Sorry guys, I have lost my patience. Making a conservative move, not to improve but just not to become worse, is never a good decision. In promoting our former goalkeeping coach to become the choir director of our ensemble, the admiral of our troops, has been a success is maintenance of the old order, but is starting to crumble with the inability to adapt, both internally in terms of personnel (outgoing and incoming players) and also the evolving nature of the league (speed+posession). It seems like Cassar has an intiention to do something (new formation, promoting young players), but it hasn't worked and there is little indication that Plata's return will make us the perennial contender we have always been. Considering the trajectory from last year, I would be surprised if we make the playoffs in the next few years. The reality is that a team, even with an outgoing Kreis last year, sustained their players, their tactics, and should not have lost the way they lost in the playoffs. Even our success last year, insofar as we made the playoffs, consisted of several draws, a many wins, where Real Salt Lake wasn't dominant, it was just simply trying to get a result. This year, it started not that differently, with a string of draws and a few wins, which occurred mostly by odd reasons. The problem is not recent, the trajectory is consistent for the last year. I don't want to blame Cassar for Garcia's underwhelming performance, for the failed experiment of Jaime, for an expansion draft that took Gravaboy away or even Borchers, or for the constant call ups that disrupted the team's flow during the world cup, and through certain parts this year. The reality is that regardless of the personnel out there, of the formation (4-4-2 diamond or 4-3-3-), or the scheduling, our midfield hasn;t been syncing well with our forward, the defense has been disorganized for over a year, (even with Schuler, Borchers, Olave), and majestic individual performances (Rimando, Beckerman, Morales) have gotten us more results than our system. Our system sucks. It's time to accept it. We are not the MLS finalists anymore. We are a shell of ourselves. Cassar has no control or offers any solutions to the situation. We the Rice-Eccles Era is back, and Cassar is our new Ellinger. The Time to Change is Now. Time to Fire Cassar.
Heh, I was wondering when this thread would show up. It took probably half as long to have one for Kreis and Ellinger.
Oddly enough, yeah pretty dang close. http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/fire-jason-kreis-thread.1050598/page-2 I think there are some glaring differences between the two though. Cassar to me seems a bit too buddy buddy with the players and I'd be interested to see if he makes the cuts and trades necessary to build a decent team. Kreis would make the mistake of playing players who didn't deserve the minutes, but he knew when it was time to cut ties, and didn't have a problem doing it. I've said once and I'll say it again. I feel this team is really missing that one extra creative player. I don't think we're far off from being a more than decent team (Not saying we are currently decent...because we're not). Anyone watch TFC lately? If we had Giovinco with our supporting cast and a healthy Plata we would be significantly better than we are now. I'm sure the following sentiment gets tiring, but I'll say it again. Open the check book Dell! Edit: After reading a bit through that thread it made wonder where all of those posters went.
Yes. The difference is altitude. unlike Kries, Cassar took over cruising at 30,000 feet. If Kries crashed no biggie we weren't even on the plane yet. For Cassar it's rough turbulence right now and he seems to be heading for an emergency landing. Oxygen masks could deploy at any moment.
I think he still deserves a chance. The season has just begun, a couple of good games and we are right back close to the top of the Western conference. But yeah, DLH might want to get some back up plans just in case.
If I'm DLH I'm looking at names - either for this year or next. I'd still give Cassar till mid-season to see if he can turn it on.
That was fast. I would normally say something like "give cassar more time" but I really want us to get Petke while he's available. like he'd ever come here : (
Q. Give Cassar more time? A. He has had 1.25 years working with the team. The trajectory over the last 1.0 years, is not stable, but rather decreasing. I say to those that say that we have given Cassar too little time, to propose an amount of time they are willing to give him. Because 1 year is enough for me to judge that there should be a shift. Q. Sounds like the same story with Kreis. Isn't it? A. No, it is not. Although Kreis, in his latter years, had issues with an stagnating offense and player departures, he still competed for trophies. He won an MLS cup with a team he built. He also managed to lose most trophy matches in which he coached, but at least he was in year-in, year-out contention. Cassar is no longer competing for trophies. Last year, using the remnants of Kreis' system, we barely made it to the playoffs before storming out. We qualified for CCL thanks to the hegemony of the Sounders and Galaxy plus a change in the rules, but honestly the Revolution should have made it. It isn't the same with Kreis, Cassar is not consistently putting us up, just to put us down. Cassar is literally just puts us down. Q. Coaches? Who do you suggest better than Cassar at this moment? Hard to tell, afterall, I really don't know soccer. I just pretend I do, because it makes this whole thing funner. But anyways, I would be willing to give blast-from-the-past Fraser a chance to coach us and make us a defensive juggernaut. I also don't mind Petke. I would also be interested in seeing Morales get a chance to do a-la-Kreis and coach the team.
JK was largely criticized on this board until he stumbled upon the diamond formation and had the guts to experiment with it. That formation, with Javi executing the offense, is the factor that allowed RSL to emerge as an elite club in this league and JK to earn his reputation. Without the diamond I think our history under JK would have been substantially different than it turned out to be. I think we have to give Cassar time and allow him to truly put his stamp on the club.
I watched nearly all of NYRB's games the whole time he was in charge, and I fail to see what Petke did that was worth going for in this context. Questionable tactics and odd substitution patterns aren't what I want in a new coach. Heck, Jesse Marsch has almost the same personnel but has adjusted tactics and has the team flying high.
