iced1776

Elf he got the call when he was kicked in the head, Lima got a yellow for it. He didn't get the call when when he flopped several times. Ref did his job there

Calling NYRB a development team this season is generous. 

 

This is a selling team, just to USL instead of Europe

That's a fair criticism from 2019-2022, but I think this last winter was a legitimate step in the right direction. Guys like Morgan and Tolkin were resigned despite being at risk of leaving, we added a $5M striker coming off of a 14g/10a season in Europe, and added another proven MLS veteran striker. The midfield and defense didn't seem like they needed reinforcements coming into the year, we had improved our playoff seed from 2021 to 2022 and had elite defensive records in both years.

 

Of course there will be grumps here who say they knew from the start we'd stink (cause they say it every year), but fans were by and large excited about the team. It made sense that if we just kept doing what we did defensively but added some quality up top we could be contenders again. Then our entire attacking core gets caught up in a revolving door of injuries, suspensions, and call-ups, making it impossible to get into any rhythm.

 

I actually have a good bit of faith that we'll see another round of serious moves this off-season.

My response to basically all of that is to refer back to my previous comment about dehumanizing athletes. If you think someone in Barlow's situation deserves to be personally insulted and chased out of town with pitchforks, we just disagree on what's appropriate behavior for sports fans as a whole. 

 

edit: I say this as someone who 100% does not want Barlow on the team next year

If Barlow is in the lineup give him shit every time he touches the ball. I have no clue what ownership sees in him, but if ownership wont bench his ass, us fans need to make him feel unwelcome so he demands a trade or something. Any other 9 in the lineup and we have 3 more wins and would be in the playoff picture right now. I'm sick and tired of this fucking guy already.

 

Are you the guy who bragged about insulting Ali Curtis in front of his kids? At best you're misplacing your anger here unless you're aware of some plot where Barlow kept the strikers ahead of him injured or suspended. Dude's trying his best, not his fault his bosses dropped the ball. At worst you're dehumanizing athletes in a pretty shitty way. The price of your ticket doesn't give you the right to try and personally chase a guy out of town. Get a grip.

I can't believe I'm saying this - Barlow isn't the striker who we should be yelling at after this one. Manoel had a legit chance for a hat trick and came out of the game with a goose egg. He's just not a natural finisher and doesn't do the "everything else" well enough.

If I'm Schneider I'm packing his bag alongside Tom's and sending him back to Brazil for what reais he can get. Try again with another revamp of the striker group this winter.

Jets fandom, and I guess most major American sports fandom, doesn't strike me as an apples to apples comparison. Not many people are Jets fans because the organization won them over in any of the ways people claim Red Bull must. Jets fans are fans because they grew up in a Jets household and watched games with their friends and family growing up. It was part of their culture from an early age. It's not cause they saw a billboard or participated in a community event or loved the Jets branding.

Red Bull and MLS simply isn't old enough to have the benefit of that sort of fandom. Not many kids grew up in a Red Bulls household who are now adults with disposable income.

I think the minor league thing hits the nail on the head, NYC as a city only does the best of the best. LAFC is the only team in the league I see operating in a way that would move the needle in NYC with major celebrity name power on and off the field AND winning soccer. Even then, let's see how things look for them if they have a few rough years like we have.

My preferred 20 senior roster spots going into next year assuming that we don't sell/buy down our two current DPs and that Tolkin is sold

 

Strikers: Vanzeir, int'l striker (tam or U-22), Burke, MLS vet

Attacking Mids: DP #10, Morgan, Luquinhas, new AM, Omir

Defensive Mids: int'l #6 (tam or U-22), Amaya

Left Back: New LB and new backup LB

Right Back: Harper, Dylan Nealis

Centerback: Reyes, Sean Nealis, MLS vet CB

Keeper: Coronel, Meara

 

Edelman and Stroud stay in the defensive midfield mix but are homegrowns so they don't count against the senior roster. Wouldn't take much of an argument for me to move Amaya for another experienced CM as well. I'd pick one of Ndam/Nocita to stick around as CB4 in a supplemental spot.

 

Current senior roster guys I'd sell or move down to supplemental spots/RB2: Hurtado, Mina, Donkor, Manoel, Yearwood, Duncan, Barlow

I would hope that nobody has unrealistic expectations of Troy turning this team into anything special this year, including his bosses. The roster isn't a total disaster but it isn't good enough to handle the insane injuries this year. No coach was taking this team far.

But I don't think Troy has met far more reasonable expectations either. The team still looks so lost with the ball. It's not like there's a clear game plan and the execution sucks. And it's getting worse as the season goes on too.

The only team that would look at Barlow is St. Louis

And only if they get relegated

I also think the NY team could use his services right now.... I wonder if he blocked a loan to this dumpster fire. 

I think you're overrating Clark here. He hasn't done much to show he's an MLS level player, let alone a Bundesliga player. A few highlight reel goals covered up a lot of mediocre play in between.

The path RB laid to Leipzig was wide open, he just never progressed. Part of that is due to injuries but it is what it is. If his family feels they got jerked around that's their own ego at play. Although from some secondhand interactions I've heard about with his dad, that reaction wouldn't be a surprise.

Takes a special kind of masochist to make themselves watch this game again. Don't know how you did it.

Once you get used to skimming through breaks in play and meaningless possession the rewatches go pretty fast. This was one of the only games that still tried my patience...

No highlights to even take from this one, and I'm not gonna stress anyone out by pulling low-lights. A few Luqui dribbles, Omir's miss, and Barlow's miss were the only exciting Red Bull moments of the game. A few general thoughts after rewatching:

 

Omir needs to sit. Now. Don't care if its a fan from the stands who takes his place. I don't know if its underlying injury, fatigue, whatever, but the guy is playing at a high school level right now. It's not just the missed shots, he's been coughing the ball up in the midfield 95% of possessions even when there's no pressure on him. It's like he's got the yips and forgot how to dribble.

 

Manoel is not far behind Omir, even if he manages to get on the ball he has been giving it back to the other team way too easily.

 

Hurtado's debut was a dud, there was no shape to the team by the time he came on, he didn't make a single forward pass, and got torched once defensively.

 

It's been pointed out already but Reyes easily had his worst game as a Red Bull. He always takes a lot of risks but is normally very good at calculating when to do so, this game he was just too casual chasing the ball and playing out of the back.

Outside of Tolkin, is there any player on this roster that could be sold to Europe? All of them suck

 

Reyes for sure

 

Luqui and Vanzeir both had good seasons in Europe although I don't think their stock is going up here

To me it still doesn't matter. Show some emotion. Try out new formations and lineups every game. This team is so dull to watch and it's crazy to think at this point in the season they have absolutely zero offensive chemistry.

There is no vision. It's just guys playing pickup soccer.

Trying out new crazy formations every game is exactly how you end up with guys looking like they're playing pickup soccer. Concerning part for me is that even when the team has stuck with the same look for a few games straight they don't look any more cohesive than when they mix it up.