Chicago Fire Review: The Waiting Game

Just wait until Federico Navarro is back healthy. I said in March. Just wait until May 1 when Xherdan Shaqiri can combine with Jairo Torres. Just wait until Torres, Chris Mueller, and Shaqiri are all on the field together… Just wait. The life of a sports fan is 99% waiting for the next thing and every time we convince ourselves that the next moment will come, and it will be worth waiting for.

The wait might finally be over tomorrow when the Fire travel to New York to take on the Red Bulls, and according to fivethirtyeight there’s a 15% chance that the Fire will get all three points. (So there’s a chance!)

On Saturday against FC Cincinnati the Fire gave away three points, with an own goal and a mistake from Gaga Slonina, but actually played their most controlled game since the 3-1 win over Sporting KC back in March. That was the last game that the Fire had more than 50% possession. (Stats are from fbref unless otherwise noted)

Xherdan Shaqiri (Have you heard that he makes a lot of money?)

Shaqiri is the straw that stirs the drink. The question is: Is the problem that the drink has been empty for most of the season, or is he one of those eco-friendly paper straws that get soggy, fall apart after a few minutes, and leave little bits of paper in your mouth every time you take a sip?

It’s pretty clear the offensive instruction has been to get the ball to Shaqiri, and let him create, and the Fire tried really hard to follow instructions on Saturday. He got more touches (78) than in any previous game this season, but with mixed results.

Here’s a nice offensive sequence, that Tony Meola highlighted on the broadcast, credit where credit is due. That shows the good and the bad for Shaqiri this season.

Omsberg plays the ball wide to Sekulic who has two options down the line in Chinoso Offor and Fabian Herbers. He chooses to play the ball to Offor who generally did a nice job holding up play in the game.

Offor controls the pass and lays it off for Herbers, who’s first touch isn’t great and it slows his momentum forcing him to cut inside. The FC Cincinnati center midfielder has to go close down the ball, and leaves Shaqiri all alone on the edge of the center circle. 

Herbers finds Shaqiri who has time to take a look before receiving the ball. Cincinnati has five players effectively marking three Fire players and Mueller and Bornstein are able to make runs at the left sided center back. Unfortunately, Shaqiri goes for the high risk, high reward pass over the top to Mueller but underhits it and allows the center backs to intercept. 

He probably should have played it to Bornstein who was running free down the left, because Mueller attracted both center backs with his run down the middle. Although if he actually completes the pass to Mueller then they have a great opportunity to score a goal. It’s his ability to make those passes that the Fire are paying so much money for, it just hasn’t happened yet.

In the first 5 games he was among the league leaders in Key Passes (passes that lead directly to a shot), and in the last game he had more key passes (8) than any other player in MLS this week. So let’s hold off on panicking about Shaqiri until we get the Muller Torres cocktail.

New Players, Same Tactics

It’s obvious that both Torres, and Mueller are upgrades on the wings. But how much and what that means for the offense obviously remains unknown. Especially because we still haven’t seen both of them on the field at the same time.

It was notable that even with Torres on the bench against Cincy, Ezra still chose to use Mueller on the left wing as opposed to the right, where he was used more for Orlando, and Herbers was played on the right even though he’s mostly been on the left this season. To me that’s in preparation for Torres who will replace Herbers on the right side of the midfield. 

The blueprint is there, suck in the defense find Shaqiri and hit the winger running into space on the other side (see the Shaqiri example above). Or if they can’t play the switch then play combinations down the touchline and get a good cross into the box.

I think it’s interesting that the Fire have attacked down the wings so much this season despite it being the weakest position on the team. It’s almost as if Ezra figured this is how he would want to play once Torres (and now Mueller) arrived and he didn’t want to shift tactics mid-season. It’s also what the other teams want them to do because, you know, they weren’t very effective at actually scoring goals…so probably some combination of both factors.

Even with just one of Mueller and Torres on the field the offense was noticeably better. The Fire took 18 shots, which is the highest shot total for the season, and they had a higher xg than the opposition for the first time since the 0-0 against FC Dallas way back at the beginning of April. 

The pessimistic view is that the Fire don’t seem to have much of a Plan B on offense. If they can’t create a good crossing opportunity down one sideline they basically run out of ideas in the final third, and attacks end with a poor turnover in the middle of the field or a wild attempt on goal. Instead of recycling possession and probing the defense further, they let teams off the hook defensively far too easily. 

The fact that Gaston Giménez had 6 shots, four from outside the box, against Cincinnati, is proof that the Fire panic and settle in the final third. Can Torres and Mueller fix that problem? Or is it a team and coaching issue? I’m not sure, but time is running out because even though it’s a long season, dropped points are dropped points. Hopefully tonight will give us our first look at the Fire’s brand new attack for 2022. Time to see if the wait was worth it…