Where Does Mirosevic Play?

I don’t see why it should matter what the overarching style of football played in this country is compared with the world’s other leagues, and even moreso I don’t see what we could do about it if it were a problem.

If we try to force something to make MLS more like the leagues in the rest of the world it just makes MLS look like they’re desperately pandering rather than trying to be their own entity. J-League is a league just about as old as ours with a similar story, though they have enough support in the country to have two divisions. Watching J-League, you get a very MLS-esque sense that it’s all about the attack from the edges with no regard for defending but they do all right for themselves and in fact I quite enjoy J-League.

MLS is still growing and will be best suited to continue the way it has been going as the league continues to find its own style of play. The rest of the world doesn’t like it or finds it archaic? Screw em, we’re honestly playing almost the same style as the English second division. Just like it’d hurt the league to instantly try and throw pro/rel into the mix this early, trying to force a style change of a league still finding its legs will only cause harm.

Thank you for your insights, I don’t necessarily think that our options are too far off actually. I don’t think I was recommending that play be focused out wide. I’d prefer if the Crew played through the middle more often. I actually would like to see a 4-2-3-1 type formation that creates an central triangle, keeps possession and allows the wingers to operate more like forward. Warzycha certainly prefers the 4-4-2 of the 90s EPL. It’s hard to work through the middle set up like that, thus the emphasis on the wings for the Crew lately.

My preferred formation would have the occasional high press, forwards playing defense. The Crew used it to devastating effect last year as Renteria and Gaven are especially good at closing down space and pressuring defenders, easing the pressure on the defense. I still think Mirosevic would work best with a destroyer type defensive midfielder and holding midfielder. He would have the free role to create on offense.

I’d also love to see moves build from the back and Marshall have the freedom to bring the ball up a bit before he plays it. He’s a very good passer and is solid on the ball. This would mean that your holding midfielder would be key to this setup. I had hopes that Kevin Burns might be the type of player to be the fulcrum, he could pass, but he was too slow for MLS. Because of the teams limitations at holding mid, both the fullback saw an awful lot of the ball. Miranda, followed by Gardner had the most touches on the team last year. That’s not inherently bad, but it does show a lack of incisiveness from the fulcrum required of a team looking to control possession.

I will disagree regarding overlapping fullbacks. They are a key to how even top teams play worldwide. With more teams moving to inverted wingers or playing narrow formations, fullbacks provide needed width and attacking numbers. They also take up an offensive role by forcing wingers to play defense, neutralizing them offensively. This allows one or even two holding players to stay back with the central defending pair. Barcelona and Manchester United have taken to having Busquets and Carrick respectively drop into central defense with the two center backs. This is because of using fullbacks as attackers first in some cases.

The Crew weren’t set up for overlapping wingers the last couple years. Gaven on the right certainly knows how to cut inside and offer space to Miranda, but Rogers would often stay too wide and close the space for the left back, be it Francis, Balchan, or Gardner. Gardner was the most successful offensively as would drift inside sometimes, creating a slightly odd look for when the Crew was in the final third.

PJG