Analysis: Set pieces still baffle Minnesota United. Here’s what Eric Ramsay is doing.

MINNESOTA UNITED | ANALYSIS

It didn’t take deep, considered analysis Saturday night to identify Minnesota United’s main problem in its 3-2 loss to the Seattle Sounders. All you had to do was listen to the coach and the players after the game.

“The difference between winning and losing the game is a thread that’s been pretty common for us over the course of this year: defending the second phase of set plays and giving up chances that we really shouldn’t against a team like that,” manager Eric Ramsay said.

Said midfielder Wil Trapp: “The concentration on set pieces is really what we take away from this one, because other than that, there’s really not much they had in the game.”

Two of Seattle’s three goals followed the same script: Minnesota defended a corner and cleared its penalty area, but moments later, the ball was in the back of its net ― once from a header, once from a long-range blast.

It has become something of a theme for the Loons, as Ramsay mentioned. Minnesota has scored twice in its last two losses but has given up multiple set-piece goals and turned those two games into zero points.

According to Opta, the data analytics company, the Loons have given up more shots from set plays than any other MLS team this season. Minnesota is also the second-worst defense in terms of quality of set-piece chances allowed, as judged by expected goals allowed from set plays.

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For goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair, the issues just come down to the team’s mentality when defending corners. “I think we’ve kept the same shape, so I think it just comes down to desire and beating your guy and wanting to win the ball, or blocking shots, or getting out to stop the second-phase cross.”

Minnesota has spent a lot of time working on defending set pieces, which leaves Ramsay at what seemed to be a bit of a crossroads in terms of his next step as a coach.

“This is a conversation that takes place in probably 60, 70 percent of coaches’ offices at one point over the course of the season,” he said. “There are two schools of thought. One, you really double down on the detail and the work, at risk of it becoming a bit of a complex. Two, you let it lie a little bit, and hope that it solves itself to an extent. I think I’m always going to be one of those coaches that leans towards more work, more detail, more emphasis. "

Ramsay noted that his team has improved significantly on defending the initial phase of set plays, but it was now the following phases — when the team has to regroup, reset and defend again — that had become the issue. And his hope was that some of that might improve over time, especially given that the Loons have added new players, including new center back Jefferson Díaz.

“I think sometimes it’s a little bit of game intelligence, nous, communication, lack of rhythm, lack of cohesiveness across a group of players that haven’t played together often,” Ramsay said. “There’s a big difference between a back line or a set of zonal defenders that have faced 50 corners, versus a group that have faced six.”

And so Minnesota will keep working on set pieces, adding to what Trapp called the “20 days” of emphasis that the team had put on that particular phase, during their post-Leagues Cup break in the schedule.

St. Clair, meanwhile, as the yeller-in-chief on the defense, had more of an energy-based solution. “I think there’s been a big focus on it, and it comes down to the determination now to be able to go and execute,” he said. “Sometimes you get punched in the mouth, [and that’s] obviously the best way to kind of learn and pick up and go again.”