Minnesota United manager Eric Ramsay experiments with two strikers at Coachella Valley Invitational

As preseason experiments go, it’s hard to beat Minnesota United’s attempt at playing with two strikers.

On Sunday in their first of three exhibition games at the Coachella Valley Invitational in California, the Loons played with Kelvin Yeboah and Tani Oluwaseyi up front against a less-than-full-strength team from Sporting Kansas City.

By halftime, it was 5-0 Minnesota; at the end, it was 6-0, and both Oluwaseyi and Yeboah had scored twice.

“I thought we played really, really well,” manager Eric Ramsay said. “Obviously I’m completely aware of the context, in that they didn’t start as they probably would start the first game of the MLS season.”

Ramsay said the Loons were planning on making “seven or eight” changes to the starting lineup for Wednesday’s game against the LA Galaxy. For Saturday’s match against NYCFC, the Loons will return to something approximating the Feb. 22 opening day starting lineup.

But Ramsay said last week that, in addition to the usual fitness and sharpness goals in the preseason, he wanted to take Minnesota’s final preseason trip as an opportunity to experiment with a slight variation in the team’s tactics.

“We want to work on a system that is less familiar to us, playing with two forwards, because most of my time last year, we played with one forward and a variety of different things beneath that,” said Ramsay. “I feel like we are pretty well-versed in playing in that way.”

Especially down the stretch last season, the Loons played with a single center-forward up front (usually Yeboah) flanked with a pair of wider attackers (often Robin Lod and Joaquín Pereyra). Though the team had tried playing with two strikers earlier in the season, the pressing necessity of making the playoffs took precedence.

“We have a number of players that can play as number 9’s [forwards],” said Ramsay, who named Yeboah and Oluwaseyi and also Sang Bin Jeong and Bongokuhle Hlongwane. “We feel like if we can find a way of making that work, ironing out some of the kinks of playing with two forwards, that could be a real threat for us.”

Five goals in a half is a pretty good result for that attempt.

“It was pleasing that we’ve been able to make that work in the way that we have done,” Ramsay said after the game. “It isn’t easy to make it work with two forwards, and there are a lot of very obvious difficulties that can come from that system.”

The benefits of a two-striker setup are obvious: two players who can attack the defense, who can be available for crosses and through-balls, and who are dangerous from set-pieces. What Ramsay felt the team needed to work on were the trade-offs, especially defensively.

“Particularly if your back five gets pinned in by two wide players on the outside, you’re defending the width of the pitch with a three and a two [in the lines of midfield and forward players], and often that can feel like it’s difficult to get pressure on the ball,” he said last week.

This was particularly noticeable last season when the Loons tried to play with two forwards, such as in a home game against Sporting KC at the end of April. While Minnesota won 2-1, the Loons spent much of the first half stuck in their own end and having trouble pressuring the ball, especially on the outside of the field.

At halftime, Ramsay substituted one of the center forwards and switched back to a formation with a single central striker and two wide forwards.

“You can’t be everything, and if you try to be, you end up being nothing,” Ramsay said. “These are all things that are far easier to experiment with over the course of friendlies with little consequence than they are in repeated Cup finals, which we were involved with last year.”

Morris Duggan, who appeared in four matches (starting once) at center back for the Loons last season, was a surprise inclusion in Sunday’s starting lineup at left center back. According to Ramsay, it was partly because Jefferson Díaz is suspended for the season opener after getting sent off in Minnesota’s final playoff game — but also partly because he wants a left-footed player on that side.

Romero fits that bill, as does homegrown defender Devin Padelford, but Ramsay described Duggan as “almost a perfect fit” for the role.

Duggan, a native of Germany who was a first-team All-American at Marshall, went on loan last season and helped Rhode Island FC reach the USL Championship playoff final.

Ramsay has hinted that the right-footed Díaz will move back to his more natural right side this season. Carlos Harvey, who started the final eight games of 2024 at right center back, started Sunday’s match at that position.