Domènec Torrent Appointed NYCFC Head Coach (June '18) / Mutually Agree to Part Ways (November '19)

[Keith Putnam]

Columbus showed us that we can't execute Domé's gameplan if we're forced to play TMac as a pivot in central midfield and Wallace as a wide forward. They both lack technical skill and speed and Domé's system requires speed and technique to keep from being exposed defensively as it was over and over again last night. Even Ring, at 75-80% fitness, is having trouble with his task of being everywhere, putting out all fires, and launching our transitions (all made harder by having a C-list midfield partner).

Now, it's perfectly valid to say that Domé needs a "plan B" (the lack of which I often criticized PV for) for our depleted squad situation. But personally I put most of our problems at Columbus on the state of our squad.

Which doesn't make me optimistic about the next two matches.

If we can accuse Domé of anything, it may be taking a while to readjust his ideas about football to players which are only barely up to the task.

 

[Kjbert]

Agreed, but it has little to do with the fact he's been an assistant for so long, which is the new creeping narrative on here now that our form is deteriorating.

I agree.

 

[Kjbert]

Columbus showed us that we can't execute Domé's gameplan if we're forced to play TMac as a pivot in central midfield and Wallace as a wide forward. They both lack technical skill and speed and Domé's system requires speed and technique to keep from being exposed defensively as it was over and over again last night. Even Ring, at 75-80% fitness, is having trouble with his task of being everywhere, putting out all fires, and launching our transitions (all made harder by having a C-list midfield partner).

Now, it's perfectly valid to say that Domé needs a "plan B" (the lack of which I often criticized PV for) for our depleted squad situation. But personally I put most of our problems at Columbus on the state of our squad.

Which doesn't make me optimistic about the next two matches.

If we can accuse Domé of anything, it may be taking a while to readjust his ideas about football to players which are only barely up to the task.

I think he did have a plan b, but with no Berget, Johnson’s distribution and guys like Wallace and McNamara playing important roles, it was useless.

 

[Ulrich]

Columbus showed us that we can't execute Domé's gameplan if we're forced to play TMac as a pivot in central midfield and Wallace as a wide forward. They both lack technical skill and speed and Domé's system requires speed and technique to keep from being exposed defensively as it was over and over again last night. Even Ring, at 75-80% fitness, is having trouble with his task of being everywhere, putting out all fires, and launching our transitions (all made harder by having a C-list midfield partner).

Now, it's perfectly valid to say that Domé needs a "plan B" (the lack of which I often criticized PV for) for our depleted squad situation. But personally I put most of our problems at Columbus on the state of our squad.

Which doesn't make me optimistic about the next two matches.

If we can accuse Domé of anything, it may be taking a while to readjust his ideas about football to players which are only barely up to the task.

We had no Port Side to the team. Like literally for the first 45 minutes we had a forward that couldn’t string passes together in the attack, a left side midfielder that couldn’t string forward passes together and walked, and a left back that spent more time attacking than defending. Seriously, the commentators were making fun of Mata on numerous occasions for playing in the attacking zone and not dropping to defend. So we were rudderless and sinking in the water with no Port Side play as Santos and fcking Afful were attacking at will. Three guys with no business being on the field and all shitty enough to need to be subbed off, when we really needed the opportunity to get Tinny and Isi off the field with subs as they both were terrorized by Meram and ineffective going forward save for the one randomly lucky pinball play netting the goal.

I love Tinny, but the guy has been a shell of himself the last 3-4 matches and a rest isn’t a bad idea. Love Isi too, but outside of a few amazing shooting instances, his open play has been pretty bad, constantly losing the ball on takeons. Something isn’t clicking with them regarding the tactics or understanding their roles.

 

[Christopher Jee]

We had no Port Side to the team. Like literally for the first 45 minutes we had a forward that couldn’t string passes together in the attack, a left side midfielder that couldn’t string forward passes together and walked, and a left back that spent more time attacking than defending. Seriously, the commentators were making fun of Mata on numerous occasions for playing in the attacking zone and not dropping to defend. So we were rudderless and sinking in the water with no Port Side play as Santos and fcking Afful were attacking at will. Three guys with no business being on the field and all shitty enough to need to be subbed off, when we really needed the opportunity to get Tinny and Isi off the field with subs as they both were terrorized by Meram and ineffective going forward save for the one randomly lucky pinball play netting the goal.

