The Back Four: Baffling Birmingham
Detroit, Madison, Spokane, and all the USL Championship and USL League One standouts from Week 16
Welcome in to The Back Four!
Before we start, check out Backheeled for shifty San Antonio, Eastern upsets, and more. You can also find This League! on the site for an audiovisual dive into the week that was.
Without further ado, let’s get to it.
Birmingham’s Jekyll-and-Hyde moment
It’s officially back-three season in Alabama, but the Legion can’t seem to take a step forward in their new system without backsliding halfway into every match. Mark Briggs’ changes are maximizing this team’s best players, but Birmingham can’t string 90 solid minutes together.
The good? Ronaldo Damus has excelled atop the 3-4-3, slicing behind with extra zhuzh thanks to the Legion’s enhanced width. Kobe Hernandez-Foster has stepped up to the plate in a major way as a distributor, hitting 9.2 passes into the final third per 90 minutes since the switch. Jake Rufe, while not perfect, has been Atlas-like in his ability to bear a defensive burden on his shoulders.
Across the team as a whole, it’s been less assured. At times, Birmingham has looked resplendent in the press. At other moments, they’ve given up the impetus entirely. It’s useful to note how this team has (and hasn’t) changed in terms of their defensive metrics since Briggs took over:
Final-Third Takeaways – 2.7 per match before Briggs / 2.2 after
Middle-Third Takeaways – 15.3 per match before / 17.9 after
Clearances – 28.0 per match before / 22.6 after
In other words, the Legion have done well to stop play in the midfield and keep danger away from their goal. However, Birmingham has grown even less effective in the high press. Those conflicting tendencies have sharpened in the new shape.
At its best, the 3-4-3 adds defensive solidity while allowing individual attacking players to be more expressive. You see the off-ball relationships above, where the Legion allow Hernandez-Foster and pivot partner Edwin Laszo to trap against the sideline with wide support. This is the exact sort of play that’s new under Briggs, leading to the changing statistical profile.
Still, watch what happens after the turnover is forced. The break is on, but the ball doesn’t move quickly enough toward Danny Trejo on the left wing. By the time he eventually receives, opposing Sacramento has already settled. The Legion have to reset.
Briggs has already run through numerous permutations across his front line to try and avoid those stall-outs. Enzo Martinez started on the left against Louisville and did well as a distributor, but he rarely rotated to support an overmatched midfield. Trejo has been lively as a runner in that position, and is, in theory, well-positioned to pick up the ball and dribble. Still, he isn’t re-creating his Phoenix-era brilliance. I’d anticipate Sebastian Saucedo taking over sooner rather than later, just to add another name to the mix.
The main point is that Birmingham can’t effectively turn their defensive quality into attacking chances. That wouldn’t be a problem if the defense actually did its job for 90 minutes, but the Legion have been stunningly incapable of maintaining intensity in second halves since the shape change – and, frankly, dating back to the Tommy Soehn era.
You see the problem here from Saturday’s loss against Oakland. Birmingham is clearly in the midst of getting back into shape after conceding a foul, with Damus temporarily holding down the left wing. Even so, the lack of drive is blatant.
I’ve circled Hernandez-Foster and Damus in the clip to highlight their communication. The central midfielder is literally waving forward and begging the striker to close down. If you want a microcosm of the second-half problems in a single moment, this is it.
Because the 3-4-3 lacks compactness, the Roots are able to carve into the halfspace with ease. AJ Paterson steps up from the back three against the receiver, but that forces the rest of the defense to get narrow behind him as a reaction. Oakland hits a switch, and they’re into the final third in the blink of an eye.
In and of itself, this play is an improvement as compared to a loosely similar sequence from the LouCity game, where Rufe didn’t step in that Paterson-esque manner and got beat by a through ball. Notably, neither play features a physical challenge to disrupt the opposing rhythm. That’s par for the course; Birmingham has attempted 43% more tackles in first halves as compared to second halves since the shape change.
The inability to press high, tendency to leave the pivot with too big a burden around halfway, and halting tempo in transition are one thing, but there’s a deeper-rooted problem at Protective Stadium.
I hate to point at “mentality problems,” nebulous as they are, but to deny their relevance given the collapses in the final 45 minutes. Briggs isn’t going into the changing room at halftime and telling his guys not to press; something’s amiss at a man-for-man level. Until the Legion’s players start to bring a real sense of fight, the upsides of the 3-4-3 will continue to fall by the wayside.
Madison’s catch-22
Forward Madison needs their outside backs to push up and join the attack to create chances. Forward Madison loses their sense of structure when their outside backs step ahead. Squaring that paradoxical circle is Matt Glaeser’s challenge as this club chases their first win since March 29th.
