Armchair Analyst: The dawn of a Golden Age for domestic chance creators in MLS

Welcome back to the Thursday Q&A series, where we focus on one particular topic – today's being the different types of "attacking midfielders" – and ask you to react, share, and discuss in the comments section. However, feel free to ask about anything game-related (MLS, USL, NASL, USMNT, CanMNT, etc.) over the next several hours.

Friday night's UDN doubleheader has caught my eye. Not because the Chicago Fire have played some of the most entertaining attacking soccer in the league this year; not because New York City FC, under Jason Kreis, are still working their way through the versions of keep-ball RSL played for years; and not because the last time Colorado played FC Dallas the Rapids broke a 10-hour scoreless streak by dropping a four-spot on the hosts.

What has my eye is the young, attacking, American talent on display. I've written a bit about Dillon Powers recently – you can read it HERE – so I'll focus on the Rapids/Dallas contest (10 pm; UDN) only enough to say that, with Marcelo Sarvas' suspension, I hope we get to see Powers used deeper in central midfield. It's his more natural spot, and allows him to control the tempo of the game while still being in position to carve out chances for teammates.

This quote, from today's story on Powers, is revealing:

As a youth, Powers says he was a fan of Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard and is excited at the prospect to play against him when Gerrard joins the L.A. Galaxy in July. But when Powers began watching soccer “with a purpose”, he began following Barcelona, and taking notes on their central midfielder, Xavi.
“Xavi’s more of a distributor but I believe that’s my foundation. The foundation of making plays is to be composed in a tight area,” Powers explained. “I’ve tried to transition more into the playmaking role by playing more dynamically.”

Think of all those chipped assists Michael Bradley has picked up for the USMNT in the past 18 months. Powers has that in his locker.

Instead, I'll focus a bit more on the Fire vs. NYCFC match-up (8 pm; UDN). Specifically the differences between Harry Shipp and Mix Diskerud, two guys who've found themselves on opposite sides of the Powers divide:

Diskerud, who began his career as more of a pure attacker, has steadily moved deeper for both his club(s) and for the USMNT. I'd argue he played one of his best games in the Red, White & Blue last week against Mexico, and did so on the side of a skinny diamond – definitely not a pure attacking role. He's become a deeper-lying tempo-setter in traditional 4-4-2s or a shuttler (wide midfield) in the diamond, and he's shown to be a more influential player in that role than in his sporadic time as a pure attacker.

Shipp won't get sporadict time as a pure attacker; that's his role for the long haul. The only question is if he makes a permanent home on the wing, or eventually shifts inside as a Lee Nguyen-esque trequartisa.

Regardless, he does much more of his damage in the final third, as the numbers show. He often acts as an auxiliary second forward, and his off-the-ball work around the 18 is aggressive and instinctive in a way that neither Powers nor Diskerud can claim:

This isn't a knock on the first two, who do other things Shipp has yet to show himself capable of. It's just a reminder that when someone says "attacking midfielder" or "No. 10" or "playmaker", they're painting with a broad brush to offer an approximation of a given player's role. It's a trap everyone – including me – falls into.

And it's not easy to change or improve the vernacular since soccer is a fluid game, which means that a guy like Powers can be pinging diagonals around the midfield one minute then scorching defenders in the final third the next. There's no specific word for that position, so we settle upon "attacking midfielder" even though Powers, Shipp and Diskerud all do the job in wildly different ways.

That's the point, though: There are so many variables in soccer that there are essentially infinite ways to do the job. Darlington Nagbe's been arguably the best chance creator in MLS this year, and he's a vastly different player than any of the above; Benny Feilhaber was Best XI caliber last season, and has been better than that this year; and Sacha Kljestan's been the primary playmaker for the best midfield in the league so far.

I'll end this by pointing out one more thing: The three guys playing on Friday, and Bradley and Nguyen, and Feilhaber and Kljestan are all available for US national team call-ups. Nagbe will join them in September when he finally gets citizenship, and has already confirmed that he hopes to play for the US.

After years of chance creation and tempo-setting duties falling primarily to foreign imports, we've quietly entered a golden age of domestic players filling those roles.