Robin Lod heads to MLS All-Star Game building off success in Minnesota United midfield

LOONS | ANALYSIS

Minnesota United is focusing on its first Leagues Cup game in Seattle on Friday night, but Robin Lod has a stop to make on the way — at Wednesday’s MLS All-Star Game in Columbus, Ohio.

Not that the Finnish midfielder would ever display an excess of enthusiasm about anything, but he did allow he is excited about one thing: being in a team with former Barcelona (and current Inter Miami) stars Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets.

“Those guys were part of one of the most dominant teams in the football world,” he said, sounding for a moment like less of an All-Star and more of a fan.

Lod was picked for the MLS team this season based on his performances in the Loons midfield, and so it’s appropriate that, against San Jose on Saturday night, Minnesota simply didn’t look right until Lod switched from forward to midfield.

It makes sense: let your All-Stars go where they performed like All-Stars.

“We obviously want Robin close to the front, where he’s very good and one of the best creative players in our division,” coach Eric Ramsay said. “But I think [moving him to the midfield] gives you more continuity on the ball. He gives you more precision, clean ways of getting out from the back, that maybe we lack if he’s not there. I think it was an important change. It certainly gave us a foothold.”

Minnesota’s best run of the season came when Lod was paired with defensive midfielder Wil Trapp in the center of the field. Trapp has been injured, and Lod has moved all over the field in the hopes of plugging other holes in the lineup. If the Loons can get the pair back together, whether during the Leagues Cup or when the MLS schedule resumes, it may end up being the best thing for the offense as a whole.

Earlier in the season, Kervin Arriaga not only found a new lease on life as a converted center back in the back five, he also served another key role in the offense: the target for Dayne St. Clair’s goal kicks.

When the Loons had an opportunity to have the keeper go long, Arriaga would take up a position near the halfway line, giving St. Clair a target. He didn’t always win the ball, but the team’s goal was to have players around him, to win the ball after the initial header — and potentially spring an attack.

Without Arriaga, though, the Loons are still searching for someone to take over as the aiming point. Saturday, those goal kicks were aimed at Tani Oluwaseyi. The forward might make a decent target — but if he’s trying to win the initial header, he’s unavailable to win the second ball, or be making a run in behind the defense.

“That is certainly something that we’ve suffered around over the course of the last month, for [the want of that] profile of a player, to an extent,” Ramsay said. “That will be a big work in progress, and it will be a work in progress in my time here.”

It’s all part of what Ramsay sees as an evolution — developing his squad to be a team that can attack in multiple ways, not just one. “We want to evolve to be a team that can find a nice balance between a couple of ways of playing at our best. And I know we can do that well, but we’ve really struggled over the course of the month, for obvious reasons.”

Loons forward Samuel Shashoua made his MLS debut in the second half, coming on with 13 minutes to go. Shashoua, who played the past four seasons in Spain’s second division, had to wait for weeks after signing to finally make his debut once the league’s transfer window officially opened.

“He’s been training well the past five weeks, so he was really eager to be on the field,” Lod said. “He’s a player who can keep the ball, so he brings a little bit different skill set to the team, and I was happy to see him.”

Ramsay echoed what Lod said, noting the forward’s composure and ball skills. In some ways, Shashoua is part of the Loons’ possession group, along with Teemu Pukki and Franco Fragapane — in contrast to their speed group, which includes Oluwaseyi, Sang Bin Jeong and Bongokuhle Hlongwane.

“We’ve got almost either/or across the front players at the moment — we’ve got real athleticism, or we’ve got players who are much more comfortable playing between the lines and playing in the pocket, playing short combinations with the sixes [defensive midfielders] and the other ten [attacking midfielder] and the wing back on that side,” Ramsay said. “I think we’ve got to try and find a nice balance between being able to handle the ball and not turning over the ball so cheaply, but also still being able to attack directly and using the pace that we have at the top end of the pitch.”

Minnesota’s ultimate hope, for Shashoua or for any of their attackers, is simple: finding and developing players who can do both, instead of being “either/or.”