The ‘Mingos rank seventh in League One for xG in open play, and they’re at a poor minus-0.17 margin per 90 minutes. Yeah, Madison is underperforming their expected numbers, but those numbers aren’t all great in isolation. In the process, Madison hasn’t strayed from the traditional principles of Glaeser-ball, but they’ve become bizarrely passive where it counts.
This season, Madison is the third-leading possession team in USL League One, yet they’ve attempted the second-least dribbles and forced the least final-third takeaways in the division. Both marks are far and away the lowest in the Glaeser era.
Those numbers tell you two things: Madison isn’t able to bend defenses and force rotations in the final third (i.e., things that dribbling accomplish), and they aren’t counterpressing to regain once they turn the ball over close to goal. No team in League One has been less effective at making defenses uncomfortable.
In Wednesday’s loss to Westchester, none of Christopher Garcia, Lucca Dourado, or Garrett McLaughlin created a single chance from the forward line. Madison had numbers, but they felt static in and around the 18-yard area. There were a few moments in the final 45 minutes where players like Dourado or John Murphy were able to backtrack into the midfield, regain, and push their side forward – the germ of a counterpress! – but most chances came from outside of the box.
Allowing Jake Crull to advance from the left-sided center back spot could break the stasis, helping to overload the halfspace. It’s a familiar pattern within Madison’s 3-4-3 over the years, and it’s equally applicable on the other side; I liked Timmy Mehl’s ability to advance up the right in a slim loss to Omaha a few weeks back, for instance.
Here, Crull forms a passing triangle with McLaughlin and a tucked-in Damia Viader. Because of the way that McLaughlin and the wingback interface as Crull pushes ahead, Westchester commits their momentum forward and gets beat by the Austrian’s third-man run.
Crull might knock the ball out of play here, but it’s a sequence that would create a very good crossing or one-on-one dribbling opportunity in almost every other instance. Crucially, Madison maintains their shape in the process. When Crull advances, Viader backfills into a deeper position in case a turnover ensues.
Madison’s inconsistent ability to deny chances in transition has been a problem all season – they’ve conceded 12 fastbreak shots this year, second-worst in League some – and was a death knell against Westchester. Viader’s solidifying rotation here is somewhat exceptional.
The usual problems were more prevalent in that Westchester loss. The guests knocked on the door with a 14th minute opportunity where Jackson Dietrich was dispossessed trying to claim a second ball with Crull high upfield, and they conceded on a similar break when Prince Saydee cut inside in the 21st minute before the pivot could get back in support. In neither case did Madison have the rest defense structure to do the job.
If you’re Glaeser, pivoting toward a more staid back three or changing formations might be tempting. Still, doing so might make the attacking problems worse. Madison already shows insufficient bravery on the dribble and in the press, and lessening their numbers in important areas might not help. It’s not clear how the ‘Mingos can cure what ails them, but they need to walk a thin tightrope between structure and dynamism.
City, slicker
Detroit’s got an attacking problem. Heading into Week 16, they’d scored just eight goals in their last eight games – none of which were wins. What began as a season where Le Rouge could climb the ladder through the midfield and rely on Darren Smith for goals had regressed into stasis.
A penchant for giveaways in the box underlined the problems. Against Indy and Chicago at the turn of May, Detroit kept shooting themselves in the foot by lining up with two center backs on either side of the goalkeeper and panicking while playing out from the back.
The lowlight-reel errors were the visible manifestations of a broader trend. Between May 5th and Saturday’s match against Miami, Le Rouge’s passing accuracy cratered from 82% down to 79%. In the first eight matches of the year, Detroit attempted 115 passes into the final third per game. That mark dropped down to 96 ever since.
Slower, less accurate build-up play forced changes. Danny Dichio often used a 3-1-4-2 early in the year, and that shape gave Detroit connectivity closer to goal. The problems forced Le Rouge into a stable but far less dynamic double pivot. Pursuantly, Detroit became a wider-focused team with less of an ability to work into the dangerous central areas.
Dichio has played around with various lineup changes (and a disastrous back four that got smoked in Portland), but the real solution might come down to health. To quote myself from Backheeled, Laye Diop is a player that fills a major midfield need:
[Detroit] has creative passers (Ryan Williams, Jay Chapman) and No. 10s that operate like shadow forwards (Jeciel Cedeno, Conor Rutz) but no one that splits the difference. Diop, who ranked in the 70th percentile or better for shots, dribbles, and pressing takeaways last season, is just that sort of presence.
We saw as much against Miami, where Diop added just that sort of balance in the 45 minutes he played. Detroit didn’t reprise their mistake-prone build-out shape, but a more varied approach punctuated by Diop’s movement looked like a genuine revelation.
