Tanner Beason reacts to the final whistle as the Earthquakes defeated the Galaxy at Dignity Health Park in Carson, CA on August 20, 2021. Photo credit: USA Today Sports Images.
In the 83rd minute of San Jose’s comprehensive (if one-goal) victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy, ESPN announcer Tanner Twellman noticed how Quakes right centerback Tanner Beason was starting San Jose possession at the left touchline:
It’s not a new wrinkle for Matias Almeyda’s side, however. They’ve been bringing Beason to that midfield stripe touchline since Nathan came into the team – 10 games now, in which the Quakes have yet to be defeated. It’s worth taking a moment to look at why San Jose sends their centerback out wide on goal kicks, and what we can learn from the team’s approach with this move.
Putting Players in Position to Succeed
Beason has been high on goal kicks since the Minnesota United on July 3, but rarely had the ball come in his direction. I first noted it on the July 14 match against Colorado, where he swapped with left wingback Marcos Lopez in San Jose’s straightforward 3-4-3:
Here you can see Marcos Lopez in the traditional LCB position, with Rapids winger Miguel Barrios marking him.
JT Marcinkowski finds Tanner Beason about 20 yards into Rapids territory, challenged on a header by right back Keegan Rosenberry as Lalas Abubakar defends Cade Cowell nearby.
This is the same position Beason found himself on goal kicks against the Galaxy – it was only more noticeable then because he was trotting out from a right centerback spot to do it. Beason’s changed his positioning a bit, as he’s come in closer to midfield and closer to the touchline to improve his heading angle, but the principle remains the same.
What Marcinkowski is doing here is using Beason’s aerial ability to get the ball to attackers in space. By bringing a centerback into an aerial duel with a right winger or right fullback, Almeyda is betting that:
- Marcinkowski can ping the ball 60 yards onto Beason’s head
- Beason can win the header over an outmatched defender
- Cade Cowell or Shea Salinas can take that headed ball into a defender near the touchline
It puts Beason in an unusual position, technically, but it brings him there to do what he does best: win balls in the air. And by bringing him out to the touchline to do it, San Jose can take advantage of other strengths: Marcinkowski’s passing, Cade and Shea’s 1v1 attacking, to create dangerous opportunities.
Tanner Beason goes up for a header against the Colorado Rapids on July 17, 2021 at Dick Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado. Photo credit: USA Today Sports Images.
Similar to Tommy Thompson at fullback or Judson at centerback, it is putting players in places that seem unusual at first glance in order to take advantage of their strongest skills.
Creating Transition from Thin Air
Unlike Almeyda’s squad in 2019 and 2020, San Jose is trying to score in transition – when defenses are unsettled and the Earthquakes wingers can take on defenders in space. In the earlygoing, they tried to do this by inviting teams to press and having Jackson Yueill find the attackers in space. Then, starting with Real Salt Lake, the opposition used a sort of accordion press to neutralize Yueill and the team writ large.
With Beason at the touchline, it takes the risk of the methodical buildup out of the picture: even if Beason loses the header, the opponent has the ball near midfield, and Judson and/or Remedi are in Beason’s spot to snuff out attacks. If Beason wins the header, San Jose has their left winger in the 1v1 matchup that in the past they needed 15 passes trying to find.
There’s a true genius in squad composition here: Judson is a better open field defender than Beason – Almeyda is basically asking him to play centerback in transition defense, where he excels, in order to bring forward Beason’s superior aerial presence.
Tanner Beason heads a ball from the touchline against the Vancouver Whitecaps at PayPal Park. Photo credit: Aaron Morgan, Quakes Epicenter.
And Jeremy Ebobisse’s entry into Quakes Black and Blue really makes the Beason longball undefendable: if the opponent brings out a centerback to challenge Beason (which nobody has done yet, to my knowledge), they’re isolating Ebobisse on a single defender, and Marcinkowski can get the ball out to Jebo for the easy post-up. The opponent could shift the entire defense to the right, I suppose, but that lets Cristian Espinoza set up a whole farm on their left. Unless teams really make themselves vulnerable to defend against it, they let San Jose create a transition opportunity from a dead ball.
