A 4-3-3 on the way to Red Bull Arena?

Almost one year ago, I watched a New York Red Bulls pre-season contest and was immediately impressed. Here was a team that was always a little lost dog of a franchise. Traditionally, this club was the Charlie Sheen of MLS – a big ol’ mess.

And yet coach Hans Backe had ridden to the rescue and, within just a few weeks over the preseason, had added structure and tactical discipline previously unseen. You could spot it immediately. And on it went once the games meant something. The Red Bulls weren’t tearing up MLS, but they were competitive, even with a roster that still reflected some of the personnel booboos of the past.

Players such as Thierry Henry and Rafa Marquez came in later, along with the promise that things could get even better. Finally, New York had an MLS club it could be proud of.

I always gave Backe a lot of the credit. Plus, I just liked the guy. He didn’t seem to take himself too seriously (as some of his predecessors certainly did) and never tried to make things sound more complicated than they really are. It’s soccer, after all, not advanced chemistry.

I spoke to Backe the other day, just catching up, and looking for some information on Juan Agudelo for an SI.com piece.

One thing that came out is that Backe is toying with the idea of using a 4-3-3 this year. I like his thinking here because it shows that he’s not one of these tactically rigid types. He looks at his personnel and decides what fits best.

“If you look at our team, we really have only one player, Dane Richards, who is a naturally a wing player,” Backe told me.

Meantime he has got a growing little buffet of central midfield choices. He has Rafa Marquez and young Tony Tchani, who played in the central roles last year. He has Joel Lindpere, who was playing centrally (and doing quite well) prior to Marquez’s arrival. Lindpere moved out to the left but always tended to lean inside. Clearly he can play out wide, but he’s more comfortable and probably more effective on the inside.

Now comes Norwegian international Jan Gunnar Solli, who can play out wide, but who also appears to be more effective on the inside.  “He is a clever footballer, and he can definitely play central midfield,” Backe told me.

So, I could see a number of possibilities, perhaps something slightly unbalanced, with Richards playing further up the field on the right, and perhaps with Henry playing underneath a striker. (The three attackers would play ahead of three central midfielders in a “V” shape, with either one or two men holding.) Or Henry could play behind two strikers in an attack that depends on the fullbacks for width. Or Henry could set up slightly left, with Richards wider to the right.

Henry could even play as an advanced striker, with Mehdi Ballouchy working behind him.

Tactically, if the Red Bulls can make two or three arrangements work, they’ll have a lot of flexibility on how to attack teams’ defensive weaknesses.

By the way, I wondered aloud of Marquez, who turns 32 in about two weeks, can perform reliably in midfield over a long, hot MLS season that includes a lot of taxing travel miles? Backe called Marquez a smart player who knows his body. The manager has no doubt that his Mexican international is equipped to deal with the burden, especially if he plays more of a holding role, with Tchani, Lindpere and Solli doing a larger share of the running.