Here, Le Rouge build toward the returning No. 8, and they do a whole lot of good things along the way.
As Stephen Carroll gets the ball in the middle of the back three, he has options. The safe play is to go slow, dishing to Devon Amoo-Mensah on the left side and building brick by brick. That’s not what Carroll does. Instead, the veteran smells blood in the water as Miami rotates from side to side and goes directly toward wingback Alex Villanueva.
Everything starts to click because of that choice. Villanueva draws pressure from the opposing right back as he receives, so a gap opens up. Diop knows what’s coming, and he cuts behind that closing defender. Available in space, Diop can connect with Villanueva and power his way into the final third to force a corner.
It’s quick, it’s effective, and it’s the exact sort of thing Detroit has been unable to do over the past two months. Diop’s entrance was major, but it was part of a larger whole. Jeciel Cedeno looked similarly enlivened as the right-sided No. 8 because of that team-wide speed of thought. Cedeno attempted a season-high four dribbles, and he only attempted five passes in the defensive zone – his lowest count in any match since March.
Notably, the center backs and goalkeeper Carlos Herrera didn’t always play short. Their cumulative long passing share, 26%, is among the highest Detroit has posted all season. Still, the verticality came in moderation. Detroit understood when they needed to launch the ball, just as they understood the need for a quickened tempo.
In other words, this was the balanced performance we’ve been waiting for. If it’s replicable – and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be – then Detroit has all the tools to get back in the mix for a potential home playoff game.
Splendiferous Spokane
Expected goals can only tell you so much, but they say a lot about the Spokane Velocity. This club has held an xG edge in every league match they’ve played other than the season opener, which is why they’ve posted the second-best expected margin per 90 minutes (+1.00) in the entire history of USL League One thus far.
Spokane doesn’t rush, and Spokane doesn’t lunge. They’re confident and process-oriented. Consecutive one-goal wins against Madison and Richmond have highlighted the beauty of the Velocity system, defined by dominance of the central areas and extremely well-drilled spatial relationships.
In Wisconsin, the Velocity held their hosts to just 62% of their season-long xG average and did so through masterful manipulation of their 4-4-2ish pressing shape. As covered above, Madison is a team that lacks consistency and verve when they’re forced wide, and Leigh Veidman designed his gameplan to maximize those moments of frustration for the ‘Mingos.
Consider the two examples above. The first (marked as “A”) sees Spokane closing to a Madison center mid as the guests try to work into the central zone.
Here, the Velocity basically set up with two No. 8, two wingers, and two forwards at halfway – something like a 4-2-2-2, or what I’d verbally label a “four triple-two.” When Madison penetrates one side of that formation, pressure comes with a vengeance from the other side. I’ve called out rotational runs from Pierre Reedy off the left wing and Collin Fernandez from the pivot to highlight that point. The compress space, and Madison can’t progress.
You’ll note how center back David Garcia (in white) steps to backstop zone 14 in that first play. Spokane doesn’t use their defenders as aggressive intervenors throughout the midfield, but they’re smart about hedging the back four forward if a gap starts to emerge. That’s also the case in example “B,” where a wide swing from left back Derek Waldeck is the key bit of rotation.
In this case, the Velocity have already forced Madison wide. Damia Viader has an edge initially and tries to dribble upfield, but Fernandez and Waldeck both shift toward the sideline to deny any further progress. This time, it’s Reedy who’s beat at the first pass, but his teammates instinctively understand how they need to respond to get a stop.
No other team in League One is as flawless without the ball. Leigh Veidman has done a tremendous job instilling these relationships in his players. That applies equally in possession, where Spokane often blur the lines between back three and back four as they build.
As a baseline while working short out of their box, the Velocity start in a 2-4-4ish alignment. Especially against high presses, that “deep six” gives Spokane the presence they need to safely build into the midfield – or to ably shift into a defensive block in case a turnover occurs.
Once Spokane forces the defense into a mid-low posture, the fun begins. This team loves to drop Collin Fernandez in like a third center back and push numbers further ahead. Fernandez is leading League One with 5.8 long completions per game for a reason! There are defined patterns that make it all tick, and they’re nearly impossible to stop.
You’re seeing the flow in action here. Fernandez is deep, Garcia and Collin Miller both get touches, and the Velocity wait for a switch to open up.
Lucky Opara is the receiver in this case, making an overlapping run from right back to set the table in the final third. With right winger Shavon John-Brown in the halfspace and the Luis Gil/Neco Brett duo probing centrally, opposing Richmond’s back four doesn’t have easy recourse against Opara. He’s able to draw a defender and quickly find John-Brown’s continuing run into the box.
