CHICAGO – In any sport, it’s important for the person in charge to continue to keep a positive mindset even when things are going wrong.
That’s the situation right now for Chicago Fire FC’s first year manager Ezra Hendrickson as he navigates the club through a two-month winless streak. The last three matches have been extra painful, with a late goal costing the team a tie then a win while a controversial call last Sunday at New York City FC saddled the club with a loss.
After a decent start to the season, the Fire have slid to the bottom of the Eastern Conference after failing to win a match in their last nine tries, with six of those being losses.
Hendrickson said there won’t be any tactical changes for the club to snap out of their losing skid but did say some personnel moves will be made. At the same time, the manager is hoping to find a consistent lineup moving forward, with injuries and new additions creating a number of different “Starting XI’s” this season.
“We’re just trying to get the team together, to be on the pitch for an extended period of time and for an extended period of games,” said Hendrickson. “We haven’t had a chance to sort of put the same lineup out on a consistent basis, and I think once we do that, with the final pieces that we just added, we’ll be better because if you look at the games, we’re really close.
That has been the case in the last three matches that have produced just one point when at least four was possible. The stretch has put the Fire on the chase when it comes to a potential playoff spot, the odds of which have dropped a bit over the last two months.
At the moment, they are five points behind expansion Charlotte FC for the seventh and final playoff spot with six teams at the moment to jump. They’ll face Toronto FC on the road this Saturday, trying to not let this stretch get to them and dig a bigger hole in the standings.
“It’s really, really close and it’s just about us remaining confident right now rather than doing anything drastic as far as tactically or lineup and stuff like that,” said Hendrickson. “But there will be some changes going forward, maybe just more of the intensity and how we get back to defending the way we were earlier in the season.It’s something that we slacked off on.
“We’ve lost our compactness and stuff like that. So we’ll change certain things within the way we play, but as far as an overall tactical change or lineup change, formation change, we don’t see the need for that yet.”