On June 2, during a D.C. United-Seattle match in a sweltering D.C., Garth Lagerwey stooped under the low-hanging roof of the RFK Stadium broadcast booth and talked about the summer.
Yes, the Sounders want to call in reinforcements in the transfer window. Yes, they want to use the Designated Player slot left vacant and cash left available by Obafemi Martins’ February move to China. And no, they are not going to rush the process.
Time, however, is a luxury slipping through Seattle’s hands more quickly than they care to admit. Despite a recent run of positive results – a courageous win in the U.S. Open Cup, a heartening draw at Toronto and an encouraging win in an international friendly on Tuesday night – there is still much to do. The Sounders are seven points below the playoff cutoff line heading into a five-game stretch against Western Conference opponents this month.
And while MLS is notoriously forgiving when it comes to the playoffs – more teams qualify than don’t in the league’s current setup - the Sounders do need to play better in order to put themselves in playoff contention in a few months. And part of that plan in the Seattle war room almost certainly involves calling in the cavalry.
Earlier this season, before Jordan Morris emerged as a clear starter up top, there was some question about the best course of action in the transfer market. A like-for-like swap with Martins, perhaps? That’s less of a need now that Morris has established himself with six goals in league play.
Defensive support doesn’t seem likely either, considering Roman Torres’ return grows nearer, Zach Scott is continuing his ageless run of form and the emergence of Tony Alfaro has added much-needed depth.
Which leaves the midfield.
The Sounders could go in any number of directions with their next big signing, and they could probably use most either a winger or a No. 10 tucked underneath the forward line. Lagerwey got an up close and personal look at the effect a game-changing South American No. 10 can have on a franchise when Javier Morales joined Real Salt Lake, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Seattle go in that direction. After all, players like Ignacio Piatti, Diego Valeri and Mauro Diaz utterly changed the attacking tenor of the teams they joined, and all three reached the postseason last year and likely will again in 2016.
Seattle could use that kind of fresh wind, especially considering nobody in the league has scored fewer than Seattle’s 14 goals.
Zoom in further and the numbers get even hairier. As a team, Seattle’s only accounted for nine assists this year, five fewer than anyone in the league. Six of those have come from open play – lowest in the league and six below the league average – which means the Sounders simply don’t have a tone-setting metronome in the attacking third willing to stick his nose into dangerous corners and create chances.
Piatti and Monreal? 17 assists from the run of play. Diaz and first-place Dallas, coming to town on July 13? They’ve got 15. The math is simple. And Lagerwey knows it.
MLS teams need precious little to spark. The Colorado Rapids essentially just added Jermaine Jones and Shkelzen Gashi - one of whom has occupied the No. 10 slot - and went from last to first in the West in a matter of months. The league’s entire stable of teams are essentially one or two moves from competing for an MLS Cup at any given time.
If the Sounders do spring for a No. 10, head coach Sigi Schmid still has a difficult task set before him on the tactical grease board, if he wants to stick with his chosen 4-3-3 formation. Both Clint Dempsey, who returns in earnest from Copa America Centenario duty this week, and Jordan Morris are better centrally. Dempsey cannot play wide, and all of Morris’ goals have come down the central channel. Dempsey will almost certainly start up top, but the question is whether Morris joins him.
There’s also the question of width. There isn’t much here, so do you sacrifice Morris’s best usage to create artificial width? It’s not a bad idea, necessarily but it does cut out some of his best utility.
There are no easy choices here, but might a best XI look something like this with a new signing?
When Jurgen Klinsmann noticed Dempsey operated best with a strike partner at the Copa America after the initial Colombia match, he rotated Bobby Wood in off the wing mid-game in each of the next three. The U.S. won all three of those matches and Dempsey scored three goals and had three assists. Pushing Tyrone Mears up the touchline while pulling Morris centrally to combine with a slightly dropping Dempsey might be the best option here. Wood and Morris are similar players, and there’s no reason to think it can’t work in Seattle.
The biggest issue is finding space on the field for Designated Player Nelson Valdez, and in the current format it just doesn’t look like he has a defined role in this XI aside from being a super-sub as the first player off the bench. He doesn’t have the spring in his legs to play wide anymore, and it’s a tough sell to start him over either Dempsey or Morris at this stage.
There’s still the issue of width, but that can’t be helped without a flurry of personnel moves. And make no mistake, Seattle desperately needs a creator in the midfield above all else. Imagine Dempsey being played into space he doesn’t have to create himself. Goals for days, and a renewed outlook on a frustrating season.
There are a number of directions the Sounders can go, but they’ll have to pick one soon. Time is slipping through their fingers.
