I think Puig wants to party in LA for a few years, it will be interesting to see how hard he tries and if he can handle the physicality of the league. Still very disappointed we signed no one, even a few depth players would have helped, but I'm not disappointed we didn't land Puig.
2022 Roster Discussion
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I think Puig wants to party in LA for a few years, it will be interesting to see how hard he tries and if he can handle the physicality of the league. Still very disappointed we signed no one, even a few depth players would have helped, but I'm not disappointed we didn't land Puig.
Me neither. He has Mitriță written all over him -- a talented head case who just can't find a way to fit in.
Been on vacation in Europe for two+ weeks. Missed some losses, looks like.
Not sure about “quit on” but yes definitely seems like they are prioritizing other things over “win now”. They probably figured/hoped Cushing could keep the ship steady and make another Cup run with what we have.
Not sure about “quit on” but yes definitely seems like they are prioritizing other things over “win now”. They probably figured/hoped Cushing could keep the ship steady and make another Cup run with what we have.
It appears to me that the organization is content with making the playoffs and seeing what happens.
I took a friend to the game who is a sports guy but not familiar with soccer and he asked a lot of questions and after telling him about CFG (Man City, Girona, NYCFC…)he said, “So NYCFC is like a triple A team.”
This is a weird season and MLS is a weird league that seems to be in flux. If this were like the NBA, NFL, MLB… NYCFC would have been in a fantastic position to win back to back MLS Cups. Sands and Taty would not have been loaned out and the coach would not have left mid season and with the addition of Martins and GP….
Anyway, I believe standing still at the end of July, especially compared to other teams (LAFC the most obvious) was an indication that the organization is not very serious about winning the cup this season. Yeah, there is some great talent on this team but I’m pretty sure we all know that there is more to a championship team than talent.
I took a friend to the game who is a sports guy but not familiar with soccer and he asked a lot of questions and after telling him about CFG (Man City, Girona, NYCFC…)he said, “So NYCFC is like a triple A team.”
This is a weird season and MLS is a weird league that seems to be in flux. If this were like the NBA, NFL, MLB… NYCFC would have been in a fantastic position to win back to back MLS Cups. Sands and Taty would not have been loaned out and the coach would not have left mid season and with the addition of Martins and GP….
Anyway, I believe standing still at the end of July, especially compared to other teams (LAFC the most obvious) was an indication that the organization is not very serious about winning the cup this season. Yeah, there is some great talent on this team but I’m pretty sure we all know that there is more to a championship team than talent.
No, because "quit on" is such a ridiculous statement.
They absolutely should have done some things better as I think everyone has been saying for a while now. But "quit on" is just ridiculous Skip Bayless level hyperbole.
I don't think it's quit.
Parks stays fit, and I think we have a team ready to go with decent backups. I think the team is hedging their bets on Heber finding form again. Yesterday's game showed me that Heber isn't 100% ready to take the helm as main man, you saw how he hesitated in multiple first-time shot opportunities. However, if he took them, we'd probably have been 3-1 up or so.
So do I think they quit on the team? No. Do I think they could have done a better job recruiting this off-season? Yes.
I don't think Heber is the man. I hope he proves me wrong but he's not a young guy like Taty making his bones. He's largely has a mediocre journeyman career in Eastern Europe with an occasional strong season in a weak league. I think it might have been more a case of hitting a patch of very good form with good players surrounding him than that ever having been the "Real" him. Again I hope he goes on a crazy streak now and proves me wrong but letting Taty go without an external replacement seems negligent right now.
Last night was disappointing from Heber, but I come away feeling encouraged in regards to him. His recent issues have been more about getting the ball in dangerous spots and not contributing to the attack.
Last night, he was great at finding those spaces and getting the ball in those dangerous spots. He was just terrible at finishing them. I'm hopeful that he'll turn that around (similar to Taty last year).
Now, perhaps his getting into dangerous spots with the ball last night is solely chalked up to playing against a terrible road team and that is something to consider. But I thought overall, I felt more encouraged coming out of last night's match in regards to Heber.
Not quit. Gambled on player health and a smoother coaching transition (a gamble that doesn't seem to be paying off as of now).
Agreed. I think it was the opposite of quit. They were over-confident. and thought they could coast through a midseason coach quitting, major player departures and repeated injuries without any reinforcements and with an replacement interim coach.
I realize this is my personal hobby-horse but the interim thing just keeps pissing me off. It tells me that the club either had no plan for Ronny leaving, or it had one then lacked the balls to commit to it. I would guess the latter but I don't really know.
