Jay Heaps after 5 years: still the right guy for the job?

The USSF apparently disagrees with Sampson as to who to side with in the Harkes-Wynalda fiasco.

 

Interesting list. Sousa would be a fascinating option. I'm cool with Savarese. Though I think Dos Santos is going to be a steal when somebody finally gives him a chance.

 

Yeah...none of 'em are Revs material. Should another glorious run of not quite making the playoffs not do the trick for Heaps, Burns will go for the Soehn shine. It takes very special talents to 'git Kraftopia.

 

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/09/03/armchair-analyst-worth-fullback-more-week-26-slate

It's also not quite clear what the future holds for this group, who are not particularly young at any spot on the field anymore, and who haven't shown the ability to string together a season's worth of consistency.

But Saturday was a worthwhile reminder of just how much talent resides in Foxborough. If they do go for an offseason teardown and rebuild, they will have suitors and the ability to create real cap and roster flexibility.​

 

[QUOTE="d

But Saturday was a worthwhile reminder of just how much talent resides in Foxborough. If they do go for an offseason teardown and rebuild, they will have suitors and the ability to create real cap and roster flexibility.​

[/QUOTE]

All season this roster has played well below the sum of it's parts. I'm not sure how much needs to be changed in the roster other than adding quality to the open slots. What is clear---beyond the shadow of a doubt---Jay Heaps does not have the skills as a coach to make proper use of the taklent at his disposal. Beefing up the roster will not fix what ails this club. Bringing in a solid , mature quality Coach is the ESSENTIAL next step and it would best be done before the end of the season so the new coach has a chance to evaluate what he has and use the draft and off season trading season to rework things.

 

I agree.

When I read that quote in the article I was trying to imagine how the organization could weigh those two options (replace Heaps or overhaul the roster) and choose to overhaul the current roster. A roster that is not perfect by any means, but is the product of years of "work". This roster was not built and maintained by accident. A roster that many see a consistently under performing as compared to its talent level.

I have a lot more faith in the Revs ability to find a coach equal to or slightly better than Heaps. It would mean identifying and coming to terms with one person. I have no faith in the Revs ability to identify and come to terms with more than four players (1/3 of the starting lineup) at a time in one off season window outside of the draft.

 

Which option costs less?

 

Stand firm. Give Jay a chance. He has all the tools. They're trying. Unlucky bounces. Injuries. Tough schedule. The results will come. Patience. Soccer brains. Data analysis. Diamonds in the rough.

Status quo costs the least, I think.

 

Yesterday on SiriusXM CounterAttack, Kyle McCarthy was on. It was weird, being from the NE Soccer Journal they did not really ask him any Revolution specifics - maybe that was part of the deal since they talked in general about all the teams (or maybe he requested don't ask me anything about Revs).

He did say his surprise of the season in the East was Orlando tanking - implying maybe then that he felt the Revs were correct where they are.

Dunseth finally asked him what his thoughts were on the 4 teams below the playoff line in the East and what those organizations were going to do about coaching changes, naming Heaps and Kreis (besides DC since they have a new stadium and have said they are sticking with Olsen), and a pretty generic answer just saying that all 4 of those clubs need to take a hard look and see if they have the right guy in charge for the future.

 

Sigh.

I hope I live long enough to see the media treat MLS just like they do other sports. If the Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins or Celtics were under-achieving despite their having talented players like the Revs are now, d'ya really think the mainstream journos would be like "Well, they need to evaluate the situation and decide if they are going in the right direction." The Bruins kicked out Claude Julien mid-season and he was under a lot of scutiny before that actually happened. Then he took over the Habs, who were doing pretty well at the time, and oversaw a decline for the rest of the season

Why is it sooooooo hard for someone in the media to publicly say that the Heaps experiment is over? He has been here 6 years and it is time for someone else to take over. I don't buy the "Kraft is soooo powerful and thin-skinned that anyone questioning the wisdom of the club will be baniished forever" line. When the Pats were struggling, this was a common (and rightly so) theme, so why not now?

 

In light of the Lalas halftime call-out of USMNT (if you haven't seen it, check it out), Dunseth also asked Kyle how he handled managing relationships with players and coaches and then being critical or reporting on them, and if/when it was time to drop the hammer from a reporting standpoint. Again, he seemed really tip-toey on this answer.

