CHESTER — The No. 10 position exerts outsized influence in the sport of soccer, on the attentions of front offices and on what transpires on the field.
Keeping with that tradition is how the Philadelphia Union have handled the role this season.
A change in April at the No. 10 lowered what the Union as a team are capable of.
Another move in August has restored that ceiling.
It may be too much to place on either Daniel Gazdag or Milan Iloski, but such is the nature of their jobs. Without Gazdag, the Union’s all-time leading scorer dealt to Columbus in April, what remained of the Union was still capable of climbing the Eastern Conference and maybe even winning silverware. But there was no world in which the Union without Gazdag were as good as they were with him, however much Bradley Carnell’s coaching and the team’s counter-pressing ethos seek to minimize the importance of individual brilliance.
Saturday night’s 4-0 win over the Chicago Fire showed the dynamism that Iloski can bring. And it renewed hope that the post-Gazdag Union may have a similar gear to find as versions of the team with the Hungarian.
“I think for me, the biggest thing is whatever role I’m in, to do that job,” Iloski said. “Tonight, it was a little bit deeper playing as a 10. And for me, I’m also very comfortable on the ball. So I’m fine being the guy driving forward and winning the ball, being the guy connecting forward. I’m also comfortable running off things and being in that striker role.”
Iloski’s acquisition in August was a coup for a front office that has excelled in finding shrewd bargain buys. His services shouldn’t have been obtainable. The 26-year-old who starred at UCLA and failed to break through in his first MLS attempt with Real Salt Lake parlayed USL excellence at Orange County SC to a deal with Danish club Nordsjaelland last year. He was outstanding on a short-term loan to San Diego this season, scoring 10 goals in 14 appearances (three starts), a ridiculous return in just 471 minutes.
But Iloski and San Diego couldn’t agree on a permanent deal. He returned to Denmark, played one game, and then was reeled in by the Union.
It’s both a short-term and long-term win in Chester. After signing Bruno Damiani to a club-record contract to pair with Tai Baribo, Mikael Uhre is almost certain to leave when his contract expires at season’s end. Iloski is a long-term No. 9 option while a bumper crop of young strikers develop.
But in the shorter-term, he fills the hole at the No. 10. Indiana Vassilev is industrious and works in the Union’s system because he does the defensive work most No. 10s won’t. He also can’t do with the ball when many playmakers can, and that’s been a liability in games where the Union have found themselves with lots of possession and few answers in how to break down defenses. Vassilev’s productivity has been solid by his standards – three goals and four assists in 1,600 minutes, equaling his contributions in St. Louis last year in 1,800 minutes. But he has just 15 shots on target the last two seasons combined. In his last two full seasons with the Union, Gazdag had twice that many goals (34), with 64 shots on target.
Vassilev and Quinn Sullivan have been passable as twin 10s. Sullivan is the primary chance creator, with two goals and seven assists. But he hasn’t taken the hoped for step forward from five goals and eight assists in 2024. He’s got a single assist in 420 minutes since returning from the Gold Cup with the U.S. In those seven appearances, he’s accumulated just 0.9 expected goals and 1.5 expected assists. His season xA is just 5.8.
Meanwhile, Iloski has two goals and one assist in his first 240 minutes with the Union in all competitions. His 11 league goals on an xG of 4.6 is a surely unsustainable overperformance. But he’s able to do more with the Union than San Diego’s suffocating emphasis on possession allowed.
“He has the physique of being a mobile, technical, gifted footballer,” coach Bradley Carnell said. “And we see a lot of qualities that accelerate our transition game.”
Iloski provides insurance both to Damiani’s continued inability to put away chances – he has four goals on 9.9 xG, and three non-penalty goals on an npxG of 7.5 – and to the diminished explosiveness of the No. 10s. If Sullivan continues to struggle, Iloski can fill his role. If Vassilev and Sullivan get hot, Iloski can be the beneficiary by moving up top.
“I feel like one of the main reasons why I wanted to come here was because I felt like I have more to my game than just goals,” he said. “And today I was put in a role where I had to also create chances. And I’m just happy that the team performed so well. It was an entire front-to-back performance. And it’s easy to play on a team like this.”
It’s too much to posit Iloski as an inflection point, though that is the temptation with any No. 10. Before his arrival, the Union dutifully grinded through the summer, beat a lot of teams they were clearly better than by virtue of a superior sense of soccer identity, depth and fundamental. But that only carries a team so far. As spring turned to summer, the team looked occasionally short of guys who could make plays – that is, not playmakers per se but players with the innate sense to grab hold of a moment and deliver a match-winning play when the moment demands.
Thus the Union, from May 31 to the 1-0 loss at the New York Red Bulls, were shut out four times in 13 games, scoring just a total of 12 goals.
Gazdag was one of those guys. Baribo is another. Hopes were high that Sullivan would be, though it hasn’t transpired just yet.
In Iloski, the Union have found another match-winner. And maybe they’ve found a different path to get something from a season in which they will enter September still alive in three competitions.
Contact Matthew De George at mdegeorge@delcotimes.com
Source: Berkshire mont
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