Coming into this season, there were sky high expectations for Rhode Island FC. The 2024 Eastern Conference Champions retained the majority of their roster while adding key names like Maxi Rodriguez to the team. Many, like yours truly, were predicting The Tide to be contenders for the Player’s Shield in 2025.

Now, twelve games into the season, the team are falling way short of those ambitions. Sitting eighth in the Eastern Conference with just twelve points from twelve matches and a -2 goal differential, this team is struggling.

Injuries to key players like JJ Williams aside, The Tide have looked a bit… low. Averaging less than a goal a game and sitting at fifth worst in the USL Championship in expected goals for per match, this is a far cry from the red hot team that stormed through the Eastern Conference last Fall.

So what gives? While all eyes are on those who are and aren’t in the attacking end of the pitch, there are fundamental problems with how RIFC play that are creating a force field around the opposing net which is extremely kind of us to do for the opponents.

To quote the great Marvin Gaye, what’s going on? We’re going to hone in on three areas tonight:

1. The Back Three
2. The Wings of Despair
3. The Missing Middle

The Back Three

I have long been a non-believer in the back three, even when it saved our season last year. To paraphrase coach Khano, these are just positions on the team sheet and the players move around the pitch plenty throughout a match. So much so, that this shouldn’t matter nearly the amount that I’m going to say. However, even with the emergence of left back Aldair Sanchez, which allowed the team to play in what seemed to be a back four, RIFC still mainly operate with three recognized center backs on the pitch. So what does this have to do with scoring goals?

While the team is in the build up phase (when RIFC are bringing the ball up the pitch), the center backs are the key facilitators of said build up. This is evident when you look at the players with the most touches every match which is always our center backs.

Why is this an issue? While this has been fantastic for bumping up possession numbers (RIFC rank third in the USL Championship this season at 55.5% vs. 12th last season at 49.7%), the ball gets stuck in this build up phase with little ability to advance the ball to a dangerous area in the final third. For example:

RIFC get stuck in this position often where the central center back has the ball with two defenders flanking him. While this gives the defense an extra man in the event of a counter attack, the team lose bodies to help build the play towards the final third. Seriously, if you’re Aimé Mabika on the ball here, what options do you have in this picture?

The Wings of Despair

The only option that is often available to our center backs is the wings. So far this season, the players creating the most chances for RIFC are wings Aldair Sanchez, Jojea Kwizera and Noah Fuson. This wouldn’t be a surprise if you followed the team last year, but Fuson and Kwizera are both underperforming their 2024 campaign in chances created per match.

With the build up play so slow and the opponent knowing that only one option is available, they’re letting the wings have the ball and shutting them down out there. This has led to the team sitting at 21st in the USL Championship in big chances created per match. So, if the ball stuck with the center backs and the wings, who isn’t touching it?

The Missing Middle

To me, this is the core issue facing Rhode Island FC. I have been talking behind the scenes about this for weeks but it was staring me in the face watching the Louisville game. While this team has over invested in the central midfield area in terms of players, we spend very little time there.

Below is a very common look that we are accustomed to seeing from RIFC this year:

There is not a soul in the middle of the pitch. And when there might be one Rhode Island FC player hanging there, they’re surrounded by 2-3x more opponents as we see here (poor Amos):

This is denying Rhode Island FC’s access to the “Zone 14” danger zone displayed below where we can hopefully start to see more chances created by Maxi Rodriguez, Zachary Herivaux, Amos Shaprio-Thompson and Clay Holstad. You’ll also recognize this zone as the place where we smashed in multiple goals against Tampa. While this is not a highly repeatable tactic, it shows the opportunity that Zone 14 presents.

How do we solve this?

I’m not here to just complain, I’m here to try and solutionize, folks. Quite frankly, the game of soccer comes down to getting a numerical advantage in the most dangerous parts of the pitch. And here’s how we’re going to do that during the build up phase (this is about to get very nerdy. However, if you’re still here, I know you’re an absolute sicko and shoutout to you for that):

1. Move a center back into the middle of the pitch
   • Get ready to learn midfield, Rio. By stepping up into the second line of play rather than sitting with the two center backs, moving Rio up will give the width currently being provided by the midfielders while adding an extra body into the danger zone to win that battle alongside Sanchez and the deepest lying central midfielder.
2. Bring the midfield closer together
   • By bringing the defenders up to the second line of the build up, you have the other two central midfielders as well as the foward packing into the middle to dominate duels and providing support if the ball goes out wide
3. Playing the wings higher
   • Since the wings no longer need to be core parts of build up play as often, they can stay higher, putting more pressure on the back line which will keep the opposition less compact while giving them more 1:1 opportunities when they get the ball.

Will this idea fix all of the problems ailing RIFC? Probably not. But hopefully over the next few weeks, along with the return of JJ Williams, we can see this team be a bit more aggressive in the middle areas of the pitch so that there’s less of need for this defense, who’s only conceding the 7th least XG per match, to be perfect every game.

Soccer is a game of deploying risk. Now is the time for Coach Khano to increase the risk level by trusting his defense and release this team forward.

UP THE TIDE