News: Revs sign a DP, Roster Thread II

Sambinha didn't dress 13 times already this season? That's not a coaching decision, that's a wardrobe malfunction.

 

Sorry, a little behind, catching up in this thread, but really??? No, no, a thousand times no. We've seen how bumbling our team defense has been through 3 games, especially their difficulty tracking runs off the ball (defenders and midfielders), and we think, 'I know, we should play with one less defender', and possibly open up more space for runs, and allow for more isolating the defenders for 1v1s. Yes, I suppose there's the 'well it couldn't be any worse' argument, but no, just no.

Looking at the roster, with our strength in midfield and lack of depth up top, a lone forward system seems to make the most sense, we just have to play it correctly. This starts with getting the forward to want to be somewhere in the vicinity of the goal - unlike how Teal played last week, who wanted to go to the touchline to support the player on the ball out wide - and we have to get midfielders to get into the box when the ball might be going there, it's not rocket science. Agudello may be a different player than Davies, but he has the tools to play as a lone forward, just because he might enjoy setting others up doesn't mean he's incapable of doing other things, he needs to be told what his role is, and then just do it.

I don't like Tierney defensively in a 4 man back line, never mind 3, which would likely take away his strength, getting forward to serve balls, as I would think our outside backs wouldn't be expected to get forward in a 3-5-2. This would also force our wide midfielders, who like to, and are suited to cut in when attacking, to have to stay wider, and would also force them to get back more to cover opponents who are attacking out wide, which is not a strength of a player like Fagundez for one.

Our offensive play hasn't been great, but last Sunday it could be argued that we had the better of the play at 11v11 in the first 36 minutes last Sunday, but we still managed to allow 2 goals. The offense is not the biggest problem at the moment. This whole idea seems based on looking at 2 players on the roster who might work well together, while ignoring the rest of the roster which to me doesn't seem suited to this at all.

 

I know that you are talking about Davies and Agudelo, but some could say this applies to Goncalves and Farrell. Goncalves and Farrell might work well together, but that remains to be seen.

Lots of good roster discussion. When I read a lot of these posts I can see things that I agree with. Sometimes it makes me wonder if there is any formation/tactical approach the would work best given our roster?

Given the number of forwards we have, we have painted ourselves into the corner of a one forward system.

I think we are seeing ways that we will miss Jones. He smoothed out a lot of rough edges: Teams getting physical with us, our ability to counter attack, other teams ability to split our centerbacks. Jones was not perfect, but he made everybody and the team better. I think we are seeing some growing pains as we adjust to life post Jones. Perhaps his tenure here was a disservice to some of the other players as it created an environment where they did not have to improve their games that much to continue to get starts and results?

 

But, but, but, opposing strikers can't make runs between our CBs if we only have one!

 

Well, they can. It's just a lot gorier.

 

wasn't there a post of a tweet a week or two ago that the Revs were looking to sign a player before the summer?

 

Agreed and moved to roster thread because my comments are not solely about the RB game. Nguyen hasn't made the same confident, direct runs at defenders like he did in 2014. Not sure why - that was a REALLY effective part of his game. He's been operating on an island last and this year. Lee needs (and has been quoted saying he wants to play with) more technical players that can think ahead and make intelligent runs in behind the defense that open up space pull defenders away. He doesn't have that luxury on the current revs and would be better served to try his luck in Europe again - the highly skilled and technical Dutch league would have been perfect for him IMO. Even though it didn't work out at PSV early in his career, there are lots of other teams. He should have tried to go back rather than re-sign with MLS.

Davies is clearly still hurt. Heaps doesn't see it or (more likely) simply has no better forward options, which is sad.

Teal is not a forward, he is a winger who can't out a shot on frame (did he work on shooting with Khano in the offseason!?!)

And then there's Agudelo. He does provide good hold up play once in awhile but he is largely ineffective when it comes to production. Even his unmarked cross for the goal against RB (with Lawrence down) was a bouncer! The talent is there; I think it's a confidence issue with him. He needs to get his swagger back.

Until that happens, our current forward situation is really painful. Goals will be rarer than a Fangoso sighting until one or more things happen:

• The current forward crop wake up and score goals - including Femi.
• The mids and wingers like Lee, Diego and Teal chip in some goals.
• The FO makes a concerted effort to trade a guy like Rowe for a MLS forward "reclamation project" and -this is key - actually develops him into a threat who scores goals. So, the opposite of a guy like Okoli. More like a veteran who can provide leadership and mentor the younger guys. Even Chad Barrett a few years back scored a handful of goals - I'd rather have him on my bench than Agudelo in his current form. It's nice to have a guy who is capable of a highlight reel goal once or twice a year but doesn't do your team much good when he does f-all the rest of the time.

I wonder if Paul Mariner could work with the forwards? There's a keeper coach, why not have one for the strikers? That's not Heaps's expertise. They need someone to work with them, ASAP, because whaever they are currently doing isn't enough.

 

If the Revs' ownership truly prioritized winning championships, they'd have a keeper coach, a strikers coach, a defenders coach, a midfielder's coach... oh, and scouts.

