HARRISON, N.J. – The New York Red Bulls added another tactical wrinkle to their arsenal on Friday night, though this one did not work all that well.
The Red Bulls switched things up once again in their home game against Toronto FC, starting the match in a 4-1-3-2 formation instead of their more customary 4-2-3-1 setup or the 4-2-2-2 system they used at the beginning of the season.
Part of the idea behind the change was to get playmaker Sacha Kljestan more touches. The Red Bulls succeeded at doing that in stretches, but still were unable to create too much danger en route to a 1-1 draw at Red Bull Arena that left them winless in their last four games.
In fact, New York head coach Jesse Marsch dropped the 4-1-3-2 formation at halftime in favor of the tried-and-tested 4-2-3-1, despite holding a 1-0 lead thanks to a well-worked set piece. Marsch made the switch by removing forward Fredrik Gulbrandsen and inserting another central midfielder in Sean Davis.
“I took him off purely for a tactical adjustment, and he was playing fine,” said Marsch on Friday night. “But I just felt like it was important to make the shift we made.”
On potential factor in Marsch’s decision: how his players were affected by the warm weather. The Red Bulls sought to pressure Toronto high up the field from the start to force turnovers, but the hot and humid conditions took their toll and limited them from running as hard as they normally do.
“I just think today what kind of made it difficult was the heat,” said Bradley Wright-Phillips, who scored the Red Bulls’ goal with an acrobatic overhead kick in the 38th minute. “The way we planned to play was a bit more in their face. When we would go we wanted to go [and] really high press. I think today the heat made that very difficult.
“There were times in the game I couldn’t run, and Freddy felt the same. It was tough, but I like [the formation]. In cooler weather, I think the way we set up today, it could’ve been very good to see and we could’ve been very dangerous.”
The Red Bulls may not have been overly threatening, at least not until the end of the match when things became more end-to-end, but that does not mean that this experiment is a one-and-done.
As is the case with the 4-2-2-2 formation that New York used for much of the first two months of the campaign, the Red Bulls don’t rule out using the 4-1-3-2 system again at some point in the future.
“It’s good to have a few tactical adjustments as we head towards the end of the year,” said Kljestan. “In the playoffs, these things can be key. So far so good, but we’ve got to keep working at it.”
Added Marsch: “It can be something that’s good for us.”