Phases of Play
This is important because, in the past few years, transitions have really become the most dangerous moments of soccer (and therefore, the most exciting to watch). You could trace this back to Jurgen Klopp’s ascendance with the gegenpress, when he used attackers to press an opponent’s defense, their worst ballhandlers, in order to win the ball back against an unsettled defense. It kicked into another gear, in my opinion, with France’s World Cup run, when Les Bleus had stout defending, set piece magic, and Kylian Mbappe to fry an opponent who gave him an inch of space.
In the “olden” days of Almeyda’s Earthquakes tenure, teams were able to create their own transition moments out of the Quakes by dragging defenders out of position and creating off-ball runs. This has more-or-less stopped with Nathan’s introduction into the team: in the 10 games since his first start on July 4th, San Jose has conceded 9 goals. Only one of these was in the run of play against an 11-man Earthquakes team: Colorado on July 18. (By the way, this is a tidbit I posted about on the QE Slack over the weekend: if you want today’s articles yesterday, be sure to become a patron!)
Since Almeyda arrived, he’s thrived on putting players in positions that match their strengths. He’s doubled down on that this year by putting players in positions that match their strengths, in the phases of the game they’re best suited to.
So you see:
- Jackson Yueill as a #10, not because he’s necessarily a magician in the box (though, note his flick to set up Chofis on the second goal at Carson), but because he can key a press better than anyone else on the team – check how he forced Jonathan Bond into long turnovers time and time again versus the Galaxy on Friday.
- Chofis really doesn’t have a position, or much of a role defensively, as long as he gets in weird positions to unlock a set defense, and make late-arriving runs in transition. It’s worth stating that, although Chofis is still without an assist, he has had as many key passes in the past three games (9) as the 18 prior games.
- Judson plays not as a defensive midfielder, centerback, or fullback but more as a full-time day-ruiner just making life unpleasant for the most creative-minded players an opponent has.
- Jeremy Ebobisse finally playing as a complete center forward, playing one-two passes to put wingers in space and figuring out how to play off attackers in the box. He was kind to credit Shea’s decoy run, but he was also the dude forced to make that run in Timbers green for the past couple of years.
As it has become kind of a trope to say that formations don’t matter, and even positions don’t matter…with Almeyda, they really don’t. He moves players to where they need to be in order to create the greatest possible advantage at all times. It’s hardly perfect, but it really gets to, in my opinion, the core tenet of winning soccer: make the game easier for your teammates and harder for your opponents. Sending a centerback like Tanner Beason way up the touchline on goal kicks is a straightforward, low-cost, way to do that.
Conclusion: Developing Depth on the Left
Tanner’s development, particularly his aerial dominance, has given Almeyda an interesting dilemma with the left side of his setup. It’s true that Beason is a defensive rock, but he doesn’t have the calmness or vision that Oswaldo Alanis brings to the back line. He also lacks the speed and incisiveness that Marcos Lopez brings to the left back position.
However, Marcos hasn’t been able to win the left wingback spot over Shea Salinas due to the erstwhile Quake’s 1v1 ability and cleverness in the box. Cade Cowell has gotten caught in a suboptimal run of form as of late, but earlier in the season he was terrorizing defenses. And Carlos Fierro is finally rounding into form after a leg injury sidelined him.
One thing Almeyda has not shown a willingness to do is play matchups against certain opponents: his starters are often his starters, whether home or away, against Sporting Kansas City or lightweights like the Galaxy. With such a mix of idiosyncratic talents, I would like to see him play matchups more – though maybe I should fret less if the team can be down two of its most important players and still walk into a victory over their rivals.
For Tanner Beason himself, he’s played himself into a position similar to Yueill in 2019: while not a one-for-one replacement for Alanis, Beason has made it easy to move on from a linchpin, a la Anibal Godoy’s transfer two years ago. One could also talk themselves into Beason getting some interest from Gregg Berhalter’s Men’s National Team. The 24-year-old is hardly going to unseat John Brooks from the LCB slot, but there is not much separating Beason from Auston Trusty, Mauricio Pineda, and the other young men looking to take caps in World Cup Qualifiers.
The second half of the season is an interesting showcase for talent in this Earthquakes setup, many of whom have a lot to prove both within the club and as they look to continue their career. By putting his players in uniquely good positions and create positive phases of the game, Almeyda also improves his youngsters’ fortunes.
