Another day game, another sunburn, another Galaxy decimation of Chivas USA. It seems like this “rivalry” (if you can even call it that) is stuck on repeat. But Sunday’s game wasn’t just a repeat of old trends. Bruce Arena proved with his lineup on Sunday that the lineup he trotted out against RSL wasn’t just a fluke caused by resting players after CCL, as some speculated. The Galaxy have been stuck in an uninspired rut since last season, using a flat 4-4-2 with two holding midfielders, and guys like Gyasi Zardes on the wing, who, despite his youth and promise at the forward position, could not be more wrong for the wing position in my opinion. On Sunday however, Bruce trotted out a new formation and new personnel, and the results were stunning.
On paper, the Galaxy lined up in a 4-4-2 diamond, but according to the reliable folks at Whoscored.com, the Galaxy attack, more often than not, looked like a narrow 4-1-2-2-1. For visuals, the true formational chart can be found here.
There are a couple of key points worth mentioning about this lineup. At the top, you have a triangular cluster of Robbie Keane, Landon Donovan, and Stefan Ishizaki, with no true number nine. Similar to a false nine system, the lack of a true focal point up top, combined with constant positional interchanging between Donovan, Keane and Ishizaki, as they spearhead the attack, make this a nightmare for defenders who constantly have to pick up new marks.
Another noteworthy aspect of this new lineup is its lack of width. For comparison, one need only look at the Galaxy positional charts for the RSL home and away games—
In both games the Galaxy lined up much wider than against Chivas. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t work to the team’s advantage, as the Galaxy have no true wingers, and neither Juninho or Marcelo Sarvas are true playmakers.
This brings us back to personnel. In order to play such a narrow formation, you have to have the right Midfielders– midfielders with enough attacking prowess to spring the front three, in addition to recovering the ball and maintaining possession. Not to bag on Gyasi Zardes, who started at wing in the home opener and both games against Tijuana, but he does not offer these skills. Gyasi is a converted forward. He likes to put people on their heels and take the shots for himself, and his lack of good combinational understanding with the rest of the team, makes him a poison pill in terms of midfield production.
After the Galaxy’s midfield performance in the first three games, Bruce Arena decided to do some experimenting. On the road game versus RSL, Bruce sent out a lineup which included Rob Friend, a true number nine forward to pair up top with Robbie Keane, and played Donovan more centrally, as an attacking midfielder. He also started Stefan Ishizaki and Baggio Hušidić, two of the team’s best passers, and played them on the wings.
The result wasn’t much better. The team was too spread out, and the presence of Rob Friend up top, who played a true number nine role and very rarely drifted wide, prevented Landon Donovan from interchanging between attacking mid and support striker. This formation essentially handcuffed Landon Donovan, tying him down too far back in the field, when his main strength as a player is his ability to both catalyze and orchestrate quick combination play with his smart incisive runs and superior soccer IQ.
So it was back to the drawing board for Arena and company. The solution versus Chivas USA was simple. The Galaxy’s new formation played to their best players’ strengths. They all but abandoned wide play all together from the midfield and replaced it instead with quick combination play through the center. This means putting the team’s best passers and ball winners on the field, squeezing the midfield to enhance short combination play, and putting Donovan up top with Keane where the two can combine most easily. The result was astounding. Consider the following midfield numbers.
Baggio Hušidić scored a goal, notched an assist and tallied five recoveries and two key passes. Juninho tallied an assist, two key passes and six recoveries. Ishizaki scored a goal, had two key passes and two recoveries. Marcelo Sarvas had one key pass, one big chance created and eight recoveries. Landon Donovan had two assists, three key passes and had five recoveries. As a whole, the team’s passing percentage was 88.8%.
So, is this the formation of the future going forward? Perhaps– it definitely looked effective against Chivas USA, but it’s important to remember how poor the Chivas USA defense is and how good the RSL defense is, especially when it comes to disrupting midfield production. This weekend’s match up against Vancouver will be the true test.
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