Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Curtin begins task of making pieces fit
The Philadelphia Union spent the month of January collecting pieces to what it hopes will be a winning MLS puzzle.
February’s training time in the Florida sun will be spent piecing together those assets into a coherent whole, under the guidance of manager Jim Curtin.
That effort starts in earnest Saturday when the Union open the preseason with a closed-door scrimmage against D.C. United. Though it’s premature for Curtin to start drawing conclusions about the weapons in his arsenal since many will be absent, but that still leaves space to speculate.
One particular area of interest is midfield, which was widely revamped last year and tinkered with this winter. The two latest arrivals, Alejandro Bedoya and this week’s signing Haris Medunjanin, are versatile players without rigidly defined positions, creating a structural quandary to be solved in the preseason.
One facet is Medunjanin, who possesses the physicality of a holding midfielder at 6-foot-2 and the passing ability of a No. 8. In the 31-year-old Bosnian, Curtin has the chance to finally replace Vincent Nogueira.
“Haris is a guy, he can get on the ball with pressure, with a guy up his back, can kind of slow the game down,” Curtin said on a conference call Friday. “He has really good feet but also his ability to connect your back four to your attackers is incredible. The 40-yard balls on the ground that he plays in between the lines are important and something we think that we needed.”
The No. 8 role isn’t Bedoya’s best position, and he and Roland Alberg represent the only options as No. 10s. Curtin hinted at a flexing midfield spine — Medunjanin as the 6 or 8, Bedoya as the 8 or 10, Alberg in or out — depending on situation.
“We’ll have to adjust and plan accordingly, whether that’s Haris at the 6 with Bedoya and Alberg or finding what balance is best, that’ll be determined on the training field,” Curtin said. “You can see Haris has played in the 4-2-3-1 system. He knows the roles and the responsibility of the 6 and the 8. He can do both, he’s comfortable doing both. We had talks with him about both.”
Part of the issue is training time. Medunjanin isn’t with the Union yet, with Curtin hoping that he’ll return by the end of their first Florida phase, which terminates Feb. 9. Bedoya (and Chis Pontius) are still with the U.S. national team, a stint culminating Friday with a friendly against Jamaica.
There’s also the issue of the ball-winner in midfielder, and while Curtin praised both Brian Carroll and Warren Creavalle, the No. 6 role awaits Maurice Edu when he returns from over a year out with two separate fractures in his left leg. Edu is scheduled to resume running Feb. 7. Until Curtin has his full complement, conclusions will remain elusive. But that stems from an abundance of options rather than the usual scarcity.
“You start to pencil in the teams and you’re trying to pick a projected lineup or even breaking up the teams for this D.C. game, and you’re looking at them on paper and you do a double take and ask, which team’s the better one?,” Curtin said. “A good problem to have. The depth I think pushes things in training each and every day. I think in some spots, we have three quality players. I think our depth is as strong as it’s ever been in the club’s history.”
NOTES >> English forward Jay Simpson, signed in January, and Fabrice “Fafa” Picault, signed Thursday, have arrived in Florida. Curtin projects Picault as fighting for minutes on the left wing, where Pontius is the incumbent starter, while the 25-year-old’s speed offers a late-game option up top. … All five drafted rookies remain in camp with the Union, as does trialist Adam Najem, the Red Bull Academy/Akron product. Curtin was effusive in describing the 22-yearold attacking midfielder as a “Mauro Diaz-Benny Feilhaber combo,” before walking back the hype of invoking the FC Dallas and Sporting KC all-stars. Nonetheless, Curtin hopes to have news on a deal in the coming days. “He’s been excellent in training,” Curtin said of Najem. “Again, gets goals and assists, which I already knew about. You look at the statistics and you know he’s a guy that can do that. In the short time with us, he’s shown that he can do that at the MLS level. He’s been very strong in each and every training session and actually has an ability to cover more ground and do the defensive work that we ask our No. 10 to do, even more so than I had anticipated.” … Curtin volunteered that second-year pro Fabian Herbers has been the sharpest player in training. Herbers figures to compete with Ilsinho for the starting right wing role while providing an option as the No. 10.