The new-look Red Bulls started the season with a philosophy and style of play that caught Major League Soccer off-guard, and the chemistry and teamwork vaulted the club to the top of the Eastern Conference standings.
Inevitably, teams caught on and made adjustments. The result, no matter how well the Red Bulls played in some of the games, has been a three-game losing streak.
So, will we see a different philosophy or style of play when the Red Bulls take on the Vancouver Whitecaps June 20 at Red Bull Arena, or will the two-week break just serve as a rest and refocus for the players?
“I wouldn’t pinpoint the style or the philosophy of how we play as the reason for some of the results lately,” coach Jesse Marsch said following training Wednesday, the first since the June 5 loss in Houston. “It’s been a number of factors, a lack of concentration, and then not performing well as a group in Houston. But if you took the Philly game (a 2-0 home loss May 24) and if you took the Seattle game (a 2-1 road loss May 31), you’d say that overall they were two pretty good performances and we were a little bit unlucky not to come away with something there.
“The Houston game (a 4-2 loss), we had a bad first half and we were up 1-0 (at halftime). Could we have managed that game better? It’s a lot of little things, and that’s been the message, and we just need to take things one day at a time and get ourselves back on track. It’s not any one answer. It’s a combination of a lot of elements and making sure that we’re sharper, we’re getting ourselves healthy, that we maintain a strong mentality in who we are.”
That’s all well and good, but it’s clear the team needs a second goal scorer or a playmaker in the center of the field for the second half of the season. Marsch isn’t saying no, but if the results aren’t better before the summer transfer window opens, one player may not be enough to get the team where it wants to go.
“The philosophy all along is we have room to make improvements and we’re trying to evaluate that as we go, but for me the main philosophy is making sure that we are getting the most out of the 27 guys that we have right now,” Marsch said. “That’s where I’m at.”
In one way or another in the past three games, the rotation of the back line has let the team down. Players have shifted positions or missed time due to injury or international duty, and it will stay that way for a while longer, with left back Kemar Lawrence (Gold Cup with Jamaica) gone the longest.
Marsch is as frustrated as anyone, but he’s trying to remain positive.
“We don’t want to get too down on any particular thing,” he said. “It’s just now maintaining a steadiness and now knowing that we can all do a little bit better, and that’s what the job is whether you’ve won three in a row or lost three in a row. The process for me doesn’t change.”
What Marsch was happy to see was a liveliness in training on Wednesday. Whether that was due to some much-needed rest or some players angry over losing three in a row remains to be seen.
“It was good today because we got a lot of goal scoring, and that was a good aspect,” Marsch said. “Some of it was not as good but we’re missing defenders because some of them are away. We had more attackers on the field, so that’s how it played out, but yeah, we need to be a little bit more competitive in games and get an edge more. The Houston game in general, we felt like we came in second too much.”
So the philosophy remains the same. The coach and players are committed to it, not just because it resulted in early success, but they believe in it long term.
“Even if we were to go back to when we were getting results I said that we still had a long way to go,” Marsch said. “I still feel that now. I actually feel that we are further along than we were then, but we’re in a tougher moment. So we have to respond the right way, and that’s more about the mentality than anything else.
“We’ve built this thing from the beginning to last not just for five months or six months, but for years, and we’ve built it to stand up in tough times. So we’re going to find out exactly what that means here coming up in an important stretch for us. It’s the personality of the leadership. It falls on me and (sporting director) Ali Curtis and (general manager) Marc de Grandpre and the whole organization to make sure that now even though it has been a tough moment and we don’t waiver in our belief of who we are and what we’re doing. I know that’s the case with those two guys and that’s the case with me. I still really like our group and it’s just about pushing the environment every day to be as good as we can be.”
