Fire Berhalter

Against the best team in regular season history you mean? Your version makes it sound so much easier....

 

It's not easy. It was his task. He was bested by a man coaching his 19th MLS game. These things happen in isolation of course. I agree that's not a reflection of Gregg Berhalter as a whole.

5 years. Zero major trophies. Multiple Open Cup embarrassments. A what, plus 6 goal differential over 5 years?

I was hoping for the bit of magic that a master tactician could devise to make tonight better. Instead we were second best everywhere on the field, including the coaching box.

 

It would be plus 5 without the genius known as Santos.

 

Let me guess, you're a Hellmuth fan.

 

I walked past him in the Las Vegas airport once and wondered what boneheaded airport move could I pull to set him off.

 

The body was not even cold. It is not even at 90 degrees yet.

Hang, you are the guy at work who the day after your dog dies; the dog you had years of companionship and great times and you even got the dog through cancer, who your most wistful moment when other coworkers are saying they are sorry your dog died, comes up and says "Cats are better. It told you, you should have gotten a cat. It would still be alive."

 

******** cats. I love dogs, and I would never do that.

If I didn't like you so much I would report you to the mods for this horrible act of character assassination. But, I have thick skin, a big heart, and I acknowledge we all grieve differently.

 

The 'you can't blame Berhalter for losing to a much better team' argument loses a lot of its bite when you remember that much of the reason why the Crew have an inferior squad is because it was assembled by Gregg Berhalter. Yeah, sure - he doesn't have the budget NYRB does, I get that. But if I owned a team where Berhalter was the coach (and sporting director) I wouldn't give him much money to spend, even if I was part of the U.A.E. royal family. We have two 'regular' DPs, one of whom is, while still great, past his prime, and the other is - to put it politely - barely good enough to make a MLS reserve squad.

Think about how much better we would be if the $800k/year going to Santos and the $870k/year going to Mensah were paying the salaries of competent footballers. Seriously, just give it a minute. DC United are paying Luciano Acosta and his 10 goals/17 assists season the equivalent of Zack Steffen's salary less than we are paying Santos. Orlando are paying Lamine Sane slightly less than we are for Mensah.

Sure, Gregg has done admirably well filling some slots. Kei Kamara had a career season for us in 2015. Ola was a good replacement for him, and Zardes has IMO been even better than Ola. But, tactical deficiencies aside, the squad is mostly notable for being full of grossly overpaid incompetents. And that's all on Berhalter.

 

Try dealing to him.

 

This.

Although NYRB may have deep(er) pockets, they certainly haven't been emptying out the coffers (maybe on transfer fees, though it's hard to say with MLS keeping a lid on most of that). Still, we're basically even on payroll with NYRB.

Fun facts:

• NYRB total payroll - $8.1M
• Crew total payroll - $7.7M
• NYRB top paid player, Bradley Wright-Phillips - $1.6M
• Crew top paid player, Federico Higuain - $1.1M

They didn't splash cash like TFC or LAG. Hell, they're 20th in the league for payroll. Yet they finished 20 points ahead of us and won the Supporters' Shield. NYRB has been good thanks to team construction and coaching.

This was Gigi's team. He picked these guys. He made the gameplan. It wasn't enough.

Five seasons. Zero trophies. Thanks for the effort, Gregg. I really wish you would have won something, because I think you're a funny, decent dude. Good luck with the Nats.

Oh, and for those that would like to easily compare rosters:




(h/t to Steve Fenn for putting together the MLS Wages Workbook)

 

Why isn't Alan Kelly's or Kevin Stott's salaries listed under RBNY?

 

They were Double Secret Transfers, so they aren't reported by the Players Association.

 

NYRB have the two advantages over any Crew front office.

First is homegrowns and the money they are saving them. NYRB have 8 homegrowns on the roster. 4 of them played last night. This gives them a huge break on salary. The Crew had Trapp and Crognale who has not been in the 18 since April or something like that. Boy it would have been nice to have a productive academy to feed the first team.

Second NYRB have the RedBull system going for them. This gives them a scouting network and signing base well surpasses every team in the MLS except maybe NYCFC.

So yes Red Bulls organization and academy of 100 or so people world wide is going to do better than the Crew organization of 4 or 5.

 

Fair points.

But how dare you overlook Crew greats like Matt Walker and Ben Swanson, both signed in the Berhalter Era!

On the first point, I wish Berhalter could gotten more out of the academy. It never really felt like youth development was anything but an afterthought. To be fair, I assume he didn't have the support from PSV to develop the talent pipeline. It's a shame and one of the things I'll be using to gauge how invested the new ownership really is.

As for the scouting network, you're correct. I'd be curious to see how many players have come to New York through the network or how closely each organization works together. I think it could be mitigated to a degree by forming partnerships with other organizations. I'm thinking of FC Dallas/Bayern Munich here. Of course, I know such arrangements haven't produced much in the past.

 

If this is the end...

So long and thanks for all the fish.


Not including preseason or exhibition matches, Gregg leaves the Crew with the second-most matches managed.

Huzzah, Gigi!


NOTE:
I didn't include draws for the U.S. Open Cup because, in my mind, you win or go home. Technically, if you go to PKs and do not advance, the result is recorded as a draw. I think that's dumb. Now that I've clarified the point, Gigi only went to PKs in one LHUSOC match: this season versus Chicago. If you think I'm being unfair by calling that a loss, make your own damn chart.

Okay. Love you. Bye.

 

7 wins in 23 tournament games. Lol.

Lol. Really looking forward to this jabroni leading USMNT out of the wilderness....

 

Am I the only one who is tired of reading about Swansons??

 

What's the over/under on how many scouts you need to realize it's a poor idea to pay a center-back nearly $1m a year when he can't even get a start for his national team, being dropped for a central midfielder played out of position?

 

There’s a low rumble coming out of US soccer circles that Gregg Berhalter is now equally likely to end up with the #LAGalaxy as he is with #USMNT.

My USSF sources are <<<<<< my CSA sources, so take with a grain of salt.

But definitely a low rumble.

— Duane Rollins (@24thminute) November 21, 2018

Lol. Will someone just ********in take this guy away, please?

 

Mensah is probably worth even more than we are paying him. GB has overall great success in finding talent and using them to their full potential.

 

Um, I wouldn't say Mensah is underpaid.

 

Compared to what a lot of the CB who are paid more than him though, Mensah at least earned his salary this year. There are guys making over $1 million a season who were total trash (Manciene, Schelvik, Cianni, and more).