Imagining Life Without Emanuel Reynoso

Ready or not, the Loons open the season down in Dallas in a little over a month. 

They have a lot of work ahead of them between now and then: They need to drop a new kit, add at least one starting-caliber player, get several new players familiar with Adrian Heath’s system and their teammates, and most important of all, figure out whether Emanuel Reynoso and Kemar Lawrence will be available. 

The Loons likely have a better sense of Lawrence’s availability than they’re currently sharing, but without knowing if or when he and Reynoso will be back, it’s time to think about what the Loons would do without them. This isn’t a prediction that they’re both going to miss the whole season, just a thought experiment to imagine life if they did.

Adrian Heath was devoted to the 4-2-3-1 even before Reynoso came in, but since the talismanic attacker joined, he has seldom tried anything else — and not without reason. The formation showcases Reynoso’s field control and dynamism; it makes all the sense in the world to pick a formation that allows your best player to make the biggest possible impact on the game. 

But if he’s not available, the Loons really don’t have another player they need — or even want — to have that level of prominence. What they DO have is a glut of players at about the same level as one another, which opens two key questions: 

1. Who are the Loons’ must-play players?
2. How do you accommodate them all best?

The top two non-Reynoso players seem obvious to me: Robin Lod and Dayne St. Clair. After that, the waters get a lot murkier. Below is my list, but I’d be really interested to see here in the comments or on Twitter who would be on yours. 

1. Robin Lod
2. Dayne St. Clair
3. Bongokuhle Hlongwane
4. Mender Garcia
5. Hasani Dotson
6. Kervin Arriaga
7. Wil Trapp
8. DJ Taylor
9. Bakaye Dibassy
10. Alan Benitez
11. Michael Boxall

What I learned from this is that in this case I prize the ability to single-handedly positively change a game far more than consistent performances; your mileage may vary.

I thought long and hard about putting Hasani Dotson in the third spot, but I want to see how he comes back from injury before I put him in there. The trio of last year’s arrivals — Hlongwane, Garcia, and Arriaga — could finish the season in any order without surprising me too much, but I’m most bullish on Hlongwane. As I’ve mentioned on The Daves I Know during a few guest spots, I really like what I saw from Benitez despite him being wildly miscast, but I know that’s not a majority opinion.

It’s possible to get all of these players into one formation, but as we learned last year, Benitez is decidedly a wingback and not a fullback, so anything with a back four is out. I’d try something like this and work on the principle that winning 4-3 is just as good as winning 2-1. 

While that gets the Loons’ most dynamic players onto the pitch at the same time, it’s definitely not their best lineup. I rate DSC’s shot-stopping ability quite highly, but throwing him down range in a shooting gallery like this is asking a bit much. And as high as I am on Hlongwane and Garcia taking a big step forward this season, this formation would put an incredible amount of pressure on the two of them to be efficient with their chances. This team loses a LOT of 3-1 or 4-2 games — but would be must-see TV for neutrals, so that’s… something.

Let’s take a look at some more realistic options.

4-4-2

This solves the biggest issue with the 3-5-2 (or 3-2-3-2 if you’d rather) in that it’s much more defensively stable but it does illustrate a key point: If Lawrence misses much time for the Loons this season, they’re in bad shape. D.J. Taylor performed well enough when he played on the left last year and new signing Zarek Valenin slots in just fine on the right, but if Taylor gets hurt or suspended, the options get far less proven.

Ryen Jiba and Carlos Letherman are two great young options, but with either of them starting, teams are going to attack down that flank until the Loons prove they can stop them — especially in the early season when Dibassy won’t be back either. 

I think this team can produce enough going forward to be ok, but the creative weight falls on Dotson, who will need some time to shake off the rust that comes with not having been at game speed in almost a year. 

