Charlotte FC Stock Up, Stock Down: The attack falls short again, when will the young prospects be given a chance?

By Brian Maurer

Brandon Cambridge (Photo courtesy of CJ Hellner/TopBin90)

This past Saturday was the worst loss of the season for Charlotte FC. The winless streak, the opponent, and Orlando City, DC United, and Toronto all earning points add up to an ominous feeling in a time when everything seemed in Charlotte's control. That solidifying, optimistic image of this year's outlook is starting to slip away and needs course correction fast with six games to go.

Here is this past week's stock up/stock down:

Stock Up

Kristijan Kahlina

At this point, he is almost a permanent stock-up. He made seven saves. With the high-quality looks that CF Montréal had they were going to get a goal or two. Kristijan Kahlina kept the team close but there was almost no response from Charlotte to help him out and earn anything from the game.

According to FBRef, Kahlina is leading MLS in PSxG-GA (+9.6). This stat suggests that he has prevented more than nine goals worth of attacking volume throughout the season. While this is a major positive for Kahlina's season it is a concern for the club. A good team never wants to have to really on their keeper to bail them out as often as Charlotte has needed theirs this season.

All the young attackers

This one is pretty straightforward. The longer the DPs and other primary attacking options continue to struggle from the start, the better the outlook is for young players like Iuri Tavares, Brandon Cambridge, Patrick Agyemang, Nikola Petković, and on to start getting more reps.

If any changes are made to the attack, these young guys will surely benefit. The trend seems to be heading in that direction.

Stock Down

Dean Smith

His best work was early in the season when he helped stabilize the team and build momentum from the beginning. That foundation is starting to get squandered and heads have to start turning towards the coach to find a solution. The answer has to be found quickly. Montréal should have been an ideal opportunity for the club to right many of the attacking issues that have been plaguing the team this year.

Montréal has given up the second most goals per 90 in MLS (2.11). That number is no fluke as they allow the most non-penalty attacking volume in the league (46.7). There is no way to sugarcoat this performance. It was a bad loss for Smith. This was a situation where he normally leads the team through with a solid rebound performance. That rebound was not there. If he can not find the solution this week with two important games (@ Orlando City, and home vs New England), questions will need to start being asked about how much tangible progress was made this year.

The club has also struggled to keep clean sheets like they were early on. It's been eight games since their last shutout in MLS which is nearly three months ago.

The front four

Karol Świderski, Kerwin Vargas, Liel Abada, and Pep Biel have all been disappointments since being integrated into the starting eleven together. Two losses against teams below the playoff line who have been performing poorly are well below expectations of this attacking unit. They have created only 10 total chances across the two games these four have started together. The defensive line and defensive midfielders created eight chances during these games. A defender has also been the only goalscorer, and it was off a set piece.

This group needs to be able to demonstrate they can create way more from open play or changes need to be made. It's crunch time. Goals from this group are the expectation, anything less is inexplicable for a team that should be defending its position in the standings rather than slipping towards the play-in game.