When taking a cursory glance at the NWSL table, what immediately catches the eye is that Kansas City Current is sitting atop the standings at this moment in time. With three wins and one draw attained under new head coach Vlatko Andonovski, the team is seemingly in a strong position to compete for the 2024 league title.
However, whilst their form has been impressive to date, and they are the only team to be in double figures for goals scored, having found the net on 12 occasions so far, what it masks is that they have been one of the worst-performing teams when it comes to the defensive side of things. They have yet to keep a clean sheet and have conceded eight goals (the second-worst defensive record in the division at the time of writing).
If they want to be genuine title contenders, they will have to improve on this as the campaign goes on. This tactical analysis will examine their setup and tactics more closely to indicate where they can tighten up and make themselves much tougher to score against.
Team structure
What is important to note at this stage of the analysis is that it is not all negative when it comes to Kansas City Current’s defensive play, and there are distinct positives that can be drawn from what they have been doing so far.
These have largely come from the structural flexibility that they have played with in their four outings so far, with Andonovski working hard to implement a clear shape on his return to the club game in a bid to help his new charges to play with confidence whenever they step out onto the field.
This starts from the back for the Missouri-based side, with Andonovski utilising a back four in his games so far and ensuring that the instructions given to those players are kept as simple as possible. In brief, they have tended to revolve around working in an organised and coordinated manner and always looking to win first balls wherever they can.
However, it is not simply about the first phase of each attack because what has also been clear is that Kansas City has also focused on preventing any follow-up shots from breaking through them. In this case, San Diego Wave forward Makenzy Doniak sent in the ball, which was initially cleared by left-back Izzy Rodriguez. She then kept her focus to neutralise the next attempt on goal, keeping Casey Stoney’s side at bay.
With this not being the first time that Kansas City have repelled multiple attacks in this manner, it is clearly something they have worked on during pre-season and between matches, and it is paying off on the whole.
Whilst the defensive line has not altered its shape from game to game, the structure of those in front of them has been a lot more flexible, with Andonovski switching between formations and experimenting a little as he searches for the best combinations around the pitch. During the opening match of the season against Portland Thorns, that saw Kansas City deploy a three-player midfield unit, before he altered it to a double-pivot for the next three games.
There are a number of reasons why he perhaps preferred a three-player line against the Thorns. First, it was another part of his system while with the national team, and second, it gave the Current a better chance of limiting Portland’s midfield threat, given that that is what they rely so heavily on whenever they have the ball.
That was no different in this match, with Mike Norris’ side looking to make full use of former Canada captain Christine Sinclair, among others, when in transition. However, she was never allowed to enjoy the same time and space as she normally does due to Kansas City getting numbers around her and others, and it proved to be a really effective tactic, and one that largely kept Portland contained.
Where it perhaps lacked effectiveness is when Sinclair’s former Canada teammate Janine Beckie was introduced from the bench, with the former Manchester City Women forward tending to both drift infield to receive balls like the one here from Marie Müller before then dropping back out towards the wing. That and her ability to both create and to run in behind made her a different type of player for Kansas City to deal with, and one that they didn’t have as much success limiting the influence of.
For that reason, Andonovski perhaps switched things up afterward, with Kansas City setting up in a 4-2-3-1 shape in their next three games, as mentioned.
The reason for that change is likely down to it enabling the wide attackers greater freedom to drop back whenever possession has been lost, meaning that they resemble more of a 4-4-2, just as is happening here with Temwa Chawinga (the younger sister of PSG Féminine and fellow Malawi forward Tabitha) and Alexa Spaanstra gravitating back towards Claire Hutton and Bayley Feist in the midfield.
In theory, this gives teams a better balance around the field and a greater chance of increasing the distance between the ball and their goal, with them having two lines stretched out across the pitch. However, as is seen here, this is where Kansas City have often fallen down, with former Liverpool Women forward Katie Stengel receiving a pass from Tierna Davidson between the lines here for NJ/NY Gotham.
She was not the only player to access these spaces in their encounter, with Spain striker Esther González also getting on the ball in these spaces. Therefore, whilst there are some pleasing early signs structurally from Kansas City, there is also still a lot that they can work on and some things that need to be ironed out if they are to match their exciting attacking play with solidity at the back.
Tactics
Where Kansas City Current really need to focus their efforts is when it comes to their overall in-game tactics, because that is where they have often been left wanting and have portrayed a slightly confused approach that has not aided their cause to be as secure as possible whenever they have been out of possession.
This can be seen predominantly at the top of the field, with them setting up here as many would expect them to, in that San Diego have possession and Kansas City have numbers up the field, but what is clear is that they are not looking to win the ball here.
Instead, their aim is simply to track those ahead of them. Both Chawinga and Lo’eau LaBonta hold their positions before making diagonal runs backwards once the ball is passed towards Abby Dahlkemper. Brazil forward Bia Zaneratto then holds her position before making a small movement towards the USA defender, but not so as to prevent the ball from being sent up the field.
This desire to not press the ball and to, in effect, allow their opponents to move the ball around at their own leisure is one of the main reasons that Kansas City have only averaged 41.41% possession per game so far. When considering the points made so far in this scout report about them leaving space open and still being a work in progress as far as the finer details of their structure are concerned, it might be imagined that this would be where they look to prevent the ball from travelling into these problematic areas, and perhaps it should be something that Andonovski considers moving forwards.
