So this brings up the question of whose job is it to create meaningful and useful loan deals for players on the lower half of the roster? That person needs to be fired!
I think it might be the same guy who is/was in charge of the "partnerships" with Sporting Lisbon and Rochester. Not sure who that might be, but he mist be a top-shelf kind of guy.
I'm still not sold on how much Heaps played in drafting these guys and then deciding how he would integrate them. I'm also so disappointed in how little the Academy has proven to give guys a chance. Heriaviux was not going to even be given a chance under Heaps - because Heaps was so immature in his understanding of how to integrate, motivate, rotate, etc. I am looking for Friedel to demonstrate he has a much better eye for talent than Heaps, and knows what he wants to do with this roster - which guys he keeps and which guys may be moved.
There's also Josh Smith, a pretty good pick for where he was taken. For the record, I never said he was great at drafting - the word I used was competent. I think Neumann was a miss, but mostly because he came into a situation where there was no place for him to play - a team that was loaded with attacking midfielders drafted an attacking midfielder ... and didn't even have a reserve team/loan situation to give him a chance to play. I think Neumann never had a chance to get comfortable and show what he could do. And, while virtually everyone liked the idea of drafting Farrell at the time, I expected more/better. That's probably down to coaching and maybe Friedel will be the answer to him reaching his full potential. OTOH, I don't want to defend their draft record in recent years too much - they have definitely been getting less and less from the draft (as have most teams, probably). There are more/better players coming from elsewhere these days.
I'd like to rep this 6 times! It's mind-blowing to me that Heaps couldn't find any MLS minutes for the best product out of their academy outside of Fagundez and Caldwell. It would be one thing if he couldn't play, but he did well in limited USOC minutes and seemed to get better as he got more time. Heaps should have some more faith in him to develop.
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...land-revolution-coach-mls-mauricio-pochettino “I think there’s a large amount of trust between [the general manager] Mike Burns and myself,” Friedel said. “I don’t see there being any reason why there won’t be a great amount of trust between [the owners] Robert and Jonathan Kraft and myself. That is a huge part of the reason why I came here. In many ways, that is what makes Friedel such an intriguing proposition. He talks extensively about being his own man, but he’s not willing to articulate what that represents.
Well, over the next half year many of our questions will be answered. There are a lot of decisions for him to make in the near term and a roster to be restructured and built out. We've all offered opinions what we think will happen. Now we get to watch it all unfold. This years "Hot Stove League" should be fun to watch.
Anyone else listen to Friedel's interview with Adam Jones on 98.5 tonight? Regarding the Krafts willingness to spend money on players, he's either already a good company man or he's hopelessly naive. I suppose things could be different, but there's no reason to expect it.
I missed it. Can you summarize the basic points he made? Somehow I think I can guess, but it would be good to have an accurate count. The real question is to see how the roster gets re-made over the winter. Trades, acquisitions, maybe switching around some roles, and whatever else he has in mind will give us a better sense of where he's going to take us.
Interview is available here. AUDIO: @NERevolution Head Coach Brad Friedel joined @adamjones985 on @985TheSportsHub https://t.co/ebkZyDqOxQ— Josh Deering (@J_Deer) November 22, 2017 Just wondering where his accent went?
I'll try. Jones asked whether he got the job because he's Burns' friend. He said they aren't really such good friends and besides, he was also interviewed by Bilello and the Krafts, so it wasn't just Burns' call. And he wasn't the only candidate, he said. He also said that he had been offered head coaching jobs before. He said understanding the quirks of the MLS signing system wasn't such a big deal and that he would have the resources needed to sign players. A lot of it sounded like the same stuff we heard under Heaps. He did talk about his international connections when it came to finding players. I didn't hear much about the current roster, though i think they touched a bit on the Academy. He said the team was adding and upgrading training facilities. He also said he believed the Krafts want to build a stadium. They ended the discussion with a talk about the USMNT. After the interview, Jones admitted he's not that knowledgable about soccer. To his credit, I think he knew most of the big points to hit.
Yeah, by the time the season starts, Friedel will see someone pull up to the curb at the stadium and say, "Whaddaya, re-TAAAAHH-did? Ya caaan't paahk yuh caah heeah, yuh gutta paahk ovah therInTha paaahkin lawt!"
Thanks! These are 2 of the 3 big things that will differentiate Friedel from Heaps. We have too long been shown Heaps inadequacy in this, so I am interested to see what Friedel at least attempts. Demonstrating that he has connections will be evident pretty early how much he has. And this will be the 3rd big one. What does Friedel change what Heaps "built". Which players are Friedel looking to not invest in anymore or sees as bench players? Which players are he looking to build around? Don't we have a bunch who are coming up on option years? If so, that does give Friedel a good starting point to demonstrate what his vision is instead of being handicapped by the previous manager's roster. Again, I am looking to see if the Revs are truly going to show that they are committed to trying to win MLS Cup, and not just live in MLS 1.0 land and hope for a squeak into the playoffs. And looking for Friedel to show that he is the strong manager who is a leader, who has an eye for talent and identifying upgrades (even if they are unpopular), and can man-manage men and integrate youth as a pipeline. Most exciting off-season in awhile.