There’s nothing wrong with this formation, but it feels like it lacks anything unexpected. With Lod and Fragapane a little further back, Hlongwane and Garcia would need to work well together to split opposing centerbacks or they wouldn’t have enough space through the middle to operate. This team doesn’t get blown out much, but they also struggle to unlock good defenses; better options are out there. 

W-M

Like so many of us in high school, It’s not the sexiest or most popular formation, in fact it’s a little weird, but given the constraints at hand, it could be a lot of fun. I mean, just look at this: almost every Loons attacker starts on the field. The back is nice and compact, maybe a little vulnerable on the left wing, but Trapp is a pretty good rotator defensively. He and Arriaga are close to ideal in that midfield pairing, though any combination of those two, Dotson, and Joseph Rosales could work depending on what the team needed.

If the Loons could use this formation in combination with a high-pressing mentality, they could absolutely lay waste to all but the most disciplined attacking teams, but I don’t think they have the engine for it. Even with a less intense defensive mindset, as long as they rotate and track back, they shouldn’t be any more vulnerable than they would be in any attacking formation and the soccer would be extremely watchable. 

In the scenario where Reynoso is unavailable for an extended period of time — for any reason — the Loons aren’t going to be good. With the W-M set up, they might just be unexpected and dynamic enough to steal points and be a lot of fun as they’re doing it. 

5-3-2

A 5-3-2 should be the most defensive option out there, but looking at this…I’m not hating it? It asks a lot of Trapp, who isn’t quite as capable of doing box-to-box sprints for 90 min as he was earlier in his career, but Rosales is a very capable end-of-game replacement. In case of a longer term injury, Dotson could slide over with Taylor filling in for him. 

I couldn’t bring myself to take out Lod, the player I’ve already called the team’s most important, but I do wonder if he’s the right fit here. Luis Amarila didn’t show much of anything last year and I can’t find an easy way to use him without Reynoso providing balls up to him, but as a back-to-goal forward pushing balls out to the wings, I think he might be more of a natural fit than Lod. The flip side is that if Hlongwane and Garcia are spraying shots in from the wings, having a player that hunts rebounds as relentlessly as Lod does is a huge asset. 

As in the W-M above, Hlongwane over Fragapane on the left is really only viable if he’s comfortable over there. I’d love to be able to slot both he and Garcia in there to harry both side of opposing defenses, but if doesn’t work, I’d start him over Garcia on the right and then bring Mender in to run at tired legs in the second half.

Takeaways

• The W-M formation was initially something of a joke, but the more I look at it, the more I like it. In fact, I think that’s my final answer to what the Loons should do without Reynoso. It keeps teams from keying in on one attacker as they do when he is there and forces them to defend both wings. If Dotson comes back anywhere near 100%, he and Lod could wreak havoc in the space vacated by the centerbacks as Amarilla pulls them up field. “Bangers Only and poach the rebounds” is a more coherent offensive philosophy than the Loons have had to date and it’s a viable one given their personnel.

• I like both the 5-3-2 and W-M formations way more than I thought I would, but they both illustrate how thin the Loons are defensively on the left side. Having Brent Kallman in either of them in place of Dibassy instantly makes them weaker since one of Kallman’s weaknesses is knowing when to step up and when to sit deeper when facing an attack on his side. 

• There is ample opportunity for someone like Dotson to step up as the team’s secondary creator behind Reynoso no matter the formation. There’s a lot of talent on this team that has settled into passenger roles and that both makes imagining life without Reynoso challenging and keeps the team from being as effective as they could be even with him in the lineup. 

• The Loons have added a lot of youth over the last three windows, which I am hopeful is a sign that the 2024 season will bring a much more balanced roster than they currently have. The fact that no one here is playing out of position is a big problem when the left is tissue-paper thin. You’d think Matthew McConaughey owned this team instead of Austin FC because they are all right, all right, all right. 

The season starts in about a month and this team has a lot of work to do. Let’s hope the deals — contracts or plea bargains, either way — start rolling in soon.