New Sporting Director, New Faces, New Style

With a new sporting director and a lot of new faces, the Philadelphia Union have made some major changes. Not only are they bringing in new players, but head coach Jim Curtin has decided to change formations and style of play as well. Working with Ernst Tanner, the new sporting director, they have decided to focus on a tactic that involves more transitional play.



Tanner believed that last year was the ceiling for the team if they continued to play the possession heavy 4-2-3-1 formation and style of play. Early on he hinted at trying new formations including a 3-5-2, but that is yet to be deployed. After four regular season games the Union have switched to a 4-4-2 narrow diamond formation. They have left the one striker formation in the past, for now, and have switched to a formation with two strikers and no wingers. Tanner expects the width to come from the outside backs, and so far Wagner has been providing just that. Gaddis is more of a traditional defender, who lacks attacking ability but has the athleticism to cover the wing if he does advance up the field.

Jim Curtin’s anticipated lineup based on his preferences so far.

Positional Changes

Due to the switch from a formation with wingers to a centrally focused formation, the Union had to retrain some of their players to play in the middle of the field. Players like Fafa Picault, David Accam, and Ilsinho are now expected to play centrally even though last season they were mainly deployed as wide wingers. This is not the first time this has happened at the Union, either. When Bedoya first joined they transitioned him to a central midfielder because of his box-to-box workrate and their stubbornness in not putting their highest paid player in the middle to attempt to get him on the ball as much as possible, although Bedoya is naturally a right winger. Still to this day he tends to drift out to the right wing.



Could all the position changes be affecting the performance of the Philadelphia Union? I think so. Based on their first few games, the general trend is that Bedoya and Ilsinho start in the two center midfielder positions, but drift out wide to the right during play. Picault has a tendency to play heavy to the left, an area where he played most of last season. In Accam’s most recent start he was seemingly playing in a left winger box to box role, something he did last season as well as in Chicago. Brenndan Aaronson is a natural center attacking mid but has an apparent tendency to favor the right side of the field. When Warren Crevalle has played, he generally does well to stay center or left-center since he is deployed on that side when he has been in. Haris Medunjanin has also been left-center favored from his deployment as a deep lying playmaker due to his left footed-ness.



With their central midfielders and strikers all having tendencies to drift out wide, along with the expectation of the outside backs to attack down the wings and provide the width, what is actually happening on the field?



The wide drifting players both helping and hurting the Union in different ways.



The Good

Raymond Gaddis is naturally a less attacking minded defender; therefore, he does not advance up the field as often. With Ilsinho and Bedoya drifting out wide right very often, the width and attacking threat is provided by them. While this is not what Tanner and Curtin probably envisioned, it is what is currently happening. When Mbazio is back from injury, he may provide more attacking threat from the outside back and will allow Ilsinho and Bedoya to stay central or provide them support if they continue to drift. The three involved need to be careful though, as it may get crowded and the center mids are leaving the midfield open in the middle. Below (left and center) is Ilsinho’s and Bedoya’s passing map from the Columbus game, as well as Bedoya’s passing map against Atlanta United (right).

On the left, Wagner has been a gem for Philadelphia. He is a workhorse, bombing up the flank – providing width, crosses and the ability to get back on defense. With Crevalle and Medunjanin favoring the left, they provide defensive cover for the attacking minded Wagner. Total opposite of the right side of the field. Fafa and Accam also favors running out to the left, but they naturally start higher than Wagner so there is no problem of crowding on this side of the field. The following passing map is Wagner and Accam against Columbus, which clearly favors the left.

Due to this balance, the Union seem to be able to handle teams who jam the ball up the flanks, earning a point against Atlanta United and three against Columbus Crew.



Atlanta’s style against the Union was to use Gonzalo Martínez and Hector Villalba down the wings. The Union were poised to stop these attacks. Bedoya helped defend the right-sided attacks and Crevalle helped out on the Left, leaving Haris to have a decent game distributing in the middle and Aaronson finding space in the attack. They bent but did not break and pulled out a 1-1 draw.



Columbus was missing their key center midfielder, Will Trapp, to international duty. This left the Crew attempting to go through Federico Higuaín, but Medunjanin was able to nullify him as Higuaín naturally plays higher up, closer to Haris, and is not as mobile as other center mids, so Haris could keep up with him. The Crew resorted to pushing the ball in the Union’s strengths, the outside of the field. Crew’s Robinho and Pedro Santos were unable to break down the Union on the wings, which gave the advantage to Philadelphia who won 3-0 comfortably. Accam was almost playing as a box to box midfielder on the left. His defensive workrate and offensive runs from the left allowed him to help start counters and he eventually found the back of the net twice. Bedoya and Ilsinho again drifted wide right and were able to make some chances happen, while helping out wide on defense.

The Bad

Overall, the outside of the field seems to be balanced with the drifting and attacking/defensive tendencies of the outside backs and central midfielders, except if the opposition has a center midfielder that can switch the flank quickly and control the tempo of a game. With Bedoya and Ilsinho drifting to the right, it leaves a gap. If Wagner is caught higher than he should be Crevalle has to be weary and cover the left back area. That leaves Medunjanin by his lonesome in the center of the park, with little athleticism or defensive ability to stop the attack coming his way.

Against Toronto FC, Michael Bradley was the center mid that had the ability to control the temp and switch the ball, opening the Union up as mentioned above. He was able to get the ball wide and then drift upfield into the hole left by the Union, finding himself unmarked in prime scoring positions. The graphic below shows Bedoya and Ilsinho in the home opener against Toronto FC, where the two goals came from Michael Bradley, who hasn’t scored since 2016.



Again, against Sporting Kansas City, Ilie Sánchez was the centerpiece who exploited Philly. He often found the ball and was able to pull strings to discombobulate the Union’s defense and midfield who were already scrambling to get back into position. The following passing map shows the drifting of Crevalle and Bedoya, leaving the middle wide open for attacks to flow through.

Both games resulted in losses for the Union.



Moving Forward



Despite being depleted due to injury and international duties, the Union picked up their first win this season against Columbus. Being forced into their lineup and only having five substitutes on the bench, the Union were able to perform. Once everyone returns from international break and all injuries are cleared, Jim Curtin will have some decisions to make. Does he want to continue playing with is players drifting wide from central positions? Will the arrival of Montiero help balance the center of the field like the drifting balances the flanks? Who does Curtin start up front?



Lots of tough decisions need to be made for upcoming games, which are all against middling teams. If the Union want to finish as high as preseason predictions expected, they need to pick up the points now as the schedule strength at the end of the season is expected to be higher than the upcoming run of games.

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