I think these guys don't want to rock any boats - they like doing their reporting, they like their access, they like talking on radio shows or podcasts as "pundits"....you are so right - MLS, in this market, is just not there yet.

 

But what about journalists who cover other sports? Don't you think they like their access and all that too? If anything, there is more at stake in those areas, since a lot of people actually can make a decent living covering the "big four" sports, while soccer there are only a handful of people like that. Not to mention the guys who are "professional assholes" just for the sake of manufacturing "controversy."

 

Burns: "Don't fret, Jay. Playoffs are still on the horizon. You only lost by a touchdown. Heck, Belichik did much worse this past week. Say you take a $40,000 dollar paycut this next year, and we can re-up you for another 5 year gig? Krafty loves ya!"

 

From the recap of the game:

"AS BAD AS IT GETS: Not only were New England demolished on the scoreboard and not only were they on the wrong end of two Video Review decisions, but they also became the first team in MLS history to finish a game without registering a single shot. Going down to nine men in the first half obviously played a major role in that, but this was all in all a record-setting catastrophe for the Revolution."

. Jay has led the Revolution to unprecedented achievements. Burns, just make Heaps Manager for Life and put us out of our misery.

 

Heaps clearly sent the team out with instructions to hack the hell out of Atlanta--the dominoes that fell after that are entirely on him. That's what served for a "game plan."

 

Does Heaps have this same policy established and implemented within the team?

"Our policy here [at TFC] is have solutions – just don’t call out and bark out all the problems. Have solutions, and if you don’t have solutions, don’t be the guy that sits on the sidelines and starts rambling about stuff.

“Sometimes for me it’s more than just work rate, sometimes it’s more than just ‘you got to play better.’ It’s how, why? Doing what? What are the actual solutions to this? The rest of it is just banter, nonsense. Have a real solution.”

 

Will Geo S please pick up the White Courtesy phone

 

Great post - I just posted something similar in the game thread, but was wondering if this was the players decision due to the players only meeting Brad was fawning about in the broadcast - and what was Heaps role in it - because either way it shows Heaps has lost the plot.

 

Funny thing is, they won their last 2 games, and some of us were thinking that the unimaginative Heaps would just keep using the same lineup because "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

But what did he do, switch to a 3-5-2? WTF? And this team has a number of choices ont eh opposite side of the ball, but he sat Kamara, Caldwell and Nemeth. If Kamara sits, Nemeth should start. And you wonder why they couldn't muster a single shot?

And all the talk earlier in the week of how they are going to win away from home, and then this? If they lost, but at least gave a good fight, I can live with that, but giving up a goal barely a minute into the game?

Heaps has got to go!

 

And Tierney - so he brought in Floppin Farrell who has always looked horrible on the left side, and he continued his sub-par displays.

 

Heaps was doing squad rotation since a couple of mid week matches were coming up. But some of his choices were unfathomable.

Farrell on the left. On the right, Farrell is beginning to look like he's hit his ceiling - usually adequate. On the left, he's just a mess.

Watson. There was a place for Watson in this game, but as a right sided midfielder he was vaporized.

Kamara (or lack thereof) - not much hold up play in evidence. Did we really think we were going to play out of the back and produce any semblance of an attack? I guess Jay might have wanted him on Saturday in KC.

I would have played Knighton, if for no other reason than to protect Cropper's psyche.

On another note, we're getting pretty whiny with the Refs again. Angoua, and Koffie just need to STFU.

 

This one starts at the top. Jay spends entirely too much time whinging at the refs. The refs are the weather, Jay. You're not going to change them. Worse yet, you may attract their wrath. Shut your gob and learn to coach.

 

Written by a former FC Dallas player:

Warshaw: Make no mistake about it - soccer is a coach's game
September 14, 2017, 11:40AM EDT
Bobby Warshaw

 

And it is clear that a fair number of his players take their cues from that.

 

The cues the players get come from all level, not just Heaps.

They get the cue of

Indifference, from the Krafts
Invisibility, from Bilello
Incompetence, from Burns
Inertia, from Heaps.​

And now Lee seems to be overtly avoiding the captain role. So, add yet another layer where leadership has gone missing.

That's an ugly set of cue cards. Not a lot of good influences nor examples to look to. No wonder that on the field this team is far less than the sum of its parts.

There is an appearance of lack of care/concern, and a nearly certain lack of professional competence, in most of the positions above the players that are supposed to have a role in molding/shaping this team's culture and roster.