Burke to Hartford: why he's a fit

Anticipating the new era at Dillon Stadium

In Colorado Springs, Brendan Burke won 26 out of 56 possible games. He brought the Switchbacks to the playoffs twice, and he did so in style. Now, Burke is taking on a unique challenge by joining Hartford Athletic, a team with 27 wins in the last four years.

Hartford hasn’t been afraid to make a splash during their time in the USL. In their second season in 2020, they romped into the playoffs on the back of Danny Barrera’s creation and Alex Dixon’s dynamism. Since then, however, ambition and results have diverged. Tab Ramos was a failure on the sideline, never able to embrace a philosophy. He wasted a roster riddled with USL brand names.

Burke, a Coach of the Year finalist in 2021 who left to serve as an assistant for the Houston Dynamo last year, has a track record of making a lot out of a little. His strength comes in his strategic flexibility on a game-to-game basis as well as his keen sense for player deployment.

While in Colorado Springs, Burke landed upon a fluid sort of 4-2-3-1 as his preferred formation. The look let his sides press up and rotate with and without the ball while still retaining central solidity and a sense of structure.

Defensively, the former Bethlehem Steel gaffer seeks to stand his opponents up at the halfway line. He lets his striker run at opposing defenders and show some level of daring, but he’s happy to sit in, find a shape, and clog the back half.

You see how Burke executes upon that philosophy above. When the opposing side drops an attacker low for a touch, the Switchbacks mark him with a member of their two-man pivot. That gambit denies central progression, forcing the guests wide; there, the Switchbacks push a defender up again by way of their left back.

Overloading one side of the pitch is common for Burke. With Colorado Springs in 2022, that player often ended up being Isaiah Foster at left back, but someone like Matt Mahoney or Macauley King could easily do the same on the right.

Burke relies on intelligent positional play in the pivot as a cover for that side-to-side forward impetus and designed imbalance. You see the right back hinge upward in the screenshot, but one of the central midfielders - King, namely - is in the process of filling for him into the back four to deny an open channel.

Note how deep the back line sits in the clip and the screenshot: the 2021 and 2022 Switchbacks were never interested in pushing the defense high or springing an offside trap. Indeed, the 2022 iteration of Burke’s side garnered less offsides against than all but five other USL teams. Still, Colorado Springs garnered a top-half defense because of their manager’s ability to organize a tight unit within his own half.

The aforementioned King - regularly charged with rotating behind aggressive teammates - is one versatile player who flourished under Burke’s charge, and that sort of glow-up is a commonality. The new Hartford coach was a deft player developer in Bethlehem and prior stops, and he proved so successful in the Centennial State became of his ability to sign players and optimize their role.

Cam Lindley is one such player. Deployed as a No. 10 high upfield in Memphis, Indy, and San Antonio, Lindley always showed flashes of high-end talent. When Burke brough him out West, he moved the midfielder low into a No. 6 spot, enabling him to create as a deep-lying initiator. Lindley still took set pieces, but his main role was as a quarterback in build.

Lindley spent one year under Burke, but he kept that low-sitting role back in Indy in 2023. During those two year, his numbers improved in every major category. The jumps were slight in terms of interceptions and tackles won, for instance, but Lindley sprung forward in a major way by his creation stats. Burke saw a player with technique and vision and weaponized him as a star that could generate 140 shots for teammates in 2022 and 2023 combined.

Offensively, the 40-year-old coach preaches moderation and pragmatism. His teams own the lion’s share of possession more often than not, and their tendency to sit tight in their half but close down hard is conducive to forcing turnovers. When they regain, Burke teams instantly look downfield to counter.

In build, however, his Switchbacks were tangibly more patient. Flow, rotation, and support ruled the day.

As Colorado Springs restarts after a goal kick, they instantly look short to a center back in the example above. Burke isn’t afraid to let his defenders handle the ball. You’ll note how one central midfielder drops in to support the advancing center back, however, and one full back remains low as well. There’s a sense of safety and a numerical edge that demands defense attention.

When the guests lose the plot and push up against the Switchbacks’ deep numbers, Burke’s side strikes. As in the defensive example, the left back is extremely high upfield, and that positioning lets Michee Ngalina slide into the channel from his baseline deployment as the left winger. Meanwhile, the No. 10 drops into the pivot to fill for Lindley, who made that initial countervailing drop in tandem with the advancing center back.

There’s a lot going on, but it all allows Colorado Springs to retain their 4-2-3-1 patterns while also goading the defense into submission. The end product? Ngalina - another shining example of Burke’s developmental nous - bursts over striker to score.

If you look at Burke’s 2022 side versus the rest of the league, they wre more moderate than not in their passing tendencies, but they hedged ever so slightly towards directness and a low number of touches between shots. That style came about in the context of a top-ten offense in the USL.

No player better encapsulated the success of the Burke attack than Hadji Barry. The Golden Boot winner in 2021 and a near-million-dollar sale in 2022, Barry became a star because of his manager’s vision.

In four USL stops prior to his Switchbacks jaunt, the striker scored 38 goals in four calendar years. It wasn’t a bad return, but Barry was often deployed on the wing or as a supporting forward, and he only converted once in 14 games in North Carolina in 2020.

Enter Burke. Recognizing Barry’s physical dominance in tandem with his shooting range and penchant for bright, unexpected switches, the manager liberated him as a completely free No. 9. The native Guinean was expected to close down extremely hard in the press, but he was allowed to drop into the midfield with Colorado Springs in block. After turnovers, Barry then could turn on a dime to carry the ball or spray a gorgeous diagonal to initiate a counter.

Of course, Barry exceled most clearly in the box. Burke let him cook as a striker while also liberating the other, unrecognized facets of his game, and it benefited all parties.

Can Brendan Burke recapture that magic under the Nick Sakiewicz regime in Hartford? Time will tell. If history is any indication, Burke’s combination of philosophy, versatility, and vision will make him a success in Connecticut.