Play is evolving, and you can see the vision from Gregg
Usually, the story is that new signings come in and it changes the way a team can play. What we’ve seen from Berhalter is that the team often changes how they play ahead of players arriving. That’s what we saw with the team playing a 4-4-2 in the spring, ahead of a hoped-for striker duo of Robert Lewandowski and Hugo Cuypers.
We’ve also been seeing it with the way the team has set up in the attack. Something that I’ve said – many times – is that with André Franco out, the team lacks a creative central attacking midfielder ‒ a no. 10. As a result, the team has often struggled to create much in the attack, particularly against decent-or-better opponents.
That made it more surprising that the Fire weren’t really targeting one: Neither Leon Goretzka nor the other high-profile DP targets really fit that mold in the traditional sense of the role. Ultimately, the team didn’t end up signing on, but they did bring on Anzor Mekvabishvili – a guy who fits in some version of the same mold that Goretzka does: An athletic, box-to-box midfielder that can play as a dynamic no. 8.
Particularly after the Fire’s past two games, you can start to see the vision come together: The team didn’t sign a no. 10 because they don’t think they need one.
That mimics something we’ve seen in most leagues around the world, where the no. 10 – a guy that operates in the space between the opposing midfield and defense – has become an endangered, if not extinct, species.
Instead, it looks like the plan is to play two box-to-box midfielders ahead of a lone no. 6 defending, and distribute playmaking through wide attackers. That also explains what we’ve seen from Lewy these past couple games. He’s been dropping deeper into the space where a no. 10 would usually operate, giving opposing defenders a tough choice: follow the striker and leave space for guys like Philip Zinckernagel behind, or hold the backline and allow an overload?
That’s a choice that Harry Kane has been making teams facing Bayern make at Lewandowski’s old club, and it’s starting to be the choice that he’s making teams who face the Fire make.
It’s been working, mostly: In the Fire’s past two games against the Sounders and Toronto, chance creation wasn’t the problem, and the out created the opposition in both games. But it hasn’t been perfect. Against Seattle, Robin Lod played a deeper role in the midfield, but couldn’t really create the third man runs that the strategy requires to work. This time, it was Maren Haile-Selassie in that spot, and well, he scored the second brace of his MLS career.
Yes, neither the Sounders (who are finding their way back into form) or Toronto (who lack the talent that Seattle has when healthy but who are in form) look like world beaters this year, but they also didn’t have Mekvabishvili (or Franco) available.
Is a system of play that works at the top clubs in Europe – ones with “win the Champions League”-level ambitions – going to translate to MLS? I don’t know, but I think we’re about to find out.
You have to say it: Lewandowski has been excellent
In Lewandowski’s first games with the Fire, he didn’t score. It was easy to be reductive: Hugo Cuypers was scoring, Lewandowski wasn’t scoring. Cuypers is still in the middle of his prime, at 37 (and now 38), Lewandowski’s best days are now in the rear view mirror.
Don’t let the Hugo-vs-Lewy narrative obscure the fact that by pretty much any standard, Lewandowski has been excellent. With eight appearances (worth about six 90 minute games if you want to do the math that way), Lewandowski has seven goal contributions, including five goals.
Yes, Cuypers, if you want to indulge in that narrative more, was averaging more goals and goal contributions per 90 than Lewandowksi has – but by both the eye test and the past few years of tape on him, Cuypers was performing at his absolute peak. That doesn’t mean that he was due for a reversion to the mean by now, or even this season, but it did mean that it likely wasn’t sustainable.
And it’s felt like Lewy hasn’t actually been making the most of his chances. You can fault him for that – in virtually every game over the past stretch, he’s had a solid opportunity from a great spot that he sent wide – but the that’s almost the point: Over the long run, you expect more from Lewandowski than he’s given so far, and he’s already been giving a lot.
You can also start to see Lewandowski doing things that Cuypers didn’t. He is getting involved in the press. He is creating for others (in ways that Cuypers typically didn’t). And he’s regularly been putting in 90 minute shifts without really slowing down over the course of them.
Part of the reason that Maren Haile-Selassie has had the resurgence that he’s had has been his connection with Lewandowski (who set up his second goal, while Haile-Selassie was providing service to the Polish striker throughout the evening), and I don’t think that we’d be seeing his performances if Cuypers was still in the squad.
The real concern over Lewandowski, of course, wasn’t about now, it was about the potential for decline over the course of his deal in a way that there is just less concern for the much younger Cuypers. That’s still a concern. And we won’t know if Lewandowski was the right move until his time here is done – the measuring stick for that, by the way, has to be trophies.
