State of the Revs

And we're on course for fewer points total than last year. I'm impressed, I didn't think that was possible - I expected at least some very modest improvement.

 

I'd really like to see how this team would perform with a new coach.

 

About the same as it is currently performing....it's all about the talent the front office gets. Jay has tweaked quite a few things with this roster and it doesn't really matter. I continue to maintain that we have a bunch of nice players, but no 'difference maker' - and that is the difference between us and the improvements that the other teams in the league have made.

OK - enough NNN -- shout out to Kelyn Rowe and Juan Agudelo for making the final cut for the Gold Cup roster. I hope these guys get good minutes and come out of the experience better for it. (though on the NNN front, it does mean that we will be missing two important players from our roster for a bit.)

 

I mostly disagree. The talent might not be enough to really challenge for an MLS Cup, but with another coach, I think they'd be at least a solid playoff contender. As an example, Kei averaged a goal every two or three games (really close to one in two for the whole period) for each of the prior four years in MLS (even if you take out the outrageously good 2015 numbers when Higuain was just locked in on him). This year, he's at 1 in 3.75 games. Has Kamara's game dropped off or is he being used wrong? My eyes don't show me any significant difference in his play.

The FO, GM, and Coach are all sub-standard for MLS, but I'd argue that Heaps is the most egregious of the batch.

 

Listening to Billilo on the Revs podcast yesterday he mentioned something that surprised me. He said the coaching staff is responsible for identifying players of interest and that Burns works out the contract issues.

Hearing this changed my mind about blame for the roster issues.

 

So the coaches do the scouting too? I would think the coaches identify areas of need, the scouts find options and the coaches then get the final say on who to pursue. To ask the coaches to be responsible for scouting seems like a large responsibility.

 

See if you get the same impression I did?

http://sixstatesonepodcast.libsyn.com/website/bilello-interview

 

OK...I looked at Kei's scoring in MLS (he spent 2014 in England, no? At least mlssoccer.com doesn't have any 2014 stats for him.)

He joined the league in 2006 -- played 28 games for the Dynamo and Wizards in 2009, scoring 6 goals. This was the first year where he played most of the games.

In 2010 - he scored 10 in 29 games.
In 2011 - he scored 9 in 30 games, Graham Zusi becomes a regular starter for SKC
In 2012 - he scored 11 in 33 games
In 2013 - he scored 7 in 15 games - Feilhaber joined SKC's midfield
In 2014 he was in England
In 2015 with Columbus and Higuain - he scored 22 in 32 games.
In 2016 he scored 5 in 9 games before coming to the Revs.

So...I would submit that his better years came playing on teams with a difference maker (or two) that the Revs don't have. Zusi and Feilhaber or Higuain.

His one strike every 3 games is about his average otherwise.

 

Nguyen's clearly at the same level as Zusi and Feilhaber. Maybe not Higuain, but the gap isn't that big.

The gap between Vermes/Berhalter and Jay Heaps, though...

 

So Burns is basically just an administrator. He does clerical things like making sure the contract is all set, the Is are crossed and the Ts are dotted and teh lawyers confirm that no one is gonna sue them. He doesn't actually do anything to help them determine if this player or that player would be a better fit for the club. At most, he might determine if he fits into their budget...

Then you can look around the leagueat what the other guys in a similar role do and you don't have to wonder why we are behind the curve and falling further and further behind. Yes, there are teams who suck more than we do, but instead of laughing at Philly and DC, we should be angry that we are not up there with NYC, RedBulls, Cow-lumbus, etc.

 

We'll agree to disagree on the assessment of Lee vs the other players.

Your comparison of there being a pedigree gap with coaches though is fair. I'll still disagree though on that being our biggest issue. Jay took us to 3rd in the East in 2013 at 1.5 ppg and then with Jermaine to the MLS Cup in 2014. My point is that the rest of the league has invested more than we have in talent and when we lost Jones we lost our 'difference maker' on the team.

