Quinn Sullivan keeps playing forward for the Union even though he isn’t a forward

Sullivan has played every game for the Union this year, and has just 2 goals and 6 assists. If Jim Curtin is going to keep playing him as a forward, then they're both going to be judged on that.

Both of Quinn Sullivan's goals and half of his assists this season came while he was playing midfield.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published June 18, 2024, 1:58 p.m. ET

Although Quinn Sullivan has played forward a lot for the Union, he isn’t actually a forward.

The 20-year-old Bridesburg native is better suited as a midfielder or winger, and he isn’t the only one who will tell you that. Stats and the eye test have said plenty over his years with the Union and U.S. youth national teams.

So why does Union manager Jim Curtin keep playing him up top, especially when he has three other forwards to choose from?

It’s not that Sullivan can’t play forward. He has enough attacking skills to do it, especially when paired with a partner of contrasting traits like Mikael Uhre.

But if Curtin is going to keep playing Sullivan at forward a lot, then it’s going to make sense to judge Sullivan as a forward — and judge Curtin for keeping Markus Anderson, Tai Baribo, and Chris Donovan on the bench.

Right now is a good time to do some judging, since Julián Carranza’s departure is about to blow a 10-goal-sized hole (and that’s just this year’s numbers) in the Union’s front line.

Sullivan has played in all 21 of the Union’s games this year across all competitions, with 19 starts. He has played nine games as a forward (including four of the last five), 10 as a central midfielder in the Union’s usual diamond 4-4-2 (five were before April), and twice as one of two attacking midfielders in a 4-3-2-1 (both in March).

His totals in those games: two goals and six assists. Both of his goals and three of the assists came in games when he played as a midfielder.

Life isn’t just about goals and assists, but when you’re a forward, you get judged on goals and assists, and these numbers aren’t a ringing endorsement.

Still ‘the least’ of Curtin’s worries

Curtin, though, believes Sullivan remains the best candidate for the top pairing with Uhre.

“Yeah, right now, I think he has been, and he’s earned that on the training field,” Curtin said Tuesday, before the Union headed to Cincinnati for Wednesday’s latest grudge match with last year’s Supporters’ Shield winners (7:45 p.m., FS1, Fox Deportes, free on Apple TV).

“Look, Quinn is a great playmaker,” Curtin said. “He’s an all-around player. He can play in midfield, he can play on the side of the diamond, he can play as a 10 [attacking midfielder], he can play as a second striker.”

He also defended Sullivan’s lack of goals and said he’s satisfied with the player’s “getting opportunities” to score even if he isn’t finishing. That includes two big moments in the first half of Saturday’s awful 2-1 loss to Miami, and who knows how it would have gone had Sullivan scored either?

“To demand and rely on just him to be the one that’s scoring the goals is probably unfair to a young player, but Quinn’s had a really, really strong season for us, has been tireless in his work rate,” Curtin said. “Probably is, I know, more of a midfielder, but because of the different pieces — guys in, guys out, missing Julián — we have to adapt and adjust, and we’ve played him up top a bit. I still would say he gets chances, has the assists that you mentioned, could have a higher goal total for sure, a little bit unlucky.”

Curtin acknowledged that “other guys” will get increased playing time this week, since it’s a three-game week ending with Charlotte FC’s visit to Subaru Park on Saturday. Sullivan also might move back to midfield since Alejandro Bedoya suffered a quadriceps injury against Miami that will sideline him for two to three weeks.

But if there were any doubts left about Curtin’s view, he ended them by saying Sullivan is “the least of our worries right now.”

Rival managers back Curtin

There’s been growing heat on the Union on social media in recent days, as shown most dramatically when part-owner Kevin Durant clapped back at a fan on Monday. But while Curtin has earned a few critics in that part of the world, two major leaders of rival clubs gave him strong praise in recent days.

First was Inter Miami’s Gerardo “Tata” Martino after his Herons won the game while two men down. Asked if the Union’s long-standing tactics have become easy to play against, he praised the team’s consistency.

“It’s logical that they don’t change style, because with this style they have been the finalists [in 2022],” the former Barcelona, Argentina, and Atlanta United boss said. “When you have a team like Philadelphia, with a manager like Jim, who has been there for so many years, and they are always in the playoffs and they are always playing decisive games, the truth is you get to a situation at a certain point and you respect that way of playing. Because it gets results, whatever the way is.”

And Cincinnati’s Pat Noonan, who was Curtin’s top assistant until moving west at the end of 2021, said he’s still a fan of his former colleague.

“I root for Jim. I root for a lot of those guys to have success,” Noonan said Monday. “They’ve been stable for a long time, and when you’re stable and at the top of the league for so long, any time there’s a stretch where you’re not winning games, you’re not getting results, there’s going to be criticism. … But I can tell you with Jim and with some of those leaders, they’re going to be fine.”

The Union-Cincinnati series has become pretty spicy in recent years, and that got the attention of MLS’s national TV partner at Fox when this season’s schedule was put together. The network picked Wednesday’s game as one of just three Union regular-season games on traditional TV this year. The next, and last, is a Sept. 22 home game against D.C. United.