Those patterns are lovely, but Waldeck’s movement about 50 yards away from the play is equally vital. As Opara knifes up the right side, the left back drops deep! Waldeck’s job isn’t to crash the far post; that’s what Pierre Reedy is doing. Instead, he’s dropping low to make sure Spokane has at least four players in position to defend against a potential Kickers counter.
Waldeck took 77 touches in this match. Over the entire season to date, he ranks in the 74th percentile for crosses. He’s effective on the overlap, but he’s constantly aware of his two-way responsibilities – watch back Spokane’s winning goal from the weekend, and it’s conspicuous that Waldeck isn’t even in the frame because he’s covering deep yet again.
Against both Richmond and Madison, Spokane showed off an unreal ability to interchange in the wide areas, vary their mix in the central midfield, and maintain a “2+2” rest defense base no matter who was doing the job in attack. The Velocity makes it all look easy, but this is super impressive stuff. Veidman hasn’t taken this team to historic highs by chance; Spokane’s system might be the most organized in the entire USL.
Most Valuable Midfielder?
Mikey Maldonado is a bona fide star. If North Carolina can keep up their momentum and challenge for a top-three spot in the East, he ought to be a lock as an all-USL selection.
I like to describe certain midfielders as multi-level distributors. By that, I’m referring to a player that’s just as dangerous on the edge of the box as he is sitting in front of his defensive line. That’s the rarified territory occupied by players like Aaron Molloy, but Maldonado has firmly ensconced himself in that group.
Consider what Maldonado did in Friday’s win against Louisville. Of his 27 passes, 11 came from the defensive half of the pitch and 16 started further ahead in the attacking zone. Maldonado offered up a terrific right-footed threat on set pieces, but he was just as likely to ping outlet passes into Rafa Mentzingen or Louis Perez, tilting the pitch for North Carolina with one deft long ball.
Maldonado is tied for the USL lead with six assists, and he’s attempting a shockingly high 13.1 passes into the box per game. Only Rodrigo Lopez, another Molloy-esque superstar, is even remotely close to that mark. The dead-ball primacy helps Maldonado’s numbers, but it’s impossible to deny his impact in every phase.
Despite the creative burden he bears, the 26-year-old has only been dispossessed on two of his 799 touches in the league so far. He’s completing more than 80% of his passes despite being so expansive, and that allows NCFC’s 3-4-3ish shape to flourish in the attacking areas. When you’ve got a passer like Maldonado that can play in Mentzingen on the overlap from wingback or drive a pass into Pedro Dolabella’s feet in the halfspace, you become a far more dangerous team.
The icing on the cake? Maldonado’s defensive energy. You wouldn’t accuse him of being a pure No. 6, but he’s dogged in his effort within his own zone. North Carolina spends large blocks of time defending close to their own goal, and Maldonado is never the player to miss a rotation or spoil the shape. Against LouCity, he put in a tackle, a block, and three clearances within 20 yards of his own net.
Endlessly progressive passing is Mikey Maldonado’s calling card, but he’s the complete package. If the midfielder can keep it up, he might just elevate North Carolina into a genuine title bid.
Quick Hits
In other news this week…
Hartford’s 3-0 win over Loudoun is one of the crazier results of the year, but full credit to Brendan Burke. He knows that Emmanuel Samadia and Sebastian Anderson are stars, and he’s increasingly maximizing their ability to do damage in Hartford’s 3-4-3. The balance that Burke found against Loudoun won’t always work against a more organized transition defense, but it’s something for this team to build on.
I had lots of praise for Ali Elmasnaouy in my Backheeled column, but he had a terrific game against Birmingham and deserves some more love. The 20-year-old went 32-for-36 as a passer, seven-for-eight on duels, and drew the game-winning penalty for the Roots. His ability to receive amidst the Legion shape was critical in Benny Feilhaber’s scheme. I hope he continues to make the leap into nailed-on starter status for the rest of 2025.
Wingers typically don’t dominate the ball in League One, but Ollie Wright isn’t your typical winger. Against Omaha, he scored a hat trick to blow the defending champs away. In a draw against Alta this Saturday, he created four chances. Between the two matches, he’s tried eight dribbles and taken 133 touches. That’s a talisman, folks.
28 Days Later is one of my favorite movies ever, and I’d loosely call it a top-tenner for me without doing a full accounting. Having seen 28 Years Later, out now, I don’t know what to think.
It’s a wonderfully creative and enthralling movie in a sheer visual sense, but my expectations were out of whack. When it’s doing soft commentary on English identity and societal structure, I’m in. When it’s trying to be more emotional, the tonal swings are a tough hang. It’s a winner if you’re here for zombie gore, but I expect more thematic heft and clarity from the Danny Boyle/Alex Garland pair.