EDITORIAL- During the Chicago Fire’s offseason, Head Coach Frank Yallop and Technical Director Brian Bliss immediately went to work on their roster in hopes of rebounding from the worst season in franchise history. Their motives were clear; address the issues that had carried over from 2014, namely their attack and goal scoring.
When Yallop was hired by owner Andrew Hauptman at the close of 2013, he inherited a tight salary cap, and a number of players who had either overstayed their welcome in Chicago, or were not working out under a new system in the wake of the Frank Klopas-era. The offseason allowed Yallop and Bliss to craft their roster from top to bottom the way they wanted to.
Bliss is no stranger to going after influential attacking players. While serving as Technical Director in Columbus, he was instrumental in the Crew bringing in Federico Higuaín and Jairo Arrieta, both of whom turned Columbus into a dynamic attacking team for the first time since the departure of Guillermo Barros Schelotto in 2010.
The eye Bliss had for finding talent abroad was a strong point, not only when he arrived in Chicago following six years in Columbus, but again when Chicago entered the offseason desperately attempting to turn things around.
Within weeks of the final whistle in Chicago’s season, they signed two attacking Designated Players to the roster. Nigerian striker Kennedy Igboananike and Ghanaian winger David Accam were both brought into the side to bolster Chicago’s attack with goalscoring and speed in the final third.
The club would go on to sign a number of players to provide depth at all positions, and in January they signed two more key attacking players to round out the plans Yallop had for the upcoming season; former Southampton striker Guly do Prado, and Celtic legend Shaun Maloney, who signed as their 3rd and final Designated Player.
In all, Chicago brought eleven players in as part of a major roster turnover before the start of preseason, five of which had defined pedigrees as attacking players. It seemed apparent that Chicago would vastly improve on their 41 goals scored in 2014, which was only good enough for 15th best in the league.
That change, seven games into the 2015 season, has not seemed apparent at all, however.
Chicago struggled out of the gate, taking no points out of their first three matches. It wasn’t until their stadium-opening defeat at the hands of the San Jose Earthquakes that the Fire netted their first goal. Through seven games this season, Chicago has scored just six times, none of which have come from their three strikers.
Two of Chicago’s six goals on the season have come off the boots of two of the aforementioned offseason acquisitions. In their Week 8 win against New York City FC, David Accam netted his first MLS goal on a botched play by Ryan Meara. Shaun Maloney hit the back of the net against Toronto FC in Week 3, a game he also produced an assist for defender Joevin Jones’ first goal of his MLS career.
By and large, however, Chicago’s striker production has been lacking. Igboananike and do Prado have yet to score. David Accam has mainly played on the wing for the Fire, and Shaun Maloney, who seemed to struggle in the opening weeks, has found more comfort on the pitch when Frank Yallop has pushed him higher up into a withdrawn forward role, one that suited him well in his time at Celtic. Despite that increased comfort playing higher up the pitch, Maloney has only scored once in his six appearances with the Fire.
Yallop has relied on returning striker Quincy Amarikwa, who led the team in scoring in 2014 with just 8 goals, but also has yet to get on the scoresheet in 2015. Amarikwa’s high work rate has frequently been praised by Yallop, but it has been evident for some time that he is best suited as an impact sub aimed at wearing down opposing back lines in the latter stages of games. Still, Yallop has refused, up to this point, to let panic set in.
“Obviously the strikers are in there to score and be dangerous around the goal. All of them, Quincy, Kennedy, and Guly have contributed to the team especially in the last three or four games in playing well and doing well,” Yallop told reporters this week. “It’s always a tough one because strikers want to score and they feel that they let their team down if they haven’t scored.”
The lack of production early on from Amarikwa has resulted in starting duties falling to Kennedy Igboananike, and Guly do Prado. While Yallop tried a number of different combinations in early weeks, do Prado has started the Fire’s last two consecutive matches; the win against NYCFC, as well as this weekend’s 1-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City. In both games, Igboananike and Amarikwa came on as substitutes, but failed to score, despite opportunities in both games.
“Sometimes goals come in bunches and sometimes they don’t come at all,” Yallop said. “We’ve just got to stay patient with these guys, see it through and see where we are in the middle of the season but I’m not sitting here going – we’ve got to get a striker. We don’t. I think these guys have worked very hard, all three of them, and they’re trying their best to get on the end of stuff and they’ve been close.”
Despite being close, there’s a sense that a shift in the lineup is coming once Mike Magee and Patrick Nyarko are ready to get back into the line-up. Both players are on schedule to return to the team sometime in June, after sustaining season ending injuries in 2014. Yallop has shown previously that he’s willing to make changes in order to shake things up, and that could come by way of Magee starting at forward in front of Shaun Maloney, with Nyarko occupying his spot on the wing, opposite his fellow countryman in Accam.
With the re-introduction of Nyarko and Magee to the lineup, Chicago may have a situation like in the past, with a DP who is not fit to make the starting XI. The club and its supporters are no stranger to that prospect; with the fallout of players like Nery Castillo, Federico Puppo, Sherjill MacDonald, and Juan Luis Anangono, it would be no surprise to see Kennedy Igboananike fall from grace if he does not begin scoring soon.
Chicago also knows what they have in their two returning players. Magee had a career high 21 goals in 2013, the same year he earned league MVP honors; Nyarko has consistently used his speed to wreak havoc on opposing defenders, and historically has led, or been close to leading in the assist department on a consistent basis for the Fire.
Even if Chicago fails to get the production it’s looking for – and that it needed in games like Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City – it may come from the versatility Yallop and Bliss have built into their side, despite any signings that fail to produce for them.
“Mike Magee can play midfield or up front. Kennedy can play up front or wide, Harry (Shipp) can do the same and Shaun can do the same. It’s about fitting them all in where they’re comfortable. It will be good to have Patrick and Mike adding to the squad that we have already because it makes it better. I’ve just got to figure out the best combination of players….What I like is that they’re all versatile.”
Hopefully for Chicago, that versatility will work in their favor, and they will see the struggles of the first seven games as nothing more than a slow start to an otherwise successful campaign.
Photo courtesy John Rieger, USA Today
