Honestly, without Alston, we'd be even thinner at the back, and with Mullins we'd be even more crowded up top. He'd be getting Okoli's minutes and likely wouldn't have 3 goals, unless we played ye olde 2-3-5. With Mullins, I'm really confused as to why NYCFC plays Nemec at all. They've the same # of minutes, Mullins with 3 goals, Nemec with only 23% of his shots on target and no goals.
The mistake in protecting Alston instead of Mullins is that if we had protected Mullins instead, we'd most likely have both of them. There was almost no chance NYCFC or Orlando would have taken a backup fullback making $143k with chronic hamstring problems and a need to be monitored for cancer treatment. Also yes, Nemec is awful - I laughed for a good long time last week when he TOOK THE BALL OFF OF FREAKIN' DAVID VILLA'S FOOT IN THE PENALTY AREA, blowing a potential scoring opportunity and then somehow injuring himself.
Yeah, this has been mentioned by several posters; but all we hear about is how well Burns "managed the roster" this offseason.
This offseason, I certainly agree. I'm still in shocked disbelief about that whole "late start to scouting" excuse. Not exactly. He's scored a grand total of one goal, with no assists this season. While he's shown flashes of his talent, he's nothing at all like the player that Portland was able to bring in - who powered his way through, scoring on both of his quality chances. Adi came in and just took over the game - pretty much winning it single-handedly. When was the last time Diego did that? Maybe 2013, if ever. Pretty sure most people agreed about Mullins and no one actually said that about Burns, but I do remember discussion around those topics, like: - wondering why Mullins wasn't protected, Alston was, whether they could have managed the expansion list differently - talk about how despite some glaring acquisition problems, Burns still managed to build an impressive, young roster. So, Heaps is a lucky coach when he wins and a bad coach when he doesn't? And he's good a subbing when the incoming players have the desired effect (or just, again, lucky?) and bad at it when they don't? Every coach has a plan and an intention (some of which is apparent to fans and some not) when they sub. And sometimes the plan will play out that intention and sometimes it won't. I agree that the rating on the subs in that game would be pretty dismal, but other than Diego, Heaps doesn't have great options on his bench. There should have been someone better than Alston/Hall if he wanted to push Tierney forward. There should have been a real workhorse dmid to spell Dorman other than a mis-typed dmid who has missed the last 2+ months. I agree that Diego should have been given a shot, but the intention of bringing in Alston was to get Tierney more involved in the attack. So, it wasn't really intended as defensive stonewalling. But, the reality is, Alston just isn't playing as well as he used to, Okoli was stale - and didn't really have much of an opportunity to do anything and Daigo needs time to get in shape. We need Kobayashi with Jones out and there's little choice but to bite the bullet while he plays himself back into game shape after a long layoff.
No, it's the same deal. He's not great, he's not terrible. He's made some really good moves and has also been unable to fill in some holes that you wouldn't think would be so hard to do. Right now the weaknesses of the roster are being exposed IMO. The lack of international signings becomes ever more striking the longer it goes on, but in spite of that, it's still a very good roster.
Mullins has 1 less goal than JA in 9 fewer games. Based on productivity alone, g/90 Mullins is performing better in MLS. The fact he's not starting more for NYC is comical.
So what you're saying is he's a mediocre GM who has built a "good" team. This team is stuck in a 6 game winless streak, benefiting from favorable results in an overall weak east. Without JJ, this roster is simply average, as it was last summer. Your very good is my mediocre.
I think Burns is better than mediocre. With a pretty obvious organizational weakness in acquiring international players (it's hard to know exactly the factors responsible), Burns has pretty successful by finding ways to compensate for this weakness. As for a "weak east", I don't see it. There are good and bad in each conference and just about every team has had their ups and downs (ex., Toronto and Dallas - two teams trending in different directions from their starts). And, if you say 2nd place in the conference is mediocre, I'd suggest that says more about you than it does about the Revs.
He's a Nattering Nabob of Negativity! We're in SECOND PLACE! Isn't that good enough? If we win the MLS Cup, all of our players are just going to want more money, right? I remember back in 1997, I was at a game at Foxboro when I spotted Sunil Gulati, who was then the #2 man in the league who doled out allocations (for you young'uns, the equivalent of a DP in those days) like Halloween candy. I called out, "Hey Sunil, how about giving us another allocation?" He said "Another allocation?! You guys are in second place, what do you need another allocation for?" I answered "Because we want to be in first place!" He just laughed and shook his head. Fans gonna be fans...
I guess that's true. Forget wanting to win stuff or improve, I should just be thankful we have a team.