Well, most interesting...Exciting? Well, as long as Lucy Burns is holding the football excitement will be an emotion the FO and Friedel will have to earn.
Also want to add, I expect Friedel to also have connections to get some of our guys to train in Europe at off season.
It did wonders for past players to get their training spell with Blackpool and St. Mirren's, and I expect the same wonders going forward.......
All the more reason to get rid of him. One, we dont really need him...two - way overpriced for what he delivers. Lee was only a goal behind him ... give him a big piece of Kamara's salary. Do not protect Kamara in the draft and pray.
Yes, Friedel has to be better than Heaps. I am patiently waiting for him to start making moves before passing any judgement. I want to see if he cleans the hacks out, signs high quality (not OTH) players and how he manages the roster. Will we have a full roster or will scrooge Burns stop that? Also, there were guys on the roster that never saw a minute under Heaps. I feel sorry for them. If they are never good enough to play then lets let them go and get other players that can play. My biggest disappointment is the fact that Burns has survived this even though he is a big part of the cause of the situation. How he manages to isolate himself while Heaps goes under the bus is beyond me? What is says is that somebody much higher up has no idea what is going on, where the problems are and how to fix it. We could have such a great franchise here in every way if SOMEBODY in charge would take the time to figure out what the heck is going on. Of course, I'm assuming they actually care and Im not convinced that that's true at all. Just think of all the extra overpriced beers, Patriot Jerseys from the Pro shop and food they could sell if we were pulling 25K ++ a game. With a good team, that could happen and I might start to go again if there was a reason to
Philly owner. Can Krafts match? Union owner Jay Sugarman: 'We do need to spend more, and we'll be doing that http://www.philly.com/philly/sports...stewart-youth-academy-20171124.html?mobi=true
I read somewhere (i.e. unconfirmed rumor) that Kamara's option for next year is only $600K. Lee is already at $500K. Granted, at even money I'd still take Lee over Kei, but I think if Kei was exposed LA2 would snap him up in a heartbeat. Only 18 players in MLS had more goals than Kamara in 2017. I have to think Friedel/Burns could get something in a trade for him instead of letting him go for free. If Friedel thinks he can use Kamara better than Heaps did and wants to keep him around, I'd be OK with that too.
Ah, how easy it is to forget how hard it can be to find a scorer. Kamara could've had 3x as many goals with a coach/teammates who knew how to use him properly. When Kamara was fed the right kind of balls, his scoring rate has been very high. I think your assumption that the people intimately involved with the inner workings of the team management have no clue to what you can obviously see from the outside looking in is rather suspect. The reality is, most of us (me, included) can only speculate about who does what, how decisions have been made, what options have or have not been available, etc., etc. The Revs are pretty much a black-box operation, for better or worse - making it very difficult to assess who has done well with what they've had to work with and who hasn't.
I think his approach is to deflect questions on that issue, because there's little/nothing to be gained by entering into a public discussion on the matter. He's going to have to deal with it internally - fight for what he wants and needs; and we'll find out over time how successful he is. My take is that he's got a lot more juice than Heaps ever did. Who else was going to give Heaps an MLS head coaching job, let alone any other head coaching job? Friedel has a lot more recognition, experience, preparation and contacts in comparison.
I agree with your first paragraph. However, I'd note that if there was a specific plan already in place to spend more money this offseason we would have seen a tweet to that effect from Brian B. So, I hope he is a good fighter. On the second paragraph... I'd like to hope you are right and I don't want to be guilty of circular reasoning but... If he has THAT much juice why isn't he in Colorado or Portland or <insert other MLS openings> or the Championship...? Kremlin rules down in Foxboro, of course, but the only juice I think we've seen (so far) is that he got some more scouts? I'll take it, of course, but it doesn't message to me that the Krafts are opening up the checkbook to help their new coach succeed.
Nothing makes Colorado any more attractive than New England. Stan Kroenke is just as much if not more tightfisted than Kraft. The Portland position was not open (opened Nov 17) when Friedel took this position (on Nov 9). Additionally, the Revs have a very talented attacking core of players in their prime (or still ahead of it, in Diego's case) that I think would be attractive to work with. Compare working with Diego, Rowe, Nguyen, Agudelo, Nemeth and Kamara versus... Dominique Badji, Gashi, and Hairston? Easy choice.