- "If I have to make a tackle then I have already made a mistake.” -- Paolo Maldini
The last time Real Salt Lake played a soccer game, they didn't register a shot on goal. Quakes defender Victor Bernardez did it for them in last Friday's 1-1 draw between the two sides in one of the season's uglier games.
The last time Real Salt Lake scored a goal of their own, it was also against the Quakes. That was a month ago, when Javier Morales lashed home THIS second chance after his free kick had bounced off the San Jose wall.
The last time Real Salt Lake scored a goal from the run of play, it was in March. Both goals in that 2-1 win over Toronto FC came on crosses, and those are the only two run-of-play goals RSL have scored this season.
Think about that: We are two months into the 2015 season, and one of the league's best attacking teams has scored only twice from the run of play. Their shots, shots on goal and chances created are all cratering compared to recent years. Their possession is way down, but more to the point in that regard is that the only times RSL are winning the possession battle come when they're chasing the result -- a classic case of "game states" influencing that stat.
Switching to the 4-3-3 has been a trial thus far, especially on the attacking side of the ball. Defensively, however, it's asking different things of franchise cornerstones:
To answer Matt's question in that tweet: It's less about Beckerman getting caught out, and more about the frantic nature of the game in the 4-3-3 as it's being applied in Utah. RSL have morphed into a balls-to-the-wall, high-pressure team that gets way up the field, but currently has no idea how to shape those turnovers they do force into chances. Beckerman and Morales -- who will miss Wednesday's game against the LA Galaxy (9:30 pm ET; MLS LIVE) -- are both being asked to run more, covering more ground as they slide into their mid-30s than they did when they were in their prime.
I wrote last season about how good RSL have been over the years when making the game "small," compressing the field along the sidelines and operating in tiny gaps that other teams don't really know how to use. Thus far, the effect of the 4-3-3 has been to make the game big, opening up the field and putting more emphasis on raw athleticism. It's taken a particular toll on Beckerman, whose strength has always been his reading of the game, not his touchline-to-touchline coverage.
As has been said many times on social media and elsewhere: It's still early(ish) days. Shifting to a new formation and tactical blueprint is rarely easy, and almost never fun.
But early as it is, the race is nonetheless on. RSL officially round the quarter pole this evening, and it's not clear that they're any closer to finding a solution now than they were in March.
