Sorry, my typed-sarcasm ability died this weekend..... I knew exactly what you meant.
#StartEirik
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
He was preventing Larin from going for goal, forcing him to head it back into the box. Frankly, the more glaring issue is the wide open OCSC players in the 18.
Nah, totally disagree. Larin had zero angle for a shot - his header was on the line & his only option was to put it back into the middle. Plus, the defenders were closing him down on the chance he takes it out of the air instead of heading it. Saunders needs to stop overplaying every play - he's too eager to rush into no-man's land rather than holding his line and letting the field players attack the man.... in this case, Larin was outside of the 6yrd box on the end line with the ball arriving 6feet in the air - that was not a dangerous position from the point of taking a shot.
That last goal and all of Saunders mistakes are on PV.
If Patrick does start Johansen on Thursday, Saunders' confidence is completely shot. There were many times with multiple games over the course of a week or 10 days when resting Saunders would have made sense. But that never happened and Johansen sat on the bench every time. He just sits on the bench the entire game. The other six on the bench warm up, he just sits there. He should be on the god damn field. We're so upset over 35+ players on this team, we have one in goal.
16 days until we (hopefully) see Eirik start a match. 16 days until the US Open Cup.
To your point, PV absolutely blew it not sitting him for a game when he had his chance by using the congested schedule as an excuse.
Honestly, if I was in Saunder's position and gave up so many howlers and goals after 90min, I'd be seeing a psychologist every day because I'd be blaming myself. By nature I'm hard on myself and always do the heavy lifting when working with groups, and to make so many errors over the course of he season, while fighting for the worst save percentage in the league, I'd be questioning myself and my abilities.
I'm curious if anybody has asked him if he's confident of his abilities if he'd say yes, because to me that'd be the first sign of denial and a total lack of self-awareness. When in a funk, the best way out is to sometimes step back and rebuild the psyche. Playing him game after game with gut wrenching results isn't helping him or the situation.
Last edited:
First, it is crystal clear to anyone watching Saunders after goals and after games that this guy feels enormous burden. But I disagree about your self-awareness view. In most work and life situations that sounds right. But when it comes to sports, it's his job to believe in his abilities. It's PV's job to decide if those abilities aren't enough or what skills to build. But the athlete needs to have confidence.
That doesn't mean he shouldn't be able to assess his relative strengths and weaknesses and discuss how to either build skills or compensate. But that shouldn't preclude confidence.
I don't doubt he's unhappy after giving up a goal, but there's a line between having confidence in ones abilities and being delusional about it. As mentioned on another thread I hate cross-sports analogies, and this is my second of the day, but Saunders having confidence in his abilities is the same as a Cornerback getting burned multiple games in a row for 200+ yards and still feeling like he's starting caliber. He may have confidence in himself, but the other team(s) has confidence that they can take him to the woodshed every time. The problem with Saunders is if Vieira keeps building up his confidence and results still suck, then Saunder's psyche is going to take a major hit - [how can the team say I'm playing well and have confidence in me and yet I continuously give up howlers - if my best is still giving up 2 goals/game and I'm only saving 50%, then what happens when I have a shitty game?].
Saunders doesn't strike me as the type to play through a problem and rise above it - his psyche is being chipped away at and pretty soon he's going to be in a tatters mentally. It's already happening. Even Johansen was hugging him on the field after the game and trying to lift him up.
Valid point. And to add to that, when the other team feels the CAN beat you and you're a weakness, their psyche is lifted and they may play more relaxed and harder against you. We don't need other teams going in feeling like they can pad their stats vs Saunders. It'll just make it that much harder on the whole team.
I feel like I'm not making my point clearly.
I totally agree with you that every team in the league must feel they can get points at YS. Nothing to be done about bringing down their psyche except start winning.
See, I want that CB believing he's starting caliber. Because when he believes that, he's better than when he doesn't believe in himself. Saunders's skills + confidence > Saunders's skills - confidence. If the confidence is delusional, so be it.
It's not his job to accurately assess himself and remove himself from the XI. His job is to believe, even if/when it's delusional. Accurate assessment is PV's job.
Or we can change up the starting keeper, that might also affect their confidence in their ability to score on us. Then we might in turn win and further hurt the other teams' combined psyche when they play us.
I definitely don't want a player playing for me that has had to have his confidence spoon fed to him - that's Exactly the kind of player that gets burned badly thinking they can make the play rather than playing the odds.
Saunders right now thinks he can make every play and thus he gets stuck in no-mans land and over compensates on his positioning. My rule when coaching runners is to do no harm first and foremost with regard to training and injury - play the odds and don't play hero with pushing to hard. That's the problem with building up Saunders' confidence after every bad game - he thinks he can make the plays rather than playing the odds on positioning and risks. We've all seen the reckless head scratching plays he makes and wonder why he does them - it's because his ego has continuously been stroked.
Confidence isn't going to make a silk purse out of Saunders ear. He's making mistakes no one else in the league is making.
Thank you. He's incredibly slow off his line and indecisive as well. Other Keepers don't make those mistakes or have those athletic issues.
Is he the most unathletic keeper in MLS?
Well he hasn't made the mistake that Rowe did in the LA-Montreal game which cost the Galaxy a point (from tie to loss). But he's done enough to merit the bench.
Eirik Johansen was with the MCFC EDS when Vieira took over in 2013. After the summer of 2013 he didn't play for the EDS that fall and was sent out on loan in the winter.
Safe to say Vieira didn't like him then, and probably still doesn't like him now.
Would explain why there's been rumors of NYCFC shopping for another keeper. Saunders may not be great, but apparently he's seen enough of Johansen to not like him. I don't think he earns a start anywhere outside of a cup match or unless Saunders is out.
Safe to say Vieira didn't like him then, and probably still doesn't like him now.
Would explain why there's been rumors of NYCFC shopping for another keeper. Saunders may not be great, but apparently he's seen enough of Johansen to not like him. I don't think he earns a start anywhere outside of a cup match or unless Saunders is out.
If that's the case, why even start the season with him on the roster??? There was plenty of off-season to address the backup keeper role. If he didn't like the guy so much to the point he would NEVER play him, then they had months to find anyone off the street to at least be a warm body to play in a pinch (and not take up an international roster spot!). It doesn't make any sense.
Similar threads
