In Defense Of Kreis...

[Gentile]

The guy has so many issues to deal with in this first season I find it incredible that many are thinking that he should be canned.

Some times his tactics seem crazy/stupid yes, but these things are all part of teething problems. He doesn't yet know the players well enough, he has not had a preseason to work with core elements of the team;
The core elements of the team might have only been around for 2 weeks!

Time. Work on the training field. The worst aspect of the team is the thing that needs this the most and he hasn't had anywhere near enough of this.

If he had taken over the Galaxy, an established talented winning team and was stinking it up, yes you could make a case for him being fired.

This club has no youth team, plays in a baseball stadium with a tiny pitch, has been missing two Dp's for half a season, been given crap players that other MLS teams didn't want, how did you think this season was going to go?

Building a team and chemistry takes time. Kreis is still getting to know the players and the players are still getting to know him.

The fact that this team is struggling is actually a plus point for the increased quality of MLS. It is harder and harder to come into this league as an expansion team, even one that has spent a lot of money and do well straight away.

Other clubs have built depth, got youth teams, great training facilities, experienced GM's in the league;
This team has none of those things.

I myself will not start judging this coach until at least midway through next season.

He needs time to find out what tactics work/what tactics don't work, who needs to leave, what area's need to be improved on, are some of the foreign signings still adjusting to the team/culture change.

Usually in soccer you have to do this with maybe five players at most in a season. He is doing this with 20 odd players!

MLS is not one of the best leagues in the world but it is getting better and the rules make it very hard to be good straight away.

The best coach in this league got canned by the Redbulls too early and took two seasons to get the established Galaxy on the right track.

I believe Kreis is a good coach in this league. Despite some of the head scratching decisions he has made I am prepared to wait and see him work out the kinks.

This job this first season would overwhelm many coaches; I think this sometimes has happened to him and I have total sympathy.

Let him have this season to assess things, an off season and preseason to plan and work with the team on the training field, and next season to bed down the team and have some consistency. Then let's start to maybe way him up.

 

[LionNYC]

The guy has so many issues to deal with in this first season I find it incredible that many are thinking that he should be canned.

Some times his tactics seem crazy/stupid yes, but these things are all part of teething problems. He doesn't yet know the players well enough, he has not had a preseason to work with core elements of the team;
The core elements of the team might have only been around for 2 weeks!

Time. Work on the training field. The worst aspect of the team is the thing that needs this the most and he hasn't had anywhere near enough of this.

If he had taken over the Galaxy, an established talented winning team and was stinking it up, yes you could make a case for him being fired.

This club has no youth team, plays in a baseball stadium with a tiny pitch, has been missing two Dp's for half a season, been given crap players that other MLS teams didn't want, how did you think this season was going to go?

Building a team and chemistry takes time. Kreis is still getting to know the players and the players are still getting to know him.

The fact that this team is struggling is actually a plus point for the increased quality of MLS. It is harder and harder to come into this league as an expansion team, even one that has spent a lot of money and do well straight away.

Other clubs have built depth, got youth teams, great training facilities, experienced GM's in the league;
This team has none of those things.

I myself will not start judging this coach until at least midway through next season.

He needs time to find out what tactics work/what tactics don't work, who needs to leave, what area's need to be improved on, are some of the foreign signings still adjusting to the team/culture change.

Usually in soccer you have to do this with maybe five players at most in a season. He is doing this with 20 odd players!

MLS is not one of the best leagues in the world but it is getting better and the rules make it very hard to be good straight away.

The best coach in this league got canned by the Redbulls too early and took two seasons to get the established Galaxy on the right track.

I believe Kreis is a good coach in this league. Despite some of the head scratching decisions he has made I am prepared to wait and see him work out the kinks.

This job this first season would overwhelm many coaches; I think this sometimes has happened to him and I have total sympathy.

