The Seattle Sounders enter the 2023 MLS regular season with loads of optimism that comes from a fit squad, but a healthy amount of skepticism from a 2022 campaign that ended poorly. With a fully healed João Paulo and Raúl Ruidíaz, and another year of Albert Rusnák, the Sounders can tweak some things tactically to ensure the pitfalls from last season don’t creep into this one.
Brian Schmetzer has never been one of the most praised tacticians in MLS from the pundit class. Whether that’s deserved or not is a topic for a different article, but there have been some tactical tweaks that are happening this preseason that may have flown under the radar.