Scouting Report: Chris Richards

I hadn’t seen Chris Richards play since the U20 World Cup about a year ago. In that tournament, he was the team’s best player and a commanding presence at center back. Since then, he’d gotten a little time with Bayern during preseason tournaments and spent the rest of his time at Bayern II.

Then last week someone (h/t to Charlie Kennan) pointed me to a very cool YouTube channel that contains a collection of 3. Bundesliga games. There are several Bayern II games on there so I availed myself of them to take a look at Mr. Richards.

Preamble

I watched a little more this time than I normally do to write these pieces. My usual drill is a careful study of two games so I can try to draw conclusions based on observations that are consistent between the two (also, I have wife/kids/job that I enjoy spending time on😂). For this one, I watched two wholes games, the first half of another one, and then chunks from two or three more.

The reason for this is that Richards didn’t look as good to me as I remember from the World Cup. He was still an excellent defender and a physical marvel, but he seemed ill at ease on the ball and passing. Grading games has taught me that memory is not to be trusted, but I still wanted to try to figure out why I was getting this impression.

After watching a large stretch of minutes with Richards playing LCB, I finally stumbled upon a full 90′ of him playing right back. He’s not a right back, but his comfort on the ball and passing nous showed back up. My working theory? He’s a right center back, not a left center back, or a right back. That’s where he played in the U20 World Cup. The problem is I couldn’t find footage of a single game that he played there for Bayern II.

I’m still going to go through the themes that I picked up on while watching, but I think he’s going to look better if/when he gets a run in that position.

Strengths

Physical Gifts

I hate those inane articles about what if our best athletes played soccer…but Chris is an exceptional athlete. He is strong, fast, and can get up for a ball better than most. These gifts are obvious if you are only minimally paying attention.

Having a guy like this is much like having a shut down corner on an American football team. If you can have a corner single cover a wide receiver and not have to worry about him anymore, it frees up your defense to commit more defenders elsewhere. In the same way, a center back like Richards allows you to send more players forward to attack/counter-press with the knowledge that Chris won’t need help at the back. (BTW – This is why Berhalter likes Aaron Long)

His aerial ability shows up on both ends of the field. He scored two goals in the games I watched and was only beaten in the air once that I can recall. If he and Weston McKennie are ever in the side for the USMNT they are going to be a problem on set pieces.

I also enjoy that he tends to be a little rough on attackers. I noticed this in the World Cup when he wiped out (cleanly) Ukraine’s star striker in the first couple minutes of the match. He lets you know he’s ready and willing to knock you down.

Reading the Game

Part of what makes Richards such a good defender is that not only is he physically gifted, but he reads and reacts to the opposition attack very quickly. He sees the play developing and then is able to take care of the situation before it turns into anything too malignant.

The Case for Right Center Back

To start with I’m going to present a couple gifs of Richards playing left center back:

I know he’s a professional soccer player and he’s supposed to work on his weaker foot and all, but nearly every player is more comfortable with their dominant foot. For Richards that’s the right. When he’s playing left center back he has to pass frequently with his left. If he wants to dribble away from goal he has to go to his left. Even just looking at the field in front of you – the types of passes you can hit are limited if your weaker foot is toward the bigger part of the field.

Now take a look at some gifs of him playing right back:

Now he’s not a right back either btw. He wasn’t comfortable getting forward and I didn’t see a single cross, but his mojo on the ball was restored when he was on the right.

Why?

So why has Bayern played him almost exclusively on the left or at right back? There are two possible explanations imo.

1. Bayern is forcing him to work on his weaker foot in the hopes that it will make him better on the ball in the long run.
2. Lukas Mai is also a right footed center back and they rate him more highly so Richards just played where they could squeeze him into the lineup.

My heart says option #1, but my head says option #2. We may find out in the near-ish future since there are rumors that Richards will not be a Bayern player next season. I think that’ll be good for his development. He’s ready to take a step up from the 3. Bundesliga and he needs to start getting playing time in his best position.

My hope is that he’ll get playing time in a first division somewhere next season and develop into real competition for Aaron Long at RCB for the full national team. I think he’s every bit as athletic as Long and he has shown the potential to be a good passer from the position as well. As in all things, time will tell.

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Cutting Room Floor

These are just gifs I made, but didn’t have a use for in the article.