Chicago Fire Vs New England Revolution: 3 things we learned – Honors even
By Adnan Bašić
2. Give Raphael Wicky credit for tactical shift
A big reason why the Chicago Fire were able to right the sinking ship was because of head coach Raphael Wicky, who made a few key adjustments midway into the second half.
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He subbed on Gaston Gimenez changed the formation, shifting to a back three. That change helped for a number of reasons. First, it put an extra body in defense, a unit that had been struggling to deal with the Revs pacy attack when having to cover the wide spaces on the counter-attack.
Chicago were a more balanced team as well. They were too narrow to start, with players often running into each other in the middle of the park. That changed with the new formation. The wing-backs stayed out wide, stretching the pitch for the central players to combine with one another as they were harder to press. Even Robert Beric, who had been isolated up top earlier, had teammates to play off of.
It is unclear if the Fire will start with a back three in their next game versus Orlando or if it was just a quick fix done by head coach Raphael Wicky to get a result this time around. Whatever the case, it got the job done, and Chicago’s new head coach deserves plenty of credit.