When Javier Morales laid crumpled in a heap, writhing in agony, against Chivas USA, Jason Kreis knew he was going to need to shift his midfield around drastically to compensate for a likely season-long loss of our central playmaker. He’s tried a few different strategies to get our midfield ticking again, and if the last seven matches have showed anything, it’s that he’s not got it right yet.
We haven’t looked a free-scoring, high possession side in the same way since that fateful evening at the Rio Tinto in May, and unless something changes soon, we’ll see our season thrown asunder as a result.
For illustration, let’s look at the match against D.C. United on Saturday, that regrettable 1-1 draw. It was a game when we really should have seen more than a single goal, but vital parts of our midfield weren’t clicking when they needed to. We won a penalty through Kyle Beckerman’s darting run, which, don’t get me wrong, was wonderful. A goal’s a goal’s a goal, you know? But the lineup we went with ended up our downfall:
Beckerman
Warner - Grabavoy
Williams
Some of our formation worked: Beckerman in a deep role is effective, and he can release long balls like few in the league. But Kyle kept bumping forward in an attempt to win the ball back and retain possession because one man, Collen Warner, wasn’t doing enough work in his central spot.
Perhaps Warner’s role was too undefined, or perhaps he wasn’t working quite hard enough, but his role in the game was lost on me. If he was looking to keep the midfield ticking over, he didn’t. More went wrong with that than I can fathom: He lost the ball, or he lost momentum, and while he did have some good runs into the box, those hardly made up for the way our midfield didn’t connect.
Ned Grabovoy was energetic and hard-working, and that was many times our saving grace. He tracked back, he burst forward, and he looked absolutely alive. He’s one man who is working to keep a starting spot when Will Johnson returns in full — Wednesday against Chicago, I’m sure. Grabovoy chased, harried, and was a pest for the United midfield. He did give up a few too many fouls, but you sort of expect those from the role he played.
Andy Williams, for his part, was excellent. Rather than being deployed as a playmaker at the attacking tip of the diamond, his role was a bit more free — and for a player as seasoned and intelligent as Andy, that role is almost custom fit. He made constant diagonal runs to throw off the opposition marking, and if Grabovoy or Warner had been able to make the through passes to Jean Alexandre and Fabian Espindola we needed, we would have won this game handily. Andy Williams, then, comes out of this match a true star, and he was certainly my man of the midfield.
But while Collen Warner was ineffective at best, it was, I think, the setup that betrayed our midfield and not the man. Grabovoy and Beckerman carried him along at the worst of times, Olave was tackling like a man possessed at the back, and even Fabian Espindola worked his boots off. Warner hardly cost us three points. Instead, I think our problem was a more systemic one.
When we play with a probing, free role midfielder at the top of the diamond who isn’t playing as a playmaker, there must be somebody behind that can string those passes through and really make it happen. A good pass will unlock the opposition defense, and that’s what was truly lacking. With the United backline playing as deep as they did, we were never going to win with Kyle’s long passes unleashing a speedy counter — especially with Jean Alexandre up top, who isn’t exactly a speed demon.
The solution, if we are to continue in this diamond midfield setup, is to have somebody who can make those essential passes in the middle of the diamond. Warner perhaps can, but he’s not reaching his potential at current. Grabovoy doesn’t play that role, and works more to regain possession. Andy Williams isn’t the playmaker we need, but a smart off-the-ball player, and I really like him in that diamond-tip position. Perhaps Will Johnson can fill that role more effectively.
Wednesday will bring another game, and we really must be prepared to latch onto Chicago and break their spirits with a 4 or 5-goal win.
Or a single-goal win — I’d even take that after a night like Saturday.
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