Shockingly, I'm going to buck the consensus here on a couple issues.*
First, let me just say I find the analyses
mgarbowski has presented to be enormously helpful. Mark has been intelligent, insightful and accurate. The points he's made are indisputably true.
But some additional context is needed.
For one thing, we're not a team with a new coach. We're a coach with a new team. It's not so much a question of a bounce as a progression.
Viewed in that light, it only makes sense for Nick to pursue a defensive orientation to keep us in games and in contention for a playoff spot -- which we were until the last couple games last season -- while building confidence and cohesion.
Those last are the ingredients necessary for a truly effective attack. It takes a little time. Until the attack develops, the priority is to not leak goals and not squander points in order to not get discouraged.
It doesn't always work out, of course. And it's not the most exciting football. But what we're experiencing now is a necessary passage to something better, not a vision of the finished product.
Which brings up another point about context: imagine you're on a jetliner, and the flight is proceeding smoothly and everything is fine. Then you hit some rough weather, and the plane takes a sudden plunge.
If you look at the flight data during the plunge, then it looks like a disaster and everyone is dead. But what if the pilots recover control and climb out of it and the plane continues on to a smooth landing without further incident? The data from the plunge become an anomaly, a problem in the course of the journey rather than a disaster.
Now, it's entirely possible we won't pull out of the plunge. But we can't assume the plunge will continue.
We also have to keep in mind (I know, I've said this many times before) how young we are. I'll leave out discussing whether it's the proper long-term strategy or not, for now, although I think my own perspective on it is clear. The important thing to remember is how long a season is and how much more of it remains ahead of us. It's called a campaign for a reason. It's not about winning every battle. It's about winning the war.
In fact, here's another analogy. When the U.S. Army first engaged the Wehrmacht in North Africa, we got mauled at Kasserine Pass. For many, our very young, very green army looked like a bunch of kids who weren't up to the job. The Nazis certainly thought so, and continued to think so until we were thoroughly kicking their asses across France and over the Rhine.
Of course, it took a change in leadership to make that happen. A couple, in fact. And I'm sure plenty of people, if not most, on this forum would argue Nick Cushing is our Lloyd Fredendall.
I firmly disagree. Nick is a fine football manager, with the potential to become
very fine, if not actually great. That's clearly his ambition, and he's been honest with us concerning where he is. "I'm learning too," he said.
Moreover, I believe he's been entrusted with a very challenging and difficult assignment by the organization; namely, molding a core of young talent at the crown jewel of the CFG network (other than City itself) into a perennial MLS Cup contender and a formidable opponent in any every tournament, including against Liga MX in the Leagues Cup and European sides in the Club World Cup.
Over a single season.
That's not the kind of project you hand to an apple-polishing time server.
I could be totally wrong, of course. We'll find out in the coming couple months. We have four games at home this month, at the end of which we'll have 10 games under our belt. I'm sure the goal is 12 points out of those 10 games, although anything in double digits will do.
Then we have six games in May. The first is at home again, then two on the road, then home-away-home. The goal there would be another 12 points, although again, double digits will do (albeit barely). At the low end, things get seriously tight. But if we're at the high end, or better, and playing really well, then at that point we're cooking with gas.
If we fail to reach double digits in points by the end of this month, we have a problem. If we sputter through May and end up with single digits again, then we know it really is the gaffer. And maybe the sporting director, too. After all, David Lee put this roster together.
But I'll stick my neck out here -- and I never predict, only project -- and say I think we're going to be really good, and soon. Not only that, but the final third of this season, we're going to be fun to watch. Not to mention, an absolute handful in the playoffs.
*
Okay, these are geese, not pigeons. But you get the point.
