doesn’t seem to be any reason to move Acosta upfield. The rapid development of Moore, who now plays for the FC Dallas academy, may push that issue more than we’ve seen in the past. We all know that intra-positional competition is good for development, so there shouldn’t be much worry about at right back with this group.

– I left two attackers on the bench in this XI: recent Tijuana transfer Amando Moreno and recent Atletico Madrid signee Boxi Yomba. Both have shown flashes, but none nearly bright enough to unseat Thompson or especially Novakovich, who’s the only real target man on this roster. Moreno needs more time to polish a game left on the shelf far too often in the New York Red Bulls’ system, while Yomba’s move to Madrid has largely shielded him from the prying eyes of most American evaluators. Both can be sparks late in games at a variety of positions along the forward line.