Yoann Damet and a hint of progress. | St. Louis CITY SC Notebook.

We’re in the (preseason) endgame now. 

St. Louis CITY SC has descended on the Empire Polo Club for another edition of the Coachella Valley Invitational. 

Some questions around the roster still linger after CITY SC dealt João Klauss to Los Angeles last week, but – for now – St. Louis is charging into the season under a new manager and a different mindset of how to play soccer. 

“We spoke about preseason as a progression,” Damet said, backdropped by gorgeous weather and palm trees. “It all starts with the mindset, and I thought the mindset was really good. Then there was a lot of adaptation to [the press], a lot of nuances that the players have taken on the ball over the past couple of weeks, so it’s been great, but every day is an opportunity for us to react to something new.”

A big talking point throughout this preseason has been the return of the three CB formation. 

CITY SC kicked off last season under Olof Mellberg in a back five, three CBs, and two wingbacks who were expected to keep a back five defensively. That formation was largely abandoned when David Critchley took the reins and reverted to the 4-2-3-1 that had become a staple of the club’s approach through its first two seasons. 

Now in year four, Yoann Damet is bringing a different philosophy to a similar formation that bore a startling lack of attacking fruit a year prior.

For starters, Damet comes from a managerial approach of proactivity vs reactivity. Damet’s back three – which will utilize the newly acquired CDM Dante Polvara along the backline – is built to spread out the attacking load among the base of the formation. A quarterback in the middle, flanked by two dynamic ball playing CBs, and wingbacks who push up as wingers, while the middle of the pitch builds exploitable overloads. 

Preseason Looks.

The seeds of that idea were evident in the club’s Coachella Valley Invitational match on Saturday. 

Jaziel Orozco and Dante Polvara flanked Timo Baumgartl to fill out the back three, with Fallou Fall (not back to full training) and Mamadou Mbacke (not yet arrived on his work visa) still unavailable. The trio managed well against an Austin side that only provided a few tests on the counter. 

In possession, CITY SC prodded forward out of the back line with Santos pushing into the left wing and Totland into the right. Edelman and Durkin did well to clog up the middle – and a look that has a little more bite with Edu Löwen available – and connect into Hartel, who then looked to send balls forward into the wings or create space for Sangbin to connect into Simon Becher. 

While the philosophy on the ball might feel foreign – hard to remember a time when St. Louis controlled the possession battle with the ball – the counterpress was expectedly frantic.

The front line pushed and hurried Austin’s methodical slow build up. They attempted to disrupt any pass out of the back through the middle of the pitch, setting up Simon Becher’s lone goal when Daniel Edelman hurried and won the ball before flicking onto Becher five yards out. 

They won’t all be that easy, but it was a proof of concept for how this St. Louis CITY SC can be a ball dominant squad without losing their pressing identity. 

“For the team, we’ve been talking about having a good feeling,” Simon Becher reflected on the preseason preparation so far. “We’re starting to grow and starting to see the translation of the work that we’ve put in, for the whole group, winning, seeing it out on the field, it just helps with our confidence.”

The interesting wrinkle to the standard 3-4-2-1 was the flexibility on both sides of the ball.

Against the ball – especially after subs changed the dynamic – the shell could be a 5-3-2 or a 4-4-2, or a 4-2-2-2 as players man marked through certain areas of the pitch. On the ball, the 3-4-2-1 shell was relatively standard, but the interchange came as the wingbacks and attacking midfielders swapped to receive the ball out wide or defend in certain zones of the pitch.

It was most noticeable in the play of Conrad Wallem and Mykhi Joyner. Wallem was the wingback for the majority of the second half, but there were times when Joyner would drift wide to receive the ball while Wallem was the one pushing underneath McSorely. 

Things will begin to crystalize during Wednesday’s CVI match vs João Klauss’s LA Galaxy, but the depth chart – or at least some preferred partnerships – is starting to come into view.

The Galaxy will be a better test of a defensive structure that had a few shaky moments in transition.

What will the opening day XI look like?

I’ve made a few assumptions here: 1) The roster won’t see any additions until summer, and 2) Fallou Fall won’t be available opening day, but Mbacke will be ready – that could change.

With that in mind, here is what that should look like:

There seems to be competition in a few key spots, but the chemistry between Hartel and Raphael Santos was enough to push him into the starting XI over Célio, Totland, and any other wide option on the left. Sangbin started this preseason match with next to him in the static formation while jumping high next to Becher, pressing in the attacking third. That could change if Damet prefers the relationship between Wallem and Joyner, instead. 

It’ll be fluid. There’s enough competition at most positions that any combination of names wouldn’t be too much of a surprise without knowing the lineup for Wednesday’s friendly. 

As mentioned in last week’s notebook, Corey Wray seems ready to let Becher and McSorely – with Teuchert most likely used underneath – prove themselves up top, but barring better consistency from the pair of attackers, it seems like a must add this summer with the squad’s open U22/DP spot (depending on if they stick with 2/4 or switch to 3/3 in the summer). There is GAM to spend, but the club will be wary of crowding out space for young players to break through like the trap it's found itself in over the last two seasons. Miggy Perez seems ready in the midfield mix – looking the part in the 2nd half of Saturday’s friendly as he came on as the deepest midfielder down the middle. 

The whole gamble with this early roster build relies on Damet’s ability to develop a younger roster into MLS contributors. The average age of the 14 players used in last year’s opener was 27.9 years old, the average age of the first 14 players in Saturday’s friendly was 26.1 years old – there’s room for growth in a younger lineup… but there’s still a clear need for the summer window. 

Is There A Right Way To Build A Front Office?

As CITY SC takes a slower approach to completely rebuilding the roster, the front office overhaul has been anything but slow. 

When Wray took the reins, he noted the front office wasn’t where it needed to be as a complete MLS sporting structure. Then, when John Hackworth left the FO to return to the touchline at Navy, it afforded Wray a cleaner slate to build out a more robust sporting department. 

Since then, CITY SC has added key positions.  St. Louis native Colin Rooney was hired as Director of Scouting, former DC United Sporting Director and Nashville SC Assistant Sporting Director Ally Mackay to reprise the ASD role under Corey Wray, and Kellianne Venit Griffis as Director of Sporting and Team Operations, formerly filling a similar role in Columbus. 

It’s a Front Office that has rebuilt itself over the past few months, ideally into a sporting arm that has more eyes evaluating talent, and more bodies wading into the talent pool. 

The season will be here before you know it, thanks for reading.