Backpass: Tinker Toys
Some thoughts about the Rapids formation in action. And also, some thoughts about the NWSL.
Colorado has reached a fascinating point as a team in 2021 - one which they haven’t experienced since 2016 - in which they’ve locked up a playoff spot with yet many games to go. It allows head coach Robin Fraser the chance to tinker a little.
So, as I briefly free associated on the podcast this week, I thought it’d be a good time to look at some of the most recent formations and lineups that the Rapids have rolled out, and just make some observations.
Here, for reference purposes, are the four most recent lineups. All are via fotmob, an app I like a lot.
Lineup vs Portland, Sept 15, (ended 2-2)
Lineup vs Vancouver, Sept 19, (ended 1-1)
Lineup vs Toronto, Sept 25, (ended 0-0)
Lineup vs Austin, Sept 29, (ended 3-0)
One Striker, Two Striker, Three Striker
Colorado’s four recent lineups have ostensibly used a mixture of different attacks - a lone striker, a striker pair, and a front three. There were even times against Austin when they were putting four attackers up against Austin’s backline - a tactic I had only previously seen when a team was behind a goal in the late going. I saw Robin Fraser’s men doing it in the first 20 minutes.
It’s not really four different looks, no matter what the lineup looks like on paper. It’s mostly variations on the same look.
The Rapids have been committed all season long to two things: positional fluidity, and a fully free-roaming left back. In general, the player denoted above as the striker, particularly Michael Barrios, has been the highest up the pitch. But of course, not always. Barrios likes to be the target of those long-ball over-the-top runs, and to do that, he typically floats wide to the right or the left. In those moments, Mark-Anthony Kaye or Andre Shinyashiki tends to occupy his former spot, if only to pull a second defender away from him. I remember when Kevin Doyle was the Rapids striker. You never saw anything like this.
That’s partly because Doyle’s pace wasn’t as blistering as Barrios, but also because I believe the Rapids were far more tactically rigid back in those days. Doyle did a lot of holdup play, back to goal, and stayed in the center of the pitch. The Rapids know that shackling Barrios to either of those roles is to rob him of his best assets.
To some degree, this has turned the wing forwards - Jonathan Lewis, Andre Shinyashiki, Braian Galván, and Mark-Anthony Kaye - into support players. Shinyashiki has done a lot more passing of the final ball in the past month than acting as a striker, which is the role that I have long thought he was best equipped for.
Moreover, calling them wingers or forwards isn’t entirely forthright. Those players sometimes operate as a front three and sometimes drop off between the lines, back to goal, to receive and pass. With the exception of Galván, who never comes central, the rest of the wingers could equally be termed attacking midfielders. It depends on the phase of the game, the score, and what Michael Barrios is doing.
I think it works for Barrios and helps him to be his best. I think it’s allowed Andre Shinyashiki to develop into an effective supporting player on this squad: he has two assists in the past five games (against LA on September 11 and against Portland on September 15). This one here is a perfect example of what I’m talking about: an early cross from a central position from Dre to Barrios. It’s at the 4:11 mark of this video.1
I dunno if it works for Jonathan Lewis or Mark-Anthony Kaye. Kaye’s got excellent swivel vision, and I sense that he operates midfield and centrally as well as anyone in the league. Wide, he’s less dangerous, because he’s fast but not exceptionally fast.
As for Jonathan Lewis: he has two goals over the past two games! Doesn’t that mean it works?!? Mmm, not necessarily. They’re both not the kind of goals I’d count here as the best tactical use of what he provides - dribbly goodness and pace in buckets. His two goals are: a header that took a lucky deflection against Austin and PK against Portland. To be fair, he earned the PK getting knocked down in the box after … dribbling through the heart of the Portland defense. Maybe that’s an argument to bring him in centrally as the striker? I don’t know. But he’s not a big passer, so my point is, I dunno if “J. Lewis - Central Attacking Mid” should be a thing.
Anyhoo. It’s not really a one-striker system. And it’s not really a front three. But it’s not *not* one striker. Or three strikers. (And, per that graphic above, it’s definitely not two strikers.)
Embrace the Five at the Back
I am not an early adapter of anything. I watch trends with skepticism. I’m often the guy that buys the thing - ripped jeans, pop sockets, tamagotchis, the iphone - pretty much after all the cool kids have been there and done that.
