What a difference a year makes? Marlon Hairston’s name was being thrown about
as a fullback to start 2016, but now he is being asked to help increase
Colorado’s scoring with the likes of Dominique Badji, Kevin Doyle, and Shkelzen
Gashi as he now will push forward as an outside midfielder. The trick, Marlon says, is to not abandon
their defensive scheme for the sake of scoring more goals.
“Defensively we were great last year so it’s
more ideas to add to the same defensive responsibilities that we had last
season. Still having the same defensive mindset that we had last year will help
us create more chances going forward.”
“I don’t think its bad pressure at all-We have to hold
ourselves to a higher standard as far as being able to create more chances
going forward.”
Just because Colorado had the best defensive record in the
league last season doesn’t mean they are content on sitting back behind the
ball and hoping for a counter-attack to spring, according to Hairston. They are looking to be on the front foot as
part of that defensive focus all over the pitch.
“We want to defend as much as we can in the
aspect of getting the ball quicker. We don’t want to defend all game just for
the sake of defending-we want to win the ball in higher areas up the field so
we’re closer to goal keeping the other team under pressure.”
“We want to have the ball, but we want to get after teams by
the way we press. The system we’re playing now it requires the front 3 guys to
be as patient as possible. We want to
play higher up and not have to come back so deep to get the ball and be as
close to the goal as we can.”
Something else Colorado can enjoy to start 2017 is depth at
the top 3 or 4 attacking positions, which aren’t exactly static, says Hairston,
but evolving by the way the match is progressing. “On paper, I’ll be a right midfielder but
throughout the game I could end up on the left side, I could end up in the
middle of the field,” Marlon tells The Voice of C38. “There’s a lot of interchange and any of our
front 3, 4 guys could end up in a lot of positions. With the guys we have anybody’s comfortable
playing any of those positions and to know we have a great defensive group behind
us that will help us out going forward.”
The top candidates for offensive firepower have not changed
since last season-Doyle, Gashi, Badji, and now Hairston-but Marlon also praised
a couple of other returning players with the same name as well as the
high-profile signee Bismark Adjei-Boateng for what they bring to the rotation.
“Right now we have a ton of options going forward. Nana (Boateng) is a great player, an engine we
miss losing Jermaine (Jones), he covers a lot of ground. Having Dillon Serna back will be a big help
because service is great and technique is quality. Having Dillon Powers as a number 10 this
year, the connection I have with Dillon personally is great. He’s always looking forward when he’s getting
the ball, his body position-he’s always looking at going forward. He’s played
deeper for us before, and he’s great at connecting passes side-to-side, but
just in the higher position up the field will help us create chances for the
front three. Ultimately that creates chances for Doyle, Badji, hopefully
myself, Gashi-whoever’s up there.”
Hairston also admits a familiar name to fans has already
been an influence in helping him realize what he needs to work on within his
own game in the current Rapids scheme. A
proven MLS goalscorer in his own right, Assistant Coach Conor Casey hasn’t been
shy in working with the young strikers as well as the veterans. “Conor’s been great working with me and Badji
throughout preseason and now he’s been doing a lot of video with us with
starting positions when we have the ball, the buildup, trying to keep defensive
teams honest, trying to stretch them as much as we can-runs we can make to get
in behind. We’re wingers but in this system we’re kind of narrow so we’re right
on top of the number 9 now so any pointers he can give will help tremendously.”
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