In the interest of time and our collective sanity, we will keep this brief.
0/2. Why, might you ask, did I not need a 36/17/11 trio? Because it stinks.
No explainer needed for Klauss. He plays with his back to goal, draws multiple defenders, looks for quick combination plays, flicks, and so on.Hartel is the best player on the team. (Don’t interpret this as most important, but as the best.) Like Klauss, he seeks quick combinations, allowing him to pass to a teammate or run onto one himself for a chance. And for those who truly care about this kind of detail, those are also the “Designated Players.”
So build a damn team around them. (Teaser alert.)
Instead, we have Teuchert, who also wants the ball played to his feet but has been utterly incapable of doing anything with it in 2025, and Becher, who contributes nothing to any phase of possession besides running beyond the defense, looking to get on the end of passes.
Dallas, especially after taking the lead, bunkered down, daring CITY to break through their defensive walls of five. What they, and every other team in Major League Soccer over the past two full years, have learned is that St. Louis CITY SC, in its current form, lacks the profiles of players who can break down these compact defenses, especially in the wider attacking areas.
Let’s set aside Edu from this discussion for now. As we talked about, your two best players are comfortable playing together—short, quick, crisp one-twos. When there are many defenders in a small area, there’s no room for that in the center. Also, Dallas was okay sitting in their own third, removing the threat of Becher running beyond (which also limits Totland’s ability to do the same). So, what’s left is the need to do something on the wide areas—stretch defenders, beat them, and create passing lanes for cutbacks, crosses, or just give Klauss and Hartel space to operate.
Cedric Teuchert is slow and struggles with 1v1 dribbling. He is below average as a passer, and right now, all he really contributes are shots and goals—though he isn’t doing either at the moment.
Simon Becher is also slow and has difficulty with 1v1 dribbling. He ranks near the bottom among MLS passers. His main contributions are a strong work ethic, pressing, and a willingness to run beyond the defense to get to the end of passes, but that isn’t very helpful in this scenario.
Neither of these players will help beat a team playing like Dallas out wide, and neither was built to play in their current roles. David Critchley knows that, 100%. But if you look at this CITY roster as it stands, here are his Wide-10 options:
And Mykhi Joyner? Not on the roster.
Ostrák played there for a few minutes, and looked more threatening than either 11 or 36, while completing a grand total of 0 passes into the penalty area. Again, Ostrák looked more threatening than Teuchert or Becher in the wide attacking areas, and he didn’t even complete a pass into the penalty area.
So, what exactly was this roster built for? Two years of ineffective 4-2-3-1 soccer, followed by a switch to a 5-man back line, but only kinda because we didn’t really bring enough depth to make that work, and then we spent a lot of time publicly criticizing that manager and his system. So, we go back to the 4-2-3-1 and, guess what, the roster isn’t built for that either? You see where I’m going with this. That’s why this one is short.
Because Saturday night’s result doesn’t really *matter* in the grand scheme of things. This season has been over for a while, and the transfer window is coming up. There’s a much more critical discussion to be had, which is why we will be back soon with a lot of thoughts, opinions, and xPassion.
We are #AllForCITY, forever and always, and we suck. So, fix it.