Redbulls Postgame

[NickA]

Not bitching cause we got outplayed. We could not handle the RB tactics. When a team is pressuring that much, it's easy to get stuck in neutral. We were too stacked in the midfield that we couldn't get out of our own way. I was hoping they'd start the second with Mullins up top with Villa, with AJ coming out and Mix playing back with Pirlo. Needed to spread the field vertically to combat that pressure. I don't think AJ is the right pairing for Pirlo...but we'll see.

I thought Mix & Angelino were busting ass. Had great energy and creativity.

There's two parts to our chemistry issue. Firstly we have a lot of new players that have got here recently and they need to gel. Secondly JK has to stop the musical chairs the rest of the way. Let's stick with a starting 11/formation and work our way out of this jekyll and hyde persona.

 

[Kubah]

When I heard that our 2nd sub was coming I was really surprised it was Calle, especially for Mix. I thought we needed more length, so the obvious sub was Mullins. I am not anti-Calle, but it was not the right call by Kreis... Mullins for Lampard seemed the way to go given what we needed.

I am going to miss Angelino...

 

[LionNYC]

Something I don't understand...When you've ripped your shorts and you need a new pair, why aren't you immediately jogging over to the sidelines? Felipe you're a douchebag. And Kjlestian is an ass for fouling Pirlo to get him back on the field.

And on the topic of Felipe...Facey just touched that ball he struck.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152989376825264

 

[LionNYC]

That yellow card on Facey was maybe one of the worst calls in this season in MLS. He got every piece of the ball on that challenge. I'd like to see MLS rescind that card.

 

[NickA]

The Red Bulls sure know how to talk shit..before and after the game. Coach and players. They were just annoying before, now I hate them. Also, I never thought I'd get this passionate about this team so fast. If you asked me last year at this time...I'd figure we'd have our ups and a bunch of downs this year...and I'd shrug my shoulders and say oh well, it's our first year. But no, this loss pissed my off, not as a JK or roster thing...as a team thing. I knew I'd become emotionally invested, but not this fast. We have a very tough schedule coming up, just hope to play some good ball going forward. Progress. That's all I can ask for right now

 

[Shu78540]

We need Patrick Mullins

 

[horseytweets]

Repeat this over and over:
We are a new team...
Stocked with names and individualities...
No collectivity to show for yet...
Next year will be alright...
So lets quit the bitching...
And let's turn the page to 2016.

 

[roxfontaine]

The team should turn in their fucking jerseys and wear plain blue t-shirts to train. They need to EARN their badges back.

 

[WillNYCFC]

Anyone else notice how crap Harrison, NJ is?

 

[Midas Mulligan]

The team should turn in their fucking jerseys and wear plain blue t-shirts to train. They need to EARN their badges back.

And if they fail at that, what a band concept.

 

[StatenIslandNYCFC]

I figured this was going to be a loss, as RBNJ is just a better, well rounded team.. It's how we lost that makes me want to put a hole in the wall. I can deal with a loss if you put effort in and give it your all and go down swinging and all that stuff... But we sucked at pretty much everything. Everything that I wanna say has pretty much been said in this thread.

 

[SayWhat44]

A couple of other poor performances I noticed last night. Pirlos touch was very poor all night. He wasn't sharp at all and I was a little surprised that he wasn't subbed out in the second half. Saunders has been really bad for about a month. At what point do we consider benching him?

 

[doctorhoosier]

We need Patrick Mullins

Totally agree with this. The offense works better with Mullins, as he occupies a bit of attention to free up Villa.

The issues is -- who do you then throw to the bench? If you put Mullins on, one of Mix, Lampard, Pirlo, Jacobson and McNamara has to go to the bench to run the bucket or the diamond. If you're running a diamond, I suppose you can send Jacobson, but he's one of the only guys with legs we've got on the field.

Fitting these guys into a team that will win, and a team that will win in the way that people expect, might be one of the toughest coaching jobs in MLS this year.

A couple of other poor performances I noticed last night. Pirlos touch was very poor all night. He wasn't sharp at all and I was a little surprised that he wasn't subbed out in the second half. Saunders has been really bad for about a month. At what point do we consider benching him?