Cushing was head coach of MC Women for 7 freaking seasons. He was an assistant here for 2.5. He had more of a track record both as a head coach and at CFG than either Vieira or Torrent. What are they going to learn about him that they don't already know? I figured Nick WAS the plan. But then Ronny left with several weeks of warning and the club is like, eh, I guess we'll try this, sort of, let's see how it goes.
You hire an interim when you are caught off guard because your HC causes sudden catastrophic failure, or dies, or has a scandal out of nowhere. You don't hire interims when you have a history and policy of hiring European coaches who see the club as a stepping stone and facilitating their miidseason departures. If that's how you run things - and this club does - then you need a fVcking plan. The club knew Ronny had a buyout; they knew he had family in Europe; they knew he did what he came here to do. Then he quits and they turn to the guy with a 10 year history at CFG and say - maybe?
Then after saddling him with that no-confidence move they decide to roll the dice on a roster with decidedly less depth than it had last year including a massive hole at central midfield, and don't try to fix any of it. It's so unfair, and so unnecessary.
And the thing is, I bet Lee and his bosses - whoever they are - feel unlucky and snakebit. "What are the odds the club again goes into a tailspin after a coach quits midseason?" Maybe stop running the club in such a way that you keep having to find out.
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The Club made two mistakes.
1. Not getting a replacement for Sands in central midfield.
2. Not getting a better backup LB.
Neither of those are horrible mistakes, nor do they indicate that management are disinterested in trying to field a top club. But I wish they had gotten those things done.
1. Not getting a replacement for Sands in central midfield.
2. Not getting a better backup LB.
Neither of those are horrible mistakes, nor do they indicate that management are disinterested in trying to field a top club. But I wish they had gotten those things done.
My issue is that Parks was hurt and out for an indeterminate amount of time well before the deadline and they did nothing to even backfill the reserves in the midfield. Gloster hasn't panned out at lb so we have essentially had no playable backup there all year. We never replaced Sands. I can give the team a pass for not making any big splash signing, but not even signing some backfill-type players to compete for spots to fill our roster holes severely diminished our chances of making a serious playoff run. You can argue semantics if "quit on" the season but I think we can all agree the lack of moves put us at a serious disadvantage.
The AAA analogy made by
VernonJohn 's friend is very applicable to the state of the MLS right now, if we are being honest in the tier list of CFG we are more like a AA team. We are going to lose players like Taty and Sands but they need to be backfilled. If we are sending Taty to Girona CFG should be loaning us, players from the CFG teams below us in the hierarchy or bringing in other prospects from their scouting network.
Do we expect massive changes in 2023 then? lots of contracts are up, loans are up ( santi loan ends) maxi might leave and new players are needed. for this season i still feel they need some random free agent for a 6 month contract just to have bodies since there is no depth any more really. unless nick just puts in the nycfc 2 players that are on first team contracts.
Hmm, I wonder if this is part of it.
Maybe they're expecting to make massive personnel changes at the end of the year, and they know that if they sign new players now, it might work weirdly with their end-of-season plans?
I doubt it's the case, but it is a possibility.
I like the 6-month-contract idea, though.
To be fair to David Lee for a moment: No one could have ever predicted that Keaton Parks would have another blood clot just months after his last one. That's the injury that really hurt, and the one they were unable to plan for or adjust to. I think this recent run looks a lot different if Parks is healthy. I do think there is a level of unluckiness to what's happened this season, especially lately. Parks's blot clot, Callens gets rolled up on, now Alfredo hurts his groin. You're not planning for those injuries.
Now they should have planned for Taty's departure, and I do think there was a level of stubbornness in the idea that they could replace Taty from within without any reinforcements. That being said, the offense isn't our issue right now -- we're still scoring goals, maybe not at quite as high a rate, but still at a high enough rate to win games. Offense isn't the issue.
I do think there was a riskiness in not replacing Sands. Maybe there were salary cap concerns there. Maybe they had some irons in the fire that fell through. Who knows -- but it does feel like they are in a holding pattern. Maybe it is the roster changeover or hopefully new contracts we are expecting after the season for the three big free agents.
Now they should have planned for Taty's departure, and I do think there was a level of stubbornness in the idea that they could replace Taty from within without any reinforcements. That being said, the offense isn't our issue right now -- we're still scoring goals, maybe not at quite as high a rate, but still at a high enough rate to win games. Offense isn't the issue.
I do think there was a riskiness in not replacing Sands. Maybe there were salary cap concerns there. Maybe they had some irons in the fire that fell through. Who knows -- but it does feel like they are in a holding pattern. Maybe it is the roster changeover or hopefully new contracts we are expecting after the season for the three big free agents.
