Union’s increased lineup rotation shows increase in talent, and in Jim Curtin’s coaching

One of the biggest criticisms aimed at Jim Curtin during his years as the Union's manager has been about his reluctance to change his lineup when players are struggling.

That has changed this year, especially when it comes to the team’s attack. Curtin has played all five of the team’s forwards this year, and has even put midfielders Ilsinho and Marco Fabián on the front line as part of his tactical variations.

"Whether you play with two [forwards] whether you have three up top, whatever it might be, I think when you have four or five of them playing really well, you can have a quicker trigger with subs," Curtin said. "If one's having an off day, you can maybe make a move earlier than you normally would. I think you can also recognize now, okay if a guy is struggling at scoring, maybe the best way is to bring him on in the last 20 minutes, where now the defense is tired and fatigued, and can he get a little window to get that easy goal."

Curtin did that with Cory Burke in late March. After the Jamaican failed to score in three starts to open the season, Curtin changed things up and brought Burke in off the bench for a few games. Burke then got his first goal on April 6 against Dallas, entering the game in the 66th minute and cleaning up Marco Fabián’s saved penalty kick in the 85th.

Two games later, Burke sparked the Union’s win over Montreal last Saturday with the opening goal, a 22-yard rip in the 24th minute.

“Cory got, maybe, a rebound off a penalty kick when everyone else was exhausted on the field,” Curtin said. “He gets that tap-in, and maybe that’s a goal that gets him going. Same thing can happen for Fafa [Picault]. David [Accam] has won us two games by himself. All these guys have stepped up in a way that is positive.”

As Curtin noted, it clearly helps that this year’s Union squad is the deepest and most talented in the team’s 10-year history. Fafa Picault, David Accam and Cory Burke are all starting-caliber, and Sergio Santos would be too if he wasn’t injured. We have yet to see Santos’ full potential, and he might have the highest ceiling of the four.

But it also takes a willigness to make moves, instead of hoping a player will snap out of a drought in the next game.

"I think there's a certain growth that I've had, for sure," Curtin said. "But I still think it's also the quality of player that we've been able to add."

He then offered to "put it a little more bluntly," and proceeded to do so.

“Three and four years ago, with the roster, as much as I had to dance around it with you guys [in the media] saying to rotate the squad, if we did, we would certainly not be able to compete with some of the other quality of the opponents that we were playing against,” Curtin said. "We were strong, maybe, 12, 13 guys, whereas now I think we can go 20 deep and say, ‘You know what? There’s not much fall-off for this roster.’ "