Graphic Detail: Charleston in charge

Explaining the tactical tenets and year-over-year changes that have made the Charleston Battery a juggernaut

If you haven’t already, check out my USL Top 50 on Backheeled. It’s 6,500 words of goodness, featuring four players from the club I’m about to discuss.

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The Charleston Battery are the best team in the USL. They’re undefeated through a grueling eight-game run so far in 2024, including a statement victory over rival Louisville City a few weeks back. Charleston is a top five side by expected goals for and expected goals against, and they’ve run up a +0.91 xG margin on average this season.

Even while winning the Eastern Conference last year, the Battery were never this dominant. That Ben Pirmann’s club would click to such a degree wasn’t a given after an offseason that saw Trey Muse, Fidel Barajas, and Derek Dodson depart for Major League Soccer. The success through the first seven weeks of the season comes down to excellent management and a knockout recruitment strategy to fill in the gaps.

What defines Charleston’s system? Pirmann has run a 4-2-3-1 since getting the job in Memphis, and that still holds true. On the ball, the Battery have a mixed-short profile in their passing game, hold a mid-level line in defense, and bring it all together to possess at a 59% share. Year-over-year, they’re going short slightly more often on restarts, and their passing volume has increased by more than 15%.

Let’s start from the back. Charleston’s back four has proven flexible depending on the matchup at hand. Against Louisville - a team that presses high with three forwards - the Battery elected to sit left back Nathan DosSantos deep in order to create a back three by proxy. In that match, DosSantos’ average touch came 7.4 yards deeper than that of Mark Segbers at right back on the opposite flank.

You see the effect in the clip. With DosSantos low but Diego Gutierrez retaining his high position as the left winger, LouCity are thrown off balance. When Charleston swings the ball to the right, a man has to mark Segbers as he darts up and down. It ultimately creates a lane over the top into the channel.

Still, against a narrow opponent like the Indy Eleven, the dynamic changed. In that game, Charleston valued two-sided width. DosSantos - who’s taken more touches in the box and attempted more crosses than Segbers this season in less games - ended up with an average touch 5.6 yards higher up than his counterpart.

Note the tempo and control in the clip. It serves as a useful introduction to Charleston’s approach in build-up scenarios more generally.

Thus far in 2024, the league has broken down into three loose buckets: short-passing teams, long-passing teams, and a middle tier that includes Charleston. Still, the Battery actually go forward less frequently than expected relative to their passing length. This team is patient enough to switch play from side to side without feeling the need to bumble upfield wantonly.

There’s granularity that the chart above doesn’t quite capture. Charleston has the fourth-shortest average completion length this year, and goalkeeper Adam Grinwis’ passing distance has been the third-shortest of all starting goalkeepers. This team’s passing distribution is skewed; when they’re short, they’re very short, but they know when to break direct.

Aaron Molloy makes it all tick. He’s a superior passer, one who knows how to hold the ball to draw defenses and how to change the point of attack to open up angles. He’s central - literally - to how Pirmann wants his team to operate.

Molloy is the best player in the league, and I won’t brook any dissent on that topic. You see a few flavors of his game in the reel, from the aforementioned possessive brilliance, the press-proof skillset, and the end-to-end defensive intelligence. It’s that latter point that underlies a unique and easily misread Battery defense.

The core of this club’s back line deserves a shout. Graham Smith, the unsung partner to Molloy in terms of offseason pick-ups from Memphis 901, hasn’t missed a minute thus far in central defense. All the while, he rates in the 95th percentile for clearances, the 92nd for overall defensive actions, and the 92nd for touches on a per-match basis. Juan Palma and Leland Archer have split minutes alongside him, putting up solid if less spectacular numbers while mostly staying error-free.

On the error-free note: veteran goalkeeper Adam Grinwis has been perfectly cromulent in his first season in South Carolina. It’s been a few years since he held down a starting job, and he’s sitting ever-so-slightly below-average with +0.08 goals saved above expected per 90. By comparison, Trey Muse ended up at +0.01 last year. That’s about as consistent as you can get while making a transition in net.

Still, the face of goal hasn’t been under fire all that often. Charleston has only conceded 2.4 shots on goal per game.

Despite what that success could imply, this isn’t a run-and-gun pressing team. You’ll see the 4-2-3-1 become a 4-1-4-1 against certain double pivots, with either Molloy or Chris Allan stepping up a line, but the Battery are focused on funneling opponents into traps and self-inflicted mistakes rather than turnovers. The line of players under the striker will rarely press into the opposing box, for instance.

