Vermes and Formation Changes

Once again there has been plenty of talk in preseason about Sporting KC's head coach, Peter Vermes changing Kansas City's formation from what has become their traditional 4-3-3. This has become a yearly occurance for Kansas City over the years, from attempting a two forward system back in 2014 in an attempt to get both Claudio Bieler and Dom Dwyer on the field at the same time, to more tinkering in the 2015 preseason, to this year where according to Robb Heineman, the club has been using the 3-5-2 regularly in training. Each time though KC has ended up reverting to their traditional 4-3-3 with a few minor changes, inverting the midfield triangle, having the wingers sit deeper, almost as wide midfielders in a 4-5-1, and almost having three separate midfield lines.

So you'll understand when KC fans will be a little hesitant about the claims this year that Vermes is looking to change his trusted formation he's used for going on seven years now. A formation he's specifically tailored his roster for. At this point all the talk about formation changes just feels like smoke screen in an attempt to throw off opponents who may not scout the team well enough. But doing it for three years without any major changes, and still playing the high press regularly, it's going to take actually seeing the new formation in a competitive game for fans and other teams to truly believe that Vermes is serious about a formation change.

That said, let's just for a few minutes pretend that Vermes is serious and take a look at some ideas for how a 3-5-2 with KC's current roster would look, starting with the defense and working forward.

Defense

With the addition of Nuno Andre Coelho KC improved their depth at center back, but one option with the 3-5-2 would be to play all three of Coelho, Matt Besler, and Ike Opara in the three center back positions. It would solve some questions of who starts at center back, but immediately brings up another concern that the team had last year, if either Opara or Coelho (who has recent injury issues) you find yourself once again with Kevin Ellis getting a large number of minutes for Kansas City in the center of defense.

A potential work around for that would be to only start one of Coelho and Opara on the right side of the three center backs with Besler on the left, and Sporting's defensive midfielder, Soni Mustivar playing the central center back. It's a look that KC has had many times over the years when KC's wingbacks have gotten forward. Whether it's been Julio Cesar, Oriol Rosell, Lawrence Olum, or Mustivar, KC's deep lying midfielder has at times looked like a third center back for Kansas City, mainly as someone to assist with distribution out of the back. In this formation, Mustivar would likely still play a little further up the field than the other two center backs but also not get forward as much as he did last season either. The draw back here is that you put a midfielder, who isn't even six feet tall in the middle of your three man back line. In this formation Besler and whoever starts in the right center back position are likely going to need to play narrow and not get pulled out wide much. This will also put more pressure on the two wide midfielders to do a lot more work to get up and down the field.

Midfield

In the end though the wide players getting up and down the field won't be a huge departure from what KC's current outside backs have been doing for the last few years. Saad Abdul-Salaam, Amadou Dia, Chance Myers, and Seth Sinovic have all had big responsibilities on both the offensive and defensive halves of the field, so just pushing their starting position a little further up the field isn't going to have a huge effect on them in that regard. The big change for the wide midfielders in a hypothetical 3-5-2 formation is that they won't have the winger in front of them to work off of on overlaps. That will likely push for KC to do more build up through the middle of the field, something that the club had struggled with until Benny Feilhaber really worked his way into the formation. Being able to work through the middle and then get a ball wide to one of the outside midfielders to cross in will add a different dynamic to KC's attack.

In the middle of KC's 3-5-2 midfield, not a lot will change from the way the team plays currently with their 4-3-3. You're still going to have the midfield triangle one way or the other in the middle, whether it's inverted with just Roger Espinoza or Mustivar at the bottom or someone like Feilhaber or Brad Davis at the tip it'll still look very familiar to how it's looked before. One change could be if Mustivar were to be the third center back, KC at times would almost appear to have four central midfielders in that situation.

This formation would put a lot of defensive responsibilities on the outside players, which is why I've only really include the club's outside backs as the wide players. That does hurt some of the influence that someone like Justin Mapp would have on the game as he'd likely have a bit of a role change with a switch from a 4-3-3.

Forward

This is the area of the field, at least with the current roster that makes a move to a 3-5-2 really not make a ton of sense. With only Dom Dwyer, Jacob Peterson, and Daniel Salloi listed as forwards on the roster, finding a consistent starter to play with Dwyer up top could be difficult. I'm not sure that Salloi is ready for that responsibility and Peterson just doesn't score enough to be consistently getting those minutes. That puts you in a situation where you're playing two forwards who are in a more staggered position, someone like Graham Zusi playing a bit behind Dwyer, more so to play off the team's target striker. It would probably help with one area that KC struggled with at times last season, leaving Dwyer isolated up top where he'd get the ball and have no one to provide assistance while he faced off against the entire opposing back line. In that sense getting another forward higher up the field to help him is a big plus of a switch to a two forward formation.

