MLS - September 3 - Nashville (Away)

[Antidote P. Smiley]

Of all the games to blame on late subs, this one makes the least sense.

The team is in a month long slump where only one player has scored.
We gave up 2 goals by minute 32 due to a patched together back line and had no defensive depth. I don't think anyone believes we should have made subs before we gave up those goals and once we did, we had, at best probably a 10-20% chance of winning given how little we score lately no matter how, when, or who Ronnie subs. I mean, sure, I could maybe get behind making a couple of subs at halftime to shake things up. Why not? But it's not a freaking cure-all and it sure as hell ain't the reason we lost. In any given game he players who start are generally the best ones available for that game and the earlier you sub them out the less they play. It's not some miraculous cure-all. But when your favorite tool is complaining about late subs I guess everything looks like a nail, or something.

Five people complained about late subs in this game. This game. Five.* In a game where the late sub complaint probably was less relevant than in any game this season. The forum makes the same damn complaints every game regardless of what actually happened. But "late subs" is this year's model, so have at it, I guess.

* There was one on an earlier page I didn't include on my previous post.

It’s been said many times that soccer is a game of margins. Much was said about how NYCFC didn’t play bad at all against a Nashville. I guess the margins just piled up in this game. A goal to avoid a shutout in the 90th minute for a final score of 3-1 is basically a rout.
Excusing the loss on the absence of three players on international duty is a cop out.
I thought Ronnie wanted to win 5-3 rather than 1-0. Score more goals than the other team and you win.
Re:subs. I honestly don’t care what the average subs blah blah blah… I don’t want to see clockwork substitutes. That doesn’t seem like a forward thinking approach to managing the game.
Generally I think we are just bummed about the match. It was another instance of blowing an opportunity to take a step forward and prove this team is deserving of the accolades it’s been receiving. This team isn’t bad, it’s actually probably good, but it doesn’t seem to have something that makes it as good as it needs to be at crucial times. The Revs and even Nashville seem to have that. Maybe NYCFC can develop that. I hope so.
Rematch in October.

 

[moogoo]

Of all the games to blame on late subs, this one makes the least sense.

The team is in a month long slump where only one player has scored.
We gave up 2 goals by minute 32 due to a patched together back line and had no defensive depth. I don't think anyone believes we should have made subs before we gave up those goals and once we did, we had, at best probably a 10-20% chance of winning given how little we score lately no matter how, when, or who Ronnie subs. I mean, sure, I could maybe get behind making a couple of subs at halftime to shake things up. Why not? But it's not a freaking cure-all and it sure as hell ain't the reason we lost. In any given game he players who start are generally the best ones available for that game and the earlier you sub them out the less they play. It's not some miraculous cure-all. But when your favorite tool is complaining about late subs I guess everything looks like a nail, or something.

Five people complained about late subs in this game. This game. Five.* In a game where the late sub complaint probably was less relevant than in any game this season. The forum makes the same damn complaints every game regardless of what actually happened. But "late subs" is this year's model, so have at it, I guess.

* There was one on an earlier page I didn't include on my previous post.

What I think of when I read your posts:

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tenor.com

On a serious note, I do enjoy your injection of logic and reason supported with numbers and statistics to a forum of fans, who by and large are reacting out of emotion rather than reason. While you mock the eye-test, it exists because there are a lot of intangibles that can't be quantified and measured in sports. Those intangibles are what make sports, and especially soccer, so fantastic. If everything were about the numbers we might as well just have a computer simulate and churn out stats for us to analyze every week.

As you said, subs aren't a cure-all. As you also said, why not shake things up? I don't understand why it matters what the chances of winning are after making subs. Obviously, when you are losing, the chances of coming back and winning the game are going to be low. So, why make subs at all? Just pack up and go home, right? I also don't understand why late sub complaints would be less relevant for this game than any other. Because we had no other CBs? We subbed Malte off for Gloster and our leftside almost immediately looked better.

Were the subs going to win us the game? Probably not but there was a chance and giving more minutes to those subs might increase those chances. In any event, the subs resulted in more energy and liveliness in attack, which at least, based on a very scientific eye-test, was more pleasing.

 

[LionNYC]

Is there a tactical counter to switches and long balls when you have a poor mismatched back line? I'd like to know what that is.
Were there defensive subs available who could have helped?
Cody Mizell at CB maybe?

It just seems people want to blame Delia for (1) the fact that nobody but Taty has put the ball in net for an entire month, and (2) we had an untenable roster situation Saturday.

Park the bus like they Wonder Kid (and that’s best with Thiago’s speed). Nashville didn’t too much when they had the ball and we were organized in defense. When we had the ball and were attacking and out of our defensive shape is when they did the most damage.

 

[FredMertz]

Look, it's his fault that he didn't bring the subs on until so late, nobody else's.

The horrible finishing isn't necessarily his fault, but is he putting players into the best positions offensively?

Also, you can't blame him for McKennie's off-field behavior.

Wait, we're talking about Berhalter, right?

 

[ZYanksRule]

Of all the games to blame on late subs, this one makes the least sense.

The team is in a month long slump where only one player has scored.
We gave up 2 goals by minute 32 due to a patched together back line and had no defensive depth. I don't think anyone believes we should have made subs before we gave up those goals and once we did, we had, at best probably a 10-20% chance of winning given how little we score lately no matter how, when, or who Ronnie subs. I mean, sure, I could maybe get behind making a couple of subs at halftime to shake things up. Why not? But it's not a freaking cure-all and it sure as hell ain't the reason we lost. In any given game he players who start are generally the best ones available for that game and the earlier you sub them out the less they play. It's not some miraculous cure-all. But when your favorite tool is complaining about late subs I guess everything looks like a nail, or something.

Five people complained about late subs in this game. This game. Five.* In a game where the late sub complaint probably was less relevant than in any game this season. The forum makes the same damn complaints every game regardless of what actually happened. But "late subs" is this year's model, so have at it, I guess.

* There was one on an earlier page I didn't include on my previous post.

You're absolutely right about this -- at 2-0 the game is virtually over. At 3-0, it is over. No subs are going to bring that game back for us.

Also, I think Ronny's first impression here was very bad. The late hire that made it seem (probably incorrectly) that he was a last choice, plus the bad start to last season. Fans have never gotten over that even though our record and the way we play since the middle of last season is really good. Ronny has us playing some of the nicest stuff in our history, and deserves a lot of credit for that. Is he as "good" a coach as Dome? Maybe not. But he's a good coach and we should really get behind him.

 

[ZYanksRule]

It’s been said many times that soccer is a game of margins. Much was said about how NYCFC didn’t play bad at all against a Nashville. I guess the margins just piled up in this game. A goal to avoid a shutout in the 90th minute for a final score of 3-1 is basically a rout.
Excusing the loss on the absence of three players on international duty is a cop out.
I thought Ronnie wanted to win 5-3 rather than 1-0. Score more goals than the other team and you win.
Re:subs. I honestly don’t care what the average subs blah blah blah… I don’t want to see clockwork substitutes. That doesn’t seem like a forward thinking approach to managing the game.
Generally I think we are just bummed about the match. It was another instance of blowing an opportunity to take a step forward and prove this team is deserving of the accolades it’s been receiving. This team isn’t bad, it’s actually probably good, but it doesn’t seem to have something that makes it as good as it needs to be at crucial times. The Revs and even Nashville seem to have that. Maybe NYCFC can develop that. I hope so.
Rematch in October.

If Ronny did want to win this game 5-3, it was probably a good plan because it was virtually guaranteed we were going to give up goals in this game.