Match Review vs Seattle

Charlotte FC's midfield has a lot of questions and didn't provide any answers

If you are a Charlotte FC fan who stayed up late to watch the start of our most promising season, you probably went to bed disappointed. Seattle dominated that entire match and the fact we scored one let alone two goals and got a point from this is highway robbery. This is not what a team trying to finish top 4 in the East should look like.

Now there are going to be a lot of reactions and probably many overreactions. We have to remember this is just the first game of the season and the team is still getting their match sharpness and form together. However, we cannot just ignore this performance. It is important to find out what was just early season mistakes and what are actual concerns that could stick for this season.

So that is what I am here to try to do. I rewatched the game and tried to find themes and patterns that explain the result and show potential trends for CLTFC, whether promising, problematic or just interesting. The rest of this post will be organized by those key topics and how they played out during the game. I try to outline the topics, why it happened, and discuss any adjustment we made or potential solutions. To illustrate these points, I refer to moments in the game and have provided clips from the game as a visual aids. Alright, with that all out of the way let’s get to it.

Topic 1: Needing a second pivot

The biggest issue we faced in this game was getting the ball to our attacking players. And this problem started within the first minute of the game. Kerwin just won us a free kick and Byrne plays the pass back to Malanda who has plenty of time.

But Malanda has limited options here. Their striker has cut off the pass across to Privett leaving our options to be a pass back to Kahlina, a risky pass to Westwood, or a pass to Byrne again. The pass to Byrne triggers Seattle’s press, Byrne has to go back to Malanda who now has to go long and we lose the ball.

Seattle was very organized and quick is pressing our defenders in buildup and we did not have enough options to pass through this pressure. This pattern of trying to buildup, inviting the press, hitting a long ball, and losing the ball happened all game (I’ve supplied multiple instances in the picture collection below).

Going back to that first image, when I saw it on Saturday I asked, “Where is Williamson?” Williamson has pushed up into the attacked line next to Pep Biel leaving Westwood as our single pivot. I believe this tactical decision to use a single pivot was the biggest reason we struggled in this game.

What is a pivot?

Let’s take a quick second to explain what a “pivot” is in soccer. The buildup phase is when a team has the ball with their defensive players, and they are trying to pass their way through the other team to their attacking players. A “pivot” is a role that plays in between the opponents press and is the key to “pivoting” the ball from the defense, through the press, to the attackers. Let’s use the image below as an example.

Seattle’s 6 players on screen are setup to try to prevent us from moving the ball from our 4 defenders up toward the 5 attackers (mostly offscreen). If we form a trapezoid between these 6 Seattle players, we see Westwood as the only CLTFC player inside the press as a pivot. The goal here is for Westwood to receive the ball within this press, turn, and then pass it forward to Pep Biel or another player beyond the 4 midfielders of Seattle to progress into the attack.

While a single pivot has been used, most teams use a double pivot during buildup, including Seattle. The image below highlights what a double pivot looks like with both of their central midfielders (#7 and #18) in the middle of the Charlotte players. I could write a whole post about this concept but hopefully this is enough for this post.

The issue with the single pivot and solutions

I believe using Westwood as a single pivot is a tactical mistake for this team. Pushing Williamson forward puts a ton of responsibility on Westwood, prevents Williamson from using his ball progression skills, and limits Pep Biel (and probably Zaha/Abada) from getting into space to receive the ball and attack. While teams can succeed with a single pivot, it does not fit our midfield at all.

Not only does using a double pivot make more sense conceptually, but it also actually worked better in this game. Below, Malanda just won the ball on the right and passed to Westwood, notice how Westwood and Williamson are both within the press on the same horizontal line functioning as a double pivot.

The closest defender tries to pressure and cut off Westwood from switching the field, so Westwood passes forward to Biel who does a one touch pass across to Williamson who can now dribble forward and break the press.

Just by having Williamson back in the double pivot opens space for Westwood and Biel. Notice below at the 30 min mark we have Westwood and Williamson in the double pivot with Williamson just receiving a pass from Privett. Notice the movement of Cristian Roldan (SEA #7) who is jogging toward Williamson.

Williamson passes back to Privett and Jordan Morris moves to close him down. This opens space for Privett to pass to Westwood. Now, unlike when in the single pivot, Westwood is able to receive this pass on his back foot (his right foot), letting the ball travel across his body so he can turn up field.

Notice above that Williamson has drifted toward the far side and Roldan has moved with him allowing Westwood to turn and not be pressured. Also, this creates a gap between the two SEA midfielders (Roldan and Vargas #18) and Biel (top of the image) is moving toward the far side to receive the pass from Westwood. With this we have broken the press and can now attack.

