Ezra Hendrickson has clear goals as Fire start training camp

Coach Ezra Hendrickson said the Fire were close to making the playoffs in 2022. When the team has its first training session Monday, it’s Hendrickson’s job to make sure the Fire close the gap.

“We were nine points away [in 2022] even with a sub-par season, not accomplishing some of the things we wanted to during the season,” Hendrickson said. “We still weren’t very far off. There were a few incidents where, had they gone better, we would have found ourselves in the playoffs where we want to be.”

Hendrickson’s optimism aside, the Fire have a long checklist to get back into the postseason for the first time since 2017.

The Fire must build on the defensive identity that produced 12 shutouts while improving an offense that scored just 39 times. They also need to stay healthy, which they didn’t do in 2022 when they lost midfielders Gaston Gimenez, Fabian Herbers, Jairo Torres and defender Wyatt Omsberg to season-ending injuries.

Getting more from Xherdan Shaqiri and Torres is also a priority after neither quite lived up to their advanced billing in 2022. The Fire recognized they needed more of an attacking mentality on the flanks, and they’ll find out whether they addressed that by replacing right back Boris Sekulic with French defender Arnaud Souquet.

Barring a surprise Gabriel Slonina loan from Chelsea, the Fire need to settle on Chris Brady, Spencer Richey or new signing Jeff Gal as their starting goalkeeper. There are also open questions at striker. Jhon Duran blossomed last year but has been the subject of multiple European transfer rumors, Kacper Przybylko struggled in 2022 but is healthy entering camp, and an open designated player spot is still looming over the position.

In general, Hendrickson’s goal is to create more roster depth, which could lessen injuries and have other benefits.

“The key for us is getting deeper at every position, making sure there’s competition, good enough competition so that no one gets complacent in their position,” Hendrickson said. “At times, we fell victim to that. We’ve done a good job in the offseason to make sure that we’re getting better and getting deeper as a team.”

Hendrickson also knows he has areas to improve after his first year as an MLS head coach, when he admittedly wasn’t as decisive as he needed to be with lineup changes and substitutions. However, there might have been a reason Hendrickson wasn’t as eager to use his full roster.

“If we make the team better at every position and deeper at every position, it would be easier for the team to be up 2-0 and look down the bench and say, ‘OK, we need this player to go in and finish out the game’ because a lot of times we didn’t finish games out,” Hendrickson said.

Like Fire fans, Hendrickson bemoans last year’s lost opportunities. The mission this year is to take advantage of those chances, and that process begins Monday in Bridgeview.

“We know that we’re not very far off,” Hendrickson said. “We did enough to get in the playoffs, but at the same time, we shot ourselves in the foot.”