Minnesota United: What does Ethan Finlay injury mean
By Tyler Hanson
Minnesota United announced Monday that winger Ethan Finlay tore his ACL against the Seattle Sounders. How will the team replace his production?
MLS veteran winger Ethan Finlay suffered a torn ACL in Sunday’s match against the Seattle Sounders, and he will miss the rest of the season, the club has announced. This is a big loss for Minnesota United, but the team doesn’t really have time to dwell on it, with the regular season in full swing, and the team struggling.
The question now becomes “How will Minnesota replace Ethan Finlay?”. Replacing such an important piece is no easy task, but here are some ways that Adrian Heath could go about it.
The first option, while also being the most likely one, would be playing Miguel Ibarra on the right in Finlay’s place, while Sam Nicholson returns to his starting spot on the left flank. Ibarra is a very versatile player, and has no problem moving to the right side, where he’s played plenty of matches before. If Nicholson can keep up his scorching early season form on the left, Minnesota United may not even see that much of a drop off in production from their wingers.
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The second option would be moving Darwin Quintero to the right wing (his main position), while Ibarra plays as a #10, and with Nicholson playing on the left. Though Quintero may be more creative than Ibarra, he’s played most often on the right in his career, and would likely even be an improvement over Ethan Finlay.
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Between the time of Kevin Molino’s injury and Quintero’s arrival, Ibarra played as a #10 a few times for the Loons, and did pretty well. His great work rate was helpful to Ibson and Rasmus Schuller behind him, and he also created quite a few chances.
The third, and least likely option, would be to play Peruvian international Alexi Gomez on the right side, withe Nicholson the left, and Quintero as the #10. Gomez is primarily a left winger, but he can also play as a right wing, or as a left back.
The reason that this option is the least likely though is because Minnesota United will likely be counting on Gomez to take over the left back spot, as Marc Burch and Tyrone can not be counted on to consistently start matches at this point in their careers. Playing Gomez as a left back is a bit of a risk though, as he’s only played there about 10 times in his career. Should Gomez not work out as a full, perhaps Adrian Heath considers this option, because Gomez certainly is a dangerous player.
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Which option will manager Adrian Heath choose? Or will he think outside the box and go with another lineup that isn’t listed? It will certainly be interesting to see if the team can replace Finlay’s production, and just how they’ll go about trying to do so.