I am not feeling great about the fact that we are this late in the cycle, and we’re asking significant question about who should be on the field (and we haven’t even gotten to What Is To Be Done About Ashley Sanchez)

Despite this consistency of personnel, Hayes has used 17 different combinations of three midfielders in that span. Tuesday was just the second time that Hutton, Heaps, and Lavelle opened a match together. The consensus “first-choice” trio of Coffey, Heaps and Lavelle has also started together just twice in 20 months. The most common combination has been Lavelle playing in front of a Coffey-Hutton double pivot on four occasions.