CARSON, Calif. – Sebastian Lletget the right back?
LA Galaxy boss Curt Onalfo pulled out an interesting stratagem during the latter half of the LA Galaxy’s 2-1 defeat to FC Dallas. With Los Angeles trailing by one and Ema Boateng about to enter the match, Onalfo pulled outside back Rafael Garcia and placed Lletget in his place as the speedy Ghanaian slotted into the midfield.
Lletget performed the task ably in his 19-minute shift as an advanced wing-back, making two tackles and a recovery.
“The change was purely tactical. We felt like we wanted to bring in an attacking player and, quite frankly, you look at our attacking unit they were all playing well,” Onalfo told reporters. “So it was very difficult to figure out who to take off. The logical thing was to take Rafa out of the game, push Seb to basically like an attacking right back, like another midfielder. I thought he did a good job and created a lot of good chances on that side of the field.”
Whether Lletget will ever play that position again remains to be seen, but Onalfo has confidence in the midfielder’s versatility.
“Seb doesn’t lose the ball. He’s just a really good soccer player. Good soccer players can kind of play anywhere,” he said. “We hadn’t spent a whole lot of time on it, but I had in my mind going into the game if we needed a goal that was something we could do and that’s what we tried."
