2021 Schedule Thread

[canchon]

Doyle has us at 9th in the East...

first, it’s Doyle. Not as smart as he thinks he is.

second, the trending sentiment is that this club will be a dumpster fire this year across the fans and the league. Not saying they are wrong, but expectations should be low this year and not “top club or bust.”

 

[LionNYC]

Am I high on this team? No. Maybe more in the summer if we sign "quality players". But what I can't stand is the pun-idiots at MLSSOCCER.com rating us this low.

New York City FC 2021 Season Preview | MLSSoccer.com

Year one of the Ronny Deila era for NYCFC led to a playoff berth. Expectations remain high in year two, though the squad has undergone something of an offseason makeover.

www.mlssoccer.com

 

[SoupInNYC]

Am I high on this team? No. Maybe more in the summer if we sign "quality players". But what I can't stand is the pun-idiots at MLSSOCCER.com rating us this low.

View attachment 11101

New York City FC 2021 Season Preview | MLSSoccer.com

Year one of the Ronny Deila era for NYCFC led to a playoff berth. Expectations remain high in year two, though the squad has undergone something of an offseason makeover.

www.mlssoccer.com

Which teams would be unreasonable to have ahead of us? Not arguably, but unreasonably?

• Atlanta - no
• Montreal - probably
• Chicago - I'd put them in the arguable boat
• Columbus - no
• DC - yes
• Cincinnati - no
• Miami - no
• Nashville - arguable
• New England - no
• Red Bulls - arguable
• Orlando - no
• Philly - no
• TFC - no

I count 8 teams there as "no" with two arguables. Perhaps New England or Cincinnati are flipped to arguable, but that would still have us at 7th.

The average placement from the group above is 7.18.

Definitely happy to hear arguments as to how many teams would be unreasonable to have ahead of us.

 

[Fantazma]

Which teams would be unreasonable to have ahead of us? Not arguably, but unreasonably?

• Atlanta - no
• Montreal - probably
• Chicago - I'd put them in the arguable boat
• Columbus - no
• DC - yes
• Cincinnati - no
• Miami - no
• Nashville - arguable
• New England - no
• Red Bulls - arguable
• Orlando - no
• Philly - no
• TFC - no

I count 8 teams there as "no" with two arguables. Perhaps New England or Cincinnati are flipped to arguable, but that would still have us at 7th.

The average placement from the group above is 7.18.

Definitely happy to hear arguments as to how many teams would be unreasonable to have ahead of us.

how is philly and TFC "no"? philly lost key players and i think only signed homegrowns. TFC needs to revamp their squad and im not sure armas is really the guy to lead a young team. inter miami im also not putting that high, both not sure if their new signings will pan out and phil neville is literally debuting as a club coach. similar with cincy although on paper they look much better than before. all those are arguable to me.

that being said to me the difference between 2-7 for playoff spots will be very tight and close im sure. only atlanta i think is top of the east and potentially by a good margin.

 

[LionNYC]

Which teams would be unreasonable to have ahead of us? Not arguably, but unreasonably?

• Atlanta - no
• Montreal - probably
• Chicago - I'd put them in the arguable boat
• Columbus - no
• DC - yes
• Cincinnati - no
• Miami - no
• Nashville - arguable
• New England - no
• Red Bulls - arguable
• Orlando - no
• Philly - no
• TFC - no

I count 8 teams there as "no" with two arguables. Perhaps New England or Cincinnati are flipped to arguable, but that would still have us at 7th.

The average placement from the group above is 7.18.

Definitely happy to hear arguments as to how many teams would be unreasonable to have ahead of us.

I think we're at least ahead of Montreal, Chicago, DC, Cincinnati, Miami, Red Bulls.

 

[SoupInNYC]

I think we're at least ahead of Montreal, Chicago, DC, Cincinnati, Miami, Red Bulls.

So that would have us at 8th in the East, if only those teams are ahead of us.

 

[LionNYC]

So that would have us at 8th in the East, if only those teams are ahead of us.

Forgot Nashville. And I think we could pickup a win or two vs. Atlanta or New England. Who the hells knows about this season!?!?!

 

[moogoo]

ah let them make their predictions. what matters is what happens on the field. i say low expectations is a good thing. we've had high expectations for so many years and we fail to live up to it. maybe it's the pressure? Maybe if we go into this season with low expectations from the league, we can play better and win something. plus it would be nice to make all those "pundits" admit they were wrong.

that being said - i think mid-table in the east is probably a reasonable prediction given what we know about all the teams at this point in time. our roster isn't a top 3 roster at the moment. we have way too many variables that could be huge for us or ruin us.

 

[SoupInNYC]

how is philly and TFC "no"? philly lost key players and i think only signed homegrowns. TFC needs to revamp their squad and im not sure armas is really the guy to lead a young team. inter miami im also not putting that high, both not sure if their new signings will pan out and phil neville is literally debuting as a club coach. similar with cincy although on paper they look much better than before. all those are arguable to me.

that being said to me the difference between 2-7 for playoff spots will be very tight and close im sure. only atlanta i think is top of the east and potentially by a good margin.

Philly was the Supporters Shield winners last year. They lost key players and only signed homegrowns, yes. But doesn't that also apply to us?

TFC could be worse than us, I agree with you. But they still have plenty of talent, that I think with our current lack of signings, I would still expect TFC to finish ahead of us right now. I definitely don't think it's unreasonable to think someone would pick TFC over us, even if you think we'll be ahead of them.