Let him have this season to assess things, an off season and preseason to plan and work with the team on the training field, and next season to bed down the team and have some consistency. Then let's start to maybe way him up.

Maybe you're just as crazy as Kreis.

 

[Gentile]

Are any of the things I said untrue? What are the reasons he should be out so quickly?

 

[Narrowback gal]

Because he's not winning, and this is New York, and we want to win. Next question?

For the record, I don't think canning him now helps anything anyway, so I personally wouldn't want to get rid of him- but I can definitely understand where those who do are coming from.

 

[felixgnr]

Not really, but at this point is hard not to see that nycfc is too big for kreis.
is just mistake after mistake. RSL guys, keeps trying to use the offside-trap. Doesn't know when to defend.

 

[Tom in Fairfield CT]

Name one game his tactics have won for us? Montreal said after the game they figured out we only defend with two guys, so they lumped in long balls.

Literally the only game he installed tactics that worked was vs TO the first time, and those tactics were a parked bus.

 

[dannd23]

This club has no youth team, plays in a baseball stadium with a tiny pitch, has been missing two Dp's for half a season, been given crap players that other MLS teams didn't want, how did you think this season was going to go?
Well, now that we have those two DPs, you would think if Kreis was a good coach, we would start winning. Not only does this team have 3 DPs, but also 2 players that would be DPs most everywhere else. And speaking of crap players that no other MLS team wanted, he still insists on playing one of those crap players (Grabavoy) over a proven beast in Mix Diskerud. The no youth team argument is entirely irrelevant to this season and the fact they play in a baseball stadium effects this team as much as much as any other team that visits the stadium. In fact, it could be an advantage considering most teams are not used to it but NYC should be.


The fact that this team is struggling is actually a plus point for the increased quality of MLS. It is harder and harder to come into this league as an expansion team, even one that has spent a lot of money and do well straight away.

The fact that this team is struggling is actually a plus point for the increased quality of MLS???? That made me laugh. What a total deflection to ignore the fact that Kreis has failed in many, many aspects this season. He still has time, but if he doesn't get it together with this star studded lineup, he should be held accountable and he should be fired.

Replies in bold.

 

[Gentile]

Replies in bold.

Those Dp's have played a game and a half of that, what is this football manager? You just buy players and a game later you are great?

I am no Kreis fan boy but any coach would need more time given how this team has come about. The job may well be too big for him, I have thought this myself sometimes, but given how this team was started you cannot expect things to work out very quickly.

Soccer is littered with examples of teams sacking coaches to early and being worst off for it. You have no patience my friend. He has made plenty of mistakes, but these mistakes can be things that he will learn from and benefit the team next season.

 

[FootyLovin]

The guy has so many issues to deal with in this first season I find it incredible that many are thinking that he should be canned.

Some times his tactics seem crazy/stupid yes, but these things are all part of teething problems. He doesn't yet know the players well enough, he has not had a preseason to work with core elements of the team;
The core elements of the team might have only been around for 2 weeks!

Time. Work on the training field. The worst aspect of the team is the thing that needs this the most and he hasn't had anywhere near enough of this.

If he had taken over the Galaxy, an established talented winning team and was stinking it up, yes you could make a case for him being fired.

This club has no youth team, plays in a baseball stadium with a tiny pitch, has been missing two Dp's for half a season, been given crap players that other MLS teams didn't want, how did you think this season was going to go?

Building a team and chemistry takes time. Kreis is still getting to know the players and the players are still getting to know him.

The fact that this team is struggling is actually a plus point for the increased quality of MLS. It is harder and harder to come into this league as an expansion team, even one that has spent a lot of money and do well straight away.

Other clubs have built depth, got youth teams, great training facilities, experienced GM's in the league;
This team has none of those things.

I myself will not start judging this coach until at least midway through next season.

He needs time to find out what tactics work/what tactics don't work, who needs to leave, what area's need to be improved on, are some of the foreign signings still adjusting to the team/culture change.