So when the Rapids rolled out a five-at-the-back formation like four months ago, I was like ‘ah, a fun gimmick to befuddle the opposition. Cool. Go back to 4-3-3 now.’ They did a couple times, but it’s clear that a 5-4-12 is here to stay.
Sometimes it’s more 3-4-3, like against Toronto, but that’s because on the lineup sheet the Rapids put Lucas Esteves and Keegan Rosenberry in the midfield.
It works for two reasons. One, it maximizes a player-performance reality with this team - that they have three excellent centerbacks and they ought to play them all. Lalas Abubakar, Danny Wilson, and Austin Trusty have all been exceptional this year. You’d have to go back through all our podcasts to hear it, but I feel like I’ve called out each one repeatedly for being Man of the Match for this team throughout the year. If you have that much good stuff, you accentuate it with a formation that gets those guys on the pitch. Hence, 5-4-1.
Wilson’s long diagonal passing is exceptional. Trusty’s fast enough that he can chase down a forward at a dead run. Abubakar’s aerial skills and emergency tackling are critical. They work extremely well as a unit. It works, and if it works, you don’t mess with it.
Two, it means you can do whatever the hell you want with your Left Back.
Left Back of Chaos, Part Two
Sam Vines was an attacking central winger left back, and thing that does not exist, except that it does.
He left for Belgium, and his replacement, Lucas Esteves, is continuing the tradition of being a left back of chaos - a thing you can afford to do if you have three great centerbacks and a right back like Keegan Rosenberry that generally stays at home to defend.
Matt Pollard really likes Esteves - he did have that lovely 1-2 attack with Nicolas Mezquida against Austin (at the 1:00 minute mark of this video) . I’m still not sure. He’s got a lot of pace and dribble, but Matt and I disagree about whether he’s a better crosser than Sam. I think Sam was better, Matt is Team Lucas-Can-Haz-Crosses. Let’s say the jury is still out.
Still - Esteves, as well as Galván, have been put in a position where they are positionally free to roam, capable of causing mayhem, and not really responsible for defending. At least, not in transition anyhow. It’s fun, and it works, at least in occupying the opposing defense. Esteves doesn’t have any goals or assists yet - although he’s produced 0.5 Expected Goals and 0.6 Expected Assists to date. So perhaps they are coming. Or perhaps he’s great at dribbling at guys, but less great at turning that into something on the score sheet. We’ll keep an eye on it.
…
Either Build it Again, Or Burn it Down
I’ve had a lot of things to say about the recently revealed toxic situation in the NWSL with former head coach Paul Riley: a disgusting story of manipulation, misuse of power, sexual abuse, and coverup.
I’ll be blunt, and brutally honest. The NWSL, MLS, and USL need to hire more women. They need to hire more minorities. They need to hire more people who are good humans. And hire fewer people with long resumes inside institutional sport or with marketing or communications degrees or the right connections or pretty faces. I fundamentally do not understand how people rise to the tops of organizations and leagues, hear allegations of something awful happening, and then when presented with the facts, try to figure out how to keep the problems quiet rather than root them out like the cancer they are.
Your organizational culture is the result of the people you hire, and the upstanders amongst those people. Sure, organizations can do diversity trainings and outsource their oversight to consultants like SureSport, but none of that matters if you hire shitty people - even shitty people that win soccer games or have a history of successful marketing campaigns or who went to the right schools.
Hire good people - and I mean *morally* good people. Kind people. Responsible people. People who care about building lasting, long term communities in their organizations. Then, hire more good people. If people are only so-so, have them work with the good people on getting better. Some will. Some won’t. If your organization culture is suspicious or untrusting or secretive or punitive or fear-driven, it’s not built to last. The cracks will show, and eventually the institution will crumble.
Yes, I’m talking about the NWSL, the Portland Thorns, and NC Courage. And also MLS teams. And the Colorado Rapids. And my own workplace. And your workplace too.
We must all do better. Either we repair and rebuild or, if it’s that broken, we burn it down.
The Rapids youtube channel, I discovered, has just 15 videos on it, all from the past year. Everything else from past years has been deleted. I find that super strange.
It’s sometimes a 5-3-2 and sometimes a 5-2-3 and as mentioned it’s also a 3-4-3. But there’s three centerbacks. That’s the point.