The Back Four: Tyler Pasher edition
The Back Four: Tyler Pasher edition
Tactics, stats, and other developments that defined the week for Birmingham, Omaha, Miami, and Chattanooga
Welcome in to The Back Four, where we’re nearing a milestone: I’ll have covered 34 out of 36 Championship and League One clubs on Substack this season. That last remaining teams - defending finalists Charleston and Phoenix - will get the usual treatment soon enough.
In the meantime, check out Backheeled! I’m recapping a jam-packed weekend from #1 to #24 in my power rankings. At the end of the week, my favorite piece of the year is coming, and it’s a Backheeled exclusive this time around: get ready for the USL Top 50 players list. It might be my longest article ever?
With the plugs out of the way, let’s get to it.
Tyler Pasher’s evolution
Midway through their comeback win against Loudoun United, the Birmingham Legion re-invented their attack around Tyler Pasher to get the win.
Midway through their draw against North Carolina, the Legion did a similar thing by moving Pasher atop a 4-4-2 next to Enzo Martinez.
You know the formula: midway through their Open Cup win against Chattanooga, Birmingham brought Pasher into the game and got the win.
The Legion haven’t been all that convincing this year, but when they weaponize their Canadian star, good things happen. #15 has a single goal and zero assists to his name in USL action, but the way he manipulates defenses is vital. He’s been meaningfully more discerning this year, too: Pasher rates in the top quarter of attackers for xA and total passing volume while cutting out wasteful shots and head-down dribbles.
If you look at Birmingham with Pasher in the center of the park versus their performance with him wide or off the field, it’s night-and-day. You see the difference from the three games prior to the Miami win in the table above. The Legion were better able to access the final third, more likely to get close-range for looks, and more prodigious because of it.
You get a few flavors of Pasher’s involvement in the reel above. The first play comes against Loudoun, with Birmingham forcing a turnover and countering into the heart of the opposing 4-4-2. Pasher, at striker here, drops behind the midfield pivot and draws a center back his way. Meanwhile, Enzo Martinez - #15’s strike partner - makes a one-on-one run into the seam.
The second play highlights a defensive recovery, one where Pasher has come low to help the cause in block. When the Canadian gets a touch, he’s under fire by a center mid and forward in North Carolina’s counterpress. Pasher initiates with an inspired flick, beats that pressure, and lets his team bear down in transition.
Finally, you see an Open Cup play where Pasher - a second half sub at forward - doesn’t even get a touch. Still, his movement into the right channel distracts the rival Red Wolves and opens up a clean angle over the top to a streaking runner.
Given a start in a second striker role against Miami this weekend, Pasher put on a masterclass of dummy movement and zone 14 manipulation. He took 49 touches, none of which were received in the box. He took two shots from range, but both were blocked. Still, the way in which Pasher slithered into the half spaces pinned Miami back and earned acres of room for Martinez and Kobe Hernandez-Foster to create.
Tyler Pasher isn’t the prodigious scorer that broke out in Indianapolis, and that’s okay. Tommy Soehn knows how to use his star attacker to make everyone better, and it’s helping Birmingham to surge back into the Eastern contender conversation.
Inevitable Omaha
Union Omaha is locked in a virtual tie with Greenville for the League One lead with a +0.5 xG margin per match. They haven’t lost a game in 2024, including a recent Cup-set over the El Paso Locomotive. This club wasn’t without turnover over the offseason, but you’d never guess it based on their performances to date.
How did Omaha change? There were losses all over the field, but the exits in the midfield spine have been especially influential on this year’s tactics. Consider the central losses of:
JP Scearce (eight goal contributions, 100th percentile GAR)
Conor Doyle (94th percentile pass volume, 71st percentile defensive actions)
Luis Gil (nine assists, top-quarter pass volume and forward passing)
Joe Brito (nine goal contributions)
Chavany Willis (got that dog in him)
That’s five players who provided immense quality in Dom Casciato’s variant on a 4-4-2 in 2023. I broke their style down in detail last season, focusing on the use of that midfield corps and the way in which narrow wing play and aggressive attacking from the full backs lit Omaha’s fire.
Those principles are still in play, but they’re taking on a refreshed look in an evolved shape this time around.
