First, I definitely skewed the narrative on my last post. I probably would say that Vieira had the toughest job taking over and did the most with it. But still, for Ronny, specifically on the offense question that some have raised, I keep coming back to personnel. My first point is pretty subjective, but they get less so as they go on IMO:
- Heber was not himself last year after the lockdown and before getting hurt, and I do attribute that to either fitness or attitude or mental health. I don't blame him - it was a terrible year and he showed up and tried - but he wasn't himself.
- Under Ronny, Maxi has never been the player he was under Vieira or Torrent. I suppose you can blame Ronny if you want but what I see is age. Also, I see that when Maxi was hurt last year the team struggled mightily, but when he was hurt this year the team was much, much better because Parks, Medina and Acevedo have formed a 3 headed midfield unit. Oddly, none of them does any part of what Maxi does at his best, but together somehow it came to work. I don't see how you don't attribute that to coaching.
- Again, and I don't know how people think Ronny was supposed to overcome this based on an eye test, but Mitrita and Heber scored 43% of the team goals in 2019, and they both disappeared on him, and he was given no replacements for 14 games. Come on. Best counter is he didn't play Mitrita regularly until just before he left, but then he did use him, he produced, and then he was gone. Torrent whined endlessly because he had to go 6 whole games in-between Villa and Heber. Ronny went 14 games without 2 top scorers. Under him we have seen Castellanos develop into an actual striker, and he rescued Medina from the Upside -Down where Torrent left him, and kept the team on track until the new guys finally showed up.
- If Johnson saves just 2 out of 4 bad goals we gave up early on this team has at least 3 more points (maybe more), and is second in the East on PPG (maybe more).
- The team has 9 set piece goals off Free Kicks and corners. That's coaching and effort (which is a by product of coaching).
He could be doing better with what he has? Don't make me go back and dig up all the forum quotes from March-April when the club had no talent and especially no scoring talent and we were doomed, doomed I tell you. NYCFC played the first 7-8 games with offensive depth consisting solely of Andres Jasson. The year before Ronny, Castellanos played 2052 minutes. Shradi and Medina each less than 1000. Jasson was in the Academy prepping for Yale. That was the team's entire front line roster for the first 2 months of 2021: one previously full time player, 2 role players, and a kid who probably would not be here but for desperation. We have nobody named Ruidiaz, Nani, Chicharito, Bou, Rossi, Zardes, Vela, Zelarayan, or Dike. Even now it seems that Magno is still not fully recovered from his injury, and Santi has been non-existent for who knows why (until the last game). I do not believe we have under achieved on offense.
And not for nothing, but the team has scored more goals per game than anyone in the East, is third in the league overall, and has not been shut out since last September. This isn't some sketchy advanced stat stuff you might not trust. This is basic shit like goals scored and points per game and we did it mostly with Taty, Isi and Medina and nobody else. But multiple people are certain their subjective analysis says we should be doing better with what we have?!?! Really? Your eye tests are telling each of you that 3rd place in goals scored per game is underachieving and this was a team that from the start of the season should be, what?, best in the league in scoring goals? LOL and a half. Deila's record is pretty damn good.