Turn on the Lights: how to rebuild the Las Vegas roster

Breaking down Dennis Sanchez's potential tactical principles and offering up player fits

With Dennis Sanchez take over as the Las Vegas Lights manger to phase in the Jose Bautista era, what should we expect from the Lights on the pitch? Signings have been scanty with the season less than a month away, but Sanchez’ stints as an assistant coach with Austin FC II and the Charleston Battery give us some clues.

It’s important to note that the new coach won’t be defined by the ins and outs of Austin in 2023 or Charleston in 2022. Obviously, an assistant isn’t dictating the top-down style for a club, but the tenets that Sanchez helped to execute at both stops will still influence his own preferences to a certain extent.

If the prior stops are any evidence, expect a 4-3-3 shape, just like the one Austin II used throughout their title run last season. There’s more backing for that general format; the Battery were mostly a 4-2-3-1 team with lots of 4-1-4-1 defensive principles while Sanchez was around.

In build, Austin OO liked to use a rather flat back four, keeping their full backs deep to serve as outlets for patient, controlled possession. Goalkeeper Damian Las finished in the middle tercile in terms of touches per match and vertical distance on his completions, healthily mixing longer blasts with safer dump-offs.

The center backs were more conservative; Sal Mazzaferro was the least audacious passer of any MLS NEXT Pro defender by the vertical distance of his completions. Meanwhile, Austin usually sat their No. 6 midfielder very close the back line in order to distract pressers, circulate the ball to change angles, and open up space for motion further upfield.

Above, you see two screenshots that map out common Austin II principles. The first play highlights the flatness of the defensive unit in possession. By keeping those players lower down the pitch, the Texans encouraged the opposition to step higher in response, thereby ceding room in the midfield.

That top sequence also sees rotation out wide; the left-sided No. 8 and left winger swap spots in a paired series of runs. As the winger comes low, the centerman goes high. It’s simple, but it forces the defense to either (1) sell out against the run over the top and cede a zone-entering touch to the winger or (2) tempt fate against the advancing central midfielder.

Austin II was never afraid to overload their own half if opposing pressure got too hot, dropping players low to provide outlets. In the second example shown, for instance, the No. 6 is low enough that he essentially splits between the Texan center backs. This is a fairly common sight in the modern game, one that allows ball-capable defenders to dribble wide without their team abandoning the central lane.

There’s another series of connected runs taking place, albeit in a different flavor. This time, the right-sided No. 8 drops low into the channel. In doing so, he opens up a passing triangle with the right back and the right-side center back. Say Austin II uses that triangle to beat the press; they still need bodies downfield to keep the play going. That’s where the second run comes in, as Austin’s striker comes below the halfway circle to make himself available. The goal is to always maintain a presence in the planes between the defensive lines.

That’s a lot of conceptual talk, but it boils down to a few key principles: with Sanchez as an assistant, Austin II kept many players low in build to draw the defense out. When a player dropped deep, an attacker would replace him to maintain structure and provide optionality. This wasn’t the slickest passing team, but they had very functional principles in place that paid off come playoff time.

Defensively, Austin wasn’t a juggernaut, but the same sort of trusting, rotation-centric tenets defined their system.

You see a few hints of the style on display in the play above from the MLS NEXT Pro title game. Note the height of the defense right away: as opposing Columbus breaks down the wing on the dribble, a mid-high line is seen turning to recover. Austin II used that high back four to compress the midfield, where they could drop their wingers in to create a five-man torrent of pressure and hard close-downs.

Personnel-wise, Austin II needed their center backs to be credible with the ball at their feet (as shown) and be mobile enough to fend off passes that could beat the high line. Heft wasn’t a priority; Austin II won just 46.2% of their aerial duels last year, second-to-last in the league. The club’s goal was to do the dirty work upfield and limit the need for aerial dominance in settled own-third scenarios.

Though Austin’s winger is beaten by that carrying move in the GIF, watch how the left back and leftmost No. 8 rotate with one another to close down. The center mid is closest to the action, so he slides wide to close on the ball carrier. Meanwhile, his movement is covered by the left back, who steps into the middle of the pitch. It’s very responsive defending based around give-and-take communication.

Midfield pressure was a key for Sanchez’s clubs in 2023 and 2022. Austin II wanted their wingers to be energy men, constantly getting chippy, tracking runners, and making life difficult in support of the central spine; Charleston iterated on similar themes.

