Top Ten Questions for 2016 (that Revs FO will never answer) Here is my list, in no particular order. Feel free to add your own. 1. Why was Rochester used so infrequently? 2. Why did first round SuperDraft pick Jordan McCrary never even make the 18 once all season? 3. Why didn't things work out with Samba? 4. When are you going to replace AJ Soares? 5. Why was Jones willing to play for the Rapids for the (reportedly) same amount the Revs were offering him? 6. You've admitted that you have fallen behind the rest of the league in terms of scouts and coaching staff. How do you plan to catch up to the rest of the league in the standings if you don't plan to address these shortcomings? 7. Will you pursue another loanee from Sporting CP, or did Samba effectively end that experiment? 8. Why did it take so long to change the formation during/after the summer swoon? 9. Why was Herivaux not given more playing time? 10. What did Jay Heaps do to earn another year on the job?
11) Why did the Revs add a striker instead of adding a CB to the worst defense in the league? 12) Why are coaches here held to a different standard than elsewhere (See: Seattle)? 13) You just had solid attendance during a really bad year, what are you doing to ensure that people come back? 14) How are you working with Boston/Massachusetts to ensure that a new stadium plan is actually in the works?
15) What is being done in the off-season to raise the game of the young players? 16) What specific problems do you identify with the Revs as a team? an on-field product? 17) What do you feel can be done in the off-season to stem the slide into mediocrity, er... improve the quality of the team? 18) What could be done off the field to improve the quality of the team? 19) Is there a plan to have a lower division "farm" team? If so, when? If not, why not?
20) Beyond winning MLS Cup (which goes without saying), what are the Krafts' ambitions for the Revs? How will you communicate those ambitions to fandom?
22) Why Haven't Burns and Heaps headed off to parts unknown to get a jump on scouting and securing a couple of CB's during the Winter window? 23) What does it actually take to lose your job with this team? 24) At what point did the FO realize this team was underachieving and why wasn't there any moves to correct that?
This thread got some traction on Twitter, and a Bilello offer to talk about these questions. Live chat, from what I am seeing. "The reality is, we came up short and we need to find out the real reasons why." #NERevs https://t.co/qBYCPYcjQF— Jeff Lemieux (@jeff_lemieux) November 1, 2016 Free helpful hints: https://t.co/FLslernwPS #NERevs— A Casual Fan (@A_Casual_Fan) November 1, 2016 .@revsprez, could you please answer these for a frustrated STH? #nerevs https://t.co/hTuW3T1STf— Cody Hall (@CPHall13) November 2, 2016 Sure, what's the best way to do it? I did a reddit chat a few years ago that seemed to work well. Maybe do that again?— Brian Bilello (@RevsPrez) November 2, 2016
I'm sure we will all be watching closely to see how (and if) they respond to these questions. With the exception of a couple of snarky ones, they are all very legit questions that deserve a response.
Jay took on #8 and #11 pretty well yesterday, and gave a pretty good indication into what happens behind the scenes and why there was a delay to change formations/address positions that we the fans think need to be addressed.
Well, to me, #8 (getting kamara instead of a defender) was a no-brainer. When you can make a deal for a top player, you do it, even if you also need help in another positional area. But to answer the question of why he didn't switch sooner, I thought it was kinda weak to base it all on Aguedelo being injured. If he got injured after switching formations you still would have used Fagundez or Davies in that role, so Jay sounds like he's making a 20-20 hindsight excuse. These guys are professionals and they should be able to make a double adjustment to a new, key player joining the team and a formation change that takes advantage of that player's strength.
After late turnaround, Heaps explains why Revs didn’t switch to 4-4-2 sooner November 2, 2016, 11:44AM EDT Jeff Lemieux
His response was 100% BS though. Kamara is a veteran who has been in the league awhile. He should have changed the formation immediately upon acquiring him in May. Instead, he hesitated, then Agudelo got hurt and there was no plan B apparently. The problem was waiting; there is NO reason why Heaps should wait there.
That's the most frustrating part. Hell, he could have put Diego up there. They all were combining anyway and making runs off each other. Yeah, a real organization would fire a coach for that (combined with yet another year of mediocrity).