In the end it's an interesting idea to play around with, especially in preseason when it's a lot easier to experiment with the way the team plays. But in the end I won't be holding my breath for anything like that to happen until I see it occur in an actual MLS game.

Time to Switch to a 4-4-2?

Since Peter Vermes' first full season in charge of Sporting Kansas City he's worked to fit the team into his image and get a team that will play the style that he wants them to play.  A high speed, high tempo, attacking oriented style through the 4-3-3 formation. 

Through his time he's gone through a number of different players trying to get the best group of players to make that formation work for him.  Over the past two seasons he's had probably his best lineup for that.  With the likes of Kei Kamara, CJ Sapong, and Teal Bunbury up top, with Graham Zusi, Roger Espinoza, and Julio Cesar in the midfield, and the development of Chance Myers and Matt Besler along with additions of Aurelien Collin and Seth Sinovic have made the defense solid.  The 4-3-3 has helped to lead Kansas City to two straight 1st place finishes in the Eastern Conference in the regular season and a US Open Cup title last season.

But then this offseason, Roger Espinoza departed for the Premier League, and Kei Kamara followed going on loan at least until May.  With those two gone, Sporting KC's 4-3-3 so far this season has looked different.  Without Kamara, KC lost a lot of athleticism in their attack, the unpredictability, and the speed that Kamara brought.  His move to Norwich on loan has also affected KC defensively as well, as it's hurt Chance Myers and his ability to get forward.  Zusi, who played in the right forward spot in the first two games has played quite well , he's not the same type of player as Kamara, he doesn't offer the same style that Kamara did that really complemented Myers.

Without Espinoza, KC's midfield has changed a bit.  Paulo Nagamura has helped to fill the void, but no one can replace Espinoza's work ethic and engine on the field.  Oriol Rosell has done a decent job of replacing Julio Cesar, but doesn't have the experience of the Brazilian.

With those two exiting, KC has moved new parts in and has kept the 4-3-3.  Zusi has moved into the right forward position with Benny Feilhaber moving into the midfield.  With the changes though the team just doesn't seem to be playing the same.  The style that KC exhibited in the 4-3-3 the last two years isn't there.  The team now has more play making ability in the lineup, but don't have the dynamic game changer there like Kamara. So far this season, Kansas City's new designated player, Claudio Bieler, while having scored 2 goals this season has been starved for service for long periods of the game.  With Zusi on one wing and Bobby Convey on the other, Sporting is getting some service, but the crosses aren't the type of service that Bieler really takes advantage of.  When CJ Sapong has come on, KC has scored 3 of their 4 goals.  When Sapong was inserted into the lineup over the weekend against the Fire, I had hopes that Sapong would be able to combine with Bieler more, but it didn't work as well as expected. Sapong spent a lot of time out wide on the right and didn't really get much opportunity to combine with Bieler.

At this point you have to start to wonder if Kansas City needs to consider a switch to a 4-4-2 from the 4-3-3.  While the 3 forward lineup has served KC well, with the pieces that Kansas City currently has a 4-4-2 would fit more for KC.

A 4-4-2 formation would allow Kansas City to play with Bieler and Sapong paired together up top with Sapong playing more back to goal and Bieler being able to play off of him.  I think that style would benefit both players as Bieler has been isolated quite a bit this year with the way KC has played, providing him with a partner I think would make Bieler more successful.

In the midfield KC could play two main different ways.  The team could play an "empty bucket" with 2 of Zusi, Feilhaber, and Convey on the two wings with Nagamura and Rosell behind them in the middle playing more defensively.  The other possibility is to have all 3 of Zusi, Feilhaber, and Convey on the field with Nagamura or Rosell playing the defensive midfield position behind them.  This puts a lot of pressure on whichever of the two plays the defensive midfield position, but could be a good formation for KC to play at home where teams are going to sit back and KC is going to have the possession to play another attacking midfielder.

The 4-3-3 has served KC quite well the past two years.  But with KC's player personnel right now, it may be time to take a step away from that formation, at least temporarily, and play a formation that will play more to KC's strengths and get Bieler some support up top so he is not as isolated.