You see as much out of their baseline 4-2-3-1 above. One member of the pivot stays low, but the other steps into the press, clogging a lane and allowing a winger to tuck inside for a tackle. The Battery were rather abhorrent in 2022, but they had a splendid midseason run where they beat Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh in a matter of weeks by forcing turnovers with swarming like pictured.

Charlie Adams, the first player signed by Dennis Sanchez for his Lights team, can ably fit the described system. Among all USL central midfielders in 2023 while he was in San Diego, the Englishman ranked roughly average in terms of his defensive contributions, but he’s very smart about his positioning and is more than capable of picking the right moments to sell out in the press.

His offensive fit is even more promising. Adams is one of the most unique midfielders in the USL, having completed 40% more crosses last year than any other central player in the league. The former Loyal man is fantastic at finding space in the channels and serving passes into teammates, and that one-of-a-kind range will play wonderfully in rotation with a wider attacker as part of an Austin II-influenced 4-3-3.

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Controlled attacking with healthy variety and level-by-level movement. An athletic back line that supports fierce midfield pressure. Charlie Adams holding it all together. We’ve got the broad strokes of a potential Lights team down, but who’s going to join the party on the pitch?

A few potential sources of talent defined the search process for me: (1) Austin FC II players, (2) former Charleston players, (3) Venezia players with US ties, and (4) American lower-league free agents.

The first two strands are self-evident given Sanchez’s recent employers. Ditto the final bucket, because “sign good free agents” is the dumbest advice of all time. What of Venezia? Well, the Lights’ new sporting director, Gianleonardo Neglia, used to work at the Serie B club, and a few players in their squad could be promising additions at Cashman Field.

Ottar Magnus Karlsson is chief amongst them. Karlsson, who spent 2022 on loan with the Oakland Roots from Venezia and nearly won the Golden Boot, scored 19 goals on roughly three shots per match in the East Bay. He rated as a 95th percentile performer per my Goals Above Replacement model, and he’s got a much higher skill level and ability to link play from deep than you’d expect from a 6’3” Viking.

Meanwhile, Jack de Vries is another Venezia player to keep an eye on. An Akron native and Philadelphia Union academy product with six Bethlehem Steel appearances to his name, de Vries bagged 14 goals with the Venezia U-19s in 2022. He hasn’t made gains since then, making him a solid reclamation option. There’s a ripping left-footed shot in there somewhere, and Las Vegas could take advantage.

Let’s circle back to the Austin II core. The status of much of the title-winning squad is unclear because MLS NEXT Pro communications are a black box, but a handful of pieces are available by way of expired loans or releases from the senior roster. Highlights for three potential attacking imports are shown here.

First up: Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez, the club’s main striker and a 44-apperance USL veteran with the Tacoma Defiance. At 5’9”, he only scored only four goals in more than 1,200 minutes in 2023, but his eye for space was and is a real asset. Ocampo-Chavez knows how to make distracting runs and is a ready outlet to receive passes and break lines. A juggernaut scorer he isn’t, but he’d be an excellent change of pace in the putative Sanchez system.

David Rodriguez, by contrast, has the makings of a potential star. The 21-year-old, the brother of Arturo Rodriguez of USL fame, was on loan with Austin from Atletico San Luis in Mexico last year, and he picked up five goals, two assists, and 31 key passes in just over 1,400 minutes. He’s more comfortable on the wing than his brother, but he has ball control skills that could play at the No. 10 spot in a traditional 4-2-3-1. On the right wing in Austin, the left-footed Rodriguez feasted in an inverted deployment. He’s a fearless shooter and dribbler in any context with slaloming ball carriage in his bag. He’d be a coup of an addition in Las Vegas.

The last carryover option is EJ Johnson, a player already spotted as a trialist in Birmingham a few weeks back. There, Johnson had a good preseason outing as the energy man in a strike partnership atop a 4-4-2. He was inconsistent with Charleston in 2022 and Austin last year; in 900 minutes in MLS NEXT Pro, he only created eight chances and scored just once.

Still, the work rate and potential are undeniable. Johnson is as fast as lightning and could be a star if the skills ever catch up to the ideas. The bigger problem might be his footedness; I’ve picked way too few right-footed attackers here.

