MLS - August 28 - Orlando (Away)

[Brooklyn Blue]

I'm not willing to give up on Cushing yet, but I definitely don't think he is putting himself in the best possible position to take the job full-time. I still lean towards the idea that they will give him the job because of what they seem to think of him, but I do not think he has earned the job.

I would like to see what he does with a healthier roster. Not necessarily new players - just with Morales, Callens, and a suitable Parks replacement (Pelligrini or other). If he still plays back and not to lose, then I’m fine sending him elsewhere in CFG. If he opens up, then let’s see what happens for a bit.

 

[Keith Putnam]

I'd be curious to see, but am too lazy to research, how Cushing approached knockout tournaments with Manchester City Women in terms of aggression vs. defense and managing game states. I assume we're going to find out in the playoffs.

Personally I don't see us making it past the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

 

[ZYanksRule]

I would like to see what he does with a healthier roster. Not necessarily new players - just with Morales, Callens, and a suitable Parks replacement (Pelligrini or other). If he still plays back and not to lose, then I’m fine sending him elsewhere in CFG. If he opens up, then let’s see what happens for a bit.

That's very fair, and I think it's something we're not talking enough about. We have injuries to some major, major players right now. It is a bit unfair to judge him at the moment considering the injuries and lack of depth in the roster at the moment.

 

[Joe_Cos]

If I did this correctly ( I miss the MLS magic number twitter account) The team at this point needs 13 pts for the remaining of the season and if Miami wins out to make the playoffs. If Cushing can’t get us there, then there is a real problem.

 

[KevinJRogers]

I would like to see what he does with a healthier roster. Not necessarily new players - just with Morales, Callens, and a suitable Parks replacement (Pelligrini or other). If he still plays back and not to lose, then I’m fine sending him elsewhere in CFG. If he opens up, then let’s see what happens for a bit.

This is my take on it, too. I'm not sure it's possible to do a fair assessment at this point.

But I have to be honest, leaving tactics and strategy aside, I find the lack of grit to be really troubling. I thought we found some last week, but here we are with another game we should have won going upside-down on us. And that is on him.

I keep thinking of Nottingham Forest today, and how they got kicked in the teeth right away by the Spurs and looked like they were going to get run off their own pitch -- and then pulled themselves together. They didn't care they were outmatched. They just gritted their teeth and gave it a go and very easily could have managed a draw but for a couple near misses on the attack and a horrible failure on defense at the death.

If we had played like that today and lost the way we did, it would have, obviously, still sucked. But at least I'd feel we were up to the fight. I can't truthfully say we are at the moment. And I'm not sure what the problem is.

 

[Kjbert]

It’s almost like Gray is a CB

 

[moogoo]

That's very fair, and I think it's something we're not talking enough about. We have injuries to some major, major players right now. It is a bit unfair to judge him at the moment considering the injuries and lack of depth in the roster at the moment.

injuries hurt for sure. but even with the roster we have, do we really need to be parking the bus against orlando? do we need to be defending in a low block or waiting until OUR defensive third to really press? that is a tactical decision and one that was there before a couple key injuries. With these additional injuries, we're happy parking the bus against orlando. the last 20 mins of tonight's game was a joke. we made orlando look like real madrid the way they kept attacking us.

 

[JCMore]

That's very fair, and I think it's something we're not talking enough about. We have injuries to some major, major players right now. It is a bit unfair to judge him at the moment considering the injuries and lack of depth in the roster at the moment.

I think it is fair to judge him at this point unfortunately. All the the injuries are a major set back and are a portion of why the problem this team is performing like it is. But it is also unrealistic to say that a manager will always have an injury free roster. Therefore I think he must be judged (perhaps less critically) for how he manages the team he has in front of him. While some people may feel just looking at the form guide is enough to say if the manager is performing at the level he needs. I’ve already read some posts above that clearly say that things like “even if we had more fight in a loss” or “more grit” then it would at least seem like the team is going out and performing even in defeat. Obviously as a manager having all your players means you can pick and choose which ones you want to play which can actually hide some poor coaching. Where as playing with what you got which is the reality of the sport can really show what you can instill in players and what I think is a better, albeit harsher, approach to judging a manager.

 

[mgarbowski]

Points after 14 games:

Torrent 21 (15 points in first 6 games, 6 in the next 8)
Deila 20
Cushing 19
Vieira 18

Home/Away split in their first 14 games:
Torrent 8/6
Vieira 8/6
Deila 7/7 (5/6 excluding MLS-Is-Back)
Cushing 5/9

The team is not playing well. I don't like his style changes. The defense is a mess, especially late. But 5 Home 9 Away is a ridiculously unfair test, and with that, he's right in the pack with all of our other new coaches. Add in no Taty for the last 6 and this is exactly where I expected to be with another midseason coach departure.

 

[GratefulDawg]

Can anyone recommend a good sleep meditation app?

 

[Seth]

I've been watching this conversation go on for a while and sometimes I think there's just a lot of over-analysis going on. Which I understand! But, we lost our coach, we lost our golden boot goal scorer, we're missing a number of significant players to injury. And despite all that, we're still in 3rd place in a league where we only have to finish 7th. Yes, we can be better, but for now I think we're OK-ish, and that's all we need for the moment.

