Offseason Changes

LAFC kept the front three of Rossi, Vela, Rodriguez and their dynamic midfield triangle of Kaye, Blessing, and Atuesta the same for 2020, because it ain’t broke. It’s fantastic.

But three of the four defenders and the goalkeeper will be new for 2020. As a result, LAFC will do two things with their backline in 2020: give playing time to some youngsters, and count up ridiculously gigantic piles of cash that they made from their moves. Steven Beitashour, who just turned 33 years old, was let go. Jordan Harvey was re-signed, but it looks pretty clear from the preseason that he won’t have the starting job at left back anymore. Tyler Miller was sold to Minnesota for $200K in GAM. Walker Zimmerman was sold to Nashville SC for the impressive sum of $1.25 million in GAM.

The kids playing at outside back in place of Harvey and Beitashour will likely be 20-year-old Ecuadorean Diego Palacios on the left and 23-year-old Tristan Blackmon on the right. Both are probably fine, but the sample size for both up till now has been small, so we’ll see. At center back, the excellent Eddie Segura will partner with the 34-year-old MLS (and NASL!) journeyman Dejan Jakovic for now. This tandem played in the team’s Concacaf Champions League opener against Club Leon on February 18; he was the ‘deep back’ while Segura did the sweeping in front of him. Jakovic was fine, but his mere 181 minutes in 2019 strongly imply that Bob Bradley is planning to spend every dime of that newly acquired GAM on someone better - and probably sooner than later. The MLS preseason window for incoming transfers closes on May 1.

Roster Changes

OUT

M - Lee Nguyen (11/19/19 - Expansion Draft)

GK - Phillip Ejimadu (11/21/19 - loan expired)

D - Lamar Batista (11/21/19 - option declined)

M - Javi Perez (11/21/19 - option declined)

M - Peter-Lee Vassell (11/21/19 - option declined)

D - Steven Beitashour (11/21/19 - out of contract)

F - Rodolfo Zelaya (1/7/20 - mutually agreed to part ways)

GK - Tyler Miller (12/31/19 - out of contract)

M - Josh Perez (2/7/20 - mutually agreed to part ways)

D - Walker Zimmerman (2/11/20 - traded to Nashville)

IN

F - Danny Musovski (12/10/19 - free)

M - Francisco Ginella (12/16/19 - transfer from Montevideo Wanderers)

M - Jose Cifuentes (1/13/20 - transfer from America de Quito)

GK - Kenneth Vermeer (1/16/20 - transfer from Feyenoord)

M - Bryce Duke (1/25/20 - Homegrown)

F - Bradley Wright-Phillips (2/14/20 - free)

Tactical Outlook

LAFC play probably the most beautiful attacking soccer of any team in MLS. Many MLS teams look pretty mechanical moving the ball upfield, Foosball style: the GK passes to the outside back, the outside back slides it up the wing, the winger attempts to penetrate into zone 14, and either succeeds or launches a cross.

LAFC don’t really do that. They can give it to Atuesta to slam a line-breaking pass up to the forwards. Or he can run a sort of drop off pass to Blessing, set a screen, and let Blessing run. Or sometimes LAFC will slide an outside back inside next to Atuesta like he was a d-mid, and the two will go on a short 30-yard tika-taka burst together until Vela picks up the play as the defense panics and over-rotates. Maybe the defenders are trying to deny the entry pass to Vela. That’s ok; Mark-Anthony Kaye or Blessing can give it to Rossi if he has space. Any attempt to close one door against LAFC results in another one being opened. It’s frikkin beautiful, the way this team can play its opponents like a fiddle when given the chance.

Kaye and Blessing were two exceedingly productive midfielders, and I don’t think it was just because of the fact the outlets they fed the ball to were such devastating finishers. They really were the engine room of LAFC’s creation.