This sequence is not possible without Williamson moving back into the second pivot role. His presence pulls defenders and creates space both for Westwood to turn and also space for Biel to receive the ball. If Williamson is forward like in the earlier clips, he would be right on top of Biel.

The example above showed how Williamson in the double pivot brings out the best in our other midfielders, but it also brings out his best skills as seen below. Here Privett passes to Westwood who gets pressured by Roldan (currently next to Williamson) and is unable to turn so he plays wide to Ream.

With Roldan now next to Westwood and too far forward we need to try to progress the ball as Seattle has 3 players up field beyond the ball. Of note, look at Williamson directing traffic telling Ream to play it to Abada up the sideline.

Abada comes back and receives the ball and passes it inside to Williamson who is moving forward. Williamson then does a clever first touch back heel pass, taking the 2 players converging on him out of the play and allowing Abada to run onto the ball and carry it through the mid circle, starting a transition attack.

For all 3 examples above, we are able to pass the ball on the ground through a top MLS press and get it to our attacking playmakers in space. The difference in our buildup between playing 1 or 2 pivots is night and day and I hope the coaches spot it.

It does not have to be Williamson, any second pivot can work.

I’ve got two more examples to highlight that this tactical adjustment to double pivots can work with more than just Westwood and Williamson.

Here we are in our single pivot setup (notice how high Williamson is) but Biel comes back into the press and receives a pass from Byrne.

Biel can’t turn because he has pulled a midfielder from the center of the field toward this near side. From here he can lay it back to Westwood who is facing forward when he receives the ball. Because Pep pulled a midfielder and allows Westwood to receive the ball facing forward, he has clear pass through the press to Williamson.

Williamson receives the pass and is fouled by the defender who is running past Agyemang in the clip above to pressure the ball. If Williamson got past him, we would have had a 4 on 3 running at the defense. Instead, we get a free kick, which turns into another free kick, which turns into a corner, which turns into our first goal.

And one final example here showing that Diani can also support buildup in this double pivot. For the most part, Diani took the same position Williamson did in buildup when we used a single pivot. But here as we cycle the ball Diani has moved back into the double pivot role.

Malanda cycles the ball to Privett who steps forward into the space. As Seattle shifts over, Diani backpedals getting into a position where he can receive a sharp pass from Privett, turn and beat the press on the dribble.

Diani receives the ball on his back foot allowing himself to turn and dribble forward. He lays it off to Smalls to makes an inside run and we enter the attacking third.

Now even when we succeeded in breaking the press, we struggled in creating offense so good buildup does not fix everything. However, without being able to consistently build up through the press we are not going to give our attacking players a chance. I honestly do not know how much of a difference Zaha would have made this game because he would have had such few chances to attack. If we want our attack to improve this year, we first need to get the ball to our forwards.

Alright this topic has gone on long enough; I’ve got one final note then onto some smaller topics.

Halftime adjustment, switching and over the top

One last note is while I disagree with playing a single pivot, I do think the team tried to adjust to the press at halftime. Seattle pressed aggressively sending 6 guys high up the field to pressure our defense. While going through the defense is generally most desirable, we achieved some success by going over the press as well.

In the two images below (both within the first 5 minutes of the second half) we cycled the ball quickly across our defense and then passed over the press. The first one from a goal kick we move it from the left to the right and Kahlina lobs it to Biel who can turn and run at the defense. The second one, we cycle it to Malanda who has space and lobs it diagonally to an unmarked Williamson.

Unfortunately, Williamson slipped in the rain and caused a turnover and Biel got tackled and that turned into Seattle’s second goal. But it was good to see us find an adjustment to try to get our attacking players the ball in space.

Topic 2: Defensive shape, pressure, and personnel

Other than seeing how we could build through the midfield, Charlotte also faced the question of how our midfield would hold up defensively with a more attacking oriented lineup. While I do think it is worth it (at least with Biel) to play a more attacking minded midfield, we struggled to pressure Seattle’s midfield and cut off passing lanes, putting additional pressure on our defenders.

Splitting the Midfield

For the first 65 minutes, we defended in a 4-4-2 shape. The back 4 was our defenders, the middle 4 was our two wingers then Westwood and Williamson in the center, and our front two was Pep Biel and Agyemang. The biggest defensive issue was Seattle’s midfielders were able to split Westwood and Williamson with passes allowing them to create quality chances and crossing opportunities.

Let’s start by looking at their first goal. The ball starts with their left winger (Rothrock #14, bottom of frame) who plays into Cristian Roldan (#7, and he appears a lot in these next clips so get used to spotting him). What you do not see below is that pass went in between Westwood and Pep Biel (#16) who now are reacting and trying to close out Roldan. But that pressure along with Agyemang’s is a step too late and Roldan plays a pass in between Westwood and Williamson to Jordan Morris who drops in between our two lines of 4.