Essentially, Casciato has dropped one of the forwards from that 4-4-2 into the back line, moving Omaha into a 3-4-3 as a result. That shape still accommodates hyper aggressive overlapping, but in a different sort of manner.
You see it above from the Open Cup win against Western Mass. The entire forward line stays within the horizontal span of the 18-yard box, while wing back Marco Milanese gets up on the overlap. Classic operation in a back three, yeah?
What’s remarkable is how things to look like last season’s formation. Blake Malone, the left-sided center back, overlaps beyond Milanese, thereby creating that same wing dynamic that proved so powerful in 2023. It’s a run-back of the 4-4-2 by proxy.
Omaha knows that such aggression isn’t always sustainable. It’s why they’ve undergone a re-think in the first place. With that in mind, the back half of the clip highlights the truer 3-4-3 during the Cup-set over the El Paso Locomotive. You get the wing backs flying upfield to essentially create a front five in the end; El Paso isn’t sure how to space, and it’s a ball in behind.
Omaha has executed at a high level for most of the year, and the minor exceptions shown in the next clip prove that rule.
Start with a defensive sequence with the Nebraskans in a deep block 5-2-3. Malone and Milanese have to swap spots after a long pass takes an odd bounce, pinning them both back. There’s a clearance, but note how isolated the center mids are.
In a 4-4-2, you’ve got two layers of protection on the flanks at all times; there’s a midfielder and full back on each sideline. In a scenario like that shown versus One Knox, one of those players can rotate behind the center mids as an emergency stopper. A 3-4-3 gives you one layer - an occupied Milanese - such that coverage isn’t as possible.
The next play comes in build-out from the back, with the wing backs already far upfield to stretch the defense. Thus, hose players aren’t available as short passing outlets, so Pedro Dolabella slips into the half space from his pivot role to make up for it.
However, when a turnover ensues, it’s double trouble. Dolabella isn’t in position to cover the central lane, and the wing backs are still out of commission. A shot ensues - albeit a minimally threatening long-ranger - as a result of the attempt to provide artificial width.
That ability to limit danger in moments of chaos is the final piece of the puzzle. Yeah, there can be occasional gaps in the center of the park, but this team has three center backs now! Omaha is very good at using those numbers to deny access to the box.
Neither Knox look shown above led to real danger. Look at the heatmap from this weekend’s clean sheet against Charlotte, and you’ll see more evidence of Omaha’s defensive denial. The Independence only mustered 0.7 expected goals because they were stood up as soon as they hit the attacking third.
Yes, Union Omaha is different from the team that owned the league last summer, but they’re showing an ability to reach that level anew. League One should be on watch as they continue to gain familiarity and perfect Dom Casciato’s updated philosophy.
Maudlin Miami
I really, really wanted Miami FC to be good. In the preseason, I had Miami last. Nicholas Murray had Miami last. Every human that draws breath and knows ball had Miami last.
For all the negativity, this team started well! An upset win over Colorado Springs was a masterclass in low-block 4-4-2 defending and mobile counterattacking. Allan Gavilanes broke out as a premier transitional threat in the process, one that single-handedly scraped away a point at Orange County.
Still, the carriage is swiftly turning back into a pumpkin.
Miami has been outshot 116 to 52 through six games in the league. They’ve completed the fourth-least passes per match. Increasingly, they lack any sort of replicable tactical identity to hang their hat on.
Antonio Nocerino preferred a low-block 4-4-2 until a recent midweek bout against rival Tampa Bay. That was the first game where the rookie manager innovated in his tactics, and - not coincidentally - it was the first game this year where Miami got run off the pitch.
Note the positioning of left back Jordan Ayimbila in the screenshot from that match: he’s well above the level set by the rest of the back four. This was an intentional strategic decision against the Rowdies, but it led to self-defeating imbalance. Ayimbila rarely put in a successful challenge and left acres of space in behind. 14 of Tampa Bay’s 22 wide serves came from the Miami left, including three chance-creating balls.
With a chance to get right in the Open Cup, Miami moved into a back three shape with League One’s South Georgia Tormenta on the menu. It didn’t help.
Yes, the Floridians went down a man, but they still were outshot by lower-tier competition and gave up too much room in and around the box. Tormenta’s Ajmeer Spengler felt like he was between Nocerino’s lines for the entire second half.
