Adrian Heath: 'Something different' needed to smooth Loons' rough patch

All steam and whistles not long ago, Minnesota United has lost its three games since MLS resumed its regular season and surrendered eight goals doing so.

Time's ticking toward Sunday's home game against Real Salt Lake.

Time enough from what Loons coach Adrian Heath calls a "little bad patch" to motivate a change in course?

"We have to because that's our job," Heath said in a postgame video call. "Obviously at this minute it doesn't look like we are preparing properly enough. So we'll have to do something different, and we'll see what we can do."

He shuffled his lineup during Saturday's 3-1 loss at Dallas and before Wednesday's 3-0 loss at Houston, during which newly signed attacking midfielder Emanuel Reynoso made his MLS debut.

Heath considered Reynoso's play as a second-half sub "excellent." Midfielder Marlon Hairston called Reynoso "a different class" even after such a small sample size.

Heath replaced his attacking front four at halftime Saturday. He did much the same to start Wednesday' game while 34-year-old captain Ozzie Alonso stayed home to rest during a stretch in which the Loons play six games in 24 days in MLS's "Phase 1" restart.

Backup goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh started all three games after Tyler Miller had season-ending knee surgery.

"It's tough right now in the locker room," said midfielder Marlon Hairston, whose first start as a Loon came Wednesday against a Houston team that traded him to Minnesota in November. "It's tough once you have a couple losses back-to-back and you start to lose belief that we had at the beginning of the season. The games [victories at Portland and San Jose] to start the season and the games in the bubble, we were doing well in our group, going as far as we did.

"We just need to get back to the things we were doing well before. That's the only way we can get out of this funk that we are in right now."

The Loons have lost their past four games, including a loss to Orlando City in the "MLS is Back" tournament semifinals last month. Only one of their 11 tournament and regular-season games has been played at Allianz Field and that was a 2-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City.

Heath called his team's performance in Orlando "excellent" after they went 3-1-2 there.

"Really disappointed we didn't go on and win it," Heath said. "I thought we were playing well enough to do [it]. So to now be back in the regular season with one game at home — and we turned that over by not playing particularly well — and two defeats away have not been good enough."

The Loons played those tournament games and the past three regular-season games without two-time MLS Defender of the Year Ike Opara. He has been out since late June because of an undisclosed reason. They've also done so with that change in goalkeepers.

Heath doesn't blame either Opara's absence or the change in keepers for a leaking defense that allowed FC Dallas and Houston three goals each.

"I'm trying to think of one goal where you hold up your hand and go, 'That's a great goal, we shouldn't do anything about that,' '' Heath said. "They certainly haven't worked hard enough. When teams are putting the ball in 7, 8 yards out and we've not got one defender in the picture, there's obviously something wrong. You concede eight goals in three games, you ain't winning too many of them."

The Loons play three games in eight days starting Sunday at home against Real Salt Lake. They get a home rematch with Dallas on Wednesday before going on the road to play Sporting Kansas City on Sept. 13.

"We haven't got a lot of time between games at this moment in time," Heath said. "We have to get back to winning ways because the Disney tournament seems an often long while away."