Philadelphia Union: A piano without a maestro

The Philadelphia Union are missing their metronome.

You thought I was referring to Vincent Nogueira here, didn’t you? Nope, his role has been filled (pretty well) by Haris Medunjanin for the Philadelphia Union. While he doesn’t bring the same defensive qualities to the table that Nogueira does, not many midfielders do. Those defensive deficiencies have also been largely masked by placing Medunjanin next to the ultra-athletic Derrick Jones.

The pianist that makes the Philadelphia Union tick was Tranquillo Barnetta. Since he has returned to his boyhood club of FC St. Gallen in Switzerland the Union have been shoehorning replacements for him. It was expected that Alejandro Bedoya would be able to fill his role adequately but that isn’t the case.

It honestly looks like the Philadelphia Union and fans undervalued what Barnetta brought to the team because he didn’t have the flashy counting stats. But what Barnetta brought to the team with his ability to single-handedly take on multiple defenders at a time can’t be replicated by anyone on the team. During his career with the Philadelphia Union, Barnetta registered six goals and seven assists in 40 appearances.

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Those numbers don’t do Barnetta justice as he racked up quite a few hockey assists for the Philadelphia Union and was able to provide a stable presence in the final third. Barnetta’s strength on the ball allowed Chris Pontius and Fabian Herbers to move freely because there was also no fear that the ball would be lost while attacking. That security in the position is gone with Bedoya manning the 10 now.

During the offseason, it was thought that the decision would be between Bedoya and Roland Alberg but as Alberg has struggled with “fitness issues” he just made his first appearance of the season against Portland last week. Also, due to Alberg’s style, he’s not the guy that the Philadelphia Union need to fix their attacking woes right now. Alberg is awesome off the bench when the team needs a goal and he can start against lower league opposition but he doesn’t have a refined enough game to be the focal point of an attack.

So far this season, it’s clear that Alejandro Bedoya also can’t be the focal point of the attack which puts the Philadelphia Union between a rock and a hard place. While it’s clear that the team will stick with the 4-2-3-1 formation for better or worse, who’s going to provide the tempo?

The Philadelphia Union could go out to buy someone to man the position in the summer but that could be too late. Summer signings usually don’t integrate quickly enough to make a difference in the season that they are signed as shown by both Barnetta and Bedoya. The team could try to auction off Ray Gaddis and a pick for an attacking midfielder but starting quality midfielders don’t grow on trees.

Luckily the Philadelphia Union could have a proper 10 in the system who could step in sooner rather than later. Adam Najem, whose homegrown rights were acquired from the New York Red Bulls during the preseason, is fitting in just fine in Bethlehem so far. After a shaky first game against the Rochester Rhinos, Najem looked comfortable this past weekend against a very good FC Cincinnati team.

Seku Conneh stole the day with his brace but Najem was the key behind it all happening. While Najem’s contributions didn’t show on the scoresheet, a 91 percent pass accuracy rate with a spray chart all across the field is pretty impressive. Najem also had two key passes in the game. His game needs to be refined a bit but if he wasn’t signed to a Homegrown Player contract, Najem likely would have been a top 10 pick in the MLS SuperDraft.

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He has the talent to make it with the Philadelphia Union and thanks to him being on the team’s payroll rather than Bethlehem’s payroll the path to MLS is easier for Najem. If Bedoya continues to struggle at the 10, it would make sense for the team to try shifting him out wide while handing the keys to the attack to Najem. The attack needs a new maestro to get them back on track and there are worse choices than handing Najem the keys to see what happens.

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