{"id":4724,"date":"2017-03-07T13:16:12","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T18:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/?p=4724"},"modified":"2017-03-07T13:19:17","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T18:19:17","slug":"sacha-kljestan-striker-red-bulls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2017\/03\/07\/sacha-kljestan-striker-red-bulls\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacha Kljestan&#8217;s Striker Experiment with New York Red Bulls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Red Bulls began their 2017 MLS regular season with a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/2017\/03\/05\/red-bulls-ruin-atlanta-debut\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2-1 comeback victory at Atlanta United FC this past Sunday<\/a>, displaying an excellent determination to grind out a result after falling behind. One player that saw his positioning modified throughout the match was midfielder and team captain Sacha Kljestan, occasionally finding himself in a striker role.<\/p>\n<h2>Sacha Kljestan\u2019s Striker Experiment with New York Red Bulls<\/h2>\n<p>After difficulties implementing the shape full-time last season, New York head coach Jesse Marsch wants to utilize a 4-2-2-2 formation with his side. The attack will see a more central approach moving towards the opposition\u2019s goal, but should still see enough help in the defensive midfield at the other end of the field.<\/p>\n<p>Along with a goalkeeper of Luis Robles\u2019 quality, the approach could certainly see success. The issue, whether due to fitness or form, has been finding an adequate forward pairing with Bradley Wright-Phillips at the top of the line-up.<\/p>\n<p>Argentine designated player Gonzalo Veron has shown great potential in this position, but has once again been plagued by the injury bug. This lead to Marsch using Kljestan higher up the field from time to time Sunday at Atlanta.<\/p>\n<p>The first half saw the US international move around quite often, dropping back deeper as the game wore on. Alex Muyl and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/2017\/03\/06\/new-york-red-bulls-player-ratings-vs-atlanta-united\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daniel Royer <\/a>moved\u00a0higher to pressure Atlanta\u2019s defense, especially after going down 1-0 in the 25th minute.<\/p>\n<p>A magnificent header from Royer after Kljestan\u2019s corner-kick levelled the match, with an unfortunate own-goal for Atlanta giving the Red Bulls all three points on the evening.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Atlanta United FC vs. New York Red Bulls | 2017 MLS Highlights\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_k9GMvdlSnQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>While Kljestan\u2019s forward role was not seen throughout the entire encounter, it will be interesting to see if Jesse Marsch looks to him again in the near future.<\/p>\n<h3>Control Possession and Accurate Passing<\/h3>\n<p>After leading MLS in assists last year, placing Kljestan in a more attacking position could see many positives.<\/p>\n<p>Working within a center-forward role right behind Bradley Wright-Phillips could see the two talents work together to break down the opposition. Kljestan would be able to create space for Wright-Phillips, while his accurate passing could see an increase in the Red Bulls\u2019 amount of goals.<\/p>\n<p>Depending on the team that they are facing each week, this approach may see great success in the final third.<\/p>\n<h3>Counter\u00a0Attacking<\/h3>\n<p>Unfortunately, Kljestan\u2019s pace presents problems in a\u00a0striker position. Within New York\u2019s high-press system, some of the midfielder\u2019s best attributes get lost in the changes.<\/p>\n<p>Winning possession and transitioning into the attack would fall more to Sean Davis and Felipe, as others like Royer or Mike Grella will move forward.<\/p>\n<p>Others within the squad are certainly capable. But with Kljestan\u2019s speed and abilities in the middle of the field, one can see why he drifted deeper as the match against Atlanta shifted to the second half.<\/p>\n<h3>Veron\u2019s Injury<\/h3>\n<p>The extent of Gonzalo Veron\u2019s injury is unknown at this time, and ultimately the use of Kljestan as a forward may simply have just been a temporary solution.<\/p>\n<p>Veron\u2019s return brings a possibly superb strike partner for Wright-Phillips, especially as the 27-year-old evolves in Marsch\u2019s system.<\/p>\n<p>Sacha Kljestan is a key player for New York\u2019s success in 2017, and it is no surprise that the team wants to see him just about everywhere possible on the field each week.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/644729946\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/644729946?et=Nob4GrGQSmZ0PGhSrrlevw&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=vZ3EVPwmAHTcUr7SJyMXniQvZXaJi2XQpApxHm4Ypmg=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Red Bulls began their 2017 MLS regular season with a 2-1 comeback victory at Atlanta United FC this past Sunday, displaying an excellent determination to grind out a result after falling behind. One player that saw his positioning modified throughout the match was midfielder and team captain Sacha Kljestan, occasionally finding himself [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1327,"featured_media":4729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,119,6],"tags":[289,151,149,150,46,122,57,33,139,29],"class_list":["post-4724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-mls","category-redbulls","tag-atlanta-united-fc","tag-bradley-wright-phillips","tag-daniel-royer","tag-gonzalo-veron","tag-jesse-marsch","tag-mike-grella","tag-mls","tag-new-york-red-bulls","tag-sacha-kljestan","tag-sean-davis"],"modified_by":"Joe Hojnacki","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}