What is STL CITY SC's New System?

St. Louis CITY SC fans have been able to watch 180 minutes of their new-look team under Yoann Damet in the 2026 preseason. With roughly half of those minutes featuring a half-full starting lineup (based on a projected Best XI) it’s safe to say we don’t know what to expect from this year’s team. 

We’ll get an increasing amount of clarity as games are played, visas are acquired & match fitness is found, but for now we have those 180 minutes and a handful of interviews to project expectations for Damet’s system.

Check out the end of the article for some visualizations combining how CITY lined up in the preseason & my expectations for CITY's first Starting XI of the 2026 season.

Should CITY fans be nervous about another back-three formation?

Last year’s odd-man system under Olof Mellberg was solid defensively at first but proved it could only prevent goals–and was only able to do that at the complete expense of being able to score goals. 

Damet is not Mellberg & this system would appear to a certain Swede as borderline Bohemian. And we can all be thankful for that.

Coach & players alike have championed a possession-oriented system that isn’t scared to actually possess the ball, while incorporating a consistent press & counter-press. 

Centre back Timo Baumgartl explained it simply, 'In this system you’re trying to have the ball more, if you lose it you hunt the ball.’ He elaborated more, remarking that, “More possession for us. That’s our goal. We want to have more of the ball, we want to be more proactive.”

Potentially comparing it to a certain system from last season Baumgartl said a big difference is that they’re “Not so much trying to only defend, but also to attack with the ball, without the ball. I think that’s a big part of our DNA now…It’s different to last year. It’s a different way of playing.”

Timo did pull back, saying that they’re “going to need time” to continue to dial in the system. With Timo starting the season between neither of the wide center backs the team planned, that's far from a surprise.

On the hopeful side of things Wallem-Santos as the two wingbacks should be a bright spot up and down the flanks from Day 1. Preseason saw them, and their backups Tomas Totland & Celio Pompeu, constantly high and wide. They seemed to live on the opposition’s touchline & were attacking the box as the most forward player on the field, with players like Becher, Hartel & Sangbin attacking later for service from out wide. 

The combination of a still-in-progress back line and wingbacks tasked with playing so high will be risky, especially for the first few matches of the season, but we can be confident that it will not lead to the same boring slog that took over Energizer Park last season.

How will the system shift–and new personal–affect the double pivot?

Daniel Edelman’s addition from NYRB was made more interesting by one of the first claims he made in a CITY jersey, saying he wanted to show he “Can break lines, find the 10, start plays”. He knows he has the pressing & defense down, just like he knows he won’t get to Europe without becoming better in possession and as a passer.

That mindset makes him a perfect player for a system that’s trying to take all the good things from high-pressing systems like Red Bull and combine them with a possession mentality that isn’t scared to play with the ball. (Hello September ‘23 flashbacks…)

Chris Durkin echoed that new mindset as well, saying one of the main questions they’re asking this year is, “How much can we dominate the game in [the opponent’s] half?”

The Durkin-Edelman duo we saw as the “starters” in the preseason shared responsibilities across the central midfield. 

“Maybe Chris plays the ball out wide & then I’m the one that’s joining the box.”, Edelman explained. “Because at the end of the day, we need to score goals. And one of the six’s [has] got to join the box as a runner.” 

Durkin also acknowledged that this will “require me to be on the ball more. And I know I have the abilities to do that. I know I have the passing range & composure.”

Edelman went on to reiterate how this system opens a new part of his game, “I think I’m a six, but I can get to the top of the box & make late runs and try to put up some goals.”

What about the press?

Durkin calls them the “orchestrators”, while Edelman explains how this press differs from the energy drink style he was trained in, “Here it’s lets reset, restructure reorganize & not have one guy go and all the other guys aren’t on the page, so that all eleven of us know when we’re pressing.”

On the defensive side of things, Durkin is already confident the pair have things locked down, “When I look across play with Danny, I know defensively we’ll be okay.”

Two final tactical things: You’re going to hear the word “reference” a lot in postgame comments. It’s the biggest defensive buzzword we’ve gotten from the players and refers to the triangle that is created on defense between you (the defender), the ball & the goal. 

And, the defensive idea is man-oriented but it’s not a close man-mark. Here’s how Chris Durkin describes it, “I know who the man is, but I don’t need to be on him because then there might be space behind me. So it’s balancing those things.”

Then there’s the very large question mark we have to deal with, which is that we didn’t get to see any live minutes with Eduard Lowen in this system and that he doesn’t have a similar skillset to Durkin & Edelman. 

How does this system shift to fit his passing but make up for the lost range of one of the current 6’s?

Lowen’s passing means that if he is available, OBVIOUSLY he’s starting at one of these spots. But can the defense handle the potential defensive strain while playing both wingbacks so high? And with the starting backline not yet filled out?

Am I overthinking this one?

We’ll have to wait to find out, as Lowen has been ruled out for Matchday #1.

What’s the attack gonna do with all that extra possession?

With the departure of Joao Klauss, this will be the biggest question for St. Louis CITY SC in 2026. 

Klauss wasn’t the most important player in CITY’s previous offenses, that distinction belongs to Eduard Lowen & Marcel Hartel, but he was always an adequate morph into each system. He brought players into the game as a false nine, was always one of the most aggressive pressers and then, of course, the goal-scoring. 

Lowen & Hartel are still here, but Simon Becher and the other potential Klauss “replacements” will have to pick up the slack at the top of the formation. 

Speaking of that formation, Damet’s been using a striker (9) up top with two attackers (10s) sitting behind. With the current 10s being Hartel on the left and Sang Bin Jeong on the right (with Mykhi Joyner right behind on the depth chat) each player has a distinct role. 

Hartel’s job–just like it was last year when he put up top league marks as a playmaker–will be to sit a bit deeper than the opposite 10, presenting himself as the most forward & dangerous distributor in a CITY kit.

SBJ & Joyner will be expected to cut inside and stretch lines, working off passes from Hartel and Becher & getting onto whipped crosses from Wallem & Santos. Both can also shift to a two-striker formation up top alongside Becher, with Hartel working even more centrally. 

One note about Joyner: He was staunch about remaining a left winger despite being a left-footed player. But Damet likes having inverted attacking players and so Joyner has been moved to the right side. It also happens to make sense on the depth chart for the current formation, with SBJ & Joyner having similar profiles as attacking players.

Becher’s main job is fair self-explanatory, but his pressing mentality needs to be mentioned. As does next on the striker depth chart, Brendan McSorley. These guys are pains in the ass. And I mean that as a complement.

“I would say that we’re both a pain. And we’re both pretty similar”, Becher explained. “I hope center backs hate playing against me. I hope I’m annoying.”

Circling back to the main ideologies of Damet’s system, here’s what Becher had to say. “We want to be an aggressive team. We want to have that St. Louis style….I think the biggest change is going to be on the ball. We want to have the ball, but not just have the ball to have it. We want to impose our will, we want to speed the tempo up…”

Damet & St. Louis CITY have the plan set, but do they have the roster that can execute it to its full extent? There’s GAM money burning a hole in their pocket & Owner Carolyn Kindle says that spending will come for “the right player” at “the right time”. 

Until that time comes, can Yoann’s system help keep CITY’s head above water?

How did these tactics look in preseason?

You can see how the system setups up a four-man box in the midfield, which should facilitate the counter-press that CITY SC wants to run. 

Here's CITY's formation with a two example opposition base formations overlayed. In both examples, CITY can overload the opponents in the midfield, always having a potential 4-on-3 or 4-on-2 advantage.

And here's just two of the 4+ different high pressing formations that CITY used in the preseason.