Usually in soccer you have to do this with maybe five players at most in a season. He is doing this with 20 odd players!

MLS is not one of the best leagues in the world but it is getting better and the rules make it very hard to be good straight away.

The best coach in this league got canned by the Redbulls too early and took two seasons to get the established Galaxy on the right track.

I believe Kreis is a good coach in this league. Despite some of the head scratching decisions he has made I am prepared to wait and see him work out the kinks.

This job this first season would overwhelm many coaches; I think this sometimes has happened to him and I have total sympathy.

Let him have this season to assess things, an off season and preseason to plan and work with the team on the training field, and next season to bed down the team and have some consistency. Then let's start to maybe way him up.

Flaws in your argument:

1. You have to wait 1.5 seasons to fire a coach. By this logic, it takes even the most talented executive 1.5 years to recognize the difference between talent and a poser. This is atrocious reasoning. It basically assumes no errors are big enough to judge until some magical 18 month mark is passed. If I owned a team that thought that way I would fire my executives way before I fired the coach.

2. He needs time to win. I, for one, am not calling for Kreis's head because he isn't winning. I'm calling for his head because his decision making seems atrocious. If he can explain to me why Grabavoy, coming off a red card and having contributed next to nothing all season, got the start over Mix, one of our top 3 players all season, and Poku, coming off a 3 assist game in which he had fantastic chemistry with Pirlo, arguably our most valuable asset (no offense to Villa), then I am open to reconsidering. I'm not angry we lost this weekend. I'm furious at how we lost and how everyone in the stadium knew it was a mess when the lineups were announced.

3. He needs time to assess. What the hell is he assessing? If his big question is, "What role will Grabavoy play in my 2016 roster?" then my answer is, "Get the fuck out of NYC." I could accept if he wrote off this year in the name of assessment. If that were the case he'd be playing our young players more and our washed up veterans less. But he's doing the opposite. He's benching the players who could be our future and playing the players who can't even be our present.

So many more problems I can't even go into or my head will explode.

Please, if you are going to defend Kreis, come up with something better. Unfortunately, JK defies logic, as does any attempt at his defense. He needs a serious, "If the glove don't fit," defense to get out of the crimes he's pulled. Someone call Dershowitz.

 

[Gentile]

Name one game his tactics have won for us? Montreal said after the game they figured out we only defend with two guys, so they lumped in long balls.

Literally the only game he installed tactics that worked was vs TO the first time, and those tactics were a parked bus.

Maybe most of the teams we play are better than us? That's why we lose most games? The team has only just got more than three good players two weeks ago. I have said before he has made some head scratching decisions, but this maybe because the players still are not sure exactly what he wants, and he doesn't know exactly what the players he has can do/can't do.

He has 20 odd players he is still getting to know. Most of these would not get on other MLS teams and most of the ones that would have been here two weeks!

People are frustrated and I think part of it is because a lot thought we would be one of the better teams instantly. We are not, and a lot of this is not because of the coach IMO.

 

[FootyLovin]

Maybe most of the teams we play are better than us? That's why we lose most games? The team has only just got more than three good players two weeks ago. I have said before he has made some head scratching decisions, but this maybe because the players still are not sure exactly what he wants, and he doesn't know exactly what the players he has can do/can't do.

He has 20 odd players he is still getting to know. Most of these would not get on other MLS teams and most of the ones that would have been here two weeks!

People are frustrated and I think part of it is because a lot thought we would be one of the better teams instantly. We are not, and a lot of this is not because of the coach IMO.

It's not our record!

Oddly, I was happier with our team when we were in the middle of our 11 game winless streak. JK was getting to know players. He was relying on his known quantities - the RSL players. I got all of that.

But since he has started to give other players a chance they have routinely shown that they should get starts and yet he is benching the players who are clearly better and continuing to go back to his old players.

