Same line-up experiment and same poor results. Despite the goal, Shalrie is not a forward. Hopefully Twellman will be back soon and this nonsense can stop.
(+) Phelan, maybe its just relative to past results (+) Osei, for being the best defender (+) Tierney (+) Reis (+) Ralston (+) Joseph, terrible missed chance, but hey they lost by 2 (0) Barnes (0) Alston (0) Nyassi (-) Larentowicz (-) Thompson (-) Heaps (NR) Assengue
How does Wells keep his job? Isn't it sad that we let Cristman go and kept Wells? This is not a good team right now, it needs help.
Wells is far from perfect and has become a favorite whipping boy for many on these boards. He has a long ways to go but he's still better then any other options on the bench and he is not the cause of our current problems. His first cross to Ralston was perfect ... much better then Nyassi or Castro ever delivers. The real issue here is the failure of the FO or SN (who knows where the fault lies) to replace starters that have moved on and that's where the pressure should be. Forget about Wells or Heaps or whoever and start talking about why this team has allowed itself to fall very much behind the rest of the league on player recruitment. Why would anybody want to pay to see this team play right now?
Considering Cristman has been hurt all year and Wells has started all 9 games of the season so far, it hasn't been as bad as you think.
Don't understand why the Revs stayed with the same lineup and formation. Only 3 people moving forward with one of them out on the wing and staying there just doesn't make sense. One thing if one or two of the three are strong attackers who can penetrate, but none of the three are of that ilk. Hope this is the last we see of that, regardless of whether TnT is back. Move at least one of Ralston or Shalrie back to midfield.
Surprised Tierney was subbed as he was having a good game, and delivered in some good crosses. This game was perfect example why Dube and Mansally must have dropped off the face of the earth. Ralston was dropping back nicely to combine in midfield, but then that left one "forward", Shalrie, against 4 of Toronto. Was that Nicol's instruction or Ralston's natural tendencies? Regardless, playing with one forward is not going to win us games. We actually did not play that bad - but in the end, the better team on the day got the win. Also, is it just me, or did Reis look a little chunky - maybe it was just the TV. Regardless, good to have him back.
Where to start? First of all nice to meet and see the game with some of the supporters at Banshee - growing on me. Starting from the back, Kingston should have started over Reis. Reis does not have command of his box right now, and Kingston has shown he was in charge of his box. If you are going to be bold enough to bench your entire offense, then bench Reis. This shaky team needs strength somewhere. Osei is showing himself to be a great signing. He is making Heaps a better player, and I think Osei has a future in the midfield as well. I know they mis-communicated on Dero's goal. Thompson showed me a large improvement over the Rapids game with good possession at times, far fewer touches before passing (I think the coaches worked on him on that). Tierney put a nice ball in, and I thought he did OK. Shalrie has to get back to a holding mid-field role. We should at least play Dube and Nyassi to give us some dynamism going forward and keep their defense honest. As a few have mentioned, Ralston is best playing wide. The truth is that Toronto really stunk it up for the first 60 minutes or so. I had been against a Figo signing, but his experience and ball holding and distribution abilities would help enormously along with Jeff, Shalrie, Osei and Ralston in a dynamic mid-field with Dube and Nyassi up top. We have a lot of players that could do take Osei's place in the back 4. I don't think we are showing our best side, as bad as we are. We have to build the confidence of Dube and Nyassi. Offensive players need someone to believe in them to gain the wherewithal to take on players and attack the goal. SN, come on.
The Revs had some good runs of play, made some mistakes, and had a number of their current weaknesses exposed. The effort was there, but it wasn't enough.
I was actually pretty impressed with Shalrie Joseph's distribution, lay-offs, knock-downs and other more finesse aspects of his forward play ... he is passable as a center-forward, but there is such a gaping hole without him playing in his normal spot and no good foil for him to work with up front. Apart from Ralston ... Jay Heaps is the most prolific goal-scorer on the field for the Revs right now. Most of the Revs "attacking" players have less than 10 MLS goals in their careers. Just a lack of complementary attacking play, experience, nous and finishing ability. I understand why Nicol has put Nyassi in the doghouse ... he earned his way there. But this was one team that he really should have been starting against. That awful turf plays really fast and there is always space behind Jim Brennan. Bad sign that he wasn't starting.
