Rate Nelsen: April 2013

[__wowza]

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT THIS IS AN OVERVIEW FOR THE MONTH APRIL,
THE RESULT AGAINST THE IMPACT WILL BE ADDED TO THE POLL IN MAY.

PLEASE READ BEFORE RATING!
(it'll make everything a hell of a lot easier)

Each category gets a specific rating, from 5 (being the highest) to 1 (being the lowest). To calculate the average rating, just add your total up and divide by 5, if it's got a decimal point at the end of it, you can round either up or down based on the simple question "did Nelsen perform up to your expectations for the month". Afterward, you post your total rating on the poll, from 5 - 1. As a nifty little added feature, i've attached links to the matches. simply click on the match to head over the post game analysis, crourtesy of the MLS. it'll make it easier to back up your points with information. Here's the criteria:

TACTICS
how did you feel about the tactical choices made?
what about his starters? subs? formation?

RESULTS
how did we do in terms of results?
did we tie games we should've lost? lost games we should've won?

EFFICIENCY
how effective was Nelsen in utilizing the players he has?
did he play some players out of position? did he have a reason to?

COMMUNICATION
how effective was the coach in explaining his outlook and choices in the paper / on torontofc.ca / on TFCtv / in post match interviews?

TRADES / MISC / XFACTOR
were the trades made productive or counter-productive?
did he fly off the handle at get a 4 game ban?
was he making eyes at your wife/girlfriend/same-sex partner?


A general guideline: Its how you feel at the moment, not a final assessment. Like a marathon, this is just a snapshot of our support for the month. A low approval rating does not rate him as an overall failure, just like a high approval rating does not mean he's Sir Alex Ferguson. For the sake of context, this is how he / TFC have preformed in APRIL:

DATE	TEAM	HOME / AWAY	RESULT	SCORE
APRIL 6th	FC DALLAS	HOME	T	2 - 2
APRIL 13th	PHILADELPHIA UNION	AWAY	T	1 - 1
APRIL 20th	HOUSTON DYNAMO	HOME	T	1 - 1
APRIL 24th	MONTREAL IMPACT	HOME	W	2 - 0
APRIL 27th	NEW YORK REDBULLS	HOME	L	1 - 2

*red denotes VC game

APRIL MLS OVERVIEW

3 points out of a possible 12

9th in the East

16th out of 19 overall

-1 Goal differential

NOTE: if you'd like to see an update to the criteria you think i may have overlooked, PM me.

[bigredone]

I am generally happy as there is good reason for hope. His acquisitions (obvious) and use of subs have been decent (leave Silva on, keep Weedman off in the future). He has no choice but to experiment with various line-ups and, considering that, we have put up some good fights. A victory tonight will add to his April score IMO.

Who is to blame for the late goal problem? We did have intensity against Dallas in the late part of the game.

The handling of DK seems better than the handling of Fringes when he was injured.

[Oldtimer]

He's outperformed my expectations so far. There are some troubling issues, but it's an open question as to how much of this is the coach being new and how much is the general crappyness of the squad (many of these guys would not be starters for any other MLS team).

We'll see how he does as Payne gradually does his work and upgrades the players.

[prizby]

3 star:

better than last year
90th minute goals drop it from 5 star to 4 star
lack of commitment to the Voyageurs Cup drops it from a 4 star to a 3 star

[trane]

I like what I here from him and what I see on the the pitch game in and game out, the problem is that It is only for 75-85 minutes a game and hence the points are dissapointing. But we correct that and we are a solid MLS side..

I think that the Danny K and Earnshaw combo playing in an organized 4-4-1-1 could produce some of the best footy tfc has seen. We will see if it materializes. I gave him 3 stars, because it looks promising, but before I can give him more we need better results.

[Detroit_TFC]

I'm feeling that he's done 3+ stars. Tactically his substitutions have been effective, he is grappling with a difficult injury situation but seems to be managing that. Obviously results are disappointing and just why we are an 80 minute club and not a 95 minute one is probably baffling him. As a coaching persona he may be the best we've had. If I was new to watching the team and knew nothing about the individuals, just watching Nelsen, I would think he was a veteran presence on the sideline. As for trades, we'll see but if not for his contacts to get us the temporary team we have now we'd be massively reliant on the discards from around the league.