I’ve harped on the issues at the back, but Miami’s passivity at the front end is equally culpable. Nocerino has his team hold a line within their own half; you rarely see any extension in the press. As a result, Miami is dead last by goals added via interrupting in the attacking half (i.e., are you pressing good?).
That unhappy union of sloppy structure and meek pressure reared its head again against Birmingham this weekend. Miami put in just five defensive attempts in the press all night long. Midway through the game, they switched from the back three into the back four.
The result? A 1-0 loss in which the hosts were beaten 1.6 to 0.3 in xG terms.
Miami FC was always going to be at a talent deficit this season, and that’s okay! It’s very obviously the start of a new era. Understandably, Nocerino went safe with his approach out of the gates in recognition of youth and unfamiliarity. Still, bunker-and-counter ball evidently won’t get this team results. Additions like Danny Barbir may help out, but Miami needs to start playing a more positive brand of soccer to set the tone for the future of this rebuild.
Inside You There Are Two Wolves
The Chattanooga Red Wolves came into the weekend second in League One with 1.7 expected goals per 90. At the same time, they sported the longest average pass length at 9.4 yards.
Yes, this team proceeded to lay an egg against Northern Colorado: this weekend Chattanooga was outshot 20 to 6 and barely mustered half an expected goal. I’m still bullish on the project at large, idiosyncratic style and all.
With the extremes in mind, what factors have driven the Red Wolves’ best moments this year, and what changed against the Hailstorm?
For my taste, formational versatility and keen forward movement have been Chattanooga’s strong suit in 2024. The Central Valley win a few weeks back was instructive in that regard. Scott Mackenzie started his team in a 3-5-2 in the first half, a shape that featured dual No. 10s and one holder in the midfield. Stefan Lukic, a more versatile sort of forward, and Ropapa Mensah, a classic striker, paired up top.
The shape bore creative fruit, if few goals. Above, you see an example where (1) a wing back, (2) one of those No. 10s, and (3) Mensah form a passing triangle to work past a few outmatched Fuego defenders. Meanwhile, Lukic - in complement to Mensah - spots a hole against the rotating defense to run in behind.
Still, goals weren’t forthcoming. Thus, Mackenzie moved his team into a 4-2-3-1. That’s been this club’s more regular shape, and it got the Tennesseans over the top during the second half in California.
That new shape gave the Red Wolves an extra player in the pivot to win second balls, allowing them to quickly recycle possession to find an angle over the top. Chattanooga plainly didn’t have any interest in playing tiki taka; they completed just 99 passes in the back half on 67% accuracy.
The shape change was built to facilitate that direct strategy, and it weaponized the wide players in more dangerous positions upfield. Above, you see a screenshot mapping a goal in progress, one in which those principles were on full display.
Ricky Ruiz drops low to get a touch on the right wing, Malaye Malango bombs high as a counterweight on the left, and both Mensah and Lukic go at the center backs in the opposing back line. It’s a swift move marked by concerted and intentional motion.
When this Red Wolves team is clicking, they’re direct but purposeful. Against Northern Colorado this weekend, that wasn’t the case. Chattanooga ran back the 4-2-3-1, but their back line was constantly under the gun and couldn’t effectively play passes upfield. Leo Folla’s numbers were a case in point: the defender completed just 58% of his attempts against a seasonal average closer to 80%.
So what’s the path going forward? There’s a world where this team tries to be more possessive, but the long game might be a useful zig in a League One that’s zagging towards short passing and high pressure.
Mackenzie imported a whole lot of talent this winter, and he obviously has a vision of how he wants it to come together. This team’s scheduling woes means we haven’t had a big enough sample to make judgements yet, but I’m bullish on Chattanooga’s path back to contender status.
Threads!
I post too much, so here’s a backlog of my bigger game recaps. Looking for Colorado Springs talk? Check out this week’s USL Tactics Show.
Final Thoughts
Some other stray items on my mind…
I guest-hosted PHNX Rising on Monday, talking about Phoenix’s loss to Pittsburgh, their upcoming Rhode Island match, and hot dogs. Give it a watch.
M Night Shyamalan is back, baby. There’s this stretch in August where his new movie, Trap, and part two of Kevin Costner’s insane self-funded Western epic come out in back-to-back weeks, and that’s basically keeping me alive.
(whispers) I didn’t love the new Taylor album. Give me bops!
See you later this week!