Morris receives the ball and plays a one touch back out to their other midfielder (Vargas #18) who has plenty of space. That one touch by Morris has shifted our defense. It caused Privett and Malanda to step up, Ream and Abada have shifed slightly inside the pitch, and Westwood and Williamson are now facing our goal. All of this mean Vargas gets plenty of time to play a clean pass to a wide-open Georgi Minoungou on the far side. You can view a match highlights video to see what happens next. Minoungou has no one to pressure him as he whips in an early cross and Morris makes a great run (after pulling our two center backs forward with that earlier pass) to score the opening goal.

Morris being able to receive a pass in between our 2 center backs and 2 center midfielders happens from two things. First is our inability to pressure Roldan with Biel and Agyemang and second is that neither Williamson nor Westwood are great at forcing interceptions. Not surprisingly, Morris drops into that spot multiple times with similar results.

Above is 23 minutes later and Roldan is passing between Westwood and Williamson again to Morris. This time Morris actually opens his body, lets the ball travel to his back foot and turns forward to dribble. He draws in Abada, Westwood and Williamson and then drops it to Minoungou in space.

While they did not get a shot here, do not let the result take away from the threat this poses. Between trying to dribble past Ream, cut it back to Rusnak (#11) at the top of the box or whip it across goal to a crashing Rothrock on the back post there is a lot of options for a goal scoring opportunity. We get lucky Minoungou doesn’t put in a quality cross.

And just one more time we see the same thing. Here Pep Biel is too slow to close down the Seattle defender who plays a pass breaking both of our 2 forward lines past Westwood and Williamson into Morris. Take note of Roldan in this picture currently in between Agyemang and Biel.

Morris receives the ball and lays it back to Roldan who has plenty of space since Westwood and Williamson are reacting to Morris and can’t pressure Roldan. This allows him to ping a diagonal ball to the wide-open winger Rothrok on the far side creating another dangerous attack and crossing opportunity.

These line breaking passes did not just happen between Williamson and Westwood. Seattle found other ways to play these passes past our midfield line of 4 and create a dangerous opportunity. Let’s look at two times that these passes move through Byrne and Westwood.

Below is the setup for Seattle’s second goal. Vargas has just lost the ball and Roldan (yep its #7 again) moves into space. Here we fail to setup our rest defense and both Westwood and Byrne are unable to either pressure Roldan or move to intercept this pass through both of them to their attacking playmaker Rusnak.

Rusnak receives the ball, shrugs off the tackle by Byrne and plays a great through ball to Morris for the second goal.

Now for both goals, Privett technically got beat but I really do not blame him for these goals. Having their attacking midfielder running directly at our two center backs is really hard to defend. The position we have put Malanda and Privett in both in defending the cross earlier from Minoungou and this through ball and ones that any MLS center back would struggle to defend.

And one last pass for the road. This pass is from Seattle’s goalkeeper and it is not a lofted pass (maximum height is chest high). This pass goes right between Westwood and Byrne to a wide-open Morris who has dropped in again and our press is lost. You can even see Williamson at the bottom of the screen putting his hands up trying to understand how that pass beat our press.

New subs, new shape, new results

In the 65th minute Dean makes 3 subs, Smalls for Abada, Diani for Williamson, and Bronico for Biel. With this change, we adjust our defensive formation form the 4-4-2 into a 4-3-3/4-5-1 setup (I’ll explain this more later). For the last 25 minutes, our defense was way better limiting chances, forcing turnovers and pressuring Seattle. I’m not sure how much of this was due to fresh legs, Seattle’s fatigue, or us being behind, but there is a clear change in skillset and defensive effort.

Let’s start with how our defensive shape changed. The previous front line of Agyemang and Biel is now a front 3 of Agyemang, Smalls, and Kerwin. Below we see Smalls and Kerwin are somewhat central to try to cut off forward passing lanes while ready to jump forward if a pass goes out to the full back.

Now that middle block is the three midfielders of Bronico, Westwood and Diani. All three are central to block passing lanes and force Seattle to go wide. Additionally, because they are close together, they are able to press forward more aggressively because they have two midfielders behind them. One final note about the image above is that with Westwood having 2 midfielders near him, he can block the passing lane that Morris had exploited all game in the previous examples.

The biggest shift was our willingness and effort to close down rapidly and put pressure on Seattle’s midfielders. If the game felt sloppy for the last 30 minutes, it is because we actually put Seattle under pressure and induced mistakes.

Below is my favorite defensive passage of the game. Seattle is attacking and we are in our 4-5-1 low block (Smalls and Kerwin have dropped into the 2nd line leaving Agyemang as the only forward option). Right before the clip below, Westwood Diani and Bronico are all on the same horizontal line on the field. But Roldan gets the ball and instead of giving him space to pick out a ball, Diani sprints forward, applies pressure, and forces him to move wide toward the near side.