The minute we have a capable substitute.

The issue is that Saunders is a better shot stopper than Lurch or Meara right now, and as NYCFC's goal keeper, you see more shots than you would with an actual, professional defense (and a midfield that doesn't turn it over in the final third as if it's part of the job description.)

However, in terms of organization, communication, and distribution, Saunders needs a lot of improvement. Dude really struggles to kick the ball straight.

Realistically, we'll need to replace Saunders in the offseason. There's not enough on the bench to replace him, and it's tough to tell how much is on Saunders and how much is on the defense.

 

[StatenIslandNYCFC]

Realistically, we'll need to replace Saunders in the offseason. There's not enough on the bench to replace him, and it's tough to tell how much is on Saunders and how much is on the defense.

I'd say 50/50.. Very often, he's left out to dry. If he isn't let out to dry, the goal is most likely a howler.

 

[ferrarinycfc]

Anyone else notice how crap Harrison, NJ is?

Havent they been doing some developments in that area ?

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Totally agree with this. The offense works better with Mullins, as he occupies a bit of attention to free up Villa.

The issues is -- who do you then throw to the bench? If you put Mullins on, one of Mix, Lampard, Pirlo, Jacobson and McNamara has to go to the bench to run the bucket or the diamond. If you're running a diamond, I suppose you can send Jacobson, but he's one of the only guys with legs we've got on the field.

Fitting these guys into a team that will win, and a team that will win in the way that people expect, might be one of the toughest coaching jobs in MLS this year.


The minute we have a capable substitute.

The issue is that Saunders is a better shot stopper than Lurch or Meara right now, and as NYCFC's goal keeper, you see more shots than you would with an actual, professional defense (and a midfield that doesn't turn it over in the final third as if it's part of the job description.)

However, in terms of organization, communication, and distribution, Saunders needs a lot of improvement. Dude really struggles to kick the ball straight.

Realistically, we'll need to replace Saunders in the offseason. There's not enough on the bench to replace him, and it's tough to tell how much is on Saunders and how much is on the defense.

Good post. My contention is we need to get Mullins on in place of Jacobsen. It still seems to me that if any midfielder we play actually breaks up a play, there's an 85% chance it is Mix anyway. If he's the 8-minus/6+, we would solve a lot of problems and build toward a partnership for next season. I don't think AJ will be a starter next year, so I'd like to see us develop the Pirlo/Mix partnership.

I am going to try to phrase this as delicately as I can because I recognize my own bias in not criticizing Pirlo, so here goes: if a player without Pirlo written on the back of his shirt had that game last night, I'd have probably been pretty critical of him.

Against a high pressing team, we can't afford to play Jacobsen due to his poor spacing and lack of ability to read the game. I think TMac was pretty good.

Since I haven't mentioned it, even though others have, that ref did us no favors. If refs are going to allow others teams to run through our backs all the time, we're proper fucked. If the league wants to be recognized for quality, then that has to change. Not to sound all Jurgen Klinsmann-ish here, but you can apply his Euro-centric reasoning to the refereeing in MLS.

I don't want the flow of the game to be so disjointed by foul calls, but it's not an improvement to allow constant, persistent uncalled fouling. So long as that is the case, we are at a massive tactical disadvantage by trying to play the way we are. And we don't need any help to suck right now.

 

[juventuz]

While I may think that the RBNJ fans are douchebags, I do have to give them credit. Their banners and tifos put the NYCFC ones to shame.

Having said that, the announcers kept saying that the place was sold out. I had to laugh every time I heard that, that place looks maybe 80% full. It's a shame to see a team like them have such a nice stadium.

As for the game itself, it was frustrating to watch. I think that Villa doesn't get criticized enough in games like this, he was very selfish at times, taking shots when he had none, and there were teammates that were open. I also think that some people have a bit of an unrealistic expectation of Pirlo. As someone who's watched him for a long time now, I can tell you that there will be a lot of games like today. The difference being that in lots of those games he will have that one or two brilliant pass that will lead to a goal, or that beautiful free kick that is the game winner. Reality is, he won't be the maestro in every game, and to expect him to is to have unrealistic expectations.

