Warshaw: Atlanta make the adjustment, and Jeff Larentowicz leads the way
Sometimes youâve just gotta accept itâs better to do less.
In Week 1, Atlanta United got clobbered by the Houston Dynamo. Houston didnât have to work particularly hard, either. You couldnât have blamed any Atlanta fans for hitting the panic button.
In Week 2, Gerardo âTataâ Martino didnât hesitate to switch things up. He maneuvered Atlantaâs starting formation from a 4-2-3-1 to a 3-5-2, and â more importantly â he moved Jeff Larentowicz back to the veteranâs more natural central midfield position. Larentowicz partnered with Darlington Nagbe and Miguel Almiron and took the more defensive role in the trio. Atlanta cruised by D.C. United, and looked everything we hoped they would prior to the season in a 3-1 victory. The switch to three in the back certainly helped Atlanta, but the bigger influence came from Larentowiczâs presence in the midfield.
On Sunday, Larentowicz did a very small, largely unnoticed act very well, and it changed the overall makeup of Atlantaâs afternoon.
When Atlanta was in possession, Larentowicz held his positioning in the middle of the field. He didnât move to try to find the ball â rather, he stood still. He asked for the ball when the option presented itself, and accepted passes when he was the right option for a teammate, but when he didnât have a lane to receive a pass, he didnât move to find a new one. He stayed central and protected the space in front of Atlantaâs most central defender, Michael Parkhurst.
Almost every time Atlanta got into a comfortable rhythm in possession in the middle third or D.C.âs half, as you can see in the following pictures, you knew where you would find Jeff Larentowicz: centrally located, tagging the nearest opponent.
Jeff Larentowicz (circled) camping out as Atlanta begins to attack.
Larentowicz holding his position as Atlanta seek an opening.
Even when Larentowicz had a clear pocket to find the ball, he declined. In the play shown below, he could have moved forward five yards and been open for a pass from Nagbe, but he resisted.
Larentowicz showing impressive discipline as the attack develops.
On Opening Weekend, Atlantaâs midfield pairing of Chris McCann and Darlington Nagbe worked hard to find the ball. They kept darting and shifting to create lanes for their teammates. You canât blame them; Atlanta wants to be a passing team and center midfielders generally drive possession. McCann, as the more defensive of the pair, didnât necessarily do anything wrong. It simply didnât work.
Chris McCann (circled, left) and Darlington Nagbe shift toward the ball to create a lane.
Itâs not to say Larentowicz didnât want the ball â all central midfielders want the ball. He simply had bigger fish to fry. We shouldnât mistake lack of activity for inaction. Getting on the ball isnât his role.
Sometimes a defensive midfielder doing less can free up the rest of the team to do more. In holding a central position, Larentowicz accomplished three goals:
He protected the defense in transition moments.
He was in position to win the ball back quickly and restart attacks.
His predictable stability afforded other players more creative freedom in the attack.
Itâs easiest to score in the moments just after a turnover because the defending team remains set up in an attacking posture. Itâs nearly impossible to avoid giving the ball away, so you can only hope to mitigate the damage when it happens. Itâs important to have more defenders back than the opposition has attackers going forward, and itâs important to protect the areas of the field that are the easier to score from. If youâre down numbers or vulnerable in key areas, youâre in trouble.
With Larentowicz often perched right in front of the Atlanta defense, he covered both areas of need. As a result, D.C. never looked to be a threat on the counter.
The second point is more interesting and more intricate. If we look at all of the photos again, thereâs another note beyond Larentowiczâs general positioning on the field: Heâs right next to a D.C. attacker. If D.C. wins the ball, where are they going to go?
Larentowicz already has his counter press set up to win the ball back immediately, flipping a potentially dangerous moment into an advantage.
With all this focus on defense, it might seem Larentowicz werenât contributing to the attack. But when you realize how efficient he was at both winning the ball back and scooping up second balls, it becomes more clear that he was actually crucial to Atlantaâs attacking play.
Also, heâs still thinking forward:
The final piece is something we often misunderstand about defensive midfielders in the attack. We often bemoan players who donât show the âcourageâ or âintelligenceâ to run or pass forward and accept them as a necessary evil because they are important to the defensive phase of the game. Itâs a mindset that completely ignores the overall makeup of a team.
Having a disciplined, predictable defensive midfield allows every other player on the field to be more creative. The attacking potential intensifies when the attacking midfielder ⌠and wingers ⌠and outside backs each know that they have a stable core behind them, protecting the most dangerous parts of the field covering other areas when needed.
They donât have to allocate whatever percentage of their minds and movement that would normally be committed to additional defensive duties. One smart, disciplined defensive midfielde â even if he doesnât attack once â can improve a teamâs entire offense.
We saw that Sunday. Atlanta looked much better in Week 2 than the week prior, and it wasnât luck. For all the excitement and flash, it was a small, simple adjustment from an olâ reliable veteran d-mid that made the difference.
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Warshaw: Atlanta make the adjustment, and Jeff Larentowicz leads the way was originally published on 365 Football