Have to take to round down and not up due to the pts total.

An aside - I kinda wish Bob De Klerk was partnered up with Nelsen. BDK would be the guy going crazy while RN kept cool and focused. Sometimes both are needed.

[Yohan]

I like the fact that TFC gets late game goals. I hate the fact that TFC gives up late goals.

[ProfessorDamage]

Three stars. There's been tangible improvement (+), but it's been off a base of zero (-), his tactics/subs have been OK (+) but only until the 85th minute of each game (-). The signings we've made have been largely positive (+), but not without exceptions, like Ephraim (-).

My biggest struggle with rating him now is figuring out how much accountability you can ascribe to him for the late goals we've been allowing. Yes, they're his squad, his choices and his tactics, but as (I believe) Mancini once said, he's just the manager. It's the players who have the play the full 90, and there's only so much you can do.

[[NBF]]

I like what I here from him and what I see on the the pitch game in and game out, the problem is that It is only for 75-85 minutes a game and hence the points are dissapointing. But we correct that and we are a solid MLS side..

I think that the Danny K and Earnshaw combo playing in an organized 4-4-1-1 could produce some of the best footy tfc has seen. We will see if it materializes. I gave him 3 stars, because it looks promising, but before I can give him more we need better results.

I wouldnt get my hopes up. IMO, TFC is waiting for him to get healthy and they will drop him. Im not sure if Frings retirement was considered a buyout so Im not sure if we've spent our doo-over yet.

Considering he only will cost half the DP money to put on the roster mid-season, someone else might want to pick him up as well.

REGARDLESS.......

......of the single win in April, I dont think I've ever seen a better groomed manager for an MLS team than Ryan Nelsen. Its not his fault he's got to work with this group of players. Payne is obviously in charge of player acquisition. Nelsen is the trainer.

3 stars.

[OgtheDim]

Watching that video from Friday where the coaches spent 30 minutes all practicing with DK, I don't think they are going to ditch him. For that alone, I give Nelson 3 stars.

[jloome]

Watching that video from Friday where the coaches spent 30 minutes all practicing with DK, I don't think they are going to ditch him. For that alone, I give Nelson 3 stars.

I don't get this ongoing sentiment from some people that they'll drop him. I understand the argument, it just doesn't match the facts. ACLs aren't career-ending injuries anymore; they've spent a year rehabbing him and he has the best strike rate in the league when playing.

The whole idea of pairing a second striker with Earnshaw (Braun first, now wiedeman) is to have him playing alongside another striker for when Koevermans gets healthy, I imagine.

[JavierMartini]

3 sounds about right. I'm left wondering if he is having trouble motivating the team sometimes.

[QBall]

After 10 games last season we had one win. After 10 games this season we have one win, however we have four more ties than we did at the same point last season. However this season we won our one game the second game of the season and have stalled whereas last season we won our one game on the 10th game after having failed to launch. So to me based on these results I really can't say it's been much of an improvement (I guess not currently occupying the basement of the league is an improvement). There have been high points this season, but if we want TFC to be something other than a niche team in this city the team needs to show results. I can't remember the last time I've heard any host on TSN1050 or Sportsnet590 talk about TFC, and TSN and Rogers co-own the team through MLSE! I think two of the problems of this team is the lack of star power and the number of players that have have worn the red jersey and then have either retired, left, been traded or released. However with the never ending parade of managers, presidents, tinkers and tweakers it feels like the team will never adopt a direction that isn't going to change in six months. As a fan though we have no more power to change what's happening than someone riding a roller coaster has to change what direction the car will travel. We're along for the ride however it's a ride most have gotten off and many more are tired of riding the same ride.

[Initial B]

With different managers each season, it's always been a different ride. It won't be the same ride until next year.

[Huyton]

Have a look at how long TFC had had a lead in their games last year versus this year.

