Top Ten Questions for 2016

28. Mike Burns has been the general manager for five years (and in other player personnel positions for six years before that) and has done precious little in terms of innovation. How long can a team in a consistently improving league afford not to have an out-of-the-box thinker in charge of its soccer operation?

29. From not filling all 28 roster spots to carrying the fewest coaches in the league to not having much of a scouting department to not having a better practice facility to not having a USL development club, the perception is the Revolution are an organization that looks to cut corners and do the minimum. Where does the buck stop in terms of the overly long list of items that don't get addressed by this organization?

30. What style of play does this team aspire to and, realistically, how far from it are you?

31. Only twice (2005 and 2007) have the Revs come within five points of the Supporters Shield. Most seasons the team is far off the pace in that competition. Why doesn't the organization put a higher priority on regular season success? Or, if you care to argue that is a high priority, why has it done such a poor job of attaining regular season success?

32. Why should I renew my season ticket package before I see what changes the team makes to improve the on-field product?

 

To be fair to Jay, the Revs have consistently had a month-long swoon, usually mid-summer, every year since 1996. Not that that invalidates the question – you'd think the FO would have become aware of the problem by now and preempted at least one year – but Nicol, Clavijo, Zenga, and Stapleton all had the same failing. It's a Revs problem imo, not a Heaps problem.

 

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Be there, #NERevs Fans! https://t.co/J55CK2CT2n

— New England Revolution (@NERevolution) November 7, 2016

 

Great idea. Who picked Election Day?

 

This is basically the definition of the word cynical.

 

Undoubtedly a plot by the FO to avoid the hard questions. /sarcasm

 

So you think we should just accept his answer at face value? So you think that waiting two months to make adjustments is OK because seasoned professional players wouldn't be able to cope with both a new, important player joining the team and a different formation?

Here's a crazy thought for you and Mr. Heaps: A lot of teams might make some significant changes in the lineup, formation, tactical approach and game strategy when acquiring a new player, especially one capable of scoring 20 goals a season. Some teams actually do this and many of them have a better record than the Revs. Maybe they do this kind of stuff in order to take advantage of the things that guy brings. To think the best approach is to just plug him into the "system" as if he was Teal Bunbury shows exactly how clueless and naive Heaps really is.

But he got to keep his job because the team underachieved, and you're OK with it. Fair enough, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

 

Brian has finished up today's reddit AMA and said he will return later in the week to answer more questions.

A few things we (I) learned:

• The new as-yet imaginary urban stadium will have grass. Earliest ETA for a SSS he gave is 2019 (18 months to build).

• They spend more than avg MLS teams on operations. They plan to beef up scouting staff.

• They plan to update the logo in conjunction with a new stadium.

Key area of focus over the winter:

Most critical metric they look at for academy success/performance is minutes played. He said revs among league leaders in this area. (He was asked about Herivaux's lack of minutes but didn't respond)

On the status of Heaps:

On practice facilities for first team and academy:

On lack of summer reinforcements:

Check the full transcript for more questions & Brian's answers.

 

I think it means that when they brought in Kouassi, that was all we were gonna get. No "big" summer signing.

OK, so in 5 years, 3 playoff appearances, one run to the Cup final, and a very disappointing sesaon this year, where the team was less than the sum of its parts. But he's "earned the right" to give it another try.

At least in 2002, when Clavijo was in charge of a lousy team that went to the Open Cup final, everyone knew he was on the hot seat. The Revs' plan B was to have Nicol on board as his assistant just in case the team didn't get off to a good start. Which is exactly what happened. So is Tom Soehn the new Steve Nicol?

 

I am deafened by the silence around Mike Burns' contributions.

 

He was asked about Burns (#28 in Thai thread). We'll see if he responds but my guess is they are pretty happy with his performance.

 

I'd like to follow up on that 'front end loaded' point. Is he saying that he has a budget and that no matter the need during the season, they can't do anything once the budget is used? I'm not saying they need to break the bank, but my lord, to say 'well we can't do anything now because we did all we could do in the beginning of the season' flies directly in the face of the statement -- 'Mr. Kraft gives us what we ask for.' I know there is a limit -- but a hard imposed number that stops you from making moves to improve the team if an opportunity presents itself is a little strange. Yes, they got Kei when that opportunity presented itself -- but again that opportunity was because he was being jettisoned by Columbus, not because we scouted and recruited him and then the time was right.

 

I think he referenced the TAM/GAM guys specifically. I read it as they couldn't acquire players in that price range because they had already gotten .

 

"Front Loaded" with available roster space. Always ready to fill! Great state to be in.

These are some smart forward-thinkers we're talking about here.

 

Well, they did use a combination of non-player assets to land Kamara after the sesaon started, so it looks like there was something that could be done on the fly. My take on it was that once that was spent, there was nothing left for a summer transfer window signing. By getting rid of Davies for the stretch run, we got some of those assets back, but we also gave a useful player to the very team that beat us out of a playoff spot. Actually, I'm glad they did, since this team's playoffs would have been a one-and-done like Philly, and at least there's some hope for a new signing or two over the winter.

But Burns probaby won't do anything, since we were just "unlucky" last year. A couple of bounces go the right way and it's a totally different story, right?

 

That's just it, why is the GM so insulated from criticism? His comments were almost testy to the writer about the quality of the team and what they need to do. By saying the team underachieved he is effectively saying the team assembled could win MLS cup, which is technically true but very unlikely in reality. During the AMA, it seemed like Bilello focused on Heaps and less on the team that was assembled. He only addressed Burns with the "frontloaded" comment but did not otherwise comment on his performance other than to suggest the revs are "an exciting team that the fans like to watch". How about the stuff like empty roster spots etc? Address some more meaty issues rather than only the easy stuff.

 

He contributed to us his World Cup Glory..... Jurgen was there to see it for himself.