As a parent, at some point you have to say, "No Johnny! You can't bring your security blanket to the first day of school. The other Seniors will make fun of you."

JK has had enough time with his comfortable old players. Someone needs to take away his security blanket in the form of Grabavoy.

Play the best XI or get the hell out of the coach's chair.

 

[Tom in Fairfield CT]

At this

It's not our record!

Oddly, I was happier with our team when we were in the middle of our 11 game winless streak. JK was getting to know players. He was relying on his known quantities - the RSL players. I got all of that.

But since he has started to give other players a chance they have routinely shown that they should get starts and yet he is benching the players who are clearly better and continuing to go back to his old players.

As a parent, at some point you have to say, "No Johnny! You can't bring your security blanket to the first day of school. The other Seniors will make fun of you."

JK has had enough time with his comfortable old players. Someone needs to take away his security blanket in the form of Grabavoy.

Play the best XI or get the hell out of the coach's chair.

Right now, mix is our second best player. Better than pirlo and lampard and Angelino. He should NEVER sit. For anyone.

 

[Gentile]

Flaws in your argument:

1. You have to wait 1.5 seasons to fire a coach. By this logic, it takes even the most talented executive 1.5 years to recognize the difference between talent and a poser. This is atrocious reasoning. It basically assumes no errors are big enough to judge until some magical 18 month mark is passed. If I owned a team that thought that way I would fire my executives way before I fired the coach.

2. He needs time to win. I, for one, am not calling for Kreis's head because he isn't winning. I'm calling for his head because his decision making seems atrocious. If he can explain to me why Grabavoy, coming off a red card and having contributed next to nothing all season, got the start over Mix, one of our top 3 players all season, and Poku, coming off a 3 assist game in which he had fantastic chemistry with Pirlo, arguably our most valuable asset (no offense to Villa), then I am open to reconsidering. I'm not angry we lost this weekend. I'm furious at how we lost and how everyone in the stadium knew it was a mess when the lineups were announced.

3. He needs time to assess. What the hell is he assessing? If his big question is, "What role will Grabavoy play in my 2016 roster?" then my answer is, "Get the fuck out of NYC." I could accept if he wrote off this year in the name of assessment. If that were the case he'd be playing our young players more and our washed up veterans less. But he's doing the opposite. He's benching the players who could be our future and playing the players who can't even be our present.

So many more problems I can't even go into or my head will explode.

Please, if you are going to defend Kreis, come up with something better. Unfortunately, JK defies logic, as does any attempt at his defense. He needs a serious, "If the glove don't fit," defense to get out of the crimes he's pulled. Someone call Dershowitz.

I don't get the Grabavoy love either to be fair. This comes though, because he is one of the only players he really knows really well rightly or wrongly. Coaches trust guys they know, it's not unheard of.

I will say though that 1.5 years is not some magical figure. In this instance at least this amount of time is required IMO to judge a soccer coach. He is not taking over an established team. Every player is new. He is new. What did you expect to happen so quickly?

How is he supposed to make them gel in less than a year? And in those 6 months most of the players he has are crap? That's crazy.

He is working with 20 odd new players and believe it or not this takes time to assess, and that amount is not usual in soccer.

 

[Gentile]

It's not our record!

Oddly, I was happier with our team when we were in the middle of our 11 game winless streak. JK was getting to know players. He was relying on his known quantities - the RSL players. I got all of that.

But since he has started to give other players a chance they have routinely shown that they should get starts and yet he is benching the players who are clearly better and continuing to go back to his old players.

As a parent, at some point you have to say, "No Johnny! You can't bring your security blanket to the first day of school. The other Seniors will make fun of you."

JK has had enough time with his comfortable old players. Someone needs to take away his security blanket in the form of Grabavoy.

Play the best XI or get the hell out of the coach's chair.

And to this I say if he does the same thing next season, after having a full preseason working on the training pitch and the team is still doing badly, then he should be seriously questioned.

