D.C. United shocked the MLS community on Wednesday when over the span of couple of hours, they completely altered their attacking third, shipping the creative Fabian Espindola out to Vancouver while bringing NYCFC’s youngster Patrick Mullins into the fold.
While the moves may have made for an exciting day within D.C. United’s front office, fans are left feeling uneasy after seeing their top playmaker over the past three years leave while retaining an unproven 24-year old in return. Not to mention that before these events transpired, D.C. United were right in the mix of things within the Eastern Conference, as they were sitting only a point outside the playoff picture.
With all of that said however, this was potentially a great move for the black and red.
Espindola is a rare attacking talent, as he is one of the best in the league at running the channels, finding open space for himself, and creating chances. According to research done by Benjamin Baer of MLSSoccer.com, over the past three season, Espindola has created on average 2.44 chances per 90 minutes, almost doubling anyone else on the D.C. United Roster within that timeframe.
While it is vital for a team to have the opportunity to score, if you lack the ability to score, what good does creating chances do for your club?
The issue that D.C. United have run into this season is that they can’t seem to get the ball into the back of the net. Their offense has underperformed, scoring only 19 goals in as many games. For a team whose defense having only conceded 18 goals in that same timespan, the third-lowest amount of goals in the MLS, United needed to switch things up before they found themselves too far outside of the playoff picture.
D.C. United started out the season with a 4-4-2 lineup and struggled to get goals from their players, as the team lacked strikers who could hold the ball up in the attacking third and find opportunities for themselves. In order to compensate for his lack of a pure striker, Olsen recently made the switch to a 4-1-4-1, with aspirations of working the ball from the wings centrally. Yet even still, the team was deprived of someone who could create physical space for themselves within the 18 and distribute the ball appropriately.
With this 4-1-4-1 in place, Espindola’s lack of an ability to hold up play and control the attacking space by himself lead Olsen to switch him outside to left wing. Even though was effective on the wing, even scoring a goal in their last match against the Crew, Espindola still appeared to be a shell of his former self, as he did not have the liberty to roam as freely as he had once before.
For the first time in three seasons, Espindola had become expendable on D.C.’s roster.
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With the addition of LLoyd Sam two weeks prior, United had a surplus of fast wingers who can create chances down the flanks in Sam, Lamar Naegle and Chris Rolfe. With three talented players on the roster who belong on the wings, it made little sense for the club to doll out money to their aging DP to play him in an unnatural position. Instead, the club choose to cut ties and in the process cleared approximately $250,000 in cap space.
With this newfound money, the club quickly signed one of the most promising players to come into the league back in 2014 with Louisiana native, Patrick Mullins. While playing at Maryland, Mullins finished his college career as the program’s second all-time leading goal scorer with 47 goals. In the process, Mullins won the Hermann Trophy as the nation’s best player in both his junior and senior years.
Mullins success in college has yet to fully materialize in the MLS though, as he will now be on his third team in as many years.
https://twitter.com/dcunited/status/755920538703425536?lang=en
For Mullins, playing time has been hard to come by, as he has been placed on teams with dominate strikers already in place, as New England had Charlie Davis up top in 2014, and NYCFC has had David Villa in their attacking role. With the limited playing time though, Mullins has proven that he has the potential to be lethal in the attacking third, as in 2015, he averaged .78 non-penalty goals per 90 minutes, the 9th best in the league behind strikers such as Sebastian Giovinco, Robbie Keane, Kei Kamara, and Clint Dempsey. On a roster that is looking for someone to step into that holding striker spot, Mullins could potentially be D.C. United’s guy for the foreseeable future, and it did not take much to get him, seeing as though they only had to send over TAM as well as an international roster spot (which NYCFC desperately needed in order for them to bring in Maxime Chanot).
While obtaining a striker with potentially a large upside is a great thing for this club, possibly the most intriguing storyline out of all of this is the fact that now D.C. United have cleared up a bunch of salary cap space and are the only team in the league without a DP on their roster. If United’s front office can continue to play their cards right before August 3rd, the day the transfer window closes, perhaps they can sign a very talented and proven attacking threat to their roster, which already has one of the best defenses in the league.
Getting rid of Espindola was a risk, but if D.C. expect to make it out of the first round of this years MLS postseason, it was one that they certainly had to make.