Sure. If you think 2nd place teams are mediocre, then you think almost everyone's mediocre (or worse). Right. So, if someone claims that our team is better than mediocre, then you think that implies satisfaction with the status quo or that they don't want to see the team improve? I guess to really show that you want better, you have to underrate them? Just about any neutral observer would put us in the top tier in MLS - no lower than top 5-6, whether you measure by points, PPG, eye test, whatever. Have we gotten some breaks? Yes. Have we had some things go against us? Again, yes. Are we good enough to win MLS Cup? At this point, likely not. But, let's see what the picture looks like in October.
That's my point. DC is the least convincing first place team I've ever seen. They are frauds. The revs are in second yes - but you articulated it better than I could, they are likely not winning MLS Cup. This is my frustration - they are good but not Cup-winning good and likely will not be in October either. There's a difference.
I could not have said this better! And what does that make us if we are behind them? We self-destructed a couple weeks back when we played them at home, and if we actually are better than mediocre, we will beat them down there this weekend. That's if... The one thing I am really glad about is that Saturday we beat up on those sniveling rat-faced gits who would struggle in the NASL. If we had churned out yet another uninspired, listless home draw--or worse--we'd be heading into the Open Cup with sheer panic. Heaps surely would have pulled the plug on the whole fiasco, electing instead to "concentrate on winning MLS Cup" instead of actually putting forth the effort to win an entirely attainable piece of silverware. Glad we got that out of the way so we can beat a lower-division team in good conscience.
To be honest, the East is incredibly weak. I'd say that no one in the East is Cup-winning good, but then again, one team will be good enough to make it to the Final and once you're there anything can happen.
I agree with you on everything in this post. Yes, the east is weak, even if @rkupp is in denial. Yes, statistically anything can happen in a MLS Cup and underdogs sometimes do win. But Charlie Davies and a subpar Lee does not inspire fear the same way a Martins/Dempsey attack does, or a Donovan/Keane led LA last year. The revs can't win when they should ('05, '06 and arguably '07) and when they shouldn't ('02, '14). For once I want to be confident in this team winning rather than hoping for an upset.
If all the planets aligned, with everyone healthy and replicating their peak performances (imagine 2013 JoGo, Agudelo, and Diego complemented by 2014 Nguyen and Jones, and 2015 Caldwell and Bunbury) then the Revs would be unstoppable in the East. Unfortunately, sports don't work that way, which is why backup plans are needed. Unfortunately, the Revs have yet to prove they have a backup plan.
To be honest, a big part of the issue is that we have a lot of attacking players and they all can't succeed. Some players need to struggle in order for others to outperform.
They opened the season red-hot and that was no illusion - they were playing that well. But, like last year, they're cooling off. It's no disgrace to not have passed them at this point. Every team in MLS has its ups and downs over the season. It's not like there's a Barca or Chelsea that is going to storm through the schedule without any bumps. Just look at Dallas, they looked like looming champions not too long ago. DC, too. Now Seattle's on a roll. That's just typical MLS regular season. The real question is who is going to be in form come playoff time, since playoff seeding isn't really that significant. I'm really, really hoping that we can qualify for CCL this year and I think supporter's shield may be unrealistic, so I'd really like to see us push to win the conference. For that to happen, I think Nguyen has to rediscover his 2014 form. I think our back 4 is significantly better than last year, Shuttleworth continues to improve, Caldwell's making a big step forward and Davies is a much more consistent performer. We need some things to fall into place, none too unrealistic on their own: - Nguyen to return to a semblance of 2014 - Diego to keep building on his last 2games/2goals - Jones to get and stay healthy in the 2nd half - Agudelo find ways to score a little more consistently - back 4 need to stay healthy and available
Agreed about the CCL. Given the Revs nature and the streaky way MLS generally is, the easiest path would be to win the US Open Cup. Failing that, to make the CCL, we would need to be in the top 4, provided the USOC winner is among them, the top 3 if not. That might be a stretch to be realistic, but if all of the things above happen, it's all of a sudden more possible. That's still a big if... On the other hand, we'll be missing Nguyen and Agudelo for the Gold Cup, Jones is injured for at least a while, and if other guys step up, that's great, but I see it more being a somewhat inconsistent stretch with dropped points here and there, and in a best case scenario, when Jones, Aguedelo and Nguyen come back, we go on a roll like last year. That will be good for the playoff run, but it will be difficult to win the conference if we drop too many points along the way. The real key is to finish at least second. If we are 3rd (or worse), we would need to win a single, midweek game against another 3-6 rated Eastern team. I for one, would like to avoid that at all costs.