The Sands replacement was Acevedo. Do with that what you will.
(Piggybacking on
mgarbowski) We heard that they knew Ronny was considering leaving immediately after winning the Cup, so there should have been a concrete plan in place for a permanent replacement. If Cushing was always the plan, fine, but that doesn't appear to be the case, so this was very poor planning.
They knew since last season that Taty wouldn't make it through this season, so they should have secured a safety net in place for a 9, even if they had some faith in Heber.
They knew Sands was going to leave, and how integral he was to our success, so someone had to realize that Acevedo or someone else is not the answer.
Yes, it's difficult to predict injuries like KP's, etc. but given our roster flexibility, our deeper pockets, and our aspirations, there was absolutely no reason to sign air during the window. We could have ensured the depth and better survived any injuries, whether predictable or not.
And for the same reasons, there was no reason not to bolster a repeat run by making a big signing like our west coast foes. There's a difference between being fiscally irresponsible and selectively improving a club with the ability to win another trophy.
If it's overconfidence, then it was to the club's detriment. If it's prioritizing other interests, that sucks. We can still turn this around and make a run, and maybe even win the whole thing. But that's in spite of the many moves that could have made that more probable.
We still have it better than most, and a Cup in the trophy case, so it's difficult to really complain too much, but that's what this forum is for, so be it.
mgarbowski) We heard that they knew Ronny was considering leaving immediately after winning the Cup, so there should have been a concrete plan in place for a permanent replacement. If Cushing was always the plan, fine, but that doesn't appear to be the case, so this was very poor planning.They knew since last season that Taty wouldn't make it through this season, so they should have secured a safety net in place for a 9, even if they had some faith in Heber.
They knew Sands was going to leave, and how integral he was to our success, so someone had to realize that Acevedo or someone else is not the answer.
Yes, it's difficult to predict injuries like KP's, etc. but given our roster flexibility, our deeper pockets, and our aspirations, there was absolutely no reason to sign air during the window. We could have ensured the depth and better survived any injuries, whether predictable or not.
And for the same reasons, there was no reason not to bolster a repeat run by making a big signing like our west coast foes. There's a difference between being fiscally irresponsible and selectively improving a club with the ability to win another trophy.
If it's overconfidence, then it was to the club's detriment. If it's prioritizing other interests, that sucks. We can still turn this around and make a run, and maybe even win the whole thing. But that's in spite of the many moves that could have made that more probable.
We still have it better than most, and a Cup in the trophy case, so it's difficult to really complain too much, but that's what this forum is for, so be it.
I honestly think it was Acevedo/Martins. We were never getting a single player to do all of what Jimmy did so fluidly, so they brought in a CB and elevated a part time DM - one high end one low end. The fact that Jimmy was playing on a HG contract made replacing him that much harder.
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(Piggybacking on
They knew since last season that Taty wouldn't make it through this season, so they should have secured a safety net in place for a 9, even if they had some faith in Heber.
They knew Sands was going to leave, and how integral he was to our success, so someone had to realize that Acevedo or someone else is not the answer.
Yes, it's difficult to predict injuries like KP's, etc. but given our roster flexibility, our deeper pockets, and our aspirations, there was absolutely no reason to sign air during the window. We could have ensured the depth and better survived any injuries, whether predictable or not.
And for the same reasons, there was no reason not to bolster a repeat run by making a big signing like our west coast foes. There's a difference between being fiscally irresponsible and selectively improving a club with the ability to win another trophy.
If it's overconfidence, then it was to the club's detriment. If it's prioritizing other interests, that sucks. We can still turn this around and make a run, and maybe even win the whole thing. But that's in spite of the many moves that could have made that more probable.
We still have it better than most, and a Cup in the trophy case, so it's difficult to really complain too much, but that's what this forum is for, so be it.
There's also a very real tension between putting Cushing on interim status and not acquiring anyone in the window. To a degree, almost every coach is in win now mode because they can't afford to prioritize long term. But an interim coach is even more win now or don't keep the job. But the FO is not 100% win now in 2022. I'd normally be OK with that having won last year, and it's OK to engage in long term strategy. As other have noted, we could have some major turnover come this offseason and I can support coasting in 2022 to provide more flex for the future. But if come December the team has muddled through the second half and is a playoff fizzle like Torrent, they either
- make Cushing permanent anyway because he didn't get a fair shot
- hire someone else even though he didn't get a fair shot with full club support
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