Jurgen Klinsmann continues his blame game by criticizing USMNT players for lack of fitness

No matter the context or the extenuating circumstances, the fact is this: The United States men's national team has won just one of its last nine games.

The story of those games paints a starkly bleak picture. Five of those eight failures to win were losses. And in four of the last five games, the Americans took a lead in the first 10 minutes only to squander it. (Weirdly, they seem to be reversing an old trend of conceding a goal early and then recovering.)

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All of this isn't necessarily damning of head coach Jurgen Klinsmann and his methods (although the 4-1 loss to Ireland on November 18 was an irredeemable abomination). Following unexpectedly decent results at the 2014 World Cup – where this unfortunate streak began after the Yanks' opener was won 2-1 over Ghana – the German is rebuilding with an eye towards the 2018 World Cup.

He's tried a slew of new players and even tinkered with a 3-5-2 formation against Chile in the 3-2 loss to La Roja's B team last week. In the first half, the scheme showed real promise before the USA ran out of gas in the second act and disintegrated.

Given some considerations, this can all be tolerated. FC Yahoo has taken the view that in a lot of ways, acknowledging that this is Klinsmann's first chance to build a team from scratch. When he took on the job in 2011, he had to make a lot of repairs to an existing structure and get it ready for World Cup qualifying. As such, he should be given a certain amount of leeway with results in the short term.

But when Klinsmann criticized his players for a lack of fitness on Monday, it felt like a worrying disconnect.

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At the USMNT's ongoing training camp, he told MLSSoccer.com's Scott French that the poor results are "explainable" and went on to talk about having to get his players "out of vacation." In a typically meandering ramble, he once again pointed to the length of Major League Soccer's offseason, the lack of a professional culture and the players' failure to get fit on their own.

A few things we'd like to point out:

1. The January camp has always been about fitness. The players had been under Klinsmann's watch for 16 days before the Chile game.

2. Just one of those nine games came during the MLS offseason. (Credit to @GothamistDan for pointing this one out on Twitter.)

3. The USA has always been known for its exemplary fitness. There have never been real fitness issues until Klinsmann took over and said, ironically, that he would be emphasizing better fitness.

4. The expectations Klinsmann puts on his players to seek out expensive personal training at elite institutions during the offseason is unrealistic for many on the January camp roster who are early in their MLS careers and are hardly making real money. In fairness, that's more of an MLS problem than a Klinsmann problem.

5. Klinsmann's constant tinkering with formations and positions, while cycling through a huge amount of players, doesn't exactly induce optimal physical performance.

Again, we're not condemning Klinsmann's recent record in and of itself. But shifting the blame entirely to the players is a callous and indefensible abdication of responsibility.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.