Rhode Island FC gave us a little Derby Eve gift today announcing the signing of Minnesota United FC defender Morris Duggan. Duggan is a towering 6’4″ CB from Germany who was drafted by Minnesota in this year’s SuperDraft.

Looking at Duggan’s profile, this seems to be a tremendous acquisition. The player provides depth at a thin position, a new profile of player and a new tactical tool for Coach Khano to add to his bag of tricks.

Depth

The team has been paper thin in terms of depth at CB this season. Coach Khano has had to often rely on midfielders like Clay Holstad and Kofi Twumasi to fill in at CB with the likes of Grant Stoneman and Gabi Alves having had spells with injuries this season. At the moment, only three recognized CBs could be deemed fully fit with Gabi Alves just returning for his first 45 minute stint in the team’s last match while being deployed as LWB.

New Profile

With the team settling on a 3-4-1-2 formation this season, we have seen a cast of different players in different positions in our back line. One glaring miss has been someone who can play the left-sided center back who is actually left-footed with Stoneman, Nodarse, Yao, Holstad and Twumasi all right-footed.

One issue that the team has encountered when playing out from the back is that the left sided center back has issues shaping to their left. That causes them to have a bias towards playing back to the center center back or into midfield. This often leads to Kwizera being alone on an island and starved of service. It also can cause the player to opt for the more dangerous pass rather than using the sideline to keep things simple.

A New Tactical Tool

While the first two sections of this blog were nice and all, this is where I’m truly excited about this signing. As I’ve discussed on Tide Talk, this team has gone through an identity shift over the past few months. RIFC went from a team that predominantly played out from the back to going long from the goal keeper the sixth most in the league.

This tweak has worked well as it has allowed us to utilize the duel monster that is JJ Williams to spring quick attacks and strike on unsettled defenses. Our chance creation is up, our shots being blocked is down and all things considered, RIFC have been the in-form team in the USL Championship as of late. So why the excitement?

We need to add strings to our bow. While this tactic has worked well against “better” opposition, we have struggled when we can’t dominate our duels on the long ball like in Detroit or when teams like North Carolina sit back in a disgusting low block.

Duel Winner

When looking at Duggin’s statistical profile, he’s someone who is happy to get into a duel and can hold his own. When RIFC play the ball long, the team often pinches up the field to try and constrain the amount of space and win the second and third balls. When the team can’t win those second and third balls, the match can turn into a bit of a basketball game with the opposition breaking against our broken press.

With Duggin in a left center back role, you have someone who wins 67% of his total duels and 72% in the air. This ranks in the 84th and 76th percentile in MLS Next Pro, respectively. He also isn’t afraid to get stuck in, ranking in the 78th and 89th percentile in tackles won and recoveries, per 90. Having a duel winner in this position allows our midfield and LWB the ability to cheat up on winning those second and third balls knowing that the left side is covered.

RIFC have conceded the 10th most XG against in the league and have shipped the 17th highest goals per match. There is still plenty of room to improve in this area and it seems Duggin could bring more stability to the back line. Did I mention that he is also in the 85th percentile of the amount of XG blocked?

Build Up Machine

While his duel winning is impressive, I’m personally very excited by his possession stats. Duggin touts 85% passing accuracy, is in the 78th percentile in expected threat from passes and is in the 76th percentile in accurate long balls per 90.

With Duggan being comfortable in possession, the team can vary their tactics on goal kicks significantly. With his expected threat and long ball accuracy, we could see the team bypassing midfield to create chances getting players like Kwizera in behind to work his magic.

In Summary

Duggin gives the team more threat and progression on the ball, the ability to dominate field territory and a strong defensive presence that can win his duels. As the season progresses we will need to keep finding new ways to adjust and win as teams get more film on Rhode Island. I’m excited to see how Coach Khano deploys this new tool in his toolkit and continues to build this team towards hopefully a long playoff run in the fall.