That ability to deny danger and limit the threat offered by opposing receivers without selling out is illustrated above. Charleston is in the bottom half of the league in terms of goals added from interruptions (right) in almost every sector of the pitch, yet they clamp down hard in their own half (left) and at the halfway line to limit good touches.

What’s the mechanism behind this phenomenon? The use of the Molloy-Allan pivot helps. Neither is wont to overextend, crowding the heart of the pitch as a result. When one center mid decides to step up, they’re supported by rotation in behind from their partner. Every action is met by an equal and complementary reaction.

Upfield pressure relies on arcing closing angles on the part of the wingers. Say an opposing left back receives a pass: Charleston’s right winger will bend his run at that opponent to deny a clean passing lane into middle. The effect is to force any progression downfield towards the sidelines - it’s a furthering of the pivot’s clamping in the heart of the field.

Using the sideline as an extra defender is a familiar stratagem, but no team in the USL maximizes it quite like the Battery. You see two examples of right-sided pins above as evidence.

In the first case, Charleston holds the line around halfway, flattening into more of a 4-4-1-1. When New Mexico carries the ball into the half space, they spring a tripwire. Three players close down against the sideline: the No. 10, the right winger, and the striker. Thanks to quick timing and clean organization, the trap forces an errant pass.

Same idea in the second play shown. This time, the Battery haven’t yet dug their trench in block, and play is somewhat more open. You get the ball-side winger and the No. 10 sliding over, but it’s Molloy stepping up from the pivot to form the necessary triangle that throws Indy off.

The commonality between both examples is both schematic and personnel-based. Emilio Ycaza, the player often used as the central attacking midfielder in 2024, shines bright in these scenarios. He’s got a goal and assist this season and rates in the 86th percentile for chances created, but he’s also in the 85th percentile for defensive actions and leads the club in tackle attempts.

Nick Markanich, the winger involved in both examples as well, has been similarly impressive in both directions. He’s 12 for 17 on tackles in 2024 and comes third on the Battery for interceptions. The 24-year-old knows when to hug wide and fill his role out of possession. At the same time, both he and Ycaza have exploded offensively this year.

Pirmann likes to use inverted wingers, players whose stronger foot doesn’t correspond to the side on which they play. This encourages left-footed Markanich or right-footed Diego Gutierrez to cut in from the sideline to find more comfortable angles in the interior of the pitch.

In the build-out sequence above, you start with low left back on the ball, feed into Molloy in the pivot, and break the opposing press entirely thanks to a swooping in-cut from Markanich. Still, there’s a sense of structure and replacement innate to the setup, captured by Ycaza’s burst to the right to replace #13.

Charleston loves to use these patterns to challenge a defense. The constant flow and interchange asks questions of opponents, forcing players to commit in one direction while leaving space for the replacing runner.

Of course, pretty build-up means little without a finisher to pay it off in the final third.

Among players with 300 minutes or more in 2024, Markanich and MD Myers stand out as elite goalscoring threats. Myers has been particularly prodigious so far in his first USL season, scoring six goals and putting 77.8% of his shot attempts on frame.

Myers tied for the MLS NEXT Pro goal lead last season with 19 conversions, and the skills he showed - elite body control, agile hip turns to square to the ball, clever run timing - have all born fruit at Patriots Point. Most comfortable on his right foot, Myers has shown off a variety of finishes this year between deft chips to his strong side, cross-body shots that still get lift, and glancing headers to cap off hard slices toward goal.

This team is elite on set pieces, too. Aaron Molloy is a lethal free-kick taker: he’s in the top five for xG from free kicks in 2024 after finishing third in the USL last year. Ben Pirmann’s corner design makes this team a holistic dead ball threat: Graham Smith is in the top five for xG on the end of corners, and Markanich ranked third during 2023 despite lacking prototypical size.

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By the numbers, the Charleston Battery are undeniably one of the juggernauts of the USL this year. By the eye test, in consideration of their tactical growth, and on the basis of the pound-for-pound talent on their roster, they could end up being one of the best teams in league history.

Ben Pirmann maximizes the talent on his roster like no one else in the USL, and his ability to do so in service of a clear system in 2024 is taking this club to a new level.