I love Tinny, but the guy has been a shell of himself the last 3-4 matches and a rest isn’t a bad idea. Love Isi too, but outside of a few amazing shooting instances, his open play has been pretty bad, constantly losing the ball on takeons. Something isn’t clicking with them regarding the tactics or understanding their roles.

It seemed like Santos and Meram were pinching narrow very early and creating situations where Ring had to choose between marking Higuain and one of their inverted wingers. We didn't adjust in a well thought-out way and we consistently suffered from these overloads.

Dome talked a lot about a lack of energy from us but I am feeling more a lack of clarity. Who does Tinny pass Meram on to? If he passes him on to Ring, who does Ring pass Higuain on to? And so on.

With the amount of overloading occurring in narrow areas I was surprised not to see more inverted full back play, particularly with our lack of strength in the middle.

 

[Ulrich]

It seemed like Santos and Meram were pinching narrow very early and creating situations where Ring had to choose between marking Higuain and one of their inverted wingers. We didn't adjust in a well thought-out way and we consistently suffered from these overloads.

Dome talked a lot about a lack of energy from us but I am feeling more a lack of clarity. Who does Tinny pass Meram on to? If he passes him on to Ring, who does Ring pass Higuain on to? And so on.

With the amount of overloading occurring in narrow areas I was surprised not to see more inverted full back play, particularly with our lack of strength in the middle.

Either TMac had to pick up Higuin, or the FB’s needed to track their men. They can’t hand off and just stand in a corner. Half the time, Mata wasn’t even close to Santos since he was upfield, and I have no idea what Tinny was doing, but Ring got into it with him a few times.

 

[Keith Putnam]

particularly with our lack of strength in the middle.

We totally conceded the middle. We basically pushed the whole team to the sidelines and the back and the front and left TMac in the middle to do... stuff. It was like a rectangular setup with a void in the middle.

I get the idea of relying on Ring to create a three at the back in order to use both our fullbacks and our wingers to get and stay forward, but it was the wrong idea when the only other midfielder you have is TMac, and one of the wide forwards is Wallace.

 

[Christopher Jee]

We totally conceded the middle. We basically pushed the whole team to the sidelines and the back and the front and left TMac in the middle to do... stuff. It was like a rectangular setup with a void in the middle.

I get the idea of relying on Ring to create a three at the back in order to use both our fullbacks and our wingers to get and stay forward, but it was the wrong idea when the only other midfielder you have is TMac, and one of the wide forwards is Wallace.

Yup, the problem was that they were using their quality and strength in numbers in the middle to draw our players in there (late), which left the wings wide open for their FBs.

 

[ZYanksRule]

I'm quickly losing confidence with Dome. At first he won his first three straight at Yankee Stadium and we thought he was a tactical genius. But recently, the results have been lacking and the players either aren't producing or aren't getting the message.

You're an assistant for 12 years for a reason.

We've regressed, but are we looking worse right now because we've had so many road games? Obviously this team needs to learn how to play on the road, but I feel like we've had so many road games lately, it may be clouding our judgement.

 

[Gotham Gator]

Either TMac had to pick up Higuin, or the FB’s needed to track their men. They can’t hand off and just stand in a corner. Half the time, Mata wasn’t even close to Santos since he was upfield, and I have no idea what Tinny was doing, but Ring got into it with him a few times.

This kind of stuff, along with Ring’s post game comments, suggest that the team really doesn’t yet have a handle on what Domé wants tactically.

 

[Ulrich]

This kind of stuff, along with Ring’s post game comments, suggest that the team really doesn’t yet have a handle on what Domé wants tactically.

Dome was quoted after the match saying basically the same thing, and the first time I read about it, Crooks only wrote that Maxi was playing forward, but Crooks later added that’s dome included TMac as playing up with the forwards leaving Ring by himself. We all know Maxi has free movement, so that’s more of an indictment on TMac that he was freelancing rather than adhering to his role - it’s nothing we haven’t seen all year with him wanting to crash the middle whether player as the wing or midfielder. I hope Dome finally realizes the guy with the “best” Soccer IQ has zero discipline and leaves his mates stranded covering his responsibilities. And I hope Ring continues to be more vocal calling guys out to the media - it feels like his frustration is boiling over, and the last thing I want is for him to toss in the cards on the club and want to move on to a club with more tactically astute teammates.

 

[NickA]

This kind of stuff, along with Ring’s post game comments, suggest that the team really doesn’t yet have a handle on what Domé wants tactically.

