If you were to ask me to be honest about what I felt was the key contributing factor to the streak of poor form the team has displayed in my tenure here, I would say without a doubt that our lack of a dominant central midfielder to control and distribute the ball, and to bring that extra "something" to both ends of the field. In my opinion, a team should be built around the central midfield because that role does every job on the field and is responsible for providing the "look" of a team's style. During the inaugural season, Morristown 1776 claimed David Chase as that kind of player, and despite the final results the original squad was far more consistent in form and competition. Although Chase remains a Continental on paper, there is a lot of speculation about his status with the club and his future has yet to be determined.
In a conversation I had recently with my brother (fellow Continental Dylan Bauer) I said that a true central midfielder has to be a mix of a raging bull, a rabid wolverine, and a guerrilla warrior. Dylan asked me to clarify if I meant guerrilla or gorilla, and after I contemplated it, I told him both. Yes, like Planet of the Apes. You see, a great center mid needs to be aggressive, perhaps even ferocious, clever, conniving, cunning, courageous, and controlling, but unselfish and acutely aware. One does not train to be that way, it is in the blood or it is not. There's a certain mentality needed, along with a certain physicality and a high level of skill. I would be lying if I said I believed that we have that caliber of player on the roster right now. However, I feel that we have the talent right now to let multiple players work to become something more, to be everywhere on the pitch and feel like that one, perfect midfielder.
The idea came last week when Dan Clayton and I were brainstorming about how we would counter the speed of Winter Rovers, Monday's opponent. We decided that we should try to choke them out of the midfield by crowding it, forcing them to play to the outside and defending against the crosses in. The idea was to use a 3-man holding midfield with two forwards and a striker, the "Christmas Tree" formation used commonly by international clubs like AC Milan. Over the weekend leading up to the game, I was trying to think of who would be best suited to fill particular roles, and since Clayton was not going to be available to coach Monday I wanted to do the best I could to field a strong side in his absence with the ideas we had come up with.
When I saw the available talent for Monday's game, I knew immediately who I wanted to build that midfield trio around. I had hoped that new players James Greskovich, Steve Dingler, and returning NJSL player Rob Linepinuel would be available because I feel strongly that those players are the most comfortable with the ball at their feet and have great vision. Also, the three of them are still young and full of energy that they can go at least 75 minutes at a very high pace and very high workrate. Luckily, all three players were available for the new experiment on Monday.
I told them about how I wanted a lot of movement and a lot of overlaps in roles. No one had any strict role and I really wanted to give them control of how they played it. They were a little hestitant and a little usure of how it would go, when it was something we had never practiced before and probably no coach or manager has ever said, "go out and be creative and make this team play as you want it." A lot was riding on their shoulders but they settled in with extraordinary comfort and poise.
To open up more space, I moved the two forward players wide and high, more in the idea of how reigning kings of just about everything FC Barcelona, plays their game (see diagram above). The idea was to have the wingers pull their left and right backs out with them, to open up big gaps in between the fullbacks and center defense. This space was exploited by the midfield trio, making runs and holding space to look for passes (this wide play also gave Linepinuel the space and time to make his unbelievable 35-yard cracker of a goal Monday night). The two wings used the width and gaps to make diagonal runs, beating the left and right backs on their instep and weak foot and wreaking havoc in the box. Playing one power forward alone at the top usually is reserved for the most gifted strikers, but the tireless effort of Brady McDonald caused all kinds of problems for the Rovers defense through the first half, drawing double coverages and creating that high, open space in front of the box which led to the first goal scored. Because the midfield defended as much as they created chances, the wings had more time to track back and defend the outside without getting worn down.
There were many times were I was almost taken aback at how fluid, how natural, those three young players picked up the philosophy and clicked, finding themselves on the same page with very little experience playing together or in that system. Last Summer, former manager Claudio experimented with the 4-3-3 but we didn't have the creative and unselfish players then. We had great passing on the ground and movement through the air, and I probably witnessed more back passes to defenders than we have ever implemented.
Speaking of defense, nothing in the first 60 minutes would have worked as well as it did without the tenacity of the defense. The pairing of veteran Charlie Hyre and newcomer "Muggs" Naveendra is my dream duo to start every match this summer, and their solid play in the middle allowed wingbacks Brian Daire and Mike Austin (who never played right back before but had a very solid game filling in given our situation and I give him tremendous credit for it) to play higher up the field.
We have a lot of solid talent to pull off the bench when our match turnout is good, and everyone should take note of the play of Rob, James, and Steve to figure out their style. I seriously can't give enough credit to how well they made this idea work. Our goal is to be able to pull anyone off the bench, or start in their place, without skipping a beat. With a little practice and a few more match minutes in this look, I really believe that we can turn our season around and really compete for a shot at the post-season.
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