The only time in the first 9 games when we had a lead was against Chicago, when we went up 2-1 in the 40th minute. Chicago tied it up about 90 seconds later.

In the 10th game, against Philthadelphia, Danny Koevermans scored in the 88th minute, and there was about 5 minutes of extra time played.

So, after 10 games in 2012, TFC had held a lead for 8 or 9 minutes.


In 2013, TFC scored against KC in the 2nd minute and never relinquished the lead: 95 minutes lead.
Against LA, we took the lead in the 79th minute and lost it in the 92nd: 13 minutes
Against Philthadelphia, took the lead in the 71st and held it until the 93rd: 22 minutes
Houston: Hall scores in the 58th, tied up in the 94th: 36 minutes.
Against San Jose, Braun scored in the 15th minute, San Jose ties it up in the 48th: 33 minutes.

So, in 2013, we had a lead in 5 of 10 games, keeping it for a total of 189 minutes.

This is very much a step forward.

[QBall]

The Merry-Go-Round at Canada's Wonderland and the one at the CNE are different, however they're still Merry-Go-Rounds and they give you the same ride. How many times have we gone through the get new manager high expectations followed by the disappointment crash right after since this team acme into existence? More than any other fans in any other sport in any other city. Yet we keep going through this because management thinks if they keep doing the same thing over and over again they'll get a new result. That or maybe they think if they give everyone on the planet a turn at being manager of TFC they'll HAVE to find someone who can make it work. The problem is I worry that this team has become damaged goods in the city, and short of signing someone with Henry or Beckham's star power the city will never embrace this team.

[Still Kicking]

10 games is a fair early season evaluation point and your view that progress is "oh so slight" is a good one.

But your criteria beyond that goes against too many of my core values...
The greatest sin of MLSE and too many others in the ownership side of modern sports, is to convince the public that cheering for a team (through buying a ticket or watching on tv...) is just another entertainment choice. It is bigger than choosing to see a movie or buy a chocolate bar. You love your team, it is a marriage, it is a pledge.
Toronto has far too many bandwagon fans - wanting to be connected to the team in good times, so happy to be elsewhere when the going gets tough.
I have a bias against hockey - I just can't call myself both a sports fan and a thoughtful person when a sport asks me to accept punching people as part of the culture and strategy. It is akin to wanting to be a professor and asking the university to accept my study of the videos of Don Cherry as the basis for my thesis. I say that Leaf fans are more of a cult since they don't follow the bandwagon rule, but people go because it is a hot ticket and someone else corporate is buying it.

Have you sat at a Blue Jays game and noticed that too many folks are there to eat and drink, don't know the score and could not name 88% of the players?

That Raptor games have higher attendance when the opposing team is a popular on tv and in the playoffs squad? Once again most Toronto sports fans could not name 88% of the Raptor roster.

The sports media is there to make a buck. I am afraid that a lot of sports broadcasters are less than deep folks. And don't get me started on the beautiful woman as sports tv presenter. Now that Setanta has become Sportsnet World, I have to scream when I see that spot about the young lady who is so thrilled to be onscreen with some hall of fame wrestling promoter guy.
Will I ever care if Bob "F***#+^" McCown has anything good to say about the TFC that I care so deeply about? If I ever saw the snide, sly, mouthy fool at a TFC game I may become a security issue. Just imagine if every anti-soccer comment he has made for years, and I stopped listening to him a decade ago, were comments about one of your family members.

I am strapped in for the ride you describe, the ride called TFC fan. I am hopeful that the ride is going to improve, but I am strapped in. Will I question myself because Joe Puckhead of the StupidLemming Fan 588 never mentions my team? Not in a million years.

[Globetrotter]

Carousel of players
Allowing late goals
New coach implementing his system
Same talk

We have made steps forward.

Those steps will be even more noticeable when we can do one thing:

Get a lead with breathing room. 1 goal cushion (or even a tie game) is not enough.

[speckles]

Four star, I think we really have to accept he has inherited a very poor squad, he has made the most of it really.

[Still Kicking]

Carousel of players
Allowing late goals
New coach implementing his system
Same talk

We have made steps forward.

