{"id":5492,"date":"2017-03-26T16:12:31","date_gmt":"2017-03-26T20:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/?p=5492"},"modified":"2017-03-26T16:12:31","modified_gmt":"2017-03-26T20:12:31","slug":"mls-week-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2017\/03\/26\/mls-week-four\/","title":{"rendered":"New England Make the Right Adjustment, Columbus&#8217;s New Tactical Wrinkle, and More on MLS Week Four"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The most goals ever conceded by an <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MLS?src=hash\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#MLS<\/a> team in a 34-game season is 67 (Chivas RIP, 2013). <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MNUFC?src=hash\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#MNUFC<\/a> are 27% of the way there, IN &lt;4 GAMES.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Andy Edwards (@AndyEdMLS) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AndyEdMLS\/status\/845718340798595073\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 25, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Minnesota United have allowed at least five goals in three of their first four games, including a 5-2 defeat on the road against New England on Saturday. While it is true that they were missing a number of players for various reasons, MNUFC have, for the moment, secured the title of \u201cworst team in MLS\u201d and it\u2019s not really close. It\u2019s disappointing, because their roster should not be that bad, and their roster-building method was respectable.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>New England Make the Right Adjustment, Columbus&#8217;s New Tactical Wrinkle, and More on MLS Week Four<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Where are the positives for them right now? Here are a few, some weaker than others:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christian Ramirez is pretty good. He has two goals and an assist in 291 minutes of play so far this season, and has been, by far, their best player. Expect to see plenty more goals out of Ramirez, who has a Cyle Larin-like knack for pulling goals out of every final third possession. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So is Kevin Molino, and Johan Venegas, and, eventually, No. 1 draft pick Abu Danladi. There\u2019s talent there; they just haven\u2019t had the opportunities for various reasons.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They\u2019ve played one game in a monsoon, another in a literal blizzard, and one without almost a majority of their regular starters. They also scored two goals and pulled a point out of a match in Colorado, something no MLS team has done since October 4th, 2015. Just as unrealistically impressive results are unsustainable, 5-1 losses in Antarctica aren\u2019t either.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They have three DP slots available. At least one will almost certainly be used this summer. Just hope they scout better this time.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adrian Heath has A LOT of problems to solve, and Minnesota have a long way to go until they are an acceptable MLS side. But it\u2019s not all bad. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some other thoughts on the (brief) MLS weekend:<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New England find their triangle<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New England\u2019s 4-4-2 diamond formation, new this year, never found much of a rhythm over their first two matches despite the obvious talent. The primary reason was the tactical decision from manager Jay Heaps to play Juan Agudelo as a No. 10 and move Lee Nguyen forward next to Kei Kamara up top. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Agudelo is a striker, and Nguyen is a No. 10, which is why the switch didn\u2019t work. Their best creator was put in a position he is unfamiliar with and one of their best goal-scorers was moved away from the goal. It never really made much sense. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Heaps recognized that on Saturday against Minnesota. In a free-flowing attacking system, Agudelo was allowed to move up top and Nguyen was able to go into midfield, and as we learned on Friday with the US national team, playing players in their correct positions pays off. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The trio combined for four goals en route to a thorough decimation of the visiting United. While it is important not to take too much away from this game (for reasons explained above), the switch will make the Revs considerably better assuming Heaps sticks with it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Diego Fagundez, who also had a magnificent game, explained to <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=44738\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New England Soccer Today<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> after the game that he believed Agudelo is in fact a No. 9: <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI think Juan\u2019s really a number 9 and not a number 10 and then when you have Lee in there we can find more movement and the attack flows a little bit better,\u201d Fagundez said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, Heaps confirmed the switch and laid out, in a nutshell, the tactical reasons for it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe did that by design just to get a little bit more for Lee underneath and we felt like there were going to be gaps in the midfield and I thought we had a really good first half,\u201d said Heaps, per the website linked to above. \u201cIt put Juan in a really good position to score a couple goals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nguyen did indeed find considerably more gaps in the places he likes to work. Allowed to have the ball underneath the strikers, he capitalized on the space opened by the strikers, rather than have to create the space himself. Thus, he had players to pass to:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Lee Nguyen the No. 10 is much better than Lee Nguyen the second striker: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/w3Zn6tSpF3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/w3Zn6tSpF3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Harrison Hamm (@harrisonhamm21) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/harrisonhamm21\/status\/845840832980750337\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 26, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With Nguyen able to play his best, Agudelo was as well. He scored two goals and was a nuisance all day for Minnesota\u2019s backline, running the channels and playing off of Kamara\u2019s expert hold-up play. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5-2 results aren\u2019t sustainable, but the types of chances they created are. They face a tough test next week in Portland.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Columbus throw in a new tactical wrinkle<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earlier this season, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola invented a new position: the inverted full back. The inverted full back\u2019s job is to pinch into the midfield while in secure possession to add numbers centrally and help to advance the ball forward, eventually joining the attack either on the overlap or as a secondary creator. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gregg Berhalter, running his own possession-based squad, added the inverted full back to his tactical repertoire on Saturday, the first MLS manager to do so. Right back Harrison Afful, one of the better attacking full backs in the league, often stepped into midfield while the Columbus Crew were building out of the back. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What made it unique from Guardiola\u2019s approach was that Afful would pinch well higher up the field, and would immediately act as a distributor to No. 10 Federico Higuain, who found tons of space to work as a direct result. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s an example:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-video\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Here&#8217;s an example of the effect Afful has as an inverted full back. Pinches in, distributes to Higuain, Finlay finds space. