How LAFC can return to MLS Cup contention

How’s that rollercoaster treating you, LAFC?

Ever since the end of August, it’s been a slew of ups and downs for a club that’s used to a lot more of the former than the latter.

Most recently, they topped Sporting Kansas City in the US Open Cup final. That’s an up! But, uh, just over a month ago, they flopped in the Leagues Cup final against the Columbus Crew, a far more legitimate final opponent to test their merit. In MLS regular season play, LAFC were thoroughly beaten in their own building the Houston Dynamo, lost El Tráfico in epic fashion, and are still without a win since the regular season returned after the Leagues Cup break.

It’s been a weird, bumpier-than-normal stretch for one of the most talented teams in MLS. Let’s not pretend like a one-off win over one of the worst teams in MLS on Wednesday evening changes that back. So, what gives?

Let’s dive into what’s been going wrong for LAFC – and how to fix them.

It’s extremely telling that when I started to outline this section, half a dozen moments that illustrate LAFC’s defensive issues immediately jumped to mind, and that’s before my brain even climbed back far enough to hit their 5-1 loss to the Crew at BMO in July.

Sure, teams have defensive issues. You don’t need to look any further than the LAFC’s cross-town rivals to be confident of that fact. But not every team in MLS builds their tactical approach around their defending like LAFC.

Since Steve Cherundolo took over for Bob Bradley on the sidelines ahead of the 2022 season, the former U.S. international has systematically transformed this team into one that prioritizes compact defending and transition attacking over more expansive possession. In four seasons under Bradley, LAFC averaged 53.4% possession. In three seasons under Cherundolo, they’re averaging 49.9%. When LAFC hop into the lead, they’re happy to play without the ball. They’ll press in some moments. They’ll sit deeper in others. But they’re content to give you possession, force you to make a mistake, and then hit quickly in transition.

The big issue with that tactical progression over the last couple of months is this: they’re making defensive mistakes, rather than forcing them from the opposing attack.

Enter three of the examples that I referenced above. The first features some incredible, Academy Award-esque pretend defense from Eduard Atuesta on the second phase of a Columbus corner kick in the Leagues Cup final. Can you really be a defense-first team when you give up free looks (and free goals) on set pieces?

Here’s the next example, this time featuring the Dynamo ripping LAFC’s lackadaisical, confused press into shreds:

And here’s the last one. I’ll let you read the tweet for yourself:

Over their last eight regular season games, LAFC have allowed more xG per match than all but eight teams, according to American Soccer Analysis. Losing your best center back — Jesús Murillo — to injury in August doesn’t help, but the defensive issues run deeper than just one absent body.

Solution: Drill scramble moments in training and emphasize the need for focus from individual players.

Defending set pieces. Dealing with a broken press. Tracking late-arriving runners in the box. Those aren’t macro tactical issues for LAFC as much as they're momentary lapses in focus. The more time Cherundolo spends drilling his players on those sorts of scramble moments, and the more accountability the players are willing to take, the better.

For every 100 touches of the ball that LAFC take, Olivier Giroud only gets three of them. There’s something wrong with that picture, isn’t there?

According to ASA, Giroud ranks just 37th among strikers with at least 300 regular season minutes in touch share. LAFC feed him less than Toronto FC feed Prince Owusu. LAFC feed him less than Austin FC feed Diego Rubio. LAFC feed him less than St. Louis feed Simon Becher. That, folks, looks like an issue to me.

Now, to be fair to LAFC, Giroud has never been a touch monster. Looking back at his final six seasons in Europe, the Frenchman never ranked above the 62nd percentile in his league — either the Premier League or Serie A — among strikers in touches per 90 minutes, according to FBref. As analyst Arman Kafai pointed out for Backheeled, Giroud was never going to compete with LAFC’s other attackers for long-range shots: only eight of his 77 shots came from outside the box last season, based on data from FotMob.

But now that he’s a bigger fish in a new pond, Giroud needs to be on the ball more. Because when he is, he does stuff like this:

His hold-up play is nearly flawless, to the point where it almost closed the gap between LAFC and the Crew in Leagues Cup. Giroud has to be on the ball more.

Solution: Feed Giroud more often!

Unlocking Giroud’s full impact in the attack won’t require a seismic tactical shift from Cherundolo. Sure, the World Cup winner would be an asset in a possession-focused team, given his soft touches, vision, and passing range. But LAFC can activate Giroud in their existing transition-heavy attacking setup, too. Being more purposeful with their first ball out of the back and inching their midfielders closer to Giroud to give him teammates to combine with would go a long way.

While there are clear, concrete on-field issues that LAFC need to address before they hit the postseason, it would be foolish not to acknowledge their brutal schedule in recent weeks.

Thanks to their runs to the Leagues Cup and US Open Cup finals, there’s been no shortage of soccer for LAFC since the start of August. They had three straight double-game weeks to close out last month and are in the midst of an identical set of three double-game weeks right now. They’ve played 12 games across all competitions since the beginning of August. The only other team to play that many games? The Columbus Crew, who have dropped a few points themselves in recent regular season games.

Schedule congestion is an excuse, there’s no doubt about that. But it’s a valid one. With rotation required to keep players fresh, less time in training relative to almost every other team in the league, the physical drain of frequent travel, and the mental drain of putting emotional energy into two finals, I’m not surprised LAFC’s performances have dipped.

Solution: Just wait.

Expect to see an uptick in form from LAFC during the last couple of weeks of the season when their schedule resumes normalcy. They can still rise up the Western Conference standings to snag second place ahead of the playoffs, they’ll have time to continue integrating Giroud, and they’ll finally get some precious rest before Decision Day arrives.

The issues above need some specific attention, but some general improvement is on the way once this team can catch its collective breath.