Agree with both here - and the article is a very weak attempt AFTER the fact and almost feels like damage control. Let's remember - it was Twellman on a national broadcast game that told everyone what Heaps should do - and then Heaps changed right after that. This was also the time that articles started appearing question Heaps' job security and why he wasn't changing formations and not getting the most out of his players. This is when twitter started blowing up around what was wrong with the Revs and was Heaps just not good enough. Heaps had no quotes earlier in the season what he was doing/not doing and why - he just kept playing the same formation in a rigid way with the same subbing patterns. Heaps was not quoted prior to the Twellman broadcast that he was thinkng of changing formations and how it would get the best out of the team. Is that keeping things internal so nobody knows how to strategize against them? Is that because we do not have reporters who ask the right questions or follow-ups? RLiverpool nailed it - Heaps(and Revs) had/have no Plan B and that has been true for every year under Heaps. As a coach, he needs to recognize when a change is needed and do it, he needs to know how to move players around to cover for injuries/suspensions, he needs to manage in-game tactics and subs, and he needs to recognize the needs upgrades and demand them. So far, Heaps has demonstrated that he is not advanced and/or proficient in any of these. He has moved players to the wrong spots and left them there for too long, he has subbed poorly, he has not created roster depth, he signed players to extensions that suddenly he doesn't use anymore..... and this is how coaches are judged and either retained or released. Is Heaps still learning - at a very very slow rate that the Revs brass are okay with - or do they realize that it is just not fast enough and they (and their fans) need a change to try and improve, to find an upgrade? Remember, they should already be a window ahead per a comment from Heaps - yet the articles coming out show that they really are not a window ahead, in my opinion. (plus, rumors of Agudelo garnering some more interest overseas - who can see a possible repeat of the Twellman/Joseph situation when they don't let him go because then they would be required to have a plan B and plan C? )
This is such cynical rev fan POV though. "we want answers to these questions!" ok, here's the answer quite specifically to two of them. "(that) response was 100% BS though". It's the same thing with signing Designated Players. "we want DPs!" ok, we got some. "We want better DPs!" Everyone's entitled to disagree with the decisions the coach made, but the question was why and the answer is what the answer is.
I wouldn't call it "cynical." I would say that people here are savvy enough to know when someone is trying to treat us like idiots who will buy any semi-reasonable explanation without question. But his explanation doesn't hold water. The problem is that no one in the media will ask questions about tactics and formation, etc., when things were going badly wrong in the summer slump. If you look back at many of the game threads, a variety of people were quesitoning these things, and it does little in terms of Heaps' credibility for him to say that he waited a month because he didn't think his players could handle switching formations. And you don't need specific personnel to switch. Sure, it might help, but you need to go into battle with the team you have, not the tean you wish you had. Guys get injured/suspended all the time and you need to adjust to it. Especially up front, there was decent enough depth. The excuse is weak, and we're not buying it. But that's just one out of the 20 or so very legit questions--or do you feel we are being too "uppity" by asking those? Do you think any of those are out of line in any way, shape, or form? As I said before, #11 is a no-brainer. You probably think #17, #21 and #23 are obnoxious, but if worded more diplomatically, they are still valid. All the others are things that any competent journo should feel comfortable asking in a face-to-face interview.
Yes, it's his answer but this question should have been asked in August not November. It's too late now. The revs effectively killed their playoff chances from July 31 to August 28 by Heaps' analysis paralysis. Disregarding the USOC win over Chicago on 8/9 (which papered over the problems), in the league the revs went 0-5-1, meaning they earned a single point out of 18 available. They were outscored 14 to 2 in this awful stretch, which is when the GD got out of hand. To be clear, I'm not saying I expected them to run the table in August against the likes of TFC and NYRB away but the way the results went the rest of the year, that bad month that included those 2 home losses to Philly and Cbus, combined with the -12 GD ultimately cost them a spot in the playoffs.
Perhaps some of the more reddit savvy #NERevs fans can make some suggestions for me getting this setup next week. Tuesday lunch chat? https://t.co/66AHZkBf5O— Brian Bilello (@RevsPrez) November 4, 2016
26) Why do the revs under Heaps consistently have at least one bad month per year (July 2014, mid-Sept to mid-Oct 2015, August 2016...)? 27) Why does the technical staff seem to only step up the urgency to win in September - vs earlier in the season?
AMA with Revs President Brian Bilello will happen here at noon on Tuesday 11/8 | https://t.co/EnLp3rXwPT #NERevs— NERevs Reddit (@NERevsReddit) November 4, 2016