Three Ways It All Went Wrong for Peter Luccin and FC Dallas in 2024
After a promising and exciting start to the Peter Luccin era, FC Dallas sputtered as the season approached its most important moments.
Dallas’ playoff hopes ended with two games left in the season.
Let’s look at three areas where things went the wrong way for Luccin and FCD in 2024.
1) Sticking With the Back 3
Nico Estevez’s decision to take his team away from the 4-3-3 used in his first two seasons and shift to a 3-4-2-1 shape may end up being the defining decision of the 2024 season. The objective, of course, was to bring more goals into the team that struggled to find the back of the net consistently in 2023 while also maintaining a solid defensive structure. It didn’t work. With the new shape, Dallas did score at a bit of a higher pace, but the defense broke, with Dallas regularly conceding multiple goals per game. Estevez stuck with his back 3 until the very end, only deviating from it on a couple of occasions, and Dallas used it right up until the final moments of Estevez’s last game in charge, a drab and uninspired 1-1 draw in Minnesota.
So, when Peter Luccin took over the team, there was an expectation that Dallas would move away from the back 3, which never seemed to really fit the whole team, and get back to the back 4 that they had used for so many years. And initially, Luccin seemed to be on board with this idea. In truth, he never really abandoned the back 3 at any point, but his team did initially play out of some different shapes, including a 4-1-4-1 and the 4-4-2. There was a lot of fluidity here and some flexing in and out of different shapes, but Dallas didn’t seem quite so married to the back 3 as they were under Estevez. And this shift seemed to go right along with a major uptick in form as Dallas quickly started reeling off wins, and even their losses felt a lot more positive.
PHOTO: David Gonzales/Imagn Images
It all sort of crashed down a bit with the Leagues Cup, as Dallas exited quickly after a brutal performance against FC Juarez. But there looked to be a silver lining: Dallas would, after a crazy summer of fixture congestion, have some time off and, more importantly, time to work with Luccin in training on how he really wanted this team to play.
So, it was a surprise when Dallas returned to play in the nation’s capital and rolled back out in the 3-4-2-1. They pulled off their first and only away win of the season in DC, but that ended up being one of the only high points of the post-Leagues Cup run. Dallas kept rolling out the 3-4-2-1 and just couldn’t get the results they needed. They blew two separate one-goal leads at home to Colorado in their next game, ground out a very Nicoball-esque 0-0 draw in Vancouver, and then lost to RSL in Utah. A fun 3-1 win at home to a heavily rotated LAFC team looking ahead to their US Open Cup final gave a slight reprieve. Still, then Dallas was played off the pitch at home against Orlando, and finally, their playoff hopes ended in an embarrassing loss in San Jose. In every one of these games, Dallas came out in the 3-4-2-1 and played out of it for almost the entire game. Luccin didn’t go away from it until the game after elimination in Portland, where the team returned to the 4-3-3, looked far more comfortable, and had one of their best performances in weeks, generating almost 20 shots in a place where they’ve only won one time in their history.
It is fascinating that two separate managers made the 3-4-2-1 their ride-or-die formation, and both of them ended up dying on that hill.
2) Not Able to Get All The DPs Working Well Together
Besides the desire to get the offense rolling, the genesis of the 3-4-2-1 seemed to be the concept of how to best get all of Dallas’ designated players, Petar Musa, Jesus Ferreira, and Alan Velasco, on the field together in the attack. In theory, having Musa as the high striker, with Ferreira and Velasco operating underneath him, would be a fantastic combination. The problem was twofold: Velasco was always set to miss the majority of the season as he recovered from his ACL injury, and Ferreira dealt with a myriad of injuries over the course of the season. The result was that Dallas did not have all three DPs available at the same time until very near the end of the season, and by then, it was simply too late for them to develop enough chemistry to be effective.
There were flashes, most notably in the LAFC game where Dallas scored three goals, that the trio could work some magic together, but it was mostly rather disjointed, likely as much a product of Velasco trying to work his way back to form and fitness and Ferreira struggling to regain his own form. It all resulted in Musa, who has 15 goals in 2024, hitting a cold streak at the most inopportune time and culminated in him being subbed off early in Dallas’ must-win game in San Jose. Musa went straight to the locker room, clearly angry about being subbed out, and did not come off the bench in the following game against Portland.
All three players are under contract with Dallas for 2025. There are enough signs and more than enough talent there to continue trying to make the trio work, and hopefully, a full preseason together will work wonders for their chemistry and confidence, but it wasn’t enough in 2024.
3) Strange Personnel Decisions
Early in Luccin’s tenure, he was a bit hamstrung in his personnel decisions due to some injuries in the team. For the most part, there was a pretty clear group of healthy players that he could lean on, and he supplemented those players with some young guys who got their first run-outs in the team under him. Players like Tomas Pondeca, Tarik Scott, and Anthony Ramirez all made their first team debuts in the early parts of Luccin’s tenure, a refreshing sight to see after Nico Estevez seemed to go out of his way to avoid playing young players.
But as Luccin started to get players back from injury and Dallas added some more depth via the signings of Ruan and Show, some of the personnel decisions got a bit confusing, especially as things really reached the climax of the season and the must-win games to stay in the playoff hunt.
First off was the Nkosi Tafari situation. Tafari started every single game under Luccin until the FC Juarez loss in the Leagues Cup. After the League Cup, Tafari retained his place, though interestingly, he was now being played on the right side of the defense instead of centrally. In the final few games, Tafari was largely relegated to the bench as Omar Gonzalez, who had previously hardly played under Luccin, got crucial minutes down the stretch. Tafari didn’t have a great 2024 overall; it was a step back from his very strong 2023 season, but it is confusing why he was the odd man out defensively.
The other odd spot was the choices in midfield as things came to a close. Patrickson Delgado missed a chunk of time after the Leagues Cup but looked set to slowly be worked back into the picture in the final few games. He got a surprise start in midfield against LAFC, where he played a decent, if not spectacular, game while Show Cafumana nursed an injury and Sebastian Lletget was rested (though he did score an excellent goal). He then got another run out in what was probably Dallas’ biggest game of the season against Orlando and was a bit of a disaster without Asier Illarramendi next to him. The midfield pairing of Patrickson and Lletget was simply outmatched and overrun.
Show, who had started really well for Dallas, was confusingly omitted almost entirely against Orlando. In the following truly must-win game against San Jose, Show returned to the lineup, paired with Illarramendi. Still, Lletget, one of the team’s most consistently strong performers throughout the season, hardly played at all. It was poor management of the midfield in what was a really crucial set of games. Tsiki Ntsabeleng, who had been such a pleasant surprise under Luccin and impacted games, was also hardly played in these crucial games.
Luccin didn’t have an easy task at hand, but he didn’t help himself with some of the confusing personnel decisions he made. As an inexperienced manager, it seems like he may have simply overthought things and just gotten it wrong.
What do you think about what went wrong for Peter Luccin’s FC Dallas down the stretch in 2024?
PHOTO: David Gonzales/Imagn Images
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Categorized:FC Dallas