 

[ZYanksRule]

I've been watching this conversation go on for a while and sometimes I think there's just a lot of over-analysis going on. Which I understand! But, we lost our coach, we lost our golden boot goal scorer, we're missing a number of significant players to injury. And despite all that, we're still in 3rd place in a league where we only have to finish 7th. Yes, we can be better, but for now I think we're OK-ish, and that's all we need for the moment.

Where I do think Cushing deserves criticism is in his changes to the press, which seems to be where at least some of our stylistic issues stem from. I agree with the rest of this, but I just think Ronny would have done better with this stretch, and Nick has underperformed

 

[Shwafta]

Where I do think Cushing deserves criticism is in his changes to the press, which seems to be where at least some of our stylistic issues stem from. I agree with the rest of this, but I just think Ronny would have done better with this stretch, and Nick has underperformed

Dude was thrown in mid-season. People here are giving him an extraordinarily short leash.

Me, I watched this game, in minute 60 went "This game has 90+4 winner written all over it", skipped forward a bit, saw nothing was happening, saw they scored 90+whatever winner, and went 'oh well. hopefully midweek will be better!' and that's it. I just don't see the point in letting myself get super worked up over it. We basically expected this was going to happen at least partially a few months ago, so I was mentally prepared for this to happen.

 

[SoupInNYC]

I think it is fair to judge him at this point unfortunately. All the the injuries are a major set back and are a portion of why the problem this team is performing like it is. But it is also unrealistic to say that a manager will always have an injury free roster. Therefore I think he must be judged (perhaps less critically) for how he manages the team he has in front of him. While some people may feel just looking at the form guide is enough to say if the manager is performing at the level he needs. I’ve already read some posts above that clearly say that things like “even if we had more fight in a loss” or “more grit” then it would at least seem like the team is going out and performing even in defeat. Obviously as a manager having all your players means you can pick and choose which ones you want to play which can actually hide some poor coaching. Where as playing with what you got which is the reality of the sport can really show what you can instill in players and what I think is a better, albeit harsher, approach to judging a manager.

I think those saying it's unfair to judge him don't necessarily mean it's not ok to judge him at all. But moreso that it's unfair to judge him in regards to his job safety in 2023 and on.

It's definitely fair to judge the lack of results that he's currently bringing and how he needs to improve on his side, from a tactics and mindset perspective.

It's also fair to point out to the H/A split as mgarbowski and note the injuries and think that perhaps he could be doing better under other circumstances and that perhaps the current results don't appropriately reflect what he could potentially bring.

One thing is clear, the latest results have not been good at all and that needs to improve. And not just in a not getting the points perspective. The team isn't playing well. This isn't like the spell in early-mid 2021 when the team was getting draws and losses but outplaying the opponents everywhere else but the scoreboard.

 

[KevinJRogers]

This isn't like the spell in early-mid 2021 when the team was getting draws and losses but outplaying the opponents everywhere else but the scoreboard.

Right. Last season Taty scored on May 8 (I think) and then didn't score another goal until late July sometime. We went something like 3-1-4 over that stretch with consecutive losses at one point. But he took almost 30 shots. We were getting after teams. We just weren't getting results.

Even during that horrible 506-minute drought later in the season I always felt like any moment we could break through. And through it all we defended really well without having to clam up.

This feels different.

Maybe it is all the injuries, and Nick feels the best way to go is to dial it back, play to not lose and steal points where you can. Which is not entirely unreasonable, especially since he knows the training ground a lot better than we do. He may just feel he doesn't have the horses right now.

But man, would I love to see us play all over the pitch the way Tayvon defended yesterday.

 

[NYCFC_Dan]

I'm finding it very hard to not feel apathetic about this team right now. The European leagues have started, NFL is around the corner, and it feels like optimum effort was not put into succeeding this season.

It’s strange.. I feel similar however we’re in 3rd. We’re likely playoff bound at this point and have a shot at repeating.
But man are we playing like absolute crap. I feel like it’s on the coach but I also agree with mgarbowski that we’re right where we should be given the circumstances. He just doesn’t pass the eye test.

 

[moogoo]

It’s strange.. I feel similar however we’re in 3rd. We’re likely playoff bound at this point and have a shot at repeating.
But man are we playing like absolute crap. I feel like it’s on the coach but I also agree with mgarbowski that we’re right where we should be given the circumstances. He just doesn’t pass the eye test.

yea. you said it perfectly. points-wise, we are where we should be considering all that's happened to the squad. but we just aren't playing well. it's not just about the results, but how we are getting those results. it hasn't been pretty and it hasn't been how we are used to seeing this team play. out of all our mid-season new coaches, they've all made changes despite saying they weren't going to make changes. but cushing's changes seem to make the least sense to me and personally, the least appealing. i don't like that we've been reduced to a low block defending team who needs to park the bus against a much weaker side. and yes, i think orlando are still much weaker even with our injuries.

 

[canchon]

Under Cushing, the H/A split has been brutal, he has lost his whole defensive midfield plus his most important CB to injury, their offensive MVP left and was not replaced. Those are some serious headwinds for a new coach.

that said, it is just disappointing how the team keeps finding ways to lose in the last 15 minutes of the game - that to me is a lot on coaching in both making the right subs and instilling the mentality to go after it and win games. The team is playing scared & full of mistakes at the end of the game. Cushing hasa lot of responsibility for that.

 

[moogoo]

Something something... not the same without Parks.

 

[JCMore]

Anyone know the status of the martins injury?