The 2024 season has been a tale of two halves for Orlando City SC in MLS.
After recording a paltry five wins in their first 20 league games, Orlando City Lions are now on a run thats seen them win seven of their last ten.
This has seen them shoot up the Eastern Conference standings.
They now sit in fifth place with just four games remaining, having been second from bottom just three months ago.
This tactical analysis and team-focused scout report will provide an analysis of their turnaround in the second half of the season and look at what Óscar Parejas men have changed in terms of their tactics to produce this stunning recovery to all but book their place in this years MLS Cup playoffs.
Orlando City Lions Barren Start
At the start of the season, Pareja set the team up in their usual 4-2-3-1 scheme from previous seasons: with two holding midfielders, a roaming playmaker behind a lone centre-forward, and two dynamic wide players with supporting full-backs coming from behind on the overlap.
Although the team created enough chances early on, averaging over two goals a game in terms of xG, they werent able to find the back of the net with any real consistency.
They also had difficulties at the other end, with several games ending in multiple goals allowed, including the five at Inter Miami on matchday two and three at home to Minnesota United the following week.
Eventually, Pareja decided to try something different: a system allowing him to play with two strikers up front.
He initially switched to a 4-4-2 before eventually experimenting with a 3-4-2-1 throughout the month of May, with an extra centre-back drafted into the side in an attempt to instil more defensive balance.
Although results in terms of points accrued somewhat improved during this period, the team clearly didnt feel settled into how they wanted to set up, with the system changing several times in a short spell.
Óscar Pareja Tactical Changes Which Lead To A Winning Formula
After the home win against Chicago Fire, Pareja decided to return to his trusted 4-2-3-1 scheme and settled on a core 11, which provided the catalyst for turning their fortunes around this season.
So what changed?
Firstly, the centre-forward position.
With just one player occupying the centre-forward position, this initially continued to be Duncan McGuire up until he went off to Olympics duty for the United States.
After McGuire left, he drafted Ramiro Enrique instead of Luis Muriel as his replacement.
Up until that point, Enrique had not lived up to expectations as the DP striker Orlando was looking to make the difference in their ranks.
Enrique, who missed the first part of the season with an ankle injury, took his chances extremely well, netting in four consecutive games to ensure he stayed in the team even when McGuire eventually did return.
What else changed?
Going back to a back four also meant that Dagur Dan Thorhallsson at right-back and Rafael Santos at left-back took up more defensive duties as full-backs with wingers in front of them rather than being the main sources of providing width in attack for the team.
This resulted in them becoming more of a secondary point of attack from the wide areas with their star man, Facundo Torres.
Iván Angulo moved wider from the inverted forward roles they had in the 3-4-2-1 shape previously, allowing Orlando to space their attacks better and transitions to run smoother with them as wide outlets.
How have they done that?
Lets look at the data viz below to find some possible answers.
As we can see by the above pass maps, a couple of things seem clear.
Compared to the first twenty rounds of the season, Orlandos recent upturn in form has noticeably seen more activity in the wider areas and better ball progression from the deeper central players to those occupying those spaces.
We can also notice a more even dispari
