Armchair Analyst: Jozy Altidore's injury means both TFC & USMNT must adjust

Welcome back to the Thursday Q&A series, where we focus on one particular topic – today's being Jozy Altidore's injury– and ask you to react, share, and discuss in the comments section. However, feel free to ask about anything game-related (MLS, USL, NASL, USMNT, CanMNT, etc.) over the next several hours.

There are several fundamental operating principles to the diamond midfield. First is that you have a dedicated playmaker, a No. 10, who is the focal point of the attack; second is that you have a dedicated defensive midfielder protecting said playmaker defensively, while simultaneously shielding the back line.

You probably knew that already. Subtler principles of the formation include the behavior of the wide midfielders (who aren't wide at all), the fullbacks (they push up to support the attack via possession more than they do to fully overlap and whip in crosses), and, finally, the forwards. For diamond teams – or 4-1-3-2 teams, which is really the formation as Toronto FC and the USMNT play it since Michael Bradley prefers to do his playmaking from deeper – much of the final third attacking width has to come from the forwards.

Think about Fabian Espindola's years with RSL, or how Joao Plata played there last year. Go, way back in the day, to the great D.C. United teams that featured Jaime Moreno flaring out wide to act either as a decoy (dragging the central defense with him) or as an auxiliary playmaker, able to hold the ball out wide and bend the shape of the opposing lines.

Or think of Jozy Altidore. He's built like a traditional No. 9, but has never been particularly suited to that game. Altidore, for both the US and across the his club career, has been one of those "flare wide" forwards:

And now he's gone for 4-to-5 weeks, with Luke Moore the obvious choice to get most of those newly available minutes. Moore is at his most comfortable operating in the central channel, and created no danger from out wide once he came on for Jozy last weekend at New England:

Altidore's instinct is to "clear space," while Moore's is "occupy defenders." He's pretty good at it, too.

This isn't a death sentence, either for Toronto (provided they coax just a little more width out of their midfield) or the USMNT (Juan Agudelo, come on down!) in the summer's Gold Cup, should Jozy still be unavailable or less than 100 percent.

It is, however, a major adjustment. Moore will have to be better on Saturday against Portland (5 pm ET; TSN in Canada | MLS LIVE in the US), both providing some width and creating chances for the likes of Bradley Sebastian Giovinco and Jonathan Osorio.