LOS ANGELES — Entering its inaugural season, one main question swirled around the LAFC lineup — the midfield. It was a shallow area, with limited versatility for head coach Bob Bradley to work with when facing his early games.
But a lot has changed since the team’s first game. The addition of Lee Nguyen in May was a definite bolster to the unit, and now, Bradley feels the midfield is helping to develop a new strength of LAFC’s attack.
“The starting point is that if you win battles in the midfield, if you control games in the midfield, certainly it helps you be a good team,” Bradley said. “And so, our idea would still be that as we start to play from the back that in so many cases we can find the right pass into the midfield.”
One player who works well in this role, Bradley said, is Eduard Atuesta, the 21-year-old Colombian who has stepped up in a big — yet quiet — way for LAFC so far this season. Atuesta plays deeper than other midfielders, meaning his role is focused more on ball distribution than attacking the goal, but this role allows LAFC to control more of the field.
The wider the swath of the team’s control on the ball, the greater its ability to maintain possession and build series of attacks. This is why Atuesta, with only two assists recorded on the season, is still a major playmaker for the team.
In Saturday’s game against San Jose, this ability to play through the middle kept LAFC well ahead in an offensively stagnant outing. With Carlos Vela struggling to find the net, the team scored a key pair of goals off corner kick set pieces. By maintaining possession and staying balanced throughout the field, however, the team was able to maintain its lead despite a lack of attacking spark.
This is still an area of struggle, though, particularly in the last third of games, when LAFC is known for allowing fast breaks and goals to dwindle away what previously appeared to be a guaranteed victory. In the final weeks of this season, Bradley will continue to emphasize the need to use the midfield as the backbone of attack.
“MLS teams watch every opponent and try to close down important spaces,” Bradley said. “You’ve got to work with players to have that ability to find a yard or two, and … when there’s that little bit of space, you’re not afraid to play passes into players, knowing that then the second pass and the third pass can come from that.
“We try to play football in a way that we can try to see what the situation is asking for. It’s our idea of football. We’re always trying to look at our team and work with our players to put those ideas together and play some good football.”
Injury notes
- Midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye is continuing to increase his workload in rehab after taking his first steps without crutches last week. Currently, his training is mainly tethered to the anti-gravity treadmill at the team’s performance center, which allows him to regain running strength and endurance in his legs without overly stressing his recovering injury. Kaye will not make a return this season, but Bradley and the training staff remain positive about his ability to return successfully next year.
- Backup goalkeeper Quillan Roberts is also continuing his rehabilitation successfully after suffering a fibular fracture in his right leg. He is expected to be on his feet and running within the next three weeks.