Attack! Attack! Attack?

The Fire open the 2021 season on Saturday when they host the New England Revolution at Soldier Field and one of the big questions heading into the season is the Fire’s attacking midfield. Specifically, who is going to play there? And is trading away your most creative attacking player a good plan? 

Based on his team leading 12 goals last season it seems likely that Robert Berić will again play through the middle as the lone striker but the three attackers behind him is less clear and finding the right combination of players in these positions will be key to the Fire’s success. 

Last season Fire coach Rafael Wicky opted for a 4-2-3-1 formation in almost every game. Álvaro Medrán and Gastón Giménez were very solid playing as the two deepest midfielders dictating the tempo and building attacks through the midfield. Which is evidenced by the fact that the pair led the Fire in progressive passes, which are passes that advance the ball at least 10 yards towards the opponents goal not counting passes played in the defensive 40% of the pitch. Medrán alone had 144 progressive passes and also led the team in completed passes into the attacking third of the pitch, per Fbref. 

Who needs assists anyway?

The club’s biggest move this offseason was offloading Djordje Mihailovic to the Montreal Impact for $1 million in General Allocation Money (GAM). Now, I’ve never been the biggest fan of Mihailovic, I always felt like he had a tendency to disappear in games, but he was a key player for getting the team into goal scoring positions. He led the team with seven assists, ranked second in passes into the penalty area, and first in shot creating actions per 90, again per fbref. Which means that Mihailovic was the player charged with getting the ball from Medran and Gimenez and delivering it to Beric or the other attackers in good goal scoring positions, and now he’s playing in Montreal. Whether the Fire regret that move will depend on the players tasked with replacing his offensive production.

Who are the most likely starters?

The right sided attacker is likely to be Przemyslaw Frankowski, who despite having a disappointing season overall was the most frequent starter in that position and I expect Wicky to stick with him at least at the beginning of the season. On the other side of the pitch I expect to see Ignacio Aliseda given the chance to improve from his disappointing first season with the Fire. The 21 year-old was only able to produce one goal and two assists in 16 starts last season. But in theory Frankowski, and Aliseda are players who complement Berić pretty well because they are able to dribble at opponents back lines, as well as, make runs beyond to stretch the opposing defense and create spaces in the box for Beric to move into and provide the finish.

So with Frankowski and Aliseda as the wide attackers that leaves the number 10 position and probably the player Fire fans are most excited to see in 2021, Luka Stojanović. Injured in his first game with the club, Stojanović is back healthy and the Fire will need him to make a significant contribution to the attack. In his last two seasons in Belgium he recorded 11 and 9 goals respectively. The Fire could definitely use a double digit goal season from a midfielder to take some of the pressure off of Berić, but again he played 60 minutes last season before suffering a knee injury, so we will have to see how he adapts to his first full season in MLS.

The other options Wicky has at his disposal are Fabian Herbers, who is a solid player but not a game changer, new signing Stanislav Ivanov, who is out injured for the next several months and 17 year-old homegrown player Brian Gutierrez. To sum up, Wicky has some interesting options in attacking midfield but every player has some question marks hanging over them and the 2021 Chicago Fire’s season could well depend on how those questions are answered.