New Look New England Revolution Midfield Finds Success Against LD Alajuelense

"You always want the right balance of football and ball winning. I think those three guys brought a good balance of those two things today."

Photo By ©J. Alexander Dolan

With no Carles Gil, New England Revolution head coach Caleb Porter switched things up. Some rotation and a formation change helped New England secure a 4-0 win over LD Alajuelense on Wednesday.

Porter switch from his usual 4-2-3-1 formation to a 4-3-3. This allowed for Matt Polster, Mark-Anthony Kaye and Ian Harkes to all earn starts.

New England had a much better control of the midfield compared to its previous outing against Toronto FC. This helped to limit chances from Alajuelense while also helping the Revolution create chances of their own.

The head coach was pleased with the performance of his midfielders after the match.

“I thought the midfield three [Matt Polster, Ian Harkes, and Mark-Anthony Kaye] found the right balance today,” Porter said. “You always want the right balance of football and ball winning. I think those three guys brought a good balance of those two things today. If you’re too technical, tactical then you don’t have enough ball winning, and I think if you have too much ball winning and not enough technical, tactical then you don’t keep the ball. I thought we were very good on both sides of the ball through there with those three guys.”

Considering that New England only had one day to prepare, Harkes was happy with how the group performed on Wednesday.

“We switched it up for this game and had just one day to prepare, but I think we did well in terms of our spacing, unlocking their [LD Alajuelense] defense, and finding some good balls through,” the midfielder said. “You can see once we kind of controlled the inside, then we could get our fullbacks forward and you saw that combination on the first goal.”

Harkes in particular had a scintilating performance. The midfielder played a key role in New England’s second goal of the match with a perfect balance of technical skill and ball-winning ability.

The 28-year-old caused a turnover at midfield and completed a quality turn with the ball. He sent the ball forward to Nacho GIl who played Tomas Chancalay into the box for the 25-year-old’s first goal of the match.

“Ian’s a footy player man,” Polster said of Harkes after the match. '“He knows the game really well. He finds spaces, not afraid to be on the ball, and we gelled really well together. He’s brought a lot of energy to the team. Tonight he creates by pressing in the middle and winning the ball and then we spring into another attack.

With his continued impressive play, Harkes is making a case that he should be the starting midfielder next to Polster in Porter’s preferred starting XI. While the midfield is stacked with talent, Harkes has stood out from the pack so far in 2024.