Same thing with Miami. They may not figure it all out, but they have a ton of talent. I think we'll end up being on par with them, placing 1-2 spots either ahead of them or below them. I don't think it's unreasonable to think someone would pick them over us.

Cincinnati does look much better on paper than before. That was the one I probably should have put as "arguable" I think. I do think they'll have a good season, but we'll see.

My main point wasn't to say that we're going to suck, or finish super low. I just think that when you take a step back and size things up, it's not super unreasonable to think we'll finish between 6-8 like these MLS pundits have us.

Perhaps summer signings do drastically swing things in our favor, but I don't think you can bank on that at the moment.

 

[SoupInNYC]

Forgot Nashville. And I think we could pickup a win or two vs. Atlanta or New England. Who the hells knows about this season!?!?!

So then 7th in the league, slightly below the average from the "pun-idiots" that have us at 7.18.

 

[mgarbowski]

Forums: We haven't gotten any good players this season, have no depth, and can't possibly compete. CFG hates us.
MLS Media: Picks NYCFC 7th.

Forums: How dare they!

 

[Fantazma]

Philly was the Supporters Shield winners last year. They lost key players and only signed homegrowns, yes. But doesn't that also apply to us?

TFC could be worse than us, I agree with you. But they still have plenty of talent, that I think with our current lack of signings, I would still expect TFC to finish ahead of us right now. I definitely don't think it's unreasonable to think someone would pick TFC over us, even if you think we'll be ahead of them.

Same thing with Miami. They may not figure it all out, but they have a ton of talent. I think we'll end up being on par with them, placing 1-2 spots either ahead of them or below them. I don't think it's unreasonable to think someone would pick them over us.

Cincinnati does look much better on paper than before. That was the one I probably should have put as "arguable" I think. I do think they'll have a good season, but we'll see.

My main point wasn't to say that we're going to suck, or finish super low. I just think that when you take a step back and size things up, it's not super unreasonable to think we'll finish between 6-8 like these MLS pundits have us.

Perhaps summer signings do drastically swing things in our favor, but I don't think you can bank on that at the moment.

that was last year in a year with a funky schedule. Toronto did not even deserve to be in that shield conversation since they played vs montreal/ vancouver like 6 times easily racking up points. When they were playing other teams they were struggling their back line is getting old, though i dont know if they addressed it this year. also with a new coach its going to take time.

For philly, im willing to say that losing a brendan aaronson and mckenzie hurts them more than us losing mata and maybe even ring since he was being played out of position. we only added one homegrown this year.

inter miami right now did upgrade their backline which was needed but i am not sure that translates to being better ( it was pretty bad last year). but to me it still feels higuain has to carry the team himself again.

i dont argue ending up 6-8, just the definite "no's" from your list. to me its arguable.

 

[SoupInNYC]

that was last year in a year with a funky schedule. Toronto did not even deserve to be in that shield conversation since they played vs montreal/ vancouver like 6 times easily racking up points. When they were playing other teams they were struggling their back line is getting old, though i dont know if they addressed it this year. also with a new coach its going to take time.

For philly, im willing to say that losing a brendan aaronson and mckenzie hurts them more than us losing mata and maybe even ring since he was being played out of position. we only added one homegrown this year.

inter miami right now did upgrade their backline which was needed but i am not sure that translates to being better ( it was pretty bad last year). but to me it still feels higuain has to carry the team himself again.

i dont argue ending up 6-8, just the definite "no's" from your list. to me its arguable.

That's all completely fair.

 

[FredMertz]

I think we're 7-8 as currently constructed, 2-3 if Malte shows up.

 

[Kjbert]

Forgot Nashville. And I think we could pickup a win or two vs. Atlanta or New England. Who the hells knows about this season!?!?!

Is Martinez healthy? Then that’s 20 goals for Atlanta.

 

[ZYanksRule]

I could see us anywhere from 4-10 in the East. I think one thing we all don't realize is just how few games there are before July. If we get some summer signings, we could play the majority of the season with new players and make a run. Our starting XI is still one of the best in MLS, and there's a chance we could be good if we sign new players who add to our depth and they play well. Columbus, Philly, and New England are pretty clearly the best three teams in the East, all the other teams are pretty much together in the middle group and can finish anywhere in that group.

Things could also go wrong -- Isi, Taty, Maxi can't stay on the field, Sands can't stay on the field, there are either no midseason acquisitions or those players aren't able to make an impact.

Ultimately, we were 11-3-3 in the last 17 games last year and only lost Ring (who didn't have a position) and Matarrita (who wasn't even that great last year) from that group. There is no reason we can't be an impact team in the East, especially if we make some signings in the summer window when there are still 20 games left to be played.

 

[Shwafta]

Honestly, as much as I complain, I don't see how we finish below 5th. We did pretty well last year and through preseason so far I've really liked how we've been playing. Keep that up, add a few killer summer signings, and we are easily top 4.

 

[sbrylski]

I've got my money on being within one standard deviation from the mean.

 

[ZYanksRule]

Honestly, as much as I complain, I don't see how we finish below 5th. We did pretty well last year and through preseason so far I've really liked how we've been playing. Keep that up, add a few killer summer signings, and we are easily top 4.

Injuries to Maxi and a forward like Tajouri-Shradi would make it very hard for us to get results. At least early in the season, we just don't have the depth.

 

[Shwafta]

Injuries to Maxi and a forward like Tajouri-Shradi would make it very hard for us to get results. At least early in the season, we just don't have the depth.

Simple solution, don't get injuries!