 

What I heard was that we still don't have a true scouting organization (I am taking a bit of a harsh view but also trying to be within the bounds of fairness of assessing what he said.) And..by the way, I like his overall attitude and openness.

• From around 19:00 to 22:00 he talked a lot about this issue,:
  • his reference to the scouting staff seemed to lean heavily towards video review and helping reduce 100 videos to review to 10-20 for the coaching staff to review. To be fair he did talk about giving more flexibility for one of the coaches to go see a player with the recent changes.
  • He did say that the coaching staff is responsible for who they want. (But who decides who they look at?)
  • They are looking at adding a person to the scouting organization to handle the fact that talent is coming more and more from abroad and are more expensive.
• At around 25:15 he touched on this area again:
  • Talent acquisition is the coaching staff's responsibility
  • And in talking about Burns' role though he seemed to focus more on Mike needing to protect the Revs than to get the talent the coaches wanted; i.e. giving the Revs the flexibility to not retain a player.
  • There is always going to be a little dynamic when taking a risk on a player, but it leaves open the point that Burns taking an overly protective position may be an issue for us in trying to land a player that the coaches want.
• Earlier in the podcast (@18:00?) He talked about the concept of paying more money over fewer players as the reason why they don't have a full roster; i.e. the roster size is where they want it. Not sure I agree that is a plan that is working.
• Nice to hear they are looking at a TAM/DP type of player over the summer, but troubled that a.) it will actually happen and b.) if it does if it'll be enough for us to still make the playoffs and make some noise.

 

I'd be okay with this if they had a good working relationship with a USL or NASL team where players 19-23 or 24 were constantly on loan getting needed playing time

 

Exactly. That's why I wrote off the crazy-good year that Kei had with Higuain -- he is special.

 

Fewer Scouts=More Krafty Dollars.....it's Winning, Duh!

 

It looks like a damning indictment on Nguyen's ability to setup goals for Kamara, even if he does have 7 assists this year.

 

The more I think about the statement Bilillo made regarding scouting being done by the coaches via video the more pissed off I get. Then my son tells me yesterday that FC Dallas has 5 scouts...just to cover the state of Texas. So my response was...They are scouting for their academy. and he says...Exactly.

What a difference. No wonder our team is spiraling around the toilet bowl.

 

And the worst part of all of this is that nobody in the FO even cares. As long as 20K + people show up, why spend money? This franchise is so horribly mismanaged it's not even funny anymore. If they would invest the $$ on players that would make us a cup contender, we could be like some of those franchises that have great numbers. Atlanta averages 46.7K, Seattle 42.6K, we average 17K and are #15 out of 22. Look what a difference one player (JJ) made. Of course when it came time to pay him, the Revs let him walk and now we're sinking fast. Meanwhile we waste 600K on Kamara who is a bust.

I cant think of any reason to spend even 1 dollar to watch the Revs live. That game in Philly was an embarrassment and show just how thin our roster is. Two Gold Cup callups and one suspension and we are not competitive with Philly. By the way, our loss now has us only 2 points over DC United who is dead last in our division. The way were going, dead last is more than possible.

Finally, this thread's title is "State of the Revs" I think we basically stink, have no hope in sight, and will finish dead last. Beyond that, nothing will change

 

Time for another scathing piece in the globe. That was the last time the Krafts spent money and got Jones.

Oh, and to be fair, it is more that two Gold Cup call-ups and a suspension. Add to that missing the best defender (did the FS1 folks even mention that? Those guys were horrible.) and starting defensive midfielder.

 

I have to think the only think keeping Heaps here, other than an inept front office, is the US open cup

 

Don't underestimate the scope of the ineptitude -- and therefore its power to preserve Heaps tenure. (Even if the ineptitude is one of the "only" things keeping him here.)

 

That and the fact that he played basketball at Duke. Did you all know that?