The ball goes wide but we have our defense set and nothing develops. They recycle back to their other midfielder in a similar spot and this time Bronico sprints forward forcing him to play a negative pass back out wide to their right back.

The right back plays it down the wing to Minoungou but Kerwin moves quick to close him down and Ream is covering him at the edge of the box. Minoungou tries to play a pass inside but puts it behind his player. Look at the effort here by Diani who 5 second ago is standing in a central position and is now sprinting to provide pressure on the wing and ultimately wins the ball.

Shifting to this 4-3-3/4-5-1 gave our guys the freedom to play aggressive defense and Seattle was bothered by it. This formation cut off some key passing lanes and our effort and willingness to run caused turnovers and limited chances.

I do want to end this segment by noting that in addition to effort and willingness, Diani and Bronico have unique skills that supported our defense.

While I cannot definitively prove this claim, Diani might be our most defensively talented midfielder. Between his positioning, strength, speed, reactions, and length I think he’s capable of bothering opponents more than any of our other midfielders, and the play below highlights that. Once again Cristian Roldan gets the ball and is closed down quickly by Toklomati and Diani. However, Roldan is able to slip a pass to Rusnak.

But Rusnak senses immediate pressure. First Bronico is right next to him and will close him down. Westwood also steps forward preventing him from turning. And third Diani is also moving to close him out. His only option is to pass between Diani and Westwood (toward the referee) and hope Roland moves into that space.

Roland does move into that space and is a step-in front of Diani and it seems he is going to be able to dribble or pick out a forward pass. But Diani makes up the difference with a clean slide tackle and the ball falls to Smalls allowing us to go transition into the attack. If you can watch the video its impressive how much space Diani covers. I did not think Diani could get there and make a clean tackle and I do not think anyone else (except maybe Malanda and Privett) could do this.

Lastly, Bronico’s work rate is absurd and deserves a quick mention. This single clip below does not do justice to the effort he showed in this final minute. The game is nearly over and Seattle is trying to build into one last attack. Maybe 5 seconds ago, Bronico is about 5 yards away from Cristain Roldan. He picks up his speed and in the clip below he is right on top of Roldan. Bronico stays right on him and Roldan does not participate in this buildup at all. At the end of the game Bronico puts in that extra effort and negates their best on ball player all game for the last moments of the game.

This topic is not meant to say we should play a 4-5-1 and start Bronico and Diani. The point is to show what we specifically struggled with having Biel, Williamson and Westwood as our central midfielders and how our defense changed with our substitutions. I do not know what the right answer is moving forward but I expect to discuss this topic many times this season.

Quick Topics

That’s all the long topic discussions. But I want to quickly point out two other notes.

Tim Ream take-on struggles

From my eye count Minoungou tried dribbling against Tim Ream 5 times in this game and dribbled past him 3 times (60%). That is not a great look for Ream and could pose a problem moving forward. It is only 1 game, so I do not want to make a whole piece on this but I am curious to see how Ream deals with good dribbling wingers from the left back position.

Pep Biel in the 10 spot

He might not have the number anymore, but Biel played this game as our central attacking midfielder (typically called the 10) instead of as a right winger like he was last year. Due to our buildup struggles it is hard to evaluate his attacking output this game. I think he made a few poor decisions and missed a few passes. But I did like his movement between the defensive lines, and I think there are some positives that he can build on for the season.

I quickly want to highlight the options Biel can provide us this year with the clip below. We get the ball in transition and Biel winds up with the ball in the right half-space just outside the box.

As he shifts the ball on to his left foot Biel has three great options. First he can whip a back post cross to Agyemang. Second he can pass to Kerwin here and make a run forward, allowing Kerwin to either shoot or play the 1-2 back to Biel. And last, he can delay and then find Byrne on the overlapping run which he chooses to do. Personally, I think the pass was too slow but Byrne gets a cross into Agyemang who shields it well and Kerwin gets a shot off that is blocked. I use this clip to highlight that having an attacking playmaker in the 10 position (as opposed to Bronico last year) opens up a lot of opportunities and I’m excited to see how Biel’s movement and passing creates attacking combinations this season.

Conclusion

Well that’s all I got for now. I know this was very midfield focused and mostly negative but that was how the game went. I do think for all the hype our defense and new attack has gotten; the midfield is our biggest question for this season and if we can’t get it right, it is going to limit both our attacking and defensive output.

I want to end this on a positive note. We played a top MLS team, on the road, without our best player and got a point. If we take the lessons from this game and move forward we can still be fight for top 4 in the East. Its only one game and I believe in the coach and the talent we have on this team and I can’t wait to see it live. Saturday should be a great test at the Bank against a stacked Atlanta United, I can’t wait to be there!