With other posters, I suppose, since it's awfully unlikely that your coaching/assessment credentials rise to the level that you'd be critiquing of any of the professional coaches or GMs.
Yeah, sorry, I went to bed right after posting that, and in thinking about it since I wrote it, I regret the last line in my post, it was a little over the line of what I would call civil discourse, but unfortunately it's far too late for me to go and edit it
Don't have as much to say as some but some quick thoughts on Tierney, who I am a fan of and believe he's an important part of the team moving forward. 1. On the game winning goal, I think the problem Tierney had was he got cuaght marking up Husidic who starting making a run just a split second sooner than Keane. It looked like Tierney's attention to Husidic caused him to miss out on what his teammates were doing. 2. While I agree Tierney brings a lot with his ability to set up others, he was not good at all on corners. It obviously wasn't just him, but I'd expect him to do more. Considering he has been great on free kicks. He's definitely an important weapon on free kicks to either get the ball on the right guys head or score himself. As for where he plays on the field, I think it's going have to be determined depending on if Rowe or Diego can step up. Right now I think Tierney is our best option there, but I believe Diego will have a strong 3rd season. I want Tierney on the field so I can live with hi being average defensively at left back if the FO can tighten up the center back spots. On a different topic, just for fun...who would have been called on for us if the cup went to PK's? My five would be: 1. Mullins 2. Rowe 3. Tierney 4. Jones 5. Bunbury
I don't think there's any dispute that he wasn't paying attention to the line of his teammates, nobody ever purposely makes mistakes, the issue is that he's made such mistakes many times in the past, and still does. The movement was not something that happened in the blink of an eye, the ball was played out, Tierney was actually further up field than the other 3, but all 4 of them jogged forward, and they eventually were all in line, but rather than holding the line, as the ball was about to be played, Tierney started going backwards, and ended up putting Keane onside. If a player makes a back-pass to his keeper, and it gets intercepted by an opponent who was in the area who should have been seen before the pass was made, people don't excuse the passer for not seeing the opponent, they say he should have taken a look before making the pass. Players have to know better than to get caught up focusing on one thing to the exclusion of everything else, because this practice can easily major mistakes, and often does. For me, I think this is what led to the US allowing the goal against Portugal. Ronaldo has such a reputation and is so feared, even the players nowhere close to him were focused on what the superstar would do, and nobody paid attention to the guy in front of the goal, so less important, not-Ronaldo ended up with a free header. Yes mistakes happen, but as I always say to kids I coach, I don't have a problem with people making mistakes, they happen all the time, but I have a problem with someone making the same mistake repeatedly.
I believe Cole has trained with the Revs also, which is one of the reasons I'm making the comparison. What I've seen with him at BC is a lot of the same kinds of instinctual passing sense that Caldwell has (already knowing his options before he needs to pass). I think that's the Rev Academy influence in both of them. DeNormandie's pretty much been a starter all 4 years in college when healthy. He had a great freshman season at Cincinnati and was pretty much the best player on the team by the end of that year. He improved his second year. At BC, Kelly seemed to want to play him up top, in an offense that always wants to go full speed - not a great role for him IMO. This year he split time there and at central mid, where he looked much better IMO, but he also struggled with several injuries over the season.
1. Rowe Upside and hype are one thing, but you have to execute. A disappointing struggle this year to get into a groove. He will have to improve next year . 2. Is Heaps staying with a 1 fwd approach still? If so, is Davies enough? He had a good season (I felt they should have kept Davies on and brought on Mullins together in the final and pulled Rowe - not swap 1 for 1), but is it enough. Teams will be closing Lee next year like crazy, so we need to have dangerous fwds too. 3. Tierney is a hybrid LB - he is actually not a good defender and has poor defending starting positions since he is always so high up the field. But that is how he is utilized and how the Revs defensive shape has always operated when he is on the field. Re-watch the first LA goal and see how his spacing is what allows the cross to come in (and his errant pass starts LA's counter). It is also no surprise that he was not in synch with the backline on the 2nd goal since he is so rarely in that position. Will the Revs continue to operate in that defensive hybrid shape with Tierney? 4. Now that AJ is gone -are we moving Farrell or are we looking for 2 new CB's? 5. What is the plan for Fagundez?