+ replace the forwards coach. I previously said get an 'offensive coach', but apparently we have one (Ted Eck). Doesn't seem like he's getting it done, as the forwards are looking worse as the season goes along rather than better. Likewise the midfielders seem to be regressing (sorry Bomma). I'm sure the revolving door of starters isn't helping, but that's been a bigger issue on the back line than anywhere else.
Sounds like the same story as Kreis before Kreis started regularly competing in championship games. Click on the link I provided. Kreis had been with the team 2 years. The year before (the link the was started) he had made the playoffs. By May the following season his record was absolute garbage having only won 3 games through 10 matches. The thread was created, everyone started calling for his head, as the season progressed things kinda turned around, and from there you know how the story goes. Kreis did make the playoffs with a losing record though. I don't know if that's very likely to happen again. Also I wouldn't say we barely made the playoffs last year. We definitely crashed out, but in overall standings will never constitute as barely making it. I have no problem with the CCL either. The rules were clear at the beginning of the season and RSL put itself in the position it needed to to win the berth. Revs, along with every other team in MLS could have done it, but didn't. Don't forget the same rule change that kept the Revs out was the exact same one that kept RSL out the season before...only we weren't told about that change until after the season ended. Despite that rant I do feel Cassar needs to go because a) goobx1's comment and b) He doesn't seem to have a plan, and if he does he's keeping it close to the chest or not deploying it. In his interviews (and Waibels as well) all we ever hear is, "We hope this is the game we break out," "we can feel it coming," or "once we finally score the floodgates will open." Yeah, they're not, and there is nothing to suggest they will. Bench players, makes some changes, admit we need to bring someone in, do something different. As old Al said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." That is exactly what Cassar and co. are doing.
Just remember, we were calling for Kreis's head the season in which he goes on to win MLS Cup. Be careful for what you wish.
What was funny is how the consensus was that firing Petke and hiring Marsch was a very bad thing, inexplicable. Yet, it appears that Petke may have been holding NYRB back. They now lack Henry, yet are arguably performing better.
Maybe the reason we haven't been doing good is cause we haven't made this thread yet I guess you guys are right. I honestly haven't been following the league as a whole since last year so I really wouldn't know, I just recall him winning the SS a while ago.
Agreed. This is desperation talking. RSL is not going from 0 shots on goals to floodgates opening. Teams seem to have figured out how to stifle the RSL attack and we are powerless to counter it.
On the other hand, Tyrone Marshall as defense-focused assistant coach has had a heck of a year. I think we can throw out the four goal meltdown as something in which everyone rolled over, and the three goal game has deflections and own goals. So: 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1 with zero or one shot on goal allowed in three of those.
I think that part of the problem is judging him based on last year. He inherited a diamond that clearly isn't the formation he had in mind, but I felt Cassar did the right thing by keeping most of the team intact, and keeping with the same formation and tactics. Maybe he should've made the moves last year, but I can understand why he'd want to ease into the role. It took Kreis a couple of years before he had the personnel to make the diamond work, so why should we expect a 4-3-3 to work in less time? Another thing to consider: Kreis essentially bailed at the right time. He built up a team in his vision, then bailed when it came time to rebuild. We don't even know that Kreis would be doing any better right now, because we've never seen him transition beyond 'the core' because he left at the time we'd need to start replacing them. It very well could look worse before it gets better. As ugly as it could get, I'd be willing to give him to the end of next year and judge at that point. That gives him this past offseason and the next to build his vision of the team. It's not exactly easy to find and acquire everyone you want for your team in one offseason. At least by the end of next year he'd have two full offseasons of picking up players for the 4-3-3, and we'd be able to see if he's working out as a coach or not. I'm basically writing off last year since nothing had really changed. It might as well have been Kreis at the helm. I'd also prefer we don't have knee jerk reactions in coaching changes like TFC. The last thing I'd want to do is keep firing a coach because they couldn't get it done in a year. It takes time to get the players for your system and getting the current team on board. I'd hate to see us get into a terrible spiral because we refuse to give anyone time.
IMO judgement shouldn't be fully made until the end of this year. We have to give the benefit of the doubt to Cassar - he obviously impressed the right people to get the job. That said, I'm sick of this team having absolutely no identity when they have the ball. I've seen pick-up teams have better passing and possession. I know it's a knee jerk reaction, but I'm feeling like this club needs to start making some big moves. Like trading Rimando/KB/Sabo type stuff. Stuff that significantly changes the identity of the club. So long as you have those old stalwarts (and as many of them as we do) we won't change, IMO. We'll sit in this weird ass limbo we're in right now. If you want to play a style that incorporates wing play, get true wingers. If you want to play with speed, get speed. Stop putting the diamond shaped plug into the circle shaped hole.
Cassar was hired because his plan was to keep the diamond. He didn't originally plan to change it. I've wondered since the LA loss in the playoffs if DLH pushed for the change. DLH constantly dropped quotes during the off-season of wanting the team to score more, so I wonder if he helped put the bug in Cassar's ear for the change. I thought the same thing, but one of my buddies shared a story with me when we went to the Vancouver game. His brother-in-law works for the team (no names because I don't want to throw anyone under the bus), and he said Kreis held a BBQ with the coaching staff at the end of his final season. Only one person wasn't in attendance: DLH. Kreis said he never had plans to leave, and wouldn't have left, if DLH hadn't told Kreis he needed to prove himself. Even after signing with NYCFC, he still didn't want to leave. Whether or not this is hearsay, I don't think anyone should be saying Kreis bailed on the team.
Well I'm watching NYCFC suck, even with money in Villa and Mix, and I'm wondering it it much would have mattered who the coach was between him and Cassar