Galaxy’s Efrain Alvarez finding comfort level under Greg Vanney

Efrain Alvarez’s playing time has increased in each of his first three seasons with the Galaxy.

So far this season, he’s on track to extend that for a fourth consecutive season, but he knows there’s more for him to learn and room to grow.

“My comfort level is to always try to learn more stuff from (Galaxy coach) Greg (Vanney),” Alvarez said. “Every day he’s teaching me something new, but I feel a little bit more comfortable about his playing style and what he wants me to do.”

Heading into Saturday’s road game against Real Salt Lake, Alvarez has played in each of the Galaxy’s eight matches (5-2-1).

“I’m adapting very quick to him and I hope he’s noticing,” Alvarez said. “There’s always different things that I can improve. I hope in the next weeks or so, I can improve on them as fast as I can, scoring, assisting and being more around the game.”

Another sign of Alvarez’s development can be traced to last week. Tuesday, the 19-year-old attacking midfielder went 77 minutes in the U.S. Open Cup and four days later, went the full 90 in a hard-earned 1-0 victory over Nashville SC.

“We want him to be as much involved as possible,” Vanney said. “Get as many touches as he can, so it’s staying connected to the game in various ways. We’ve used him inside, we’ve used him coming off of the outside, but it’s to be as involved in the game as much as possible and not kind of fade in and out of games. I felt like in the past sometimes he’s faded in and out.

“For a player of his ability and the goal he has is that he needs to be on the ball and trying to make some final decisions. We’ve asked him to stay a little bit higher in between the lines because he had the tendency in the past to drop on the other side of the midfield line and pick up balls but then he becomes less dangerous.”

Vanney said another goal is to try and get Alvarez in “that finishing zone where he can help get more goals and assists.”

“He’s a grinder,” Vanney said. “He can cover a lot of ground. I think he covered the third most ground in the game the other day. It’s just trying to get him to find little moments where he can change gears and get to this 12-16 mile-an-hour range where he’s doing a little bit more high-intensity work inside of just some little sprints here and there, little things to impact the game and do that over the course of the game a little bit more so he can have a greater impact.”

When Zlatan Ibrahimovic played with the Galaxy, he called Alvarez “the best talent in MLS by far.” That was when Alvarez was 16 years old.

“He’s an incredible talent,” Vanney said. “He’s also starting to organize his ideas on what he’s going to see happen just a little bit earlier. Now I think he’s starting to see action ahead of the play which is going to make him better and better.”

GALAXY AT REAL SALT LAKE

Where: Rio Tinto Stadium; Sandy, Utah

When: Saturday, 12:50 p.m.

TV: TUDN