Cushing also said that they were the players he wanted and was involved with the signings. Whether true or not, he gets credit.
MLS Cup Playoffs - October 28 - Cincinnati (Away)
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
The red card was an absurdity. Lucho had more contact with Tayvon's head on his foul than Tayvon had on his pushoff.
Penso walked onto the pitch and told the ref it was a red. If it had been a less Sr. 4th official or a non-attention seeker like Penso I don't think it ends up being a red. But we know one thing, if Penso is in the building he's going to find a way to make it about him.
conversation probably went like this:
Penso: Hey, that Lion guy from NYC is here and he said he didn't want controversy. Let's give him something to take home to NY!
Main Ref: Who?
Penso: Don't worry about it. Give a red.
I don't understand how VAR doesn't look at it. That's not a red card. That's not even a yellow card. It's a yellow on Lucho for the ridiculous flop. The center ref in this game is a disaster every game he does; how does he get a playoff game? Incredibly poor from PRO to assign him a playoff game.
Personally, I felt the talent gap was pretty stark last night. Nobody on our team was even close to the level of Arellano and Acosta. Maybe a young Maxi, but that's just the memories. So I completely agree that we have invested poorly in the last few years. Even Santi, with all his talent, is miles below Acosta as a matter of vision and judgment. I don't know how their dribbling success stats compare, but I do know that Acosta only dribbles when it is worth the risk, at the right moments and in the right areas of the pitch. Sometimes it seems that Santi never saw a dribbling chance he didn't want to avail himself of. He does carry our team in terms of goals and assists, but I don't know if he makes anybody better or the teams as a whole better IMHO.
To be fair - some of that may be down to age. Not saying there isn’t a big talent gap, but Santi is still pretty immature as a player. As he enters his prime he could get better. His giveaways were awful I thought.
Interesting - Fotmob gave Santi by far the lowest rating at 4.8. It’s rare to be that low without a red card or own goal or something.
Talles Magno at Corinthians has 3 goals and 3 assists in like 12 games and mostly positive ratings. Either Brazil is easier than MLS or maybe we weren’t using him well. The constant Bakrar rotations have been maddening and that dude has zero confidence- you can see it on his face. The coach isn’t making us better.
And, he’s really the easiest person to blame in all of this. Perhaps a bit unfair but if you make mediocre choices even with mediocre talent, you’re going to take a lot of the blame.
to me, santi didn't look ready to go from the start. he didn't seem his usual, "no one is gonna stop me" self. his dribbling and touches were off for most of the game.
Sometimes, I think santi plays like he doesn't trust anybody else to do anything. He dribbles because he thinks if he passes it, he won't get it back or it will turn into nothing. Of course, this only hurts everyone when the other team just smothers him constantly like they did last night and as most teams have started to do knowing that he likes to dribble.
i think all our players, sans maxi (he's already proven his worth), have plenty of room to improve. we have a fairly young squad and they SHOULD grow. the question is whether they will and if cushing is the right coach to help them reach their potential. I'm not saying cushing out or whatever. it's really difficult to say if another coach could get more out of this roster. as others have pointed out, we don't have quality depth in most of our positions and that hurts us a lot.
imo, whether we advance past cinci will depend on if we play to win or if we play to squeak by. that's gotta be on cushing's tactics, right? otherwise, i don't understand why we'd back off. If we are gonna go out, i want us to go out guns blazing. Going out while playing scared just makes it worse.
Is Ojeda hurt? I thought it was odd that he didn't get subbed on. Of the three young guys, Ojeda played 921 min followed by Fernandez at 677 and then Jovan at 265. That's a significant difference in-game time. With a playoff game on the line, you would think there would be an advantage to playing the guy who has the most experience playing with the other guys on the pitch.
Are you discounting Tayvon, with what you said about academy players?
