MLS - May 27 - Philadelphia (Home)
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
The church of one smile falls flat.... i give up 
Ilenic was probably off to the side smiling, and since he was a late scratch and part of the initial XI, he is effectively part of the XI.The church of one smile falls flat.... i give up
Our fans are embarrassing
David Lee absolutely has questions he needs to answer, but completely agreed about Cushing. This roster is not good enough. Could he be getting better results out of this roster? Sure. But he's not the problem here.
Had the front office come out and said, "We were not expecting this many club legends to leave in one offseason. We are hard at work to bring this team back to prominence, but we're not going to make rash signings just to fill numbers -- we're going to work slowly but deliberately to find the right players to return this club to prominence as quickly as possible." -- Had they said that, I think the fan anger would be a lot less.
By telling us they still think they're a contender, either they're idiots or lying. New Yorkers don't like being lied to. If this is a rebuild, I understand it. That's the cost of winning a title in a salary capped league, and I'm perfectly OK with it. Just don't tell me you think we're still a contender.
By the way, Jim Curtin had some nice things to say about us postgame.
They’re lying. They’ve never been above lying. But I think they expected to be respectably mediocre, not 1.14 PPG 14 games in.
Well, sure. I don't think they expected Santi to be this bad and Talles to take such a huge step backwards.
I think the best thing Nick could do is leave them both off the squad entirely on Wednesday. And make it clear it's because of the way they dashed off the pitch yesterday.
"It's a great privilege to get paid to play this game," he should tell them. "But it's serious business. You're expected to act like grown men. Honor the game. Honor the badge. Don't whine. Take your lumps when things go badly and vow to try harder next time. You can stay home and watch the match and think about it."
For the young guys who are easy to coach -- Gabi, Mati Pellegrini, Mitja -- the Cushing Way works fine. All they need is some guidance and positive reinforcement. And the veteran players already get it.
But for guys like Talles Magno, who is -- how should I put this -- a bit mercurial, psychologically speaking, and Santi -- who is, let's face it, a hothead who has shown more than a few flashes of an attitude problem -- it may be the perfect opportunity to give them a good kick in the ass.
I don't know how they'd respond. But we've taken one point out of the last 15, so what the hell.
If he benches Talles for the 2nd time this season, does Talles react in a way that makes things worse? At the end of the day, getting him back to the performances we know he's capable of is more important than discipline. Tough love already hasn't worked once, not sure it's a good idea to go back to it again.
I don't disagree in a vacuum, but Talles has already been benched because of behavior once.
I'm not sure he got the message.
I'm not sure it really matters, either. It's not actually for them. It's for everyone else.
Mental mistakes and sudden lapses are almost always the result of a lack of discipline. And by that I don't mean just the "crack the whip" variety, although sometimes you have to do it. It runs deeper than that. In a truly cohesive organization, everyone has the same mindset, the same attitude, the same values.
When I look at our squad, I see plenty of talent, uneven as it is from a tactical standpoint. But it hasn't gelled into a cohesive unit. We haven't developed that core personality, the whole greater than the sum of its parts. It's time for firmer action.
There certainly isn't anything to lose by trying at this point.
What I said:
What you then replied:
I would love better starters, but I will repeat, Jasson had some very clever moments/movement that had they come from Gabby we would have raved about.
On Cushing/Lee Out sign, the Deila Out sign hit pretty close to the team's turnaround. But when Deila Out sign appeared Taty went over to the stands and yelled at the fans to take down the sign. I don't see any players now yelling on Cushing's behalf.
This may be a completely unfair situation for Nick, one which any coach would have been set up to fail, but I really worry that he has so completely lost the players that there is no coming back. I'm for a turnover, not because I think Nick could or should have done better, but because I'm not convinced, even when new player(s) come in this summer he has enough sway with the locker room to bring the team together.
This may be a completely unfair situation for Nick, one which any coach would have been set up to fail, but I really worry that he has so completely lost the players that there is no coming back. I'm for a turnover, not because I think Nick could or should have done better, but because I'm not convinced, even when new player(s) come in this summer he has enough sway with the locker room to bring the team together.
Hudson River Blue does crowdsourced player rankings every game, and then writes them up with a comparison to the FotMob ratings.
hudsonriverblue.com
Because we’re losing, the fan vote underrates everyone compared to FotMob, sometimes extremely and irrationally so. But even the guys who performed well and are kind of liked are rated lower.
NYCFC vs Philadelphia Player Ratings - Hudson River Blue
Here are the NYCFC player ratings from the 1-3 loss to Philadelphia Union on Matchday 14, played on May 27, 2023, at Citi Field in Queens.
hudsonriverblue.com
Because we’re losing, the fan vote underrates everyone compared to FotMob, sometimes extremely and irrationally so. But even the guys who performed well and are kind of liked are rated lower.
My picture was when the players were walking off the field at the half. Several players made gestures to take the sign down.
Alright. I didn't see them doing that. I might have been more focused on the sign itself.
I don’t even understand the point of making the sign. Does someone think the front office is going to see it and be motivated by some fan holding up a sign? Does someone think it’s cool to hold up a sign about someone losing his job (whether or not it’s warranted)? I know it may be what coaches/athletes sign up for, but it’s still kind of weak and silly.
I agree with your sentiment of weak and silly, but I also do think these things have influence. FO people are people. They don't like to be called out. They don't like to feel embarrassed. For some that leads to capitulation. Others double down. Hard to know how people will react. But we are all subject to the social pressures around us.
If that’s the case, we can definitely use some front office signs instead!
I think it's useful for the front office to see fan unrest is happening, but there's no chance a sporting director is going to suddenly fire a coach because the fans call for it.