Some thoughts crossing a few threads, but mostly looking at next season. I hope that the FO continues to deliver as they have in the second part of 2014 and that the young guys on the Revs become pros who live and die for the team and compete day in and day out like their jobs depend on it. I feel like we have a loy of guys who are still finding themselves. I hope the search ends for at least one this season. FWIW, IMHO, Jermaine Jones is the big difference maker. Without him this team is on the fringe of the playoffs at best. Hopefully, we will not get to see what this team looks like without Jones immediately after 2015 (meaning that I hope he extends his contract with the Revs) and hopefully he does not get injured next year or miss too many games for whatever reason. To ignore or underestimate the influence/impact of Jones is silly. He is simply cut from a different cloth than any field player on the Revs at this point and possibly ever. He is the dream DP. If a blind draw does not go our way, what does the end of last season really look like? When we talk about Rowe (or whoever) playing for the USMNT. Ask yourself, could this player ever be like Jones? In my wildest dream Rowe does not project to be Jones on or off the field? Will he ever command the same respect, be able to mentor young players in the same way, make everybody on his team better, change a team's direction, talk the talk and walk the walk, etc? That is not to say that Rowe might not become a team leader and USMNT player, but it is to say that Jones is special. Question, who did the Revs persue for a longer period of time Jones or Castillion? I do not know, but Castillion seems like business as usual for the old school Revs and Jones is a turn of the page to a new way of managing the team or a brighter future. If not for a blind draw last summer our big summer splash would have just been traded away for nothing. Last Jones point. We spend a lot of time debating whether Chris Tierney is a 3,4,5, or 6 out of 10 in quality, but almost no time really appreciating what we have in Jones. Regarding Juan Agudelo, Parkhurst, Goncalves, Moreno, and Bengston. If somebody does not want to play here, then let them move on and get the best deal you can for them. Are we hanging on to Agudelo for the possibility that we might be able to trade his rights for a draft pick? I think so. Do people really think he will play here again? He might, but what are the odds? The Revs seem to be a one forward team. I am a huge Davies fan, but I think he would be better in a two forward system and the Revs are taking a real risk builing an offense around one forward. Moreso, since they really only have one forward on the roster at this point. I am relatively sure this will be addressed by the time the season starts, but I fear that we will find ourselves in a stitaution similar to last year and similar to the USMNT at the world cup. Last year we had many forwardsm but no two were alike. Change one and you change the whole approach. Just like when Jozy went down in Brazil, there was no same for same replacement. I really hope that we do not enter 2015 in that situation while relying on Davies to be the man game in and game out all season (although I would love to see him deliver that kind of season).
If we are sticking with a 1 forward system, we need another forward to be competition/backup for Davies. If we're moving to a two forward system, we need TWO more forwards to be competition/backup for Davies and Fagundez. Either way, we need forward(s).
Considering how late they jumped into the Jones sweepstakes, I'm venturing Castillion. But great post.
Thanks. Yes, it was a bit of a rhetorical question. Most folks might not complain about the Castillion trade because we made the MLS Cup game and he was really a signing for next year (2015) anyway. I believe that the Revs FO did some work to get Castillion and he would have been the big deal signing if not for some luck. Now he is gone because reasons soccer or otherwise. This illustrates how far we have to go in international signings that are entirely up to us. That scares me a little when I look at the depth chart for our forwards, Davies ability to stay injury free, how close the next season/pre-season is, the availability of good/known forwards in MLS. Basically, it seems like a tough position given all the things that have to go right for a team to have the type of season we had in the second half of 2014. It seems like quite a hill to climb in a short period of time.