- Martinez went from a winger who couldn't make it in Belgium to scoring 16 MLS goals
- Haak and Gray have been on the first team for years at this point, long enough that I think their growth is far beyond the "academy reps phase"
- Jones looked better with every appearance up until he broke his leg
- Ojeda has progressed just not at the rate most would like and he still has a way to go
- Santi is a much more mature player, he loses his head far less often and seems to be developing as a leader (not sure if those things count for your definition of development).
- The Union considered Perea expendable and he was getting zero time for them.
O'Toole has improved from second round Super Draft pick to a regularly useful player.
Gaby Pereira flourished while playing for Nick.
There are other players who have not done much, or even regressed like Talles.
It's a decidedly mixed record.
Yeah, I was just answering the question with some examples but I agree that its a decidedly mixed record. They broke Magno with that season of playing him at ST (I'll beat my usual drum though and ask if that's on Cushing or Lee for not signing a ST). Sands and Parks have stagnated or maybe even regressed a bit. I think we could also question who the next players coming from the academy like Sands/Gray/Haak are? I know we have some guys on the first team roster but we never see or hear about them. Even when they were fresh to the first team Sands/Gray/Haak were getting occasional appearances, we knew who they were and had glimpses of what they could become.
once maxi retires, we're going to start relying on maximo. lol.
there are a handful of academy players we have signed, but play mostly with the II squad. i think maximo and baiera may be the only ones who have ever made it onto the match day squad.
I would agree that it is a mixed record - but believe the record shows that Nick has had more success developing defenders than attackers.
Successful development - Gray, O'Toole, Haak
Success, but small sample size - Gaby, Jones
Unsuccessful development, stagnation, or regression - Magno, Fernandez, Ojeda, Mijatovic, Bakrar
Alonso Martinez is 26 and doesn't truly fit into the development analysis. It is more opportunity analysis. Not sure if credit for that goes to coaching or front office or both, but it is a different category.
Perea has been with the team for essentially one season. Again, opportunity more than development.
Santi is, in my opinion, also outside this level of development analysis (despite his age). He crosses eras and reached contribution (and salary) levels in a different manner.
Even though opinions may differ on success and categorization, it appears that development of defenders has outpaced development of attackers. Nothing wrong with developing fullbacks and defensive midfielders, but there is a disconnect between money spent by the front office (all attack) and player development (all defense).
I would also note that development has a geographical split, with North American players seeing more improvement than those from elsewhere. I don't know if that is relevant or coincidental.
You could also somewhat stratify by age the same as defense vs offense:
Successful development - Gray (22), O'Toole (25), Haak (23)
Unsuccessful development, stagnation, or regression - Magno (22), Fernandez (18), Ojeda (18), Mijatovic (18), Bakrar (23)
I know Magno and Bakar are similar in age but I wouldn't call either of their stagnations a development issue. Magno needs to be on the LW with a strong striker next to him to thrive. He failed when we took that from him, that's a team issue, not a development issue. Bakrar has some kind of hitch-like mental block that causes him to miss sitters, I'm not sure that's fixed by a coach either.
Development success is as much about the maturity and skillset of the player as it is about the coach. Perea looked like he belonged in the MLS the moment he stepped into a game. Fernandez, Ojeda, and Mijatovic often look like they are barely NYCFC II level, in fact, Ojeda, and Mijatovic both played full games with NYCFC II and neither of them stood out as noticeably more talented than the other players on the pitch nor did they make any goal or assist contributions. These players are extremely young and very raw and I honestly think the higher-ups at CFG that funneled them to us do not respect the quality of the MLS and they dumped these guys into a league they weren't ready for. They can still work out but the amount of development work it took to get Perea to where he was when he left compared to what it will take to make Jovan a successful MLS player is significantly different.
Also, a minor nitpick: we can't count Perea as a positive because he's only been here 1 year but we can count Fernandez, Ojeda, Mijatovic, and Bakrar as unsuccessful even though they have been with the team the exact same amount of time?