Those steps will be even more noticeable when we can do one thing:

Get a lead with breathing room. 1 goal cushion (or even a tie game) is not enough.

Oh so true. TFC needs to develop an attack. A healthy Danny K will help Earnshaw.
When you have a midfield of Ephraim, Lambe, Bostock and Silva who combined are at zero goals, smother Earnshaw becomes the other team's tactic.
Laba and Hall are holding midfielders (and Hall has outscored all of your attackers) and Osorio has scored on very few MLS minutes.
Yes, the late game goals are of concern. However if TFC were scoring, most of those late game goals would be consolation goals for the other team.

Payne and Nelsen have been making small signings and short term loans so that their hands are not tied when it comes to making a larger summer signing. Dream on....

[Kayaker]

One bright spot that I'm holding to is the goal differential.

After 10 games in 2011: -5 (but we had 10 points, with 2 wins, 3 losses by more than one goal)
2012: -11 (we finally got our first win, but 4 losses by more than one goal)
2013: -4 with one win, all losses are by one goal

I've got low expectations this year, but I do have some yardsticks to measure the team, I want more points, more home wins and more goals scored. I think we're better than last year, but here is where we're coming from:

2012 - 23 pts, -26 goal diff, -10 home goal diff, 36 goals scored
2011 - 33 pts, -23 goal diff, 36 goals scored
2010 - 35 pts, -8 goal diff, 33 goals scored
2009 - 39 pts, -9 goal diff, 37 goals scored
2008 - 35 pts, -9 goal diff, 34 goals scored
2007 - 25 pts, -24 goal diff, 25 goals scored

Personally, I'd like to see 30 pts, -10 goal diff and 30-35 goals.

[QBall]

10 games is a fair early season evaluation point and your view that progress is "oh so slight" is a good one.

But your criteria beyond that goes against too many of my core values...
The greatest sin of MLSE and too many others in the ownership side of modern sports, is to convince the public that cheering for a team (through buying a ticket or watching on tv...) is just another entertainment choice. It is bigger than choosing to see a movie or buy a chocolate bar. You love your team, it is a marriage, it is a pledge.
Toronto has far too many bandwagon fans - wanting to be connected to the team in good times, so happy to be elsewhere when the going gets tough.
I have a bias against hockey - I just can't call myself both a sports fan and a thoughtful person when a sport asks me to accept punching people as part of the culture and strategy. It is akin to wanting to be a professor and asking the university to accept my study of the videos of Don Cherry as the basis for my thesis. I say that Leaf fans are more of a cult since they don't follow the bandwagon rule, but people go because it is a hot ticket and someone else corporate is buying it.

Have you sat at a Blue Jays game and noticed that too many folks are there to eat and drink, don't know the score and could not name 88% of the players?

That Raptor games have higher attendance when the opposing team is a popular on tv and in the playoffs squad? Once again most Toronto sports fans could not name 88% of the Raptor roster.

The problem is tickets to see the Jays or any of the MLSE teams (except Marlies) have become so expensive that many people have to make the choice between going to see one team or the other. While it's easy to curse the casual fan it's the lack of those same people that's has many sections of BMO filled with empty seats come game time. This is something that is noticeable not only to those watching at home but to the media as well. I'm always asking people I know to go watch a TFC game live and they look at me like I'm asking them to go watch a play being put on by a Grade 1 class. Regardless of how well the actual person sitting in a seat at Skydome or BMo or ACC kows the team they are watching, the important part to those in management is that these people are willing to spend the money to be there as opposed anywhere else. The chances of BMO being renovated to include a roof would greatly increase if the owners could see a return on investment. As for analysis after only 10 games, the Jays are doing as badly now as they did after 10 games (and they have a 160 gmae season) so I think 10 games is a fair place to benchmark.

[Heart of Stone]

Definitely not as good as Chris Cummings who was the best coach we ever had...

[Oldtimer]

Definitely not as good as Chris Cummings who was the best coach we ever had...