One reason that he perhaps doesn’t want to is because he knows that it risks taking players out of the game, which could then leave them too open between the lines. As a result, he appears to be willing to let opposing sides have possession and allow his backline to deal with anything that comes their way, trusting in their abilities to win the ball and set up in an organised manner.
Whilst relying on them in this way always carries an inherent amount of risk, it has already been established that Kansas City have a backline capable of dealing with most things that come their way. In this case, they have managed to recover from a loose pass made by centre-back Elizabeth Ball, which was then intercepted by San Diego’s Sweden forward Sofia Jakobsson, who then passed to midfielder Savannah McCaskill on the nearside wing.
However, the key point to make here is not necessarily that the Current have recovered well to slow the attack down, but that Ball is the one who has got out to the ball here. This was because right-back Ellie Wheeler had moved up the field in her usual manner to offer a passing option for Ball to look for, and so she was not initially in a position to help out here. As a result, Ball had to fill in whilst Wheeler made her way back, with the latter getting tight to Jakobsson here to offer the secondary defensive cover inside her teammate instead.
As this graphic indicates, this form of positional rotation has been a common feature of Kansas City’s performances, with Wheeler constantly making runs up the wing to support the attacking side of the game and Ball, therefore needing to come across to cover her teammate’s area of the back line as well as her own.
She has shown a strong tendency to deal with threats in different areas of the field, which is why Kansas City has been able to rely on her so much and is why she has arguably been their most vital player so far. There is no doubt that she will continue to be hugely important to their play moving forward, too, as they look to be more secure without the ball and, therefore, get closer to becoming the complete package on the field.
Mistakes
It has not only been due to tactical reasons that Kansas City Current has looked susceptible to opposing attacks, though, with individual mistakes also being to blame for some of the goals and chances that have been created against them. Therefore, if they are to ensure that they start to play in a more robust manner whenever they are without the ball, then they will need to cut out these errors and to ensure that they don’t make it too easy for their opponents to break them down.
The good news is that they are easy things to fix. This situation shows Angel City looking to deliver the ball into the middle from a similar position as San Diego did earlier in the scout report, and Scotland winger Claire Emslie does just that after being given enough room by Wheeler to take the ball around her.
However, the difference here is that those players in the middle have not retained their focus and have instead allowed Sydney Leroux the time and space to run between Gabrielle Robinson and Rodriguez to head the ball into the back of the net here, with Robinson already looking at the Angel City player before then turning her back on her. It was a goal that could have been prevented, but in the end, it was one that led to Becki Tweed’s side regaining some hope of getting themselves back into the match.
The other thing that Kansas City will need to look at is how it defends against attacks that come down its left-hand side. There have been times when it has not covered that wing well enough and has made it too easy for its opponents to exploit the gaps that have become apparent.
In this case, the space was created by Hailie Mace moving to close former Chelsea Women midfielder Jessie Fleming down, preventing the Canada international from taking the ball any further up the field. However, Portland managed to recycle the ball and have another go at breaking through their opponents through Sam Coffey finding Beckie. As a result, Mace was removed from the game, and Beckie was able to run through and set up a shot on goal for Morgan Weaver on the far side of the goal area.
Whilst the chance came to nothing, it did show a weakness in the Current’s ranks. What needed to happen here is that Spaanstra, as the left winger, needed to tuck in to cover for Mace. However, she instead held her position and didn’t seem to recognise the threat from Beckie until it was too late. Even then, she only closed the Canadian down to an extent and never made an attempt to prevent the cross from coming about.
This is not necessarily a criticism of Spaanstra because defending is not something that she has done a lot of in either her college or her professional career so far, with her being an attacker by trade, and this graphic shows how few contributions she has made in those deeper areas of the pitch.
However, with Andonovski favouring a system that seemingly relies on the wingers supporting those behind them whenever they do lose control of the ball, it is clear that Spaanstra will need to improve this side of her game if she is to retain her place in the side. The contrast between her and Chawinga is clear to see in many ways, with the Malawi forward looking more comfortable in making dominant tackles in these areas, and Kansas City will need to ensure that that is mirrored on the other side of the field, too, if they are to be as secure as possible.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this tactical analysis has taken a closer look at Kansas City Current and the issues that have been present in their defensive play, highlighting where they have had some difficulty in keeping cleans sheets and how they can address those problems.
Whilst it might seem like this analysis is picking holes in a Kansas City side who have been very impressive on the whole, with plenty to like about them moving up the pitch, and it clear that they have a good idea of what they want to do as soon as the ball has been lost, the simple fact is that they have conceded eight goals and that continuing the way that they are will not amend that. Instead, it will only increase the pressure on them in each match, with them knowing that they will have to outscore their opponents if they are to have any chance of continually winning matches.
Therefore, if they want to become genuine NWSL title contenders, they will need to focus on tightening up some of the things that this scout report has pointed out, and it will be interesting to see if they do make any alterations over the coming months in a bid to really underline their credentials as early frontrunners.
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