Revs Options With Nacho Gil Out
Revs Options With Nacho Gil Out
A look at the Revolution's options in the wide attacking areas with Nacho Gil out injured...
The Revs will have a lingering issue from their rough couple of days of illness and 4-1 pounding from Inter Miami last week. Nacho Gil picked up a meniscus injury late in Saturday’s game and Caleb Porter stated this week that he will be out for at least the next month and possibly beyond. Gil had been a steady presence in the lineup, appearing in all nine MLS games and starting five.
His overall match rating from FotMot was 6.72, good for fifth best on the team, and he contributed one goal and one assist in MLS play. Gil had cooled off in recent games after a season’s best performance in the 1-1 home draw with Chicago. The Revs face Chicago again this weekend and he won’t be able to feature. We never want to see any player injured but the Revs do have several other options to turn to in the wide attacking positions.
First up is the player many have been calling to see in the starting XI at every opportunity this season, Esmir Bajraktarevic. The nineteen-year-old has only logged 400 minutes across seven MLS appearances this season.
He had been due to start against Miami before getting so ill he couldn’t get out of bed. He wound up missing the game completely. Hopefully, the confidence Porter had in Bajraktarevic continues into this weekend’s game.
Bajraktarevic has displayed excellent technique in tight spaces, has been willing to try and make things happen with the ball at his feet, and performed well in limited minutes. He has created five chances, taken eight shots with four on target, provided an assist, and completed 84% percent of his passes. He has also been successful with 56% of his dribbles and has been fouled 14 times while giving away just one foul himself. All of the above are areas where the Revs have struggled for long stretches of the season so far.
Fellow teenager Noel Buck has been the forgotten man for the Revs so far this season. He saw his time on the field disappear for several MLS games in a row before returning to the starting lineup against Toronto on April 20th. He departed that game injured in the 44th minute.
If he is in line to return soon, Buck should get a look in the wide areas. It’s been a while since he’s played out wide as he prefers to play centrally and his coaches seem to agree. They all seem to have forgotten Buck’s best moments in 2023.
They didn’t come in central midfield, they came in further forward attacking areas, specifically coming central from a wide right position and onto his favored left foot. A left foot that proved well capable of delivering goals.
Last season, Buck had three goals — two from outside the penalty area — on just 19 shots and an xG of .77. The Revs are underperforming their xG and hardly scoring from anywhere in 2024.
Buck also showed himself capable of carrying the ball forward and taking the game to the opponent regularly last season, especially when he featured out wide and his teammates found him with a pass on the counterattack. The teenager hasn’t looked like the high-potential player he is this season when he’s been positioned centrally. Porter should strongly consider letting the kid get out and run down the flanks this weekend.
Turning to the older, more experienced side of the roster, Ema Boateng had a spot start on Saturday against Miami. He showed once again that he’s a great depth player to have around when you need him.
Boateng had a solid attacking performance providing width and attacking space in behind on several occasions. Porter has talked about needing a stretch player who can get wide and expose teams vertically. That’s a role Boateng can and has played well throughout his career.
It was just about a year ago that we saw Boateng step into the starting lineup for a spell in late May and into June. He had a seven-game stretch where his overall match rating was 7.3, with a peak 8.1 match rating performance against Orlando where he scored in a 3-1 Revs win. Boateng might not be an out-and-out 30+ game-a-year starter at this stage in his career but he has an attacking prowess and work rate to provide the Revs a short-term spark as a spot starter.
The ideal solution to Gil’s spell on the sideline would have been Dylan Borrero being ready to return to starting week in and week out. That timing hasn’t quite lined up so perfectly.
Borrero did come on for about 15 minutes last time out but the Revs will very carefully build up his minutes in the coming weeks. Rushing him back because of Nacho’s injury would be ill-advised, as Borrero is a potential savior for this season but only if he can be brought back into the fold slowly and contribute the rest of the way. Using three or four games to get him back up to form and fitness would still leave around 20 MLS games for him to do what he does in a starting role.
While the Revs wait for Gil to return and for Borrero to complete his comeback, Bajraktarevic, Buck, and Boateng stand ready to step in and do their part to turn this season around. With the way things have been going without them in the lineup regularly, there’s no reason not to give all three a boost in minutes over the next month.