Only if you are judging by the numbers without looking at the context. Chris had the advantage of two years of stocking up of allocation money, leading to a team that was vastly over-budget, all covered by allocation money, in an attempt to "win now" by gaming the allocation money rules (the team would have had to be torn up the following year due to being over cap).

If you look at the fact that a team with such talented individuals like DeRo and Guevara managed to lose out on the playoffs by tanking a critical game against the last place team in the league (they only needed a tie to get TFC into the playoffs) shows a coaching failure of the highest degree. I'm not convinced Cummins was all that great, and his subsequent employment history backs me up.

[Richard]

How can you blame Cummins for the disaster in NY? That game is all on the players, I don't think anyone would played a different starting 11. You cant really blame him because the team decided to choke and die.

Here they are; Brian Edwards, Adrian Serioux, Nana Attakora, Emmanuel Gomez (Pablo Vitti 64’), Jim Brennan, Dwayne De Rosario, Julian de Guzman, Amado Guevara, Sam Cronin, Chad Barrett (Ali Gerba, 32’), O’Brian White (Amadou Sanyang 77’).

[Shakes McQueen]

Definitely not as good as Chris Cummings who was the best coach we ever had...

Cummins also inherited what has probably been our strongest roster to date (which doesn't say a ton). Nelsen, by contrast, has inherited what can graciously be called an "incomplete" team.

Anyhow, three ties, one win, and one loss - sounds like the epitome of a 3/5 rating to me.

- Scott

[Oldtimer]

How can you blame Cummins for the disaster in NY? That game is all on the players, I don't think anyone would played a different starting 11. You cant really blame him because the team decided to choke and die.

I don't blame him for the roster selection, that was the strongest roster we ever had (due to the cap manipulation as mentioned above). The most important part of coaching actually isn't roster selection (especially when it's obvious who to play, and I doubt most of us would have played the roster with any significant difference). It's the motivational side of coaching that is essential. You have to know when to put an arm around a player and when to give them the "hair dryer" treatment. You need to get a team to rally around a cause, to actually care. That's why I blame him, although of course the players all share in the shame of that day. A really good coach would have gotten a team bursting with that much talent to perform.

But you don't have to necessarily believe what I said about motivation... just look at his subsequent employment for confirmation.

[Richard]

^ I understand your point about motivation, it is very important and that wasn't his strong attribute. He is kind of like Winter in that he is well suited to develop younger players. In the end though I just cant wrap my head around how that team couldn't motivate themselves in the situation. Interesting how he was part of the best and worst games in TFC history, miracle in Montreal, and the NYRB disaster.

[trane]

One bright spot that I'm holding to is the goal differential.

After 10 games in 2011: -5 (but we had 10 points, with 2 wins, 3 losses by more than one goal)
2012: -11 (we finally got our first win, but 4 losses by more than one goal)
2013: -4 with one win, all losses are by one goal

I've got low expectations this year, but I do have some yardsticks to measure the team, I want more points, more home wins and more goals scored. I think we're better than last year, but here is where we're coming from:

2012 - 23 pts, -26 goal diff, -10 home goal diff, 36 goals scored
2011 - 33 pts, -23 goal diff, 36 goals scored
2010 - 35 pts, -8 goal diff, 33 goals scored
2009 - 39 pts, -9 goal diff, 37 goals scored
2008 - 35 pts, -9 goal diff, 34 goals scored
2007 - 25 pts, -24 goal diff, 25 goals scored

Personally, I'd like to see 30 pts, -10 goal diff and 30-35 goals.

This is why I am still not calling for Nelsens firing, we are lossing, but we are in most games, we improve a bit on each end of the goal equations and we will be a playoff team.

[Oldtimer]

^ I understand your point about motivation, it is very important and that wasn't his strong attribute. He is kind of like Winter in that he is well suited to develop younger players. In the end though I just cant wrap my head around how that team couldn't motivate themselves in the situation. Interesting how he was part of the best and worst games in TFC history, miracle in Montreal, and the NYRB disaster.

Yes, that is interesting.

I actually don't dislike the man, I think that he might have grown into a decent coach, unfortunately he was thrown into a situation that was over his head.