Despite the lack of a result, I felt they played better than last week. The midfield wasn't a disaster, and they were able to hold possession much better. I thought Phelan was markedly better and JL and Thompson held up their ends. I thought Osei seemed surprised by the speed of play (or the turf). We missed some chances, but we had chances. They're a mediocre team, but they seem to be forming into a team.
I think the Nicol blame needs to end. We're decimated with injuries and tactically we were not poor. When there has been an issue, it's resolved after a week or two of training. The issues are in certain players making amateur errors. We were never outclassed by Toronto, just shot ourselves in the foot defensively and couldn't finish when we had the chance.
Joseph and Ralston did ok. They were combining better. But, the thing is, playing them up top mortally weakens our midfield. Is this the formation we're going to play the rest of the season? Reis seems to have gained some weight and lost some agility. I have to think he would have stopped at least one of those goals in past years.
Leaving aside blaming SN for a second... We are now nine games into the season and have taken only 10 of 27 points. Nearly 1/3 of the season. Every two weeks of remedial training puts us a little deeper in the hole. The miraculous return of Twellman better come soon and really pay off. I really don't see how we are decimated by injuries. There is only one important player missing (sorry Albright, Castro and Badilla). We looked better today and even reached double digits in shots, although we only had 4 on goal. Back to blame... Someone said we need 3 starting quality players for every two positions (Doc?). We have that for left back, right back, center back, left center back, right center back, a tad to the left of center back, a tad to the right of center back, and the back that just goes wherever the hell he pleases. But, we aren't even close for Striker or attacking mid and are pretty thin for outside mid too; REGARDLESS of injuries. That isn't the players fault.
I think that when the Revs are doing well, Steve Nicol gets a great deal of credit. And as such, when things are not going well, he deserves the lion's share of the blame. Every single player on this team has either been acquired by Nicol, or resigned by him. If players are consistently making "amateur errors", then it's Nicol's responsibility to either coach 'em up, or send 'em packing. If we can't finish, then it's Nicol's responsibility to acquire players who can. We're 4-10-9 since winning SuperLiga last summer. Yes, there have been injuries, travel, schedule congestion, a plague of locusts, etc... but there have also been 10 1/2 months since that point. Make all of the excuses you want, but it's not good enough. The entire organization needs a giant enema. They need new faces on and off the field, new ideas, and they need to find new ways to conduct their business. They need someone willing to take risks and make bold moves instead of trying to continuously patch holes in a leaky ship. I'm sorry, I don't think that person is Steve Nicol. Eight years is enough - we're stagnating, and we're not getting any closer to an MLS Cup. Steve's had his shot, and while he came agonizingly close, I think he's squeezed everything out of this team that he could. It's time to let someone else have a shot.
That was me repeating a statement Nicol has been reported to have said on multiple occasions. Part of how you get that in MLS with it's Cap/roster size limitations is by having players with the versatility to play multiple positions. I guess we might debate what constitutes "starting quality". IMO, three key factors come into play: ability to play well at MLS level of play, experience in playing as a professional and adaptability to the system being played by the team. This team has a lot of young player and most have an up side but lack experience. I think this is where we have missed having Castro, Albright. Twellman, Reis and Ralston in the mix for various periods. With a healthy, full roster I think we meet Nicols criteria. IMO, we have yet to see what was penciled in as the 09 Rev first team lineup. So far we have been playing mix and match and it's been a tough slog to say the least. I think this team will reverse last years patten with the team fielded in the second half of the season far superior to what gutted out the first half. That won't so squat to win the Shield but it might get us some hardware. In short, I've not given up on the 09 Revs because I don't think we have seen yet what this roster is capable of producing. For me the jury is still out.
We've missed most of our starting defense for the entire season (Badilla and Albright, Alston is just coming back, and Osei was added because of the injuries/inexperience), our starting goalkeeper has gone through two injury stints, we were without our leading goalscorer and assists man for most of the season, etc. Nicol isn't a saint, but the FIRE NICOL!!! bulls**t is ridiculous. Given his track record I think he deserves a little more than 1/3 of a season to right the ship. Kyle McCarthy put it best in one sentence, "All things considered, it's progress without reward."