If we want to improve we need to have a very solid hold up forward who can work alone. Our strength is our midfield configuration with #MVLee in front of Caldwell and Jones with a relatively free holding role. I hope that Diego gets out of his funk and really pushes rowe for the left wing spot. Teal has become an excellent two way winger. That means that, unless we are going back to a 3-5-2 (and I don't think we have the personnel), our forward is alone up top. Someone with that level of quality isn't going to come out of the reentry draft or be hanging out without a contract (with the exception of Agudelo, but I agree. He doesn't seem like he wants to come back to the Revs.) That means that we'll need to get involved in the winter transfer process in competition with first division European clubs who are always looking for a forward. I'm not terribly optimistic that Burns and Biello have what it takes to play successfully in the international transfer game but, if they do, kudos to them. Otherwise, we're likely looking at scraps or out of contract players not available until the end of the European season. In that circumstance, I would feel a lot better if we still had Mullins, but Burns put the burden on himself. Time to step up.
I will say that I think it's easier to sell someone on coming to the Revs after we just made it to the cup final and we have a Jermaine Jones and Lee Nguyen getting NAT callups, and Diego getting Uruguay U20 callups. It's an easier sales job than last offseason when it was "hey we have a lot of promise... come play with guys you've never heard of... we might make the playoffs again..."
I think there's close to 0% chance they aren't planning to add at least 2 forwards, by one means or another. I don't think anyone wants to build their 2015 hopes solely around Charlie Davies. But, plans and execution are different things, so if they don't already have some plans in the works, yes, it's going to be tough to have quality reinforcements to start the season. It's remarkable how short the offseason is when you play through the final league game of the season. Not a whole lot of rest/recover time for players or staff.
It's short but somehow, some way, most other MLS teams get their reinforcements in time for the start of the next season.
If I was the FO, I'd be working right now to have Jones signed through the 2018 season. I expect Jones to have 2018 WC as his personal goal, and judging by his move to CB, I believe JK has JJ in his plans for 2018 too. I wouldn't wait till next offseason before working on extending JJ. I think he'd rather be on the west coast with his family and the closer he gets to the end of his Revs contract I think the less of the a chance he remains here on the east coast. Go out now offer him good money for a number of years (till the end of 2018 aka a 3 year extension). He probably won't play a ton of games/minutes in 2018 with JJ approaching age 38, and having (hopefully) WC matches to be ready for, but having him in our organization for the next 4 season would be huge.
I agree about the extension. Work out that extension as soon as you can. The Improper Bostonian article (in another thread) has Jones mentioning that what hapens after 2015 is up in the air, but he wants to be close to his family. Quote from the article in The Improper Bostonian:
Saw this last week, but thought it would be interesting to post today based on discussion of short off season. Didn't quite realize til now: If you add up Bundesliga's winter & summer breaks, it equals, almost exactly, the length of the MLS offseason.— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) December 19, 2014 @cboehm this is true, but only for the final 2 teams. Those that don't make the playoffs or those out in the 1st round, are out longer— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) December 19, 2014 @BrianSciaretta No, I'm counting from the last weekend of the MLS regular season to the opening weekend of the following season— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) December 19, 2014 I have not validated this personally, but it is interesting. Really is a never ending cycle.
In order of priority: 1. DP Striker (Saborio) 2. Significantly salaried Center Back even if Farrell moves there 3. High workrate left winger to compete with Rowe and add flexibility to move Rowe inside 4. Left back
The only thing I can see that needs fixing up is our trophy case. I have a hunch we will need to make some space.
Our DP striker would have to be very mobile in this system. Think how much ground Davies covered. Think of one of Jermaine's main strengths--the long pass. It all but eliminates an older guy, a goal poacher, or a big back-to-goal type. Castillion was expendable precisely because they realized that with Jermaine in there, mobility/quick transition/switch of fields were the watchwords for our attack, not possession using a big guy and a bunch of skilled mids. This is also what hurt Fagundez and what helped Bunbury. The Revs became more speed-oriented and more counterattacking as the season wore on and after Jermaine arrived. And while the passing remained great, they were much longer passes. An Obafemi Martins type striker is what would work with the way we're playing now.