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The 27-year-old Swedish international entered the 2021 season as the undisputed starting left back for Houston Dynamo FC. Mostly undetected, Adam Lundkvist, has played all the 450 minutes so far this Major League Soccer Season. But after the Dynamo’s fourth match, the Texas Derby, questions have risen about the positional competition that Adam is getting at the training ground each week.
If you break down some of the goals that Houston has conceded this season, you will find Lundkvist being caught either positionally out of place or just plain missing tackles allowing the opposition to create plays out of nothing. Lundkvist is successful on just 30.3% of his pressures this season. For instance, in the Portland match, Adam had Pablo Bonilla in the corner but decided to stab at the ball which allowed Bonilla to pass by him and cross the ball into the box were Dairon Asprilla did not hesitate to put the ball in the back of the net.
Lundkvist had a few other bad positional errors Portland could not take full advantage of. In the next match against LAFC, Adam was caught flat footed against the reigning MLS Golden Boot winner, Diego Rossi, but a magnificent save from Marko Maric masked the Swede’s error. Overall, Lundkvist has struggled to find his best form.
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One area Lundkvist has done well this season is completing short passes, connecting on nearly 85 percent. His medium passes are also strong, coming it at 76.5 percent. An area the Swede has struggled in with passing has been long passes. He has completed just 18 of 43 this season, about 42 percent.
In what can be seen as a look inside the Dynamo’s tactics, Lundksvist has just 7 crosses this season, in comparison with 71 and 75 the two previous seasons. He also has switched the ball across field just three times. It looks that the Dynamo are pushing their fullbacks in to the attack and using them to connect shorter passes to the midfielders, as opposed to whipping in crosses and hitting long diagonal balls.
With currently no one on the depth chart to contend the left back position, Lundkvist may need to strengthen his form before the transfer window opens in the summer and Tab Ramos looks for a solution in another set of legs.
What are your thoughts on Adam Lundkvist? Let us know in the comments section below.