Minnesota United coach Adrian Heath said team did "OK" with 4-4-2 formation

The Loons played both Christian Ramirez and Abu Danladi up top against Sporting Kansas City.

October 8, 2017 at 4:24AM
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Check out my gamer and notebook from Minnesota United's 1-1 draw Saturday against Sporting Kansas City at TCF Bank Stadium.

And now for a little bit more from coach Adrian Heath. He went with a 4-4-2 formation, a departure from his usual 4-2-3-1 (though, he also went with a 4-3-3 against Atlanta). Here's how he thought that worked:

"Well, I thought after the first 10 or 12 minutes when we actually started to play forward and make use of the fact that we had got two forwards up there rather than a three in midfield, we did OK," Heath said. "And as I've just said to the boys, sometimes you have to play to the game that's given to you. You know, it's not always about lovely passing movement. Sometimes you have to get the ball forward and make it uncomfortable for people and take throw-ins and take corners and go from there. And when we made the game a little bit uglier in the first and second half, I thought we were better. It's not a way that you like to play, but sometimes you have to play like that to get yourself in the game. You know, as I say, the most important thing for me is that we haven't gottn beat tonight, and they had put an incredible shift in."

This was a chance to play forwards Abu Danladi and Christian Ramirez up top together, with which Heath had been wanting to experiment. Forward Brandon Allen even made his official United debut late in the match, working up top with Ramirez while Danladi pushed out to the left.

Rewatch my Facebook Live below (or click here). Also, here is a video from coach Adrian Heath's presser.

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