As said in the shout box, Ring is apparently carrying sports hernia, and his knee is still not healed. He seems half the player he can be atm. Should definitely be rested, maybe operated, and try to get him back for the play-offs.
Philadelphia - Postmatch
- Thread starter LionNYC
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As said in the shout box, Ring is apparently carrying sports hernia, and his knee is still not healed. He seems half the player he can be atm. Should definitely be rested, maybe operated, and try to get him back for the play-offs.
Jack played on day 1 forward because the team roster was so bad he was easily in the top rung of talent. Somehow the club convinced the league not to graduate him after the first year, I believe because he was injured for half of it, so his second year was already known to be his last since he was a full time starter.
Who knows? But it’s deserving of an additional 2match ban. Retaliation against guy that embarrassed him establishes intent to injur and studs up on the knee is vicious.
I think there is truth in this, but it’s not the whole truth.
The other problem is that we just aren’t playing very well. This isn’t like the start of 2016 (to cite one example), when we were playing well and just not getting results. This team right now is playing like shit, and that’s been going on for a few games. When is the last time we put together a solid performance? A month ago against Columbus?
Yes, it is time to be concerned. I don’t think we’ve had a stretch of games this poor since 2015.
I honestly think the coaching change has had a negative impact so far. Maybe it is the team needing time to adjust to new tactics, and we will round back into form soon. Maybe the tactics are just off and/or the motivation is lacking. I will tell you this. The back line is a mess, particularly on counters, and that’s been true for a while. The midfield can’t hold possession nearly as well as they used to. And I don’t like having Ring play more advanced, because I think it contributes to all those things being worse.
We should play Lewis at leftback. Can’t be worse than what we have over there.
Reminds me that I noticed some pretty nifty defending by Shradi on that side during the game. He provides the full field work we need from a winger.
If lack of defensive awareness and immaturity are disqualifying factors, why the f’ has Mata ever seen the field? And he’s a so-called defender lacking defensive awareness. (Not to mention a baby who quits on plays, including the two most crushing plays in our history, both of which may have cost us the opportunity to compete in second legs of the playoffs). Loan him permanently to some USL team please.
But then how do you explain that stretch of games right after Domé came in in which we were great? He definitely changed things up, and quite a lot, and it was working. I feel like there's a correlation between what I see as a retreat into more "conventional" tactics from Domé and our drop in play quality over this recent stretch. But, of course, it's hard to say which direction the causality goes.
It honestly seems to me like Dome isn't really concerned about the SS/CCL race, but he's trying out different tactics and rotations to see what works for when we get to the playoffs. That's how it feels to me, at least. He also said in an interview post-game something similar about not worrying about SS.
I partially concur. Myself, I didn't think NYC was as good as its record early on before the first loss. Then I thought they had a strong stretch of games (with 2 clunkers mixed in) from the first Atlanta game to the second, in which results did not live up to the play (accounting for said clunkers).
Since Dome came on, I agree the team has seemed muddled, but I've made allowances for injuries (Herrera, Villa, Johnson, Berget, Shradi,Ring[?]), whatever the hell is going on with Chanot, and the coaching transition. I'm mostly concerned whether Villa, Ring and Chanot -- and now Callens -- get back to form.
Hell, Dome coached his first 8 games without Villa, who got hurt 28 minutes into Torrent's first game. He had 3 straight games where he couldn't start any of Villa, Berget or Shradi (Berget and Shradi came on as late <30 minute subs in one of those games).
Last night was the first time since, Houston maybe?, that I thought the team looked significantly worse than the lineup and matchup warranted. Hell, isn't this forum's standard complaint that our results don't match how the team outplays it's opponents?
Even last week against Toronto, when it seemed for the first time in a while that NYC was a fortunate winner, the Pigeons outplayed Toronto 20/9 on Shots, 7/4 SOG, 591/334 Passes, 84%/72% Passing Accuracy, 64/36 Possession, etc.
What I really cannot sign on to is that this has been the worst stretch of games since 2015. I get that you're not strictly talking results, but do you really think this is worse than the first 8 games of 2016? I saw a team that had a sieve at keeper, gave up multiple turnovers in its own end while stubbornly playing there, could not defend set pieces at all, and scored 4 goals in its first 5 Home games. What did you like in that run of games?
Or how about the 4 games a bit later in in 2016 that comprised a rotated-roster draw in Toronto, RBW(home), a draw with Orlando (Home) that featured a Villa PK miss, and conceding a 2-0 lead in the last 20 minutes including the tying goal at the death, followed by a pathetic 3-2 loss to RSL (again Home), which IMO marked the regular season low-point of the Patrick Vieira era. Finally, if you thought the team deserved much better than 7 points in its last 7 games last year I'd be curious to know why. I will grant the pseudo-home draw to Houston stings, because of the flukey quick restart goal NYC conceded and playing in Hartford. But apart from that the team was meh to worse over that stretch and deserved what it got, sadly.
So, yes, I'm concerned at the team's form now, and also that the injuries responsible for much of it won't improve. Herrera's not coming back, and Villa, Ring, and Chanot are not guaranteed to revive their form. I wish we did better in the transfer window than one solid addition which did not address the biggest needs (LB, and midfield spine). But, I also expect the team has another good run in it. I also have personally resigned myself to NYC probably finishing third for weeks now. I see us winning the home game, and I'm not conceding anything to Atlanta or Red Bulls H2H. Nobody has played 2 better games against Atlanta than this team. And maybe maybe? Dome can do better than Vieira at RBA.
So that's me in my rose glasses right now.
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As a footnote to @mgarbowski’s post and at the risk of being accused of rationalizing, I have secretly been considering for a while that a play-in game may work to our advantage by building momentum and teaching us how to win when it counts.
Yangel Herrera would have been pretty useful last night. Thanks to that Houston butcher. He’s been red carded in at least one other game this year.
It looked like we were chopping and changing our front 6 quite a lot in the first half. I saw what looked like a 4-4-2 and a 4-4-2 diamond as well as a more regular 4-3-3. I see a lot of people questioning the effort of the players, but I wonder how much of that is due to a lack of clarity. Thinking is slow, muscle memory is fast. Maybe we have time to make these different patterns of play instinctual before the business end of the season, but it seems like a massive risk.
This has been raised multiple times since yesterday, including by Coach himself, according to Crooks. I'm OK with it. It's not like Vieira's system has proven itself in the playoffs even a little. Dome has 19 games to sculpt his pretty pineapple. If he can't do it, I say it is not for lack of time.
You're right. It's not just a matter of time, but also belief and morale. 19 games isn't gonna matter much if the team stops believing in Dome and the fans give up on the team.
And it was a yellow card in the game by Allen Chapman, even after video review. The refereeing in this league is atrocious, but it's not the only problem wrong with this team. Maybe would have won that match up a man for 60 minutes.
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