BEAVERTON, Ore. – “The only thing that I can say,” Portland Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese explained, “is that when you are put in that situation and it is difficult to make a decision, it’s because the team is in a good place.”
This is the response you’re going to get most of the time when you ask the Timbers boss about a position battle, and it makes sense. You can’t, on one hand, stress how important depth is – how vital each player is to the group – then do anything to undermine the ability to compete for a spot. The competition helps make the depth valuable.
That doesn’t mean the questions shouldn’t be asked, though. This time, the query targeted Savarese’s fullback depth chart, a place where the Timbers have been blessed all season.
At the beginning of the campaign, the roster projected Alvas Powell (on the right) and Vytas as starters, with Zarek Valentin and Marco Farfan in reserve. But Farfan started at left back in week one, Valentin soon earned himself a starting spot, and Vytas was traded to D.C. United midseason. Inject a returning U.S. international, Jorge Villafaña, into the mix, and Savarese still has tough decisions to make at his fullback spots.
“That’s the difficult job that I have,” Savarese said. “The staff has to make those decisions.”
To this point, it is unclear whether there is an established pecking order, or if there ever will be. But given only two players can start a given game in the wide defender positions, the team’s current depth chart will always come with a question: If there was a must-win game tomorrow, which fullbacks would start?
In the eight games Portland has played since Villafaña became available (starting his first game this season on Aug. 29 against Toronto FC), the midseason acquisition has started six times. Valentin has started as many games – four on the right, two on the left – while Powell’s starts, four, have been held down by injury concerns. Had the Jamaican international been available for every game, the numbers might even be closer.
For Villafaña, the situation is reminiscent of his time in Liga MX with Santos Laguna, where his status in Los Guerreros’ starting XI seemed to change from tournament to tournament. Though his current position battle has a greater week-to-week element, fighting for playing time has been part of his life since his 2016 departure from Providence Park.
“There’s always competition,” Villafaña explained, when asked about the battle. “Competition is the key for players not to relax and get overconfident, just being like, ‘I’m going to play.’ You lower your play.
“The competition is really important as a player and for the coaches, because you make it hard on them to choose the best XI every weekend.”
The Timbers also have a positional battle at forward, where Jeremy Ebobisse’s play has put him in competition with Samuel Armenteros. David Guzmán’s performance in Saturday's 4-1 over Real Salt Lake may give him a leg up on a central midfield spot, but Lawrence Olum has started 17 games this season, and depending on the given day’s tactics, he may yet prove Savarese’s preferred option. When Liam Ridgewell is not available in central defense, both Julio Cascante and Bill Tuiloma have showed they can step up, but at fullback, there are three proven starting options.
“In this case, there’s not only full trust in the fullbacks we can play but also in the center backs, and the forwards, too,” Savarese said, continuing a theme he has used since preseason in Arizona.
Portland’s roster is constructed around the idea of competitive depth, and although there are always going to be key players who make it difficult to take them out of a game’s XI, with the current philosophy the team has toward its depth chart, positional battles will be the expectation.
Fullback is merely one of those battles, albeit the most obvious one. And as it plays out, we learn a little more about the viability of the team’s approach.