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nRGxkchuDw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/nRGxkchuDw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Harrison Hamm (@harrisonhamm21) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/harrisonhamm21\/status\/845845682296700928\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 26, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Afful to Higuain to Ethan Finlay, who had plenty of space to work before a nice tackle from Amobi Okugo. It worked all game, and the Crew managed to beat Portland 3-2 at home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Crew can do it in part because of defensive midfielder Wil Trapp. His tendency to drop deep between the center backs to help facilitate possession gives Columbus, effectively, a back-three, which then allows Afful the freedom to take up positions centrally. It\u2019s a really clever idea from Berhalter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This kind of tactical creativity is what will give you longevity in this league, and it will also give you success. Props to Berhalter doing it, and we\u2019ll see how other MLS teams adjust to it. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Final thoughts<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><b>\u2014 This Tyler Adams kid is really good. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The talk of US soccer recently has been the play of the New York Red Bulls\u2019 18-year old central midfielder Tyler Adams. He played alongside Felipe in the Red Bulls\u2019 0-0 draw with Real Salt Lake on Saturday, and was, um, pretty solid:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-video\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Here&#8217;s your Tyler Adams highlight video from today. Get the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/HypeTrain?src=hash\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#HypeTrain<\/a> going. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NYvRSL?src=hash\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#NYvRSL<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fuA2Hu9Gqm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/fuA2Hu9Gqm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ben Baer (@BenBaer89) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenBaer89\/status\/845768323845537792\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 25, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With Sean Davis right there with Adams in central midfield, Felipe is now officially an armchair-general-manager trade target. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 Fanendo Adi is also really good. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Portland lost on Saturday, but it was not due to a lack of trying from Fanendo Adi, who continues to look more and more like a Premier League player with every ridiculous finish like<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/matchcenter.mlssoccer.com\/matchcenter\/2017-03-25-columbus-crew-sc-vs-portland-timbers\/details\/video\/98696\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> this one<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adi has long been mentioned as a prime sell-on target for the Timbers due to his big frame, soft feet, and exquisite goal-scoring ability. It was basically confirmed that Portland is thinking the same way when they traded up to draft Jeremy Ebobisse in January\u2019s SuperDraft, and now they just wait for the right offer. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 Where are Real Salt Lake? <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RSL have one goal and two points in four games this season, and nobody other than backup goalkeeper Matt Van Oekel has looked particularly good.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Granted, they\u2019ve faced some injury concerns \u2014 Justen Glad, Jordan Allen, Joao Plata, etc. \u2014 but they\u2019ve basically sleepwalked through the first four weeks of the season. They didn\u2019t even have the customary one week of glory after the firing of their manager, Jeff Cassar. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They\u2019ve especially struggled to deal with the absence of winger Burrito Martinez, who got homesick and returned to Argentina in the offseason. His and Plata\u2019s skillfulness on the wing was RSL\u2019s entire game-plan last season, and without an element of that, they haven\u2019t been able to create the same opportunities. Javier Morales replacement Albert Rusnak hasn\u2019t done the job. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The solution should be to switch to a 4-4-2 and play Plata as a second forward. It would push Rusnak out of his preferred position in midfield, but it might be worth it if it allows their best player (Plata) to play his best position.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 The next USL-to-MLS player you haven\u2019t heard of. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saturday\u2019s USL opener between the Pittsburgh Riverhounds and New York Red Bulls II was a barnburner. It finished 3-3 at Pittsburgh\u2019s Highmark Stadium, with the Hounds scoring three equalizers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two of their goals were netted by forward Corey Hertzog, who looks to have the MLS goods in him. The 26-year old Reading, Pennsylvania native scored 13 goals last season, good for third in the USL, and did this against NYRBII:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-video\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Can&#8217;t. Stop. Watching. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Hertzog_Corey\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Hertzog_Corey<\/a> for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SCtop10?src=hash\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#SCtop10<\/a> anyone? <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/HertzSoGood?src=hash\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#HertzSoGood<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/PGHvNY?src=hash\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#PGHvNY<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/IC0QiEyXpe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/IC0QiEyXpe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 PGH Riverhounds (@PghRiverhounds) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PghRiverhounds\/status\/845829287894827008\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 26, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">D.C. United d-mid Rob Vincent made the transition smoothly between the Riverhounds and MLS, so why not Hertzog?<\/span><\/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 href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/657866014\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:71.380471% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/657866014?et=-UXgdalfT0Jq4E9xmOhcDA&#038;tld=com&#038;viewMoreLink=off&#038;sig=Vyt1A-nS_LN6v9fCA_XHbIP3dfflEjA1aOo2lBjSzeA=&#038;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"424\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin:0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The most goals ever conceded by an #MLS team in a 34-game season is 67 (Chivas RIP, 2013). #MNUFC are 27% of the way there, IN &lt;4 GAMES. \u2014 Andy Edwards (@AndyEdMLS) March 25, 2017 Minnesota United have allowed at least five goals in three of their first four games, including a 5-2 defeat on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1927,"featured_media":5501,"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":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,67,119,11,18,1,26],"tags":[245,69,57,106],"class_list":["post-5492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crew","category-featured","category-minnesota-united","category-mls","category-revolution","category-rsl","category-uncategorized","category-usl","tag-columbus-crew-sc","tag-minnesota-united","tag-mls","tag-new-england-revolution"],"modified_by":"Matt Pollard","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5492","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\/1927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}