Birk Risa also had the birth of his child in the past 24 hours. Think he’ll be out too then.
MLS - March 2 - St. Louis (Away)
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
Good for him! And it's a good thing we made some signings back there, too. Sheesh.
Looks like he made the flight out
Should have gotten rid of Cushing months ago. But you know what they say, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
#cushingout
#cushingout
The way we played tonight is on Nick Cushing. We all believe this year should be better than last year. But these first two games have looked exactly like last year. That mindset, the gameplan, none of it was good enough.
We looked like a team that had no idea St. Louis was going to press, and were panicking under the pressure. That midfield trio looked lost together -- and of course they did; why would we play three defensive/holding/box-to-box midfielders while having both of our No. 10s out wide. The lineup was so passive.
I'm not Cushing out yet -- he gets a few home games to try to make it right -- but if we struggle at home over the next two months, I really think he's a goner. The front office has spent far too much money on this roster for this to be a 2023 redux. There are real expectations for this season. If Nick's not the guy, we need to figure that out quickly. There's been far too much regression under him.
We looked like a team that had no idea St. Louis was going to press, and were panicking under the pressure. That midfield trio looked lost together -- and of course they did; why would we play three defensive/holding/box-to-box midfielders while having both of our No. 10s out wide. The lineup was so passive.
I'm not Cushing out yet -- he gets a few home games to try to make it right -- but if we struggle at home over the next two months, I really think he's a goner. The front office has spent far too much money on this roster for this to be a 2023 redux. There are real expectations for this season. If Nick's not the guy, we need to figure that out quickly. There's been far too much regression under him.
James Sands turns over the ball for the first goal and gets a red card. Shocking day for the guy from Rye.
Both of their goals were off awful turnovers from us. Just a terrible lack of structure and composure from us.
I wish we never gave the permanent role to Cushing. It was clear that he wasn't up to it. We had a brief stint late in '22 that was just good enough for him to stay.
Im tired of excuses and "giving him time" because once you know he's not at this level, make the change. Don't wait for him to prove it.
Im tired of excuses and "giving him time" because once you know he's not at this level, make the change. Don't wait for him to prove it.
This is the first time we're truly learning whether he's at the level. We sold Taty basically as soon as he took over in 2022, and we didn't have a full roster last year.
This is the first time we are learning what level Nick Cushing is at. So far he's failing, but it's been two games, and only two away games. We do need to give him a chance to win some home games because that's the nature of MLS. I truly do not believe he forgot how to coach after dragging the post-Taty NYCFC to a conference final in 2022. However, if he continues to not bring results, a change has to be made soon.
problem with getting rid of him right now is who do we get? who is available that we/CFG would want? bring back chanot as head coach? lol
Right. We weren't very good today, but that isn't exactly surprising. We just finished filling in the roster a couple weeks ago. And I don't think our best XI started the game tonight; just the best available Starting XI.
If the team still looks this bad once everyone has enough time to settle in, then it's time to get out the pitchforks. And if we miss the playoffs again, that's sure to be all she wrote for Nick, whether the young guys are developing or not. This isn't a developmental league. MLS is the top tier of the domestic game.
Sure I understand the logic. But honestly he didn’t really have much of a coherent game plan that the players stuck to at all last year. If there was one a lot of us here didn’t see it. Yeah maybe a few splashy signings with a lot of potential will make us look better, but honestly every player has regressed or at best stayed the same. The team that got the conference finals in 2022 was Ronny’s system that Cushing hadn't tweaked all that much. Since he took over in 2023 officially, the system hasn’t been coherent and the players have suffered. Why are we still talking about giving him more chances based on him riding the coat tails of someone else’s work? IMO he’s a good locker room guy. But a good locker room guy doesn’t make him a good head coach.
The club has poorly handled Nick Cushing's entire career since he came here as an assistant. It was obvious to anyone with eyes that he was brought here to progress from HC of a women's team, to AC at a mid tier men's club, with the idea he becomes HC after Deila and then progress to bigger leagues. But after Ronnie quits on us midseason -- which was telegraphed months in advance -- Lee appoints Cushing as interim. I hated it at the time and I said so. Interim? He had been employed by CFG for a decade and more than half of that as a head coach. Whet more did they need to see to make a fecking decision?!
Either they had full confidence in him or they should have had an alternative lined up. Instead they were indecisive. Then Cushing mostly oversees a slumping regular season before a good finish and strong playoff run, so finally they make him full head coach. Then Lee is completely unprepared during the 2022 to 2023 offseason as seemingly half the veterans on the team quit. Minimum, they should have had a plan to get a striker in time to start the season because Taty left summer 2022, but no.
So Nick is stuck coaching an unambiguously crappy roster with nearly zero offensive power. Summer 2023 they further sell the team's most productive remaining offensive player and replace him and Taty with a bunch of kids. But even as one has to concede Nick is dealt a very bad hand, there are real signs he is not doing all that one should do with it. Still, they keep him, add a bunch more (probably) highly talented kids barely past high school age, leaving him an offensive roster with a single veteran offensive player who is 37 and injured.* And Nick can do nothing with it. So here we are. If you fire him early you should have fired him in October. If you give him through April, then you're tossing the new guy into 4 double game weeks in just over 2 months with no prep time for the team to learn his ways because everything in this league now revolves around the fucking Leagues Cup. If you wait until the LC break, new coach has 9 MLS season games to fix things.
* The ages of forwards and offensive mids on this team is 18-19-20-20-21-22-23-23-24-24-25-37. That's a fucking Bell Cliff.
Either they had full confidence in him or they should have had an alternative lined up. Instead they were indecisive. Then Cushing mostly oversees a slumping regular season before a good finish and strong playoff run, so finally they make him full head coach. Then Lee is completely unprepared during the 2022 to 2023 offseason as seemingly half the veterans on the team quit. Minimum, they should have had a plan to get a striker in time to start the season because Taty left summer 2022, but no.
So Nick is stuck coaching an unambiguously crappy roster with nearly zero offensive power. Summer 2023 they further sell the team's most productive remaining offensive player and replace him and Taty with a bunch of kids. But even as one has to concede Nick is dealt a very bad hand, there are real signs he is not doing all that one should do with it. Still, they keep him, add a bunch more (probably) highly talented kids barely past high school age, leaving him an offensive roster with a single veteran offensive player who is 37 and injured.* And Nick can do nothing with it. So here we are. If you fire him early you should have fired him in October. If you give him through April, then you're tossing the new guy into 4 double game weeks in just over 2 months with no prep time for the team to learn his ways because everything in this league now revolves around the fucking Leagues Cup. If you wait until the LC break, new coach has 9 MLS season games to fix things.
* The ages of forwards and offensive mids on this team is 18-19-20-20-21-22-23-23-24-24-25-37. That's a fucking Bell Cliff.
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It's very troubling the way he sets up the team. Very conservative and... just weird. Like others have mentioned, Wolf and Santi are the most creative/attacking/technical players. Why are you putting them on the wings and setting up a Perea/Parks/Sands midfield, especially against a team like STL who will let you have possession. And then subbing off Wolf and Santi.
Also as others have said, the players are tentative, scared to make a mistake, instead of emboldened and confident. I don't know what they are practicing but I see no attacking patterns.
I just think all signs point to a lack of leadership from Cushing. Great assistant coach maybe, but something is missing.
Also as others have said, the players are tentative, scared to make a mistake, instead of emboldened and confident. I don't know what they are practicing but I see no attacking patterns.
I just think all signs point to a lack of leadership from Cushing. Great assistant coach maybe, but something is missing.
