2021 Strategy

Yesterday we talked about the roster.  Now lets talk about how we're going to use it.

Before we get to that though, MLS has made a roster rule change that could impact the Rapids going forward.  As we all know, international players can become domestic by acquiring green cards or going through similar processes to fall into a category where they no longer need a visa to be employed, thus not taking up an international slot.  For all of MLS's history the player's status changed as soon as their employment status did.  MLS has now changed that rule.  Starting in 2022, a player who is an international on roster compliance day (which falls a day or two before the season starts) is an international for the whole season, even if they get their green card the next day.  For 2021 anyone who's an international when the secondary transfer window opens in July is an international for the rest of the season.  (This is obviously grandfathering in players who are on the cusp of converting to domestic, as teams made roster decisions based on the old rule).  In recent years the Rapids have been pretty aggressive in getting players green cards if they're willing to go through the process, so this will likely impact our planning in the offseason.

Ok, back to strategy and tactics.  Every indication from preseason is that we are continuing to use some version of the 4-5-1 that we used last season.  It appears to be a pretty standard flat back four, two midfielders in the center, an attacking mid, two wingers, and a false 9 at striker.  The three center midfielders will vary their position depending on who exactly is playing but in general I expect Jack Price to play closer to a 6/defensive mid, Acosta or Basset to play more of an 8/holding or box-to-box mid, and Namli to play a 10/creative attack role.  We'll also see Sam Vines on the left push into the attack more than Rosenberry on the right, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the center backs slide left a bit when we're in possession.

So that's how we'll line up.  But the style we'll play will be possession based and we'll try to use the ball to pull the opposition out of shape.  You'll see steady build up in a area trying to draw the defense to the ball, and then you'll see the Rapids look for the pass across to the open part of the field the defenders vacated.  In attack this will be Rubio getting the ball in the center and looking for one of the wingers or midfielders making runs into the space the defender closing Rubio down left.  If nobody closes Rubio down he'll take advantage to make the shot himself.  The idea is to overload the defensive rotation so that they lose one of our attackers.

In attack the Rapids biggest flaw is that they don't have a player who, when nothing is working, will put the team on their back and carry them over the line.  Think Conor Casey at his best.  The player you knew you could rely on when you had to have a goal to find one unless the opposition was playing top notch defense.  We saw this in the playoff loss to Minnesota last year,  Once we got down and missed that chance at the start of the second half it was apparent there was no way back into the game.  We didn't have that spark we needed.

That leads into the defensive half of the strategy.  We don't put anyone off their game.  That's not to say we have a bad defense, we don't, but or defense just lines up and tries to stop what comes at them.  They don't make teams adjust to them and there's no bite in it.  The only starter on the team who you can expect to get stuck in regularly is Jack Price.  Otherwise we will try to out-technical the attack with positioning, not force them off the ball with physical play.

None of these are losing strategies, but they do require you to be on your game every game, and it means all eleven players need to be on the same page.  We have enough talent that if somebody is having an off game there should be room to compensate, but if nobody is having a good game then it can get ugly quickly.  We won't be able to use physical force and sheer will to stay in games like we saw in the past (like when Pablo was our captain).  I would expect to have a handful of games this season where we start on the back foot and never get off it.