 

NOT TRUE!!! As has been said before, for all we know, the Krafts have been begging Heaps to allow them to hire such people, but Heaps won't let it happen, because he prefers having to do all the coaching and scouting himself. Heck, we don't even know that Heaps doesn't also want to cook all the food, buy all the beer, and sell all the tickets, for all the games. It could well be that he's a super control freak, who would only agree to become the coach if he had total control of everything. Unless you've extensively investigated this, interviewing all parties involved, you should not make any such claims, or even speculate based on the available information.

 

Lee hasn't been as effective, and certainly didn't look great against NYRB, but the question of why he doesn't run at people as much is kind of a cause or effect question. Is he not running at people because he's somehow "lost" that aspect of his game - he's just not as aggressive now, he's not quite as quick, he decided to evolve as an artist no longer wants that to be part of his oeuvre - or is he not doing it because he has fewer opportunities to do so, because teams recognized it and try to make sure people defending him aren't isolated, such that he isn't getting the same opportunities to beat players and step into space behind them.

Questions about his supporting cast, and if they see what he sees are also interesting. There was a play on Friday when Lee was running with the ball at their defense, and it came to nothing, and the color guy talked about Lee looking for the guys he had on either side of him making better runs so that he could have used them, but they didn't support him with good runs. I know he scored a lot in 2014, but I'd still say he should be looked at as more of a provider than scorer.

Davies was hurt, but I'd think he'll be back to 100% soon, if not already, I don't think he had some major injury that would require an extensive comeback period. Regarding Agudelo, as I've said, if he's lacking confidence, is it because he's getting bounced around? Would he look better if he could mostly play as a forward, and get comfortable there?

Whatever is going on, in the past 4 games, the Revs have scored 2 goals, one on a deflected free kick, and one where, ignoring questions of morality, you can't deny a huge contributing factor to the play was an injured player being down, allowing Agudelo to get free well behind the able bodied defenders. Given the freak nature of that play, you could argue that the team hasn't scored a goal during conventional open play, since the first game of the season. And while they were obviously were down a man for significant portions of 2 of those games, they were also up a man for a significant portion of a game as well, and couldn't score then either.

Though that said, you also can't say that they haven't created chances, they've created plenty. So as you said, is the team going to figure it out with the current players, or will they have to pick up someone with better shooting ability? Getting back to Lee though, I'd have to think that as the team continues to have trouble scoring, it will mean opponents will be able to further concentrate on on Nguyen, until other players step up and can take the pressure off of him, because right now, the only players other teams might be concerned about offensively would be Nguyen, and to a little lesser extent, Diego.

Then there's always the consideration that maybe the team just needs more time to gel...

 

Let's not forget that Koffie back in the lineup should help us boss the middle a little more and thus create more momentum into the final third to help the forwards. In the first half of last game, not counting counter attacks, we struggled in the middle and it was hard to work the ball forward.

 

This is true but even with Koffie we need guys to put the ball in the back of the net. It's incredibly frustrating to watch.

 

Totally agree. Teal, is one of the culprits that have had great chances only to lose concentration at the critical moment.

 

I'd be willing to live with this as long as there is no June Swoon this year!

 

It's always amazed me how this team brings in players, never gives them the time of day, and then they are gone.

 

to be fair, Taylor left via theft (expansion draft). it's not like we cut him.

 

Yes but how good would it be to have Taylor or Mullins right now to push the starters...

 

Yeah, but otherwise, we wooda lost Kevin Alston.

Oh, wait...

 

And after Mullins was taken, the Revs pulled back Neumann instead of Taylor.

Neumann hasn't even made the 18-man roster in the last 2 games, despite the absence of Lee Nguyen (vs NYC) and Koffie (vs NYRB). He's below Heriveaux on the depth chart.

But we can't send him to Rochester, what if we need him????

 

Not to say who I think is better, I'm not all that high on Neumann to be honest, and didn't pay attention to Taylor when we played them, but I feel it should be mentioned that Taylor is playing for a team deemed to be not as good as the Revs. Also, do we know how good the guys are that Taylor beat out? I'm sure others know their roster better, but I get the impression that NYC is more top heavy, with all their high priced stars, and perhaps lacking in depth, so might he have only beaten out a couple of warm bodies? We'll see how things play out, but it's one thing when a guy gets cut and then starts on top team in the league, say SKC of a few years ago, to pick a team at random, but another thing if a player gets cut and then gets time on a team that isn't very good.

I'm also curious, and don't know if this has been discussed before, but when it comes to picking the protected players, I wonder who is more responsible. Would they have Heaps have more say in the decision, because if he's the one who picks the guys he wants on the field in games, would he be allowed to make the decisions about the guys he already has on his roster? As a former Foxboro employee might have asked, never mind who is responsible for deciding which groceries to buy, who is/was most responsible for picking the ingredients already in the kitchen?

 

Regarding the protected list, I would guess it's a collaboration between Heaps and Burns. I don't think it's a unilateral decision by either - from what they have said publicly, it seems like they are a "shared success and shared blame" organization.

 

I'm not suggesting that Taylor is a huge loss. He only played 66 minutes for NYC last year. Neumann had 144 for NER.

It just appears that Neumann is regressing (less PT that Heriveaux or Femi this year), while Taylor is developing. The Revs could have sent Neumann to Rochester last year to help him develop, but chose not to.

 

Taylor only played 66 minutes because he tore his ACL right at the beginning of the season.