When I think of Mark Lowry’s two years in Indianapolis, I’m going to default to sequences like this:
That’s about 45 seconds of positionless, possessive soccer that you almost never see at the USL level. In many ways, it’s the best of what Lowry has to offer. This is a team constructed entirely out of players signed during his tenure, playing a 4-4-2. They keep the ball on the ground, move after every pass, and give the defense nightmares.
Too often, however, Indy didn’t reach those heights. As first reported by the always-excellent Nolan Bianchi, Lowry resigned today in the wake of a close-but-no-cigar 2023 season. Per my own sources, Lowry felt somewhat unsupported by the club’s ownership. With almost a third of the USL changing coaches this offseason and numerous other jobs on the market, the time came to step away from an embattled situation.
After being named to the position following the 2021 season, a second-straight campaign without a playoff appearance for the Eleven, Indy chose to make a splash in hiring the Englishman. Lowry led the El Paso Locomotive to perennial contender status in the USL Championship’s Western Conference, and he had previously impressed while managing against Indy with the Jacksonville Armada in the NASL.
2022 was a rebuilding year, one in which Lowry rebuilt his roster from the ground up. Only five players were retained from Martin Rennie’s final squad, and those pieces - namely Jared Timmer, AJ Cochran, and Neveal Hackshaw - formed the spine of the defense.
Upfield, the new additions and old faces struggled. Though Stefano Pinho nabbed double-digit goals, Manuel Arteaga’s production at striker cratered. Lowry’s system couldn’t fit a No. 9 that wanted to be involved throughout build; Arteaga would go on to recover and score 15 times in Phoenix in 2023. Solomon Asante was a much-ballyhooed pick-up, but he, too, was a mixed bag. His defensive work rate was spotty in 2022, and he scored only one goal after never dipping below six in a single season previously.
Altogether, Indy only held 47% of possession on average. Lowry’s last two El Paso sides sat at 56% and 54%, respectively. His team finished in the bottom five of the USL for goals scored and shots attempted while missing the playoffs for a third consecutive season. Frustration bubbled over from the end of 2022 into 2023; the manger was never shy about blaming his roster construction or, uh, his own stadium’s changing room setup in prescribing the factors behind halting success.
Still, 2023 seemed like it was due to be a major leap forward. I rated Indy’s offseason as an “A+” in a preview piece at Backheeled, powered by the acquisition of players like Cam Lindley, Aodhan Quinn, and Sebastian Guenzatti.
The season past was a marked improvement, and no one can deny as much. Indy leapt back into the playoff field, and they were a few lucky breaks away from jumping over rivals Louisville City - who, admittedly, Lowry tended to beat with some regularity in LIPAFC grudge matches - in the standings. The Eleven finally began to play possessive soccer, leading the league for ownership of the ball.
Fluidity ruled the day, especially when Indy won five matches out of six in August and September to leap up the table. As shown in the opening clip and in the screenshot here, the ability to go positionless in a 4-4-1-1 was crucial.
Guenzatti - a legendary scorer in the modern USL - operated in that second striker role, dropping into a flat 4-5-1 midfield before holding up play between the lines and making smart bursts into the box as needed. He could interchange with the Quinns and Jack Blakes in the center, all while wide men like Asante or Younes Boudadi added width.
It took Indy too long to reach that stride. Eight of the Eleven’s 10 most used players were new signings, and luxurious spending didn’t breed immediate results. The defense was always a question mark, lacking the counterpressing excellence that so defined Lowry’s Locomotive teams. Goalscoring only leapt up to USL average levels over the full extent of the season, and miserable injury and suspension luck doomed Indy to a 5-0 shellacking in the first round of the playoffs.
Too often, Lowry was inflexible, trying to fit a specific system to a set of players that couldn’t quite run it. Ersal Ozdemir and the club’s ownership eventually gave him a roster that could dominate the ball, but it crumbled like a house of cards at the slightest breeze or smallest injury knock. The system wasn’t sustainable at Carroll Stadium, and Lowry grew weary of the fact that his vision wasn’t going to be executed in totality - if it ever could’ve been in the first place.
There are few pure auteurs in the USL, but Lowry is one of them. His style requires total institutional buy-in, and that won’t fly everywhere. At the same time, there are real questions behind the scenes in Indy, where this regime hasn’t been able to build a winning team with consistency for a decade.
Still, Mark Lowry is one of the brightest minds in all of American soccer. He will land on his feet, and he’ll do so in his own manner while sticking to his own tenets. Whoever gives Lowry the reins next must keep his uniquely demanding, uniquely fun-to-watch, and battle-tested philosophy in mind if they’re serious about building a contender.