Analysis: Minnesota United forwards look lost in latest defeat until Teemu Pukki brings order

MINNESOTA UNITED | ANALYSIS

After six consecutive losses, Minnesota United probably can’t lean much on small wins or moral victories. But if there was a positive from Minnesota’s 2-1 loss to the L.A. Galaxy late Sunday night in Carson, Calif., it was that for the final half-hour, the Loons looked like themselves again.

Not coincidentally, it happened after Teemu Pukki came on as a substitute.

Pukki had missed Minnesota’s previous six games after picking up an injury while he was away playing for the Finnish national team. Combined with Tani Oluwaseyi’s absence with Canada, it left the Loons without either of their strikers.

In their absence, manager Eric Ramsay chose to play mostly with a sort of ever-shifting combination of forwards Sang-Bin Jeong and Bongokuhle Hlongwane at center forward, with Robin Lod thrown into the mix as well. Most often, Jeong played as the most central of the three, but they were constantly switching and making runs outside any defined positions.

This setup was somewhat dangerous when the Loons were counter-attacking, given Jeong and Hlongwane’s speed. But there were also plenty of times when it looked as if all three players didn’t really know where they fit. Early in Sunday night’s game, both Alejandro Bran and Joseph Rosales, carrying the ball toward the goal, gave up on any hope of one of the forwards making an incisive run and elected to crack a low-percentage 30-yard shot instead.

Pukki’s arrival brought a certain order to things. You could see the veteran lining up his runs and organizing the attack — and freeing Jeong and Hlongwane to do what they’re much better at — making runs in behind the defense, rather than trying to serve as a focal point.

Said Ramsay: “It does tell sometimes, for all the good stuff that Sang-Bin has done when he’s been there, that Bongi has done when he been close to the last line — I don’t think you can replace that natural instinct of a goal scorer, a ‘No. 9′ — the way they move, the way they smell chances.”

Pukki has struggled this season; it had been almost four months since he had scored for Minnesota, though he had tallied three goals for Finland since then. But it took him just 13 minutes to get back in the scoring column for the Loons after coming on as a sub.

Minnesota playing with a back five has become the team’s default. This was the 15th consecutive game in which the Loons have defended, mostly, with three center backs and a pair of wingbacks on either side.

Within that, there have always been wrinkles — most often, with the role of Rosales on the left, who is often defended as a sort of hybrid fullback/midfielder. Minnesota also switched back and forth between the number of forwards it has pushed high on defense, sometimes pressing with two, sometimes with three.

Against Los Angeles, though, the Loons debuted a new look — a single forward pressing high, backed up by a line of four midfielders, in a classic 5-4-1 defensive look.

The Galaxy lead MLS in every possession and passing stat, so for Ramsay, it was simply an effort to not leave any players on an island — especially against Riqui Puig, whose passing is the key to L.A.’s attack.

“It would be really naive to not expect that they are going to have a lot of the ball,” Ramsay said. “You are going to have to defend, you are going to really restrict the spaces that their front players have, and you’re going to have to make sure that you don’t leave players isolated [one-on-one] all that often.”

The Loons made it a point to chase Puig wherever he went, with whoever was nearest him. When he would drop deep to get on the ball, you would see a Loons defender go with him — even if that meant a center back was chasing him back into his own half of the field.

Unfortunately for Minnesota, there was no stopping L.A.’s All-Star; he ended the game with the second assist on both Galaxy goals.

Ramsay has made a point to be as even-keeled as possible this season, his first as a manager. But after more than a month of what he called “relentless disappointment” for the team, it seems as if it’s getting harder for everyone — including Ramsay.

“It feels like we can’t really get a break at the moment,” Ramsay said. “That’s tough for me, it’s tough for the staff to pick the players up because it’s one thing after another.”

Minnesota’s slide has taken the team from near the top of the league standings to all the way out of the Western Conference playoff picture in the span of just more than a month — and though the coach has said he doesn’t get caught up in the big picture, it’s clearly impossible not to think about it.

“We obviously have to alter what would have been our expectations relative to where we were a month ago. There is no getting around that,” Ramsay said. “It’s pointless putting that into the background and forgetting about it as a context because it has been very influential. … [The players] are aware of the context. They are looking forward to the point where we have some reinforcements in. But they are also grinding away day to day to try and put the situation right, here and now.”