LAFC Sack Marc Dos Santos: The Most Expensive Attack in MLS Ranks 19th in Big Chances Created

Three in the morning in Hanoi, I paused on frame 41 of the LAFC versus Vancouver match. Son Heung-Min received the ball on the left flank, and for the next four seconds, not a single teammate moved into the box. He passed square. The ball drifted out to the touchline. I rewound it, and counted three more times in the same match, the same script: a world-class player waiting, while the system behind him stood still. On Sunday night Los Angeles time, LAFC announced they had parted ways with head coach Marc Dos Santos. The club statement said they would share interim plans and begin the search for a replacement. Nobody in Los Angeles was surprised. A team tipped by many as MLS Cup favourites before the campaign now sits sixth in the Western Conference, with six games remaining, and has won just once in MLS play since August 1. But the thing I want to talk about lies elsewhere. The double-decker bus lost its brakes, but the steering had already gone crooked long before that. LAFC is one of the biggest spenders in MLS. Their squad contains some of the most expensive players in the league, and their attacking corps features two names any competition would envy: Son Heung-Min and Denis Bouanga. When Son arrived at the back end of 2026, he scored 12 goals in his first 13 games. It was the kind of start that had American media writing that MLS finally had a genuine global star. The staffing context matters too. Steve Cherundolo left the head coach role to join the U.S. Youth National Team setup. The LAFC hierarchy chose to promote from within, handing the job to Dos Santos, a decision that surprised observers. Dos Santos managed 39 games, with a record of 19 wins, 10 draws and 10 defeats — a number that does not sound bad. But football is not lived through totals. It is lived through trends. And LAFC's trend is heading downhill. After winning three on the bounce following the World Cup break, this team has won just one MLS match since August 1. One match in nearly two months. For a squad rated as title contenders, that is the output of a side fighting relegation, not one chasing a trophy. I watched six matches back, then dared to say what 96 percent of pundits avoid. Most of the commentary after Dos Santos was sacked circled around two words: "Son has declined." That explanation is convenient, easy to sell, and in my view, aimed at the wrong address. Look at the numbers. According to data compiled by Goal.com, LAFC rank 15th in MLS for goals per game, 19th for big chances created, and 16th for expected goals (xG). With 30 teams in MLS, 19th in big chances created means this club sits in the bottom half of the league in the most dangerous part of football: turning possession into opportunity. It is worth being precise about what a "big chance" is. The statistic counts passes that lead to a shot in which the receiving player is placed in a situation where he is expected to score. It measures organisation, not finishing. A team ranked 19th in big chances does not have a striker problem. It has a chance-creation problem: in off-ball movement, in overlaps, in stretching opposition defences to open that final gap. And here is the detail that makes me trust my conclusion. Son has scored six goals this year, but has 13 assists. A player in decline does not assist 13 times in a season. A player forced to drop deep, carry the ball, build the play and create chances for himself is the one who produces numbers like that. His scoring rate falling from 12 goals in 13 games to six in a year is not a sign of ageing legs. It is the sign of a player shifted out of the danger zone. Based on my experience of watching matches, when a star is both the main finisher and the main initiator, that team is living off two shifts from one man. An attack like that does not need tactics; it needs miracles. And miracles do not repeat weekly. This is where I push back. After Dos Santos was dismissed, most experts said he never found a working formula with a star-studded squad. I agree on the outcome, but not on the cause. The problem was not that Dos Santos lacked a formula. The problem is that the club built a squad in which a formula is almost forbidden. When you spend the biggest fees in the league on two attackers, you create a system of dependency. The midfield is designed to feed them, not to create on its own. The full-backs are designed to support, not to penetrate. When opponents lock down those two spearheads, the whole machine freezes, and nobody below is coached to do anything else. Ranking 19th in big chances is not a coach's mistake. It is the consequence of a squad-building philosophy. I have seen this before at My Dinh Stadium, in the second leg of the 2026 AFF Cup final. Vietnam lost 0-2 to Thailand, and the whole country talked about the attack. But what I wrote then was about Trong Hoang being pushed to right-back. The error was not in the scorer or the keeper. It was structural, in a system assembled crooked before the ball even rolled. LAFC today is another version of that story, at a far higher financial level. MLS has a salary cap and Designated Player rules. The money poured into Son and Bouanga consumes a large share of the club's flexibility. That means it is hard to add depth elsewhere, and when the attack stalls, there is no second option of sufficient quality to rotate in. This is not an LAFC-only story. It is the familiar trap of any league with strict spending rules. Pressure from the stands also needs to be placed correctly. LAFC has a young, large fanbase accustomed to winning. When the team manages one win in two months, patience evaporates faster than elsewhere. The hierarchy was right to act. But acting quickly and acting correctly are two different things. Whether LAFC appoints an interim coach or waits until the end of the year for a permanent hire remains undecided. That decision is bigger than it looks. A good interim can produce a short-term bounce, but what LAFC needs is a transfer window with direction, not an emotional jolt. As for Dos Santos, I am not defending him. A coach who oversees 39 games and cannot produce a repeatable attacking pattern must take responsibility. But sacking one man does not fix a system. If the LAFC hierarchy believes changing the coach is enough, they will soon find themselves in exactly the same place. Where could I be wrong? If Son is carrying an undisclosed injury, if age has taken away his acceleration at 34, then all my structural analysis is just a roundabout way of describing a physical problem. This is the profession's familiar blind spot: clubs only release medical information when it suits them, while media and fans stay blind. But 13 assists argue the other way. A player who has lost pace can still create. A player who has lost his touch inside the box is no longer himself. Son created more this year and scored less. That is about role, not age. One more point deserves fairness. The Leagues Cup ended early for LAFC even though they did not lose a group game. Defeats like that get overlooked because people only read the table. But they show that this team has no answer in matches where the opponent plays the right hand. Ahead lie six games, including Vancouver, NYCFC and the El Tráfico derby against a resurgent LA Galaxy. Three opponents with three different styles, and a genuine test for whoever takes the hot seat. The stadium lights go out, and the story of the young player only begins to shine. The same applies here: once the cameras leave the coach's chair, people start looking at structure. LAFC will not improve by changing the man at the wheel. They improve when they redefine Son Heung-Min's role: send him back into the box, and hand chance creation to the people who are coached to do it. A million views do not come from being right; they come from daring to go against the wind. I do not need LAFC to prove me right. I need to see that 19th-place ranking in big chances created move. If it stays exactly where it is after six games, then the problem was never Dos Santos. And if it moves, the hero will be someone nobody is naming this week.