Our work with Portland Timbers II’ Florian Monzon
About a year ago, we wrote an article on Florian Monzon who had recently finished a loan spell from Velez Sarsfield with Almirante Brown in the Argentine Primera Nacional. His metrics as an all-round striker stood out but we noticed that his expected goals and goal tally were low. After watching some of his games, we identified that he had immense potential as a one-touch finisher but needed to improve his movement in the box to evade markers and get into goalscoring positions. About a month after the article, we engaged him on Instagram to see if we could help improve his movement going into the next season as he joined Portland Timbers II in the MLS Next Pro as he finished with his highest ever goalscoring tally, 10 goals (7 open play goals with 4 goals from situations that we had specifically worked on). The last year has seen us expand our knowledge on the movements of strikers while we see potential in our work with Florian as we will continue our partnership going into the following season.
This arrangement started as an experiment to see if you could teach a player - with the raw tools such as hold-up play, one-touch finishing with both his head and his feet - to improve their movement. Our idea is that clubs could sign strikers like Florian who are undervalued by the market and sharpen their skills as movement, timing of runs and analysis of space are seen as instinctual rather than aspects of the game that can be taught. In the last year, we proved this hypothesis wrong as it was proved wrong for ourselves long before we ever started working with Florian. Over the course of the season, we adapted our methods to adjust to the playing style of his team, his opponents and where spaces were available in the opposition defence. We started with sending him presentations on aspects of the game like runs in behind, near post runs and circular runs around the defensive line as we utilized strikers in our database as examples. Earlier on, we used players with similar physical characteristics as examples, some of our presentations were immediately applicable while others were not.
Earlier in the year, Florian was training with Velez Sarsfield while looking for a new club. Our process was made easier due to the fact that he had begun to teach himself English in his late teens while we normally communicate in Spanish (I don’t speak Spanish, so I use Google Translate for our informal chats and presentations). Once he signed with Portland Timbers II, I analyzed the early games of Shannon Murray’s system. Portland Timbers II employ a system on quick vertical connections, early passes to the nine-space with a preference for low crosses rather than high crosses. Through my analysis, I communicated to Florian through presentations that near post runs for low crosses and combination and movement sequences would be crucial while he would need to drop deep to receive early passes in between the lines. When Florian received his work-permit, he adjusted well due to his own physical preparation in Argentina as he transitioned quite seamlessly.
In the early games, he scored goals through his one-touch finishing and the goal-scoring prowess which he developed during his youth career which was a reminder that he was always a good striker, just undervalued. The first game he scored utilizing movements that we had worked on was at home to Minnesota II (example of our analysis presentation above) which was also the best game of our partnership. Before the game, we sent him a presentation stating that near post runs would be important while combination and movement sequences would be important while we stated that this game would provide the opportunity to score more than 1 goal. We have studied baseball pitching and the way baseball pitchers educate themselves on new pitches in order to help with better educating Florian as it is more integral to take him through the processes of the movement. With near post runs, we used Brandon Vazquez as an example as he utilized a particular maneuver of moving to the back-post to make a run across his centre-back’s face to run to the near post and apply the finish at the near post. We also realized that it would be integral to tailor his feet to the feet of his winger like a Quarterback and Wide Receiver in a West Coast Offence. Once his winger pushed forward to engage the fullback, he would make a movement into his defender’s blind-side or a movement towards the back-post as once his winger had beaten the opposition fullback, this would be a trigger to make his run to the near post to receive the low cross.
Our presentation to Florian on back-post to near post movements citing Brandon Vazquez’ movement.
We analyzed certain triggers for near post runs with Florian. For his goal against Minnesota II, a long pass was played into the left channel as you can see Florian at the top of the screen making a run towards the back post, dragging his defender away from the near post as he then made a run to the near post to execute a one-touch finish. An aspect of his game that we worked on with Florian was his combination and movement sequences as he is a phenomenal hold-up player but would not continue his runs into the box after releasing the ball.
For his second goal, he dropped deep to receive possession, holding possession and flicking a pass to a teammate before continuing a run into the box as a teammate dragged a player out of position as he slid in to slam a one-touch finish home. He had another good opportunity from a near post situation as this was his best game, not only from a goalscoring stand-point but also from a non-penalty expected goals standpoint as this game was reminiscent to games where he took penalties. Near post runs are integral for any striker as low crosses are the most efficient methods for chance creation while the near post is the most pivotal area in the box for a striker.
The two-goal game against was the zenith of our time working together as we would go through a difficult stretch of the season and Florian would experience a goal-drought after a brilliant start. This goal-drought also had some aspect of luck as we worked on a routine where he receives possession in the deeper areas, switches possession before moving into the box as he had a header in one of these situations which was prodded into the goal by the goalkeeper and given as an own goal rather than a goal for Florian. Our main quandary was occupying and making runs into the width of goal as Florian would make runs into the channels during counter-attacking situations when he needed to occupy central positions. However, after trial and error, we realized that Florian could easily transfer the information once we showed him examples of attackers running into the width of goal. After this, we used Folarin Balogun as an example of making runs into the width of goal during counter-attacking situations, after turnovers and looking to occupy the area between the centre-backs as it is premium real estate for strikers. At home to the Tacoma Defiance, he moved into the width of goal to receive a through ball, skip past a defender and apply the finish with his left foot.
In his final game against Real Monarchs, he made a movement towards the back-post as the ball was played onto the right flank before making a run to the near post as a cross was played over his head before following up a rebound for a tap-in. As the season wore on, we analyzed the expected goals numbers with rebounds and encouraged Florian to actively and more aggressively follow up rebounds. His goal capped off a great start to our partnership as strides and progress was made from when we first saw him in the Argentine Primera Nacional as he has a better understanding of isolating centre-backs, double-movements and combinations and movement sequences. We discussed with Florian the importance of him playing games so we could analyze and evolve as we continued to do this as he was studious with his preparation.
The presentations that we sent Florian as we would send him a preview before the game and an analysis of his game.
The MLS Next Pro proved to be a good league to experiment as defences play with a variety of shapes and blocks which makes it a weekly challenge to anticipate spaces while certain movements and runs can be rehearsed from week to week. This will be crucial for up and coming American strikers while MLS teams can experiment further with signing low risk and cost-effective players with high potential and guide them to their first teams. With the soaring cost of strikers, being able to groom strikers through the MLS Next Pro to prepare them could be an effective cost-effective method similar to the way that Baseball teams use their farm system.
We will continue our work with Monzon, hopefully with the Portland Timbers first-team as he finished as the top scorer with 10 goals with Portland Timbers II. His ability to analyze our information and apply it on the pitch rapidly has been tremendous as he made tremendous strides this season. His intangibles as a player in his discipline in maintaining his fitness, constantly being willing to learn and being able to quickly adapt to new circumstances are top notch. He moved to a different country without his family and was able to adapt seamlessly while we thank him for taking a chance on a football analyst from Zambia without prejudice. The ability for clubs to take calculated risk on an undervalued strikers while using individual coaching to develop could prove critical, especially with the continued rise in the transfer fees of strikers.