Oh and that ref sucked donkey balls.

 

[Fantazma]

When I heard that our 2nd sub was coming I was really surprised it was Calle, especially for Mix. I thought we needed more length, so the obvious sub was Mullins. I am not anti-Calle, but it was not the right call by Kreis... Mullins for Lampard seemed the way to go given what we needed.

I am going to miss Angelino...

this is another concern, after this season thats it hes gone, unless we can somehow extend his loan as well as facey if not then we are back to square one looking for proper replacements in the off season ( which is mid season for the rest of the world) this may mean back to hernandez and wingert/brovsky.

i hope this performance doesnt lead kreis to brining back grabavoy back to the starting lineup.

sucks that two mistakes and us not finishing the couple of chances we got cost of the game. Second half red bull did nothing for the most part till the goal.

every game from now on is a final and i hope the team plays with that mentality. to win everything here on out.

 

[Gcizzle]

On Pirlo,

The Maestro has had two ineffective games in a row. He had some wayward passes that should not have been difficult for him, but the underlying issue is his incompatibility with a stagnant, low-energy team. This is more worrying, as I don’t think it can be fully fixed without an overhaul of the team.

Taking a look at Pirlo’s past, we can see examples of teams that knew how best to use his abilities, and there is a clear pattern that has been recognized and actualized by several different world class managers. The first noticeable similarity across all his teams is a partnership with a hustling, defensive midfield. In AC Milan it was Gattuso, who swept up any counter attacks around Pirlo. On Italy it was De Rossi, and on Juventus he had Vidal. It is clear that Kreis has noticed this and is attempting to use Jacobson, but he is simply does not impact the midfield in any noticeable way. It saddens me to say that Dax McCarty would be the perfect MLS substitute of this role given the energy he injects into the midfield.

The other common variable in Pirlo’s teams has been a high degree of movement from supporting players in attacking space, creating space for other players, and trying to beat the offside trap. Some people forget that Pirlo had a huge drop in quality during his last two seasons at Milan, which is why it wasn’t incredibly shocking that he was allowed to leave to Juventus for free. The reason was that Milan lost players with high energy (Kaka, Shevchenko, etc.) and let other key players remain in the starting lineup despite their old age (Seedorf, Ambrosini, Beckham). This is why Pirlo was able to succeed at Juventus, which had the best off-the-ball movement of any team in the league.

To many of you, this is undoubtedly obvious and perhaps a long-winded way of saying that we need to prioritize speed, movement and defensive energy over technique in our lineup and for our next set of signings (because players with both are rare at these price points). Unfortunately, it seems clear now that there was no logic in building out our first team, since it is almost the perfect opposite of what would be the ideal “Pirlo” team.

Lampard is slow, but once he shakes off his rust I am convinced that he bring much needed movement to the front-line (deep runs from midfield into the box is his defining trademark, and I could see glimpses of that yesterday).

Mix needs to take Jacobson’s spot next to Pirlo. This is the only setup where the two coexist. Mix on the wing is a terrible idea in the long run, despite its initial success in yesterday’s game.

Khiry’s absence is huge and especially unfortunate to have happened just before Pirlo came in.

This is yet another reason why Poku needs to start.

 

[Tiger Jones]

This season was always going to be a crapshoot. With all the adjustments we've made halfway through the season there was never really going to be great cohesion. I think we've just had too many roster moves and general inexperience to make a good run for it. I think we will be way more well rounded next season. The playoffs were always going to be a long shot in my opinion.

The game has been dissected by a bunch of you so I'd just like to comment on my first away match. I got there around 2pm and tailgated all day with my buddies in the parking lot near the warehouse. My friend (who is a huge RB fan) knew a lot of the other people that were also tailgating there and I have to give credit where it's due. Every RB fan I interacted with was very friendly and fun. We were all offered tons of food and just had a good time in general so fair play to all of them.

For the game itself, standing in the away end was a blast. I don't sit in the supporter's section at the stadium so it was nice to be able to stand the whole game, singing and jumping around with everyone. Despite the result (which I expected anyway), I had an absolute blast.