Milan Iloski is ready to jump right into the Union’s squad, and the playoff race

While Milan Iloski’s agent and the Union jumped through all the hoops necessary to get him to Chester, the 26-year-old striker kept a pretty simple philosophy about the wait.

“I don’t know about all that stuff, to be honest,” he said. “I don’t want to know. It can be too big of a headache, I think, to figure all that out.”

As he spoke with a group of reporters at the Union’s practice facility, one of the scribes told him that it was probably for the better. Even veterans of MLS’s bureaucracy were confounded by the waiver rules that denied Iloski a straight move from San Diego FC to the Union.

Thankfully, that’s now all in the past. Iloski has taken quickly to the Union’s squad and tactics, and it will be no surprise if he comes off the bench to play in Saturday’s game vs. Toronto FC at Subaru Park (7:30 p.m., Apple TV).

“As things started to get a little bit closer and closer, the excitement started to build, and [I was] probably a little bit impatient also,” he said. “Now I’m just so happy it’s here, finally, and I’m able to be here every day and just be another player in the group. Which, for me, is all I want to do: play soccer and be on the field.”

Iloski is used to being a super-sub: he scored five of his 10 goals in 14 games for San Diego in that role, subbing in for big-money stars Hirving “Chucky” Lozano and MVP candidate Anders Dreyer. He’s likely to play that role here, at least for the rest of this year, with Tai Baribo, Bruno Damiani, and Mikael Uhre atop the depth chart.

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“No one wants to be not picked at the end of the day, but it’s a team sport and some people have to get left out,” Iloski said. “So I always try to look at it like when I get in there, and I get my two minutes or 20 minutes, or half a game, or whatever it is, I have to really have an impact. … I try and keep myself engaged while on the bench, and then ready to go as soon as my name does get called.”

He’s also used to being in a team that values developing youth. Like the Union, San Diego’s squad is loaded with young Americans, including former Union prospects Anisse Saidi and David Vazquez.

But there is one big difference between the clubs, and it’s not that San Diego is paying Lozano over $7.6 million. (Much of that money has already been made back in jersey sales, as Lozano’s Mexican national team stardom is a hit with the city’s big Mexican immigrant population.)

As recent statistical analysis by the Guardian showed, Iloski’s old club brings the ball out of the back with more passes than any team in MLS this year – in fact, among the most in league history. The Union, meanwhile, always to play fast, and are often spending more time without the ball than with it.

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Adjusting to that tactical change might be the hardest part of Iloski’s integration, more than his tactical positioning in the Union’s customary 4-2-2-2 formation.

“I think it’s really intense, which I really like,” Iloski said. “You can feel it in the training just in the first few days. But also, it seems a little bit more more freedom, a little bit more being individual, which I feel like for me is only going to help — I think San Diego was a lot more structured and a lot more ball-oriented.”

Those words might surprise Union fans who feel accustomed to watching their team play a specific way. But the Union don’t always play with the same formation these days, and there’s flexibility in how the ball moves upfield as long as it gets where it’s supposed to be.

“I really like the tactics, and I really like how many players we have in the attack,” Iloski said. “For me, that always helps, to have teammates really close to me on the field and around the goal.”

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There’s also flexibility in where Iloski might play. Union manager Bradley Carnell said he can see the 25-year-old lining up as a striker or as an attacking midfielder in various situations.

“We have a few plans for him, we have a few ideas for him,” Carnell said. “He can play at the No. 10 [attacking midfield] and 9½ [withdrawn forward], the floating 9 a little bit.”

Asked if that meant all four of the usual attacking positions, combining strikers and midfielders, Carnell said: “Any of the four.”

Iloski said that opportunity appealed to him in turn, as he played in roles behind a central striker at clubs before San Diego.

“That was also part of my decision of coming here,” he said. “I have the abilities to play in between the lines, and in the pocket, and shooting from range, and things like this, and being able to also set up my teammates. I really enjoy also playing in those positions, and I’m a big team guy, I want to win. So for me, if they need to put me in those positions to help, I’m happy to be there.”

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On the defensive side of things, almost every soccer team does some amount of pressing these days. But it’s no secret the Union do more than most, and Iloski is ready to play his part.

“At the end of the day, you have to run to be successful in soccer, and I’ve always been a very fit guy who can cover ground,” he said. “So for me, I’m happy to do the job on that side of the ball. … Of course there’s going to be different patterns of doing things, and different cues and things like that, that I’m learning every day and working really hard with the group to understand a bit better, so it becomes more natural instinct.”

He’s also ready to jump into the wild Eastern Conference playoff race. With nine games to go, the first-place Union, (15-5-5, 50 points), Cincinnati, Nashville, Columbus, and Miami (with three games in hand thanks to the Club World Cup) all have a shot at first. Sixth-place Orlando could jump in, too, nine points back with games left against all but Philadelphia.

“There’s not a long [time] left now, so I think every game is going to be that much more important,” Iloski said. “So we’re really looking forward to this thing coming down the stretch, and hopefully we finish on top.”