Meah. Paper thin squad riddled with injury. Can't expect much. Score line flattered us but it is what it is.
Main takeaway continues to he of Bill Manning blew the transfer budget without delivering a striker he absolutely hamstrung us this season, as he has done every season. I hope we're moving things around to deliver one, we badly badly badly need one.
Gavran best player of the night, score could have been much worse.
Long did well overall and gives confidence to the backline.
Ayo and Thompson provide nothing to the squad. We get worse when they come on.
Cassius deserves any minutes, a striker scoring 20 goals in a beer league has a better touch than any of ours.
Spicer bright spot in few minutes played, good cross.
Tactics not great as Insigne and Bernardeschi were ineffective at keeping any possession.
Cash surely cannot be any worse then Ayo?
If that same ball lands on Cash or Princes feet I think it's in the back of the net.
For a new manager playing a game in the tight confines of Yankee stadium is a blessing
Soccer is a game of hundreds of decisions over 90 minutes
When playing at Yankee stadium the ability to think the game and make decisions under pressure are magnified even more
The number of "pure giveaways" by TFC players was stunning
This roster needs a huge makeover - but it will take a couple years
Loyal - Win, lose or draw!
Weston, Ontario
Yeah, it was always likely to be a couple of years.Originally Posted by Loyal
I see what you mean about Yankee Stadium… except that nowhere else is like it (and it’s probably illegally undersized). NYC is built to play there. As one of the announcers pointed out the goal difference is by far the largest in the league in favour of the home team here. I don’t think many visiting teams play well there and their football is often ugly. Especially when there are crucial new players and a new manager. I try to avoid watching any football played there. And it didn’t help that NY was desperate.
I don’t know if you saw that footage of a very young Herdman preaching for the introduction of fussball (sic?) to British football to increase ball skill. Yankee Stadium seens a bit like fussball on acid.
Playing in Yankee Stadium does not suit our style at all, new manager or not. Herdman likes to use width and speed to advance the ball quickly into an opponent's end.
When your opponents have so little space between midfield and their defensive zone, our counterattacking system is pretty flummoxed. And even if we do hold possession at their end, to break them down we still need fast wide players.
So without Richie, and with Spicer not up to speed yet, we weren't going to get a ton of penetration with Fede and Rutty wide.
The ball over the top early was a nice suprise, but they adapted almost instantly by keeping their backline ten yards deeper and having Sands cycle back to pick up the ball, or allow an outlet for the centre backs to advance it. With them starting from that position, there's no space behind to run into.
Without wide speed and more passing composure -- we rushed everything offensively instead of trying to hold up against the pressure and force fouls -- we were in deep shit.
I'd call it tactical failure but we're missing some key pieces, don't have much depth and it's early days.
To me the big upside yesterday was that Spicer looked like a player. A couple of tasty crosses, a jet of speed. I can see him being deployed as wide left opposite Richie wide right.
We have a lot of choices for wing back it seems. Richie, Spicer, Berna, Petretta. I think Kerr could play it too.
I know it's not popular and not to keep harping on about it, but that being true + absolutely gaping holes elsewhere really makes me question the soundness of a transfer strategy where all of our spending went to a wingback. A brilliant one, but a wingback.
If we don't sign a striker in this or the next window, that, to me, is a classic Bill Manning fuck up for all the reasons he normally fucks up transfers (Zero long term strategy, just makes moves to make people happy in the short run, missing the point that winning teams and absolutely nothing else sells out stadiums). If we do sign one, I care an awful lot less about that and would be alot happier with the winter moves.
I think Herdmann probably filled the two most pressing gaps. A quality CB and a destroyer in mid.
Striker is undoubtedly the #1 priority now.
You can see yesterday with Miami. Messi wasn't playing. When Suarez came on 2nd half he alone took the game over.
I think Richie would have really helped but wide speed on that field… not sure if that’s ever an answer. Football on a warped postage stamp is strange football. Even so, we might have got a point out of it if we had a striker capable of scoring. That cross from Spicer was lovely.
The issue is that that is our tactical set, using wingbacks to get behind the backline. That's what we were still trying to do, even though they weren't playing. But it's exponentially harder on a small field.
Without putting them on their heels via the counter, we're just bunkering in and hoping for the Italians to produce something.
Also, we could've used that narrowness by increasing the frequency of the low-to-high switch, from midfield to the attacking zone.
But we tried it twice all afternoon, I think.
Indeed, that was it. And yeah, twice within a few minutes in the first half and beautifully too before we were overrun.
Frustratig game, you can't take anthing from it for all the obvious reasons. Too early to make any judgement, nor should this wipe out the previous games.
Depth? What MLS team has it? Where is Miami without messi and suarez?
We'll be back to winning ways once Laryea, Johnosn, and Petretta are back.
If key players stay healthy, will make a deep run this season, no doubt. Should we pickup a decent striker, this team will shoot to the top.
The season just started.
I'm still struggling to figure out why after almost 10 years is NYCFC allowed to keep playing on that timbit pitch of a field. Also Akinola should not see the field again. He is the only one out there that looked like he mailed it in. We didn't go anywhere near enough to deserve a point but I like the fact the majority of the team fought to the final whistle
FWIW, NYC are due to have a new stadium by 2027
Yay!!! Sad it will be so many more years more of this though. Too bad they couldn't just share Red Bull Arena for now.
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