I think Dome doesn't know what he wants tactically either. That's the problem bringing an outsider assistant in during the middle of the season. There is no clear style, tactic or gameplay yet. Maybe Dome has good soccer IQ too and it doesn't translate on the pitch either. I am hopeful that it all falls into place at the end and we go on a run come playoff time.

 

[ZYanksRule]

I think Dome doesn't know what he wants tactically either. That's the problem bringing an outsider assistant in during the middle of the season. There is no clear style, tactic or gameplay yet. Maybe Dome has good soccer IQ too and it doesn't translate on the pitch either. I am hopeful that it all falls into place at the end and we go on a run come playoff time.

For the record, four of our last six games have been on the road. One of our home games we were sent down to 9 men and still should have won against one of the best teams in MLS. We stink on the road this season no matter who's coaching, so maybe the jury is still out on Torrent.

It seems to me he's still trying to figure out exactly what he has. These next few games are little more than preseason games for us. Odds are we're going to win enough games to stay in the 3 seed, but the chances at this point of catching Red Bulls or Atlanta seem low. So Torrent is experimenting. I want to see whether he has the team ready for the playoffs before I judge him.

 

[NYCFC_Dan]

I’m just confused by what’s been happening. The whole Lewis can’t defend crap is just that, crap. Macnamara and Wallace have been horrible for us. The past game one of them was subbed at the half and the other in the 65th I believe.
We keep putting ourselves in positions to fail and it’s frustrating and shouldn’t be that way.
Could there be some front office dynamics at play here? Could Reyna be pushing these vets to start due to the contracts they have and not wanting to look bad for making them in the first place?

 

[Ulrich]

Could there be some front office dynamics at play here? Could Reyna be pushing these vets to start due to the contracts they have and not wanting to look bad for making them in the first place?

I’ve often wondered if there are performance milestones in those two players’ contracts that are triggered with a min number of appearances. Kind of the “this is your last contract so we’re doing you a solid” kind of thing. I’d hope that isn’t the case, and your musings seem more realistic from a human nature aspect (business situation self preservation).

Even with that, I’d say it’s hard to believe because nobody wants to lose matches because they’re purposely not putting the best talent on the field, and I have to believe that the FO does recognize the shortcomings of TMac and Wallace. However, I wouldn’t put it past the FO to play players in an effort to raise their value, or at least keep it from tanking in a spectacular fashion, although I don’t think that applies to either as I believe their contracts are ending this year (to that I’m not sure, or if they have another [gulp] season on the books).

Let’s just hope the club’s decision makers have seen enough and sit the duo for every remaining match.

 

[ZYanksRule]

I’ve often wondered if there are performance milestones in those two players’ contracts that are triggered with a min number of appearances. Kind of the “this is your last contract so we’re doing you a solid” kind of thing. I’d hope that isn’t the case, and your musings seem more realistic from a human nature aspect (business situation self preservation).

Even with that, I’d say it’s hard to believe because nobody wants to lose matches because they’re purposely not putting the best talent on the field, and I have to believe that the FO does recognize the shortcomings of TMac and Wallace. However, I wouldn’t put it past the FO to play players in an effort to raise their value, or at least keep it from tanking in a spectacular fashion, although I don’t think that applies to either as I believe their contracts are ending this year (to that I’m not sure, or if they have another [gulp] season on the books).

Let’s just hope the club’s decision makers have seen enough and sit the duo for every remaining match.

I think it's that coaches don't like taking risks. You know exactly what you're getting from McNamara, for good and (mostly) for bad. You have no idea what you're going to get out of Awuah or Sands. We think we'll get better performances out of those two guys, but we really have no idea. Same with Wallace/Lewis. We can think Lewis is the better option, but he hasn't started once all year and we really don't know what we're getting out of him.

It's easy for us to say play the kids, it's a lot harder to do so when your job is on the line.

(For the record, I'm not saying I agree with that school of thinking, I'm just explaining what I think the likely excuse is).

 

[dummyrun]

Omg

https://twitter.com/x/status/1037381520212680704

 

[mgarbowski]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1037381520212680704

Coach gotta learn to spell pineapple

 

[LionNYC]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1037381520212680704

Coach gotta learn to spell pineapple

The players can't understand what the coach wants to implement if the coach can't spell what he wants to implement.

 

[mgarbowski]

The players can't understand what the coach wants to implement if the coach can't spell what he wants to implement.