Assessing El Paso’s defense
How early factors have hurt the Locomotive and why improvement is on the way
The El Paso Locomotive were cursed by the scheduling gods to start 2024, with three matches coming in the first seven days. For a team with as much turnover as the Locomotive, who started just three returners in each of their matches to date, such a slate could’ve led to outright performances, but Brian Clarhaut has largely kept his team afloat through a home loss to Hartford and a hanging-by-a-thread draw against Monterey.
Even so, El Paso’s defensive balance has caught my eye in the early goings. Clarhaut has set his team up in a hyper-aggressive 3-1-4-2 press, one defined by the positioning of its wing backs far up the flanks. Neither Lucas Stauffer on the left nor Miles Lyons on the right has been bad, necessarily; Stauffer’s offensive contributions have been especially strong.
Still, their inability to strike a balance is emblematic of a team that isn’t quite there yet.
That inconsistency put the Locomotive into a decisive deficit within 15 minutes against Hartford in Week One. With Stauffer high, left-sided defender Tony Alfaro felt the need to step up higher in his stead. Because of that rotational move, Bolu Akinyode - the centermost defender - was isolated while defending against a pass over the top. When Akinyode and Alfaro got their streams crossed thereafter, a penalty ensued.
Hartford played with speed out of the gates, and El Paso’s press failed to deny the passes over the top that activated it. That the Locomotive only allowed three shots in the second half - all of which came from outside of the box - was a product of an opponent deciding to sit in with a lead rather than a sign of a shutdown performance.
The script was flipped against Monterey on Wednesday night. On short rest, Clarhaut’s side leapt out to an early edge on the counter, leaving their guests as the aggressor for the lion’s share of the 90 minutes.
What didn’t change was the central defensive group. Alfaro remained on the left, Akinyode stayed in the middle, and Philadelphia Union loanee Brandan Craig held down the right side of the back three. You can see their interventions and recoveries from the Monterey game below.
In both matches thus far, the center backs have been rocks. Akinyode has barely put a foot wrong outside of the penalty concession sequence; Craig has been even better, showcasing an incredibly mature read on the game and a keen sense for when to step up to intervene (note #2’s actions in the map from the Monterey game). I’ve had more quibbles with Alfaro, but his task defending behind risk-taking Stauffer on the left has been the most difficult of all.
Structurally, Clarhaut tried to plug the holes in the channels by allowing Liam Rose - the lone holding midfielder at the base of the 3-1-4-2 - to drift from sideline to sideline more often against Monterey. Rose had 11 total defensive attempts and recoveries in the opener and only five against Monterey, but his role was more clearly defined while out of possession.
As shown, all five of those actions on Wednesday night came wide of the central band of the pitch. If you demarcate the center as the 20-yard span of the six-yard box, Rose was clearly focused outside of the middle of the park, albeit less effective and wide-ranging in his interventions in general.
The Clarhaut system is very reliant on the player in the Rose role to sweep up effectively and bring 90 minutes of energy. It’s doubly important given the fact that the other two center mids - Eric Calvillo and Tumi Moshobane thus far - have pushed up significantly higher in the press. Their efficacy and the logic of El Paso’s pressing triggers is an open question, by the way. Monterey had only seven incompletions on more than 60 attempts in zones 5 and 8, unperturbed by the press.
Given the demands on Rose, it makes sense that El Paso strengthened at his spot this week. There was a scenario where Bolu Akinyode would step up and cover for the Aussie holder, but loaning in Jeremy Garay from DC United plugs that hole. Garay, a 20-year-old Salvadoran with immense box-to-box gifts and upwards of 5,000 minutes of USL Championship experience with Loudoun United, assures that Akinyode can stay home as a central defensive anchor.
So I like the center backs and am confident in the defensive midfield group in terms of talent and strategic deployment: what ought to be the next steps to improve? There are two possibilities. Push your wing backs deeper, or re-shape the midfield to improve coverage.
Let’s start with the latter scenario. If Clarhaut is married to the 3-5-2, he can replace Moshobane with Garay and instantly create a more defensively stout central unit. I adore the former Loyal midfielder, but he’s been used much in a more box-to-box deployment in El Paso than he ever played in San Diego. While Moshobane hasn’t been bad and ostensibly fits the pressing scheme, he hasn’t hit the ground running. Re-reforming the central midfield with Garay and Rose as a low pair behind a liberated Calvillo could be the move.
Shifting more dramatically towards a 3-4-3 or 5-4-1 may be more effective. Clubs like Sacramento have successfully combined a deep-block defense in that formation with an attack defined by high-flying wing backs; why can’t El Paso do the same?
The midfield line needn’t be flat, either. Clarhaut has spoken about using Amando Moreno at the top of a midfield diamond in possession, and deploying him in a similar defensive role could be a solidifying change that enables the No. 8s to cover wide more effectively. Off of turnovers, that depth would also activate Moreno more readily as a transition dribbler.
Still, focusing on a central overhaul has a “deck chairs on the Titanic” sense of frivolity when the real issue comes out wide. As seen again and again, El Paso has been beaten on Lyon’s side on the basis of pure speed, on Stauffer’s by way of inside-out machinations, and vice versa.
A tactical change needn’t turn the Locomotive into a team that parks the bus with a flat back five. The wing backs could tuck into the half spaces just beneath the halfway line, clogging important areas, allowing the Calvillo and Moshobane types to press high with abandon, and retaining the ability to defend into the wide areas by the very nature of the lower positioning.
As teams from Manchester City to the Greenville Triumph have illustrated, that sort of positioning can also be a boon in build. The Locomotive’s full back group is talented enough to pull off the trick and benefit in a similar manner.
Panicking after two matches and ripping up a long-considered gameplan is never a wise course of action, but Clarhaut and his staff are too smart to let the early-season issues persist unaddressed. The Louisville game this Saturday will be a test of fitness and strategy alike. I’d expect minutes for Noah Dollenmayer in the back at a bare minimum, and we’ll see what gives tactically.
If there’s hope for El Paso - and I think there’s plenty - it’s in the excellence of their central defenders and the strong performances to date from Jahmali Waite, who has an 83% save rate on shots in open play so far. I’ll be keeping a close eye on what variation comes in front of that rock-solid base in the days and weeks ahead.