Dempsey and Lodeiro still to find perfect harmony

By Matt Pentz

If Nicolas Lodeiro seems a little bit off to you, it’s mostly because he set the bar so incredibly high.

Lodeiro was dominant from the moment he arrived in Seattle from Boca Juniors last summer, earning MLS Newcomer of the Year honors despite playing in less than half of the season having sparked the Sounders’ dramatic midseason turnaround.

His raw production so far in 2017 has been reasonable, a goal plus an assist in four matches. The Uruguayan international has lacked his usual crispness, though – passes a little too far or just a split-second behind teammates, his grip on games less sure than it was last autumn.

To some extent, his comparatively slow start is by design.

Lodeiro hadn’t had any meaningful time off in almost a year-and-a-half prior to this winter. Prior to signing with the Sounders, during what otherwise would have been the Argentine offseason, he played for Uruguay at Copa America Centenario then jumped straight into the Copa Libertadores with Boca.

With less than six weeks between MLS Cup and the opening of training camp, the Sounders have eased their veterans back into playing shape, wary of burnout in the aftermath of last year’s title run. Lodeiro received permission to show up for camp a few days late and has had his workload closely monitored ever since.

Put simply, if he looks as though he’s not 100 percent in game shape, it’s because he’s not. That will change in coming weeks and months.

Other teams in the league also now have a reasonable amount of game tape from which to study Lodeiro’s style of play.

“Teams now are setting up their game plans to deny him touches and deny him space,” Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer said this week. “That’s going to be a learning curve for him.”

Schmetzer dismissed concern about Lodeiro’s form as slightly overblown.

“I would probably say that that’s a bit unfair. I think what you saw in the last game, if we’re talking just about the Atlanta performance, he was almost too jacked up,” Schmetzer said. “It was almost like he was trying to take the whole team on his shoulders, and he doesn’t have to do that, because we’ve got a good team.”

That last part is important.

Lodeiro thrives when the attack flows through his feet. With Clint Dempsey out of commission with an irregular heartbeat for the last part of 2016, Seattle relied on Lodeiro to an inordinate extent. Almost every meaningful attack flowed through Lodeiro, and to his credit, he embraced the responsibility.

Now that Dempsey is back, the burden has shifted. Everyone is still in the process of feeling out their new roles.

Dempsey and Lodeiro – Can they make magic happen?

If you’re looking for a legitimate cause for long-term concern, the Lodeiro/Dempsey dynamic is worth keeping a close eye on.

Yes, they seemed like a natural partnership during the four games last summer between Lodeiro’s arrival and Dempsey’s diagnosis, but that’s an awfully small sample size.

Forced to make it work week-in and week-out, the fit now looks a bit more awkward.

Not only to both Lodeiro and Dempsey like to dominate the ball, they also like to float into similar spaces. With both players forever edging toward that pocket of space just in front of opponents’ back lines, they’re inevitably going to step on each other’s toes.

Both players are at their best in the central creator role, but in Schmetzer’s 4-2-3-1 formation, only one of them can currently occupy it. Until Seattle’s right back question mark has a definitive answer, it also runs the risk of squeezing problematically narrow.

That’s not to be overly alarmist. Lodeiro and Dempsey are such quality, intelligent players that they’ll grudgingly come to some sort of solution. It is to say that Seattle’s attacking core is not flawless as it might look on paper.

“It’s getting better,” Schmetzer said. “It’s still a work-in-progress. You have to factor in about the other guy. Yeah, we’re talking about Nico, but you have to factor Clint in. Yes, he had a good performance with the national team. Some of his games for us have been, yes, trending in the right direction, but still a work in progress. “It’s a long season. We’re four games in.”

Give it time, and Lodeiro should revert to something closer to the version that so lit MLS on fire in 2016. If Seattle’s attack is still misfiring in a month or two, then let’s talk.