Short on time, the Kansas City Current still desire to make this tactical change

The Kansas City Current’s season remains up in the air. The factor that could ultimately decide their fate: the gap between how the Current desire to play and how it translates to the pitch.

The Current’s slow start to the season seemed to be turning around before they lost five straight games in all competitions. In the middle of that downturn, the struggle between desired play and desired results yielded no wins on the field.

Now, going into Sunday’s match against the Washington Spirit, the Current (3-0-8) sit in last place in the NWSL, eight points adrift of a playoff spot at the halfway point.

The Current’s tactical journey in 2023 has been a roller coaster. At the start of the season, they gave a 4-3-3 a chance before switching to a back three (or five, depending on how you look at it), which had been more successful for them in 2022.

Having switched back and forth before the firing of head coach Matt Potter — and continuing to do so after — it has led to questions about what the direction is on the field.

It’s a battle of tactical principles that interim head coach Caroline Sjöblom faces as she tries to implement her thumbprint, her signature on this team, while recognizing the need for results will soon outweigh the time they have to adopt something new.

Her preference would be to work with a back four and to be more possession-oriented.

“If I could restart and have a preseason with the team, it would have been much easier to change the style of play to the way that I want to play,” Sjöblom said a few weeks back, “and the philosophy I have in how I would like to play soccer.”

But time is not on the Current’s side, and that’s something Sjöblom has started to come to grips with for a number of reasons. One of them is the injury situation the club faces; with a back four, there is more space to cover and less help.

Sjöblom stated her belief that the Current would be able to meet that ideal style of play, especially when they get everyone at their disposal again, which includes players such as Alex Loera, Hanna Glas, Desiree Scott and Lo LaBonta, plus the space for summer-window signings.

“When all of those are back on the pitch, it’s gonna be easier to speed up the journey to be an even more possession-(based) team,” Sjöblom said. “And formation-wise, it’s gonna be easier to do smaller changes.”

But again, time isn’t exactly on their side. So they returned to the back five, and the winning result returned against North Carolina. It wasn’t pretty. It was pragmatic. But it got the job done.

When asked whether the formation would change based on the opponent or on the Current’s available arsenal of players at that particular moment, Sjöblom admitted that it was going to be based on the strength they have at any given point.

“I want us to have a really strong style of play that teams look at us like they need to adjust, they need to change,” Sjöblom said on Friday. “I think this is where the club needs to go so we are not always looking at what the opponents are doing.”

The Current’s result against the Chicago Red Stars on Wednesday, especially during the second half, looked and felt cathartic. Just ask Debinha, whose celebratory shout after the first goal went viral.

She told reporters on Friday that the feeling after scoring that goal was letting out some of the frustrations of the past few weeks.

“I think the moment, it was coming for us,” Debinha said. “It was important to win. I think we just need to keep our standard high.”

The result was needed for momentum but maybe more so for the tactical direction and continued buy-in to what Sjöblom wants the team to become. The Current played with a back four in the win, in part due to the returns of Elizabeth Ball on the back line and Morgan Gautrat to the midfield.

“When we get more depth in the squad, it’s gonna be easier,” Sjöblom.

So long as they have enough time.

This story was originally published June 17, 2023 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Short on time, the Kansas City Current still desire to make this tactical change."