Loons’ Tani Oluwaseyi to play key role in showdown vs. LAFC

What position does Tani Oluwaseyi play for Minnesota United?

It’s a simple question, but it has a complicated answer — and as Minnesota heads into a Wednesday night home matchup with Los Angeles FC, it’s an answer that’s still changing.

Exploring Oluwaseyi’s role is a good way to illustrate how the Loons look at the concept of positional flexibility, which goes deeper than just one player who can play multiple positions. It’s one that requires a player who can score a goal, set up two, and make a penalty-area defensive clearance in the same game, as the 25-year-old did on Saturday against San Jose.

Oluwaseyi is listed as a forward on Minnesota’s official roster, which splits players into the four traditional buckets of soccer positions — goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, forward. But “forward” can encompass any number of actual roles in the attack.

Data-focused sites like the endlessly-useful American Soccer Analysis split “forward” out into categories like “striker” and “winger” and “attacking midfielder,” the latter being a bucket that tends to encompass both offensive-minded midfielders and diminutive pass-first forwards.

There, Oluwaseyi is listed as a striker. And for much of the season, that’s where he belonged. Oluwaseyi, alongside strike partner Kelvin Yeboah, was tasked with the traditional jobs of the striker: pressure the opposition center backs on defense, look to stay high in the offensive shape, and run in behind the defense whenever possible.

When Yeboah went down injured, and then when Oluwaseyi was gone with the Canadian national team, the Loons naturally transitioned into playing with a single striker — a comfortable setup that they’d used to good effect last season. But now that Yeboah is back to full health, and Oluwaseyi is back from the Gold Cup, both have returned to the starting lineup — with a slightly different role for the Canadian.

Oluwaseyi isn’t exactly playing as a striker any more.

Against San Jose, when the Loons set up in their defensive block, he often dropped back into the right side of the midfield, and was active in a way that he wasn’t as a striker. He was cleaning up defensively in the middle of the penalty area in the first half, hoofing away a dangerous ball that center back Michael Boxall had deflected.

You might think that Oluwaseyi is best categorized as an attacking midfielder, the right-sided version of Joaquín Pereyra. Except Oluwaseyi is still pressing opposing center backs, still chasing long balls, and when the Loons are breaking out, making a choice — does he drop back into midfield and take a pass from a center back, or does he turn and move upfield for a long ball?

This is where positional flexibility comes into play for Minnesota. It’s not whether a player like Oluwaseyi can fit into the position of “striker” or “attacking midfielder;” it’s about creating a hybrid role that fits his skills.

“For obvious reasons, we’re not going to play Tani off the side in the same way that we would Rob [Robin Lod] or Sam Shashoua or Joaquín,” said manager Eric Ramsay. “He’s got a very different set of characteristics and we want to make sure he plays that role to his strengths.”

It also helps that Oluwaseyi’s defense is first-rate. “Tani is a phenomenal defensive forward, as good as I’ve arguably seen,” said Ramsay.

For the player, it’s all about being able to have multiple ways to attack.

“I think it provides us with a bit of a different look, because we’re still able to make those deep runs from a deeper position, which is an issue for the back line,” said Oluwaseyi. “Over a 30-, 40-game season, you have to be able to have different looks, have different formations, and do different things in order to make it all the way to the end.”

For the Loons, sometimes positional flexibility just means Ramsay’s seemingly unshakeable belief that any defender or defensive midfielder can play outside center back, and any forward or midfielder can play wingback. But sometimes it means creating entirely new roles, that fit a player better than any positional name does.

Three potential departures, one permanent

As originally reported by Tom Bogert of GiveMeSport.com, the Loons are in talks to send two players to St. Louis City. Homegrown defender Devin Padelford would go on loan, but attacker Sang Bin Jeong would be a permanent move, under the league’s new “cash for players” trade mechanism.

Both players trained with the Loons on Tuesday morning, but neither was in the squad for Saturday’s win over San Jose.

Jeong, 23, has seen his playing time drop dramatically in his third season in Minnesota. Padelford, who is 22, made two starts and three substitute appearances for the first team, but had fallen to third-choice or worse at every position on the left side of defense.

Both players still have potential, but desperately need top-flight playing time.

The same need for playing time applies to attacking midfielder Samuel Shashoua, who is set to go on loan to a team in the USL Championship. Despite being on the team sheet for 18 of 25 first-team games this year, Shashoua has only made six appearances and one start.

Throwbacks earn rave reviews

Minnesota will introduce its third jersey, titled the “Heritage Kit,” at Wednesday’s game against LAFC. It’s a blue-and-orange homage to the days of the Minnesota Kicks, with a wordmark and logo paying homage to the original Kicks design, by local cartoonist George Karn.

Given the early social-media reaction to a leaked version of the jersey, it may end up being the most popular Minnesota jersey since the team joined MLS.

Game Information

Loons vs. Los Angeles FC

7:30 p.m., Wednesday at Allianz Field

TV; radio: MLS Season Pass (Apple TV); 1500 AM

Thanks to a trip to the Club World Cup, LAFC (9-5-5) has played three fewer games than Minnesota (11-4-7) — so while the visitors are technically in sixth place, going by points per game, they’re in fourth place, a half-step behind second-place Minnesota. It’s a rematch of Eric Ramsay’s first game in charge of the Loons, a 2-0 win in March 2024 that still stands as one of Ramsay’s best regular-season wins.