Coaches have 'there guys'. Guys in the locker room they can go to and trust. Especially when they take up a new gig and most of the players are not necessarily on his side. Usually this changes when they have they're feet under the table and are more comfortable.

I expect this to happen. If it doesn't I will start to question him as much as others are.

 

[sbrylski]

I don't get the Grabavoy love either to be fair. This comes though, because he is one of the only players he really knows really well rightly or wrongly. Coaches trust guys they know, it's not unheard of.

I will say though that 1.5 years is not some magical figure. In this instance at least this amount of time is required IMO to judge a soccer coach. He is not taking over an established team. Every player is new. He is new. What did you expect to happen so quickly?

How is he supposed to make them gel in less than a year? And in those 6 months most of the players he has are crap? That's crazy.

He is working with 20 odd new players and believe it or not this takes time to assess, and that amount is not usual in soccer.

What's Grabavoy's ceiling? When Grabavoy "gels" with the rest of the guys, is he suddenly going to be an all-star?

I get that Grabavoy may be out of sync, or may have another gear that hasn't kicked in yet with the new team. But we have guys that sit on our bench that have already shown more than Grabavoy would on his best day. Why are we waiting for Grabavoy, Jacobson, and Ballouchy to "gel?" They will never take us anywhere. Play the guys playing the best in the moment, and go from there.

 

[OSNY87]

And to this I say if he does the same thing next season, after having a full preseason working on the training pitch and the team is still doing badly, then he should be seriously questioned.

Coaches have 'there guys'. Guys in the locker room they can go to and trust. Especially when they take up a new gig and most of the players are not necessarily on his side. Usually this changes when they have they're feet under the table and are more comfortable.

I expect this to happen. If it doesn't I will start to question him as much as others are.

But should it really take a full season before you bench these sort of guys if they are performing poorly? I get that a coach might want someone in the locker room they can trust, but how can Kreis continue to place any sort of trust in Grabavoy on the pitch? I'd place a greater importance on getting someone like Mix or Poku time to gel with Pirlo, Villa, and Lampard because they are going to be a greater part of our future than Grabavoy.

 

[Narrowback gal]

And to this I say if he does the same thing next season, after having a full preseason working on the training pitch and the team is still doing badly, then he should be seriously questioned.

Coaches have 'there guys'. Guys in the locker room they can go to and trust. Especially when they take up a new gig and most of the players are not necessarily on his side. Usually this changes when they have they're feet under the table and are more comfortable.

Exactly who in our locker room was not on Kreis's side? Anyone here he essentially chose or agreed to. Seems a pretty ideal way to start. And it completely annoys me to say this, but compare Kreis's situation to the guy out in Jersey who walked into a total shit storm and somehow, magically, has his team winning games.

 

[Gentile]

Exactly who in our locker room was not on Kreis's side? Anyone here he essentially chose or agreed to. Seems a pretty ideal way to start. And it completely annoys me to say this, but compare Kreis's situation to the guy out in Jersey who walked into a total shit storm and somehow, magically, has his team winning games.

You cannot compare an established team/club like Jersey to this situation. They have players who have played together for years, and only needed a few new players. Not the same as having a whole new roster, and a roster that is still changing massively mid season.

 

[Seth]

So many more problems I can't even go into or my head will explode.

Oh, dip. Not *another* one!!!

 

[Gentile]

But should it really take a full season before you bench these sort of guys if they are performing poorly? I get that a coach might want someone in the locker room they can trust, but how can Kreis continue to place any sort of trust in Grabavoy on the pitch? I'd place a greater importance on getting someone like Mix or Poku time to gel with Pirlo, Villa, and Lampard because they are going to be a greater part of our future than Grabavoy.

I don't agree with it, just seen it many times before. Sometimes it's not even so much about player quality, just eyes and ears and trust. He best be careful though because seen this situation get out of hand when other players see trusted guys get picked over them who they feel they are better than