When Orlando City hired Jason Kreis as its new head coach midway through last season, Cristian Higuita saw a potential problem.
“I actually went over tapes of his past teams and I noticed that he liked to play with the diamond,” Higuita said through a translator. “So, I knew he was going to ask for that eventually.”
The problem? That formation, a 4-4-2 with a diamond-shaped midfield, allows for one true defensive midfielder. Higuita played as a defensive or box-to-box central midfielder for Orlando City in a 4-2-3-1 formation the last two seasons, paired with Darwin Cerén, now with San Jose; Servando Carrasco; or Antonio Nocerino.