I tend to agree. I would love to know if it's SN or the FO that makes the call on new players. If it's SN then I totally agree that we should move in a different direction. If his hands are tied by the FO then I don't blame him as much. Either way, we're going nowhere but down unless something big happens and fast. Look at the players that have left and not been replaced by a player of equal value. Dorman, Dempsey are Parkhurst are the big three. Christman would have started this year had he been kept (who knows if he would have been hurt had he stayed) . Smith is playing a lot for the bulls. There's 5 players right there that would all be starting were they still on the team. You cannot replace them with draft picks and bargain basement players TnT cannot turn this team around and we have far too many average players to compete anymore. If you think back, TnT was struggling before he got hurt from lack of service. Throwing him back in there won't save the farm It's time to either sign some impact players or send SN packing. I'd prefer option "A" but if SN is the one that won't bring in players then it's option "B"
The Revs did pass better yesterday and did an ok job holding the ball at times. SJ did fine up front, but he needs to be in the middle of the park. None of the backs particularly impressed yesterday. None of the 4 were near the quality of Wynne or #3 on Toronto. If you think about the formation the Revs played (thinking about the personnel), it was sort of a 4-6-0 with only one real attacking player on the field in Ralston who is not a forward. Tierney, Wells, Phelan and Jeff L are essentially defense first midfielders. How can a team succeed with 9 backs, one goalie and a midfielder?
Neither Badilla nor Albright played as well last year as their replacements have so far this year. And Nicol does deserve credit for the Alston and Barnes picks, and Osei looks encouraging. Brad Knighton hasn't really been a problem. Yes, Ralston and Twellman make a difference. But enough of a difference to turn this team into a Championship caliber club? They haven't made that kind of difference in the past. A third of a season? Four wins in our last 23 games - that's more than a third of a season. He had all winter to right the ship, and it didn't happen. He had all winter to ask himself, "Gee, do you think we need another effective forward to play with Twellman like when we had with Pat Noonan?" He obviously didn't think so, because he went out and signed a forward who isn't ready to play. That's an awful mistake. Relying on Thompson, Nyassi, Mansally, Castro, and Colaluca to provide the bulk of the wing play is a bad, bad decision, because none of them are that good. Building an offense around a a guy who's going to be 35 in a couple of weeks and is showing signs of breaking down is risky, at best. Multiple people on this board pointed out these potential problems, and NONE of them were addressed by the coaching staff and/or front office. That's either stupidity or negligence. Screw progress. After seven and a half years, I think we should be beyond the point where progress is acceptable. At this point, I demand results from this organization, and I'm not seeing it.
The Good: We created more quality chances than we've seen all season. Our strong start showed the value of having an actual attacking threat. TFC backed off for several minutes after our early chances and gave us room to breathe and score. Thompson and Tierney had better games than their norm. Our defense did OK against a quality attacking opponent and they should only get better with more games. The Bad: We don't have an MLS quality team in midfield or attack. Reis is either rusty or has lost some of his reaction time. Two years ago, he saves at least one, if not both, of goals one and three. Our bench doesn't make the team any better or more threatening. Nyassi and Assengue didn't show any understanding of what to do at this level of the game.
Good attacking players are expensive. How do you know that the FO wouldn't let SN sign such a player?
My sense is, if SN gets the most out of this team as he sees it (winning the defensive plays, keeping possession, delivering good crosses -- in short the Stoke or Blackburn of the Premiere league), the team would match well with MLS sides of 8 - 10 years ago. SN's team probably would thrive in that environment. MLS has developed rapidly in the last 3 - 4 years, and you can't get away with our weaknesses because today's sides will capitalize on them. It appears to me that we are being found out as the season progresses, and sides will study what works against us. The core assets for me are SJ, Knighton (spelling), Osei, Jeff, Ralston, Heaps, Alston, but we could use a serious upgrade in the rest of our starting 11.