But you can’t deny that Lewandowski has been excellent.
Turns out, the team was right to bring in center backs
On The Bonfire, we weren’t overly positive about the Fire’s transfer window: Each of the moves, on paper, may have strengthened the group, none seemed that necessary and it didn’t feel like the team addressed their biggest needs.
With more time to reflect, I’ve softened on that (see above), but one thing that is looking like a need the team was right to address in the transfer window? The back line.
Because, man, did it look like the team could use some upgrades at center back.
The opening goal happened largely because Jack Elliott got torched by Josh Sargent. The second goal wasn’t really his fault, but the play happened because of a failed attempt to clear from the Fire captain. You know what? In an individual game, things happen, but for most of this year, Elliott has also been far too easy to beat on headers.
Particularly when the Fire’s other starting center back was 5’10” Mbokazi, it’s going to be a problem when your 6’6” guy can’t help you in the air. I’m honestly not sure what’s going on after he’s been such a stalwart for his MLS career, but it’s a problem.
Even if he was a problem last night, Elliott wasn’t the biggest problem the Fire had at center back in Toronto.
Given a renewed chance at minutes, we were starting to see things from Sam Rogers that we hadn’t previously. He wasn’t perfect, but he was better than he had been, and I find it hard to find too much fault with a guy who is getting better, particularly since he was pegged to be fourth guy on the depth chart by now.
Well, he wasn’t looking good last night. Rogers was the first guy that Tori Penso booked, and in the 42nd minute, he took out Josh Sargent with a slide tackle that was about the clearest yellow card that you’re likely to see that would have sent the Fire down a man while being down a goal late in the first half.
For reasons that only Tori Penso knows, however, all Rogers got was a firm talking to, but it was pretty clear at that point that he needed to come off. With Andreas Hanche-Olsen, the Fire’s natural center back signing this window, still awaiting visa clearance, Rogers was replaced by Noah Allen at half giving Inter Miami’s record appearance holder an unplanned Fire debut.
(And before anyone brings up the decision to send out Joel Waterman: the move paved the way for Hanche-Olsen's arrival from a roster and cap perspective, and Waterman left the Fire one more caution away from serving a one-game suspension for card accumulation.)
Allen has played center back, but it’s typically been in a back three, with Allen being given more ability to get forward. On the handful of occasions when he’s played the position in a back four, he’s usually had Sergio Busquets as the no. 6 in front of him to help read plays and solve problems as they arise.
Allen looked pretty good and was the Fire’s best center back on the evening – not a statement that says a lot, but still something. Here’s Berhalter on Allen’s performance: “Noah, when you look at his performance, you can understand why we brought him to the club – relentless player, aggressive, fast, physically strong, not afraid of duels, good on the ball. He's got a lot of good qualities, and he played a good game.”
I suspect with a full squad, with Hanche-Olsen and Mbokazi available, we’ll see Gregg trying out a back five, with Allen a left center back that goes forward in attack, with a midfielder (Djé D’Avilla? probably?) dropping back and putting Mbokazi in the left when he does.
The team needs to start getting points
The Fire’s streak has officially cooled – but not ended, at least in league play – at this point. The team is now six undefeated in MLS, but also winless in their past four games across all competitions. The last win? 2-1 over Orlando, which feels like ages ago.
It’s hard to quibble about results when the team has lost exactly one of their past 10 games across all competitions.
And the Fire have continued to evolve. Both in this one and last week against the Sounders, they played well enough to win, generating both more chances and better chances. But they didn’t win, allowing individual and collective defending mistakes to cost them points.
Here’s something that Albert Rusnák of the Seattle Sounders, last week’s opponent, had to say last night: “‘we're getting to the stage of the season where I think the points are more important than the performances.” The Sounders are in a different place than the Fire – 13th in the West, though only three points out of a playoff spot in a congested middle-to-bottom of that conference.
But the point still stands: If the Fire had won that game against Seattle and this one against Toronto, they’d be going into Wednesday’s game against Inter Miami with second place in the East on the line, a point back from Miami while holding a game in hand.
Instead, they’re in this place, only because teams around them have dropped results: Charlotte, themselves on a lengthy undefeated run, had 0-0 draw against Houston, while the Revs lost 2-1 to a very pedestrian LA Galaxy team. (Miami, meanwhile, remain almost within striking distance in part because they had a draw against 14th place Atlanta yesterday.)
Nashville is running away with the Supporters Shield this year, taking first place off the board. Second place, with it, an almost-certain CONCACAF Champions Cup spot, is attainable, particularly if the Fire win on Wednesday.
But it’s not attainable if the Fire drop many more points when they play well enough to win.