What of additions from the 2022 Battery? Though the team wasn’t the strongest, one player was bright enough to draw Bob Lilley’s attention in 2023: DZ Harmon. Not a regular in Pittsburgh, Harmon can play as a winger, wing back, or full back on either flank. In Charleston, Harmon earned more than 1,200 minutes, created 20 chances, and put in 31 defensive takeaways. The intrigue here? Pittsburgh announced that he’d be re-signing but took that back a few weeks later. Smoke, fire, etc.

Dom Oduro is the other potential recruit from the Sanchez-in-Charleston lineage. A defensive midfielder with 113 USL outings to his name in Tampa Bay, Memphis, and Charleston, Oduro is a good stopper but doesn’t quite have the passing needed from the No. 6 in this 4-3-3 framework. Alonso Ramirez, however, is proven to have the goods. On loan with Austin II from Atlas in Mexico, Rodriguez completed 89% of his passes as a holder and put up a shot and a tackle per game; he’s already got a great read for a 22-year-old and could be had given that a Liga MX promotion is unlikely.

Using Ramirez’s numbers, I ran a similarity model against 2023 USL Championship players to find potential matches. Current free agent Eric Bird was a top-three alongside undersung stars like Bolu Akinyode and Kyle Scott, and he’s a personal favorite of mine. Comfortable anywhere from right back to the No. 8 spot, Bird is a premier shuttler but has the numbers - 99th percentile defensive actions last year, etc. - and technique in spades to perfectly suit a Sanchez team.

Isidro Martinez is a great shout as a No. 8 playing a step ahead of Bird and level with Adams. Martinez had six assists in under 1,600 minutes with RGV in 2022 before a breakout 2023 with Forward Madison. In Wisconsin, he rated in the 94th percentile for expected assists, won 32 of his 47 tackle attempts, and pitched in 33 interceptions. Martinez has a great motor and is an incisive passer at every level in build.

To round out the midfield, keep an eye out for 22-year-old Bobosi Byaruhanga, a loanee from the Czech second tier that made more than 20 appearances for Austin II last season. The Ugandan would bring nice chemistry with Rodriguez in the right channel. He’s a good mover, one that didn’t light up the stat sheet but constantly made smart runs that bought space for his Texan teammates.

Further back, the aforementioned Sal Mazzaferro of Austin FC II is a natural fit in the back line. The left-footed center back is proven in a Sanchez defensive unit, and he hardly missed a minute of action in the title campaign. His availability and contract status are the main hang-ups, but the efficiency (63% duel win rate, 92% pass completion) are undeniable assets. Need a different left-sider? Loan in Hayden Sargis, who Sanchez coached out of the academy in Sacramento.

I really like the fit of Tarek Morad opposite Mazzaferro or Sargis at a center back spot. A top-ten passing center back per American Soccer Analysis with Oakland last year, Morad is a decade-long veteran of the USL that still has a spring in his step in defensive recovery situations. He’s extremely two-footed and has the grit to plug holes behind a more cerebral midfield.

Charlie Ostrem is the last outfield recommendation, and he joins Morad and Martinez in the highlight package above. Admittedly more of a wing back in MLS NEXT Pro with Chicago, Ostrem had five goals and three assists in 2023 while ranking as a top-eight passer (+0.66 goals added) and league-best receiver (+0.84 goals added) at his position. With Chase Gasper in for the Fire at the MLS level, Ostrem won’t get a first-division shout and would be a lovely add.

I’m cheating on this last one, but I’m putting Carlos Avilez in net. I’d heard from multiple reliable sources that Las Vegas was circling the former Chattanooga goalkeeper earlier this winter, and while things could’ve change depending on the Bautista timing, I still say it’s a go. Avilez has 91 League One starts under his belt, and poor metrics in 2023 were a product of the Red Wolves’ struggles more than his own failings. What Avilez does boast is a precise long boot; he was a top 20% League One goalkeeper for passing progressivity and total touches last year.

Editor’s Note: Yeah, hearing the contract had an out because of the sale. I’m not gonna throw out more names, but it’ll be hard to match Damian Las’ 79% save percentage for Austin II last year. That clip would’ve led the USL.

Put it all together under the charge of Dennis Sanchez, and you’ve got a team that would compete for the postseason in my mind. The player predictions here are largely academic, but they paint the picture that Las Vegas still has ample options on the table to build a contender. Sanchez is a coach with a great reputation, and he may just have the system and the tools to take the Lights to the next level.