MLS - March 25 - Houston (Away)
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
I don’t think it’s fair to start questioning these new signings just yet. This place loathed Maxi his first season. Morales was washed when he first got here. Martins was the worst CB in history when arriving and yet he’s been very good since the fall. (Still don’t think any CB is worth a DP spot, but that’s a different argument.) It takes players time to adjust to a new team, country and league. To question if the replacements are better then we had five months ago is not a fair question after such a short period in five games. I think it boils down to questioning the front office for late signings/not bringing in a proper #9. We still have time this season and the July window, but to me it seems the club got caught with their pants down on a lot of players leaving, transfers and contracts which is strange based on how prepared CFG usually is. On the flip side, based on the age on a lot of our signings this off-season it’s possible the club is building to the future. Yes there are a lot of Garber bucks left on the table right now and we didn’t sell Taty when some of you wanted, but maybe the club knows what it’s doing and are retooling for a run next year and beyond. Rebuilding the spine so to speak. The chemistry doesn’t happen over night and in a salary cap league these things happen. Coaching is another big question mark so far this season, but Cushing proved a decent amount to be a great tactician especially with in game adjustments. It’s been odd to me that he’s been out coached these last two games. Just my rambling thoughts.
If you really want to compare to the championship season the better question is this squad compared with March 2021. Either way, highest bar is always a fraught comparison.
Been thinking about having posted this yesterday and aware that every one of our coaches was lambasted in their first 5-10 matches. (Ironically, I think with the exception of Kreiss.) FWIW, I've never been one of the coach haters I don't think. Something just feels different here. There doesn't seem to be any huge run of bad luck. Maybe it is the same and the system will suddenly click. Though these are mostly the same players Cushing had the 2nd half of last year. This shouldn't be transition time. They should know what he wants from them at this point. But we've just been anemic.
In 3 of 5 matches we've had zero goals from our players.
Probably a combination of the above, however.
2) this was basically a thing all year last year and he was fine. Yeah, Tinnerholm was around, but not all that much and not nearly as effective as he previously was.
3) this was also a thing for much of last year, especially Taty (GP played only 426 of his 1,577 minutes while Taty was still here). Maxi avoided injuries last year and had more availability, but there were many times where Santi was playing the 10 and Maxi wasn't on the field .
Assorted thoughts in response.
NYCFC is fifth from the bottom in MLS in xG per game at 0.93. So the scoring is not out of line with chance creation, which pretty much aligns with what everyone is seeing.
Team xG under Nick in 2021 was 1.59/gm. Shots per game in that time was 12.76, and this year is 9.40. So there is a regression.
You could say our offseason was low turnover and be right. You also could say our offseason was unusually chaotic and be right.
This is in line with NYCFC early season performance. Excluding 2015, goals scored in the first 5 games are in chron order 7, 8, 10, 4, 2, 10, 5, and 5. The team has had far better scoring starts but only once since 2018, and that was the 10 goals in 2021 that was boosted by a 5-goal home game against Cincinnati. This seems to be how we roll lately. Mostly.
It's 5 games. St. Louis is 5-0-0.
100% this. This is MLS, and the regular season is meaningless. All we have to do is get in the playoffs, and we have the whole season to do it. We have months to go before worrying is required, and the team can definitely improve in that time. Hopefully. If we get to the point where we're complaining it's too hot to survive another match at Yankee Stadium and we're still near the bottom, well, I'll worry then.
And hey, if we actually end up with an actual striker perhaps our xG will hit the magic 1.60 mark. Heck, maybe even 2.0 LOL
I completely disagree with the premise of this post.
The regular season is meaningless for trophies. It's not meaningless for time spent watching the team, enjoying ourselves. Most of the team time comes from regular season, not playoffs. I'd rather see a stupid-fun, goalscoring machine of a team (a la 2018, 2019) get knocked out first round of playoffs every year than play shitty football nigh on 6 months and then somehow sneak their way into the playoffs and get to the semis.
Well yes, I totally agree with you! I'm a season ticket holder, because I like to go to the games. Not at all saying they're meaningless in and of themselves, just that a lot of folks are freaking out about our "terrible" season start and what I'm saying is that it doesn't matter as far as the MLS Cup goes. I'm a Shield guy more than a Cup guy, although that's certainly a lost cause as far as MLS goes, of course. That was what I was perhaps not successfully trying to imply.
For me this is the differentiation between Ws and Ls vs fun to watch. Our record isn't great right now but it could easily be better. Five games hardly matter for MLS Cup or even the Shield. But the quality of play does matter for those of us who are here for the joy of watching game in and game out all season long. The team has had 1 good half and 1 moment of brilliance and almost nothing else fun to watch over 5 matches. That's concerning.
Trying to withhold further judgement for now.
I agree with this in general, and I also think we were improving match to match for the first four. The last one was a stinker, but hopefully we get right back on that upward trajectory.
(Houston also did a really good job of pinging the ball around to avoid/escape pressure, even if they didn't do a whole lot with it)
