Team Focus: The Downward Spiral That New England Revolution Need to Halt

As far as early season Supporters’ Shield candidates go, the New England Revolution were looking fairly strong. Having won six out of seven MLS games, Jay Heaps’ side sat atop the Eastern Conference standings. That was only two months ago, but it feels like so much than that.

Since the 2-1 home win over DC United on May 25th the Revolution have lost every single game they have played; all seven of them. The 3-1 defeat to Philadelphia felt like rock bottom, until that is, the Revs lost 5-1 to the LA Galaxy. Now the questions are, how much lower can they sink and what has gone so badly wrong for New England? Both are questions without such obvious answers, given how well they started the MLS season.

Initially, the Revs emphatically answered all the pre-season doubts that had been held against them; namely, how would they cope with the departure of striker Juan Agudelo, who left to join Stoke City at the end of 2013?

Their season started off with a dismal 4-0 defeat to at the Houston Dynamo, but the form of Diego Fagundez, who scored twice in a stunning 5-0 win over the Sounders, and Lee Nguyen saw the Revolution quickly turn things around. And with the halfway mark of the season coming into sight, New England looked good as contenders for the regular season title. But then came a 2-0 away defeat to the Montreal Impact.

At the time it was seen as little more than a blip on New England’s impressive record. After all, New England had enjoyed as many shots as Montreal on the day (14 in total) and actually claimed a dominant 61% share of the possession.

But the decline has been dramatic, which is puzzling considering that on the face of the statistics their performance levels haven’t dropped to the same extent. So where can the difference be found? Most point to the frontline. The Revolution have completely lost their cutting edge in front of goal. Consider that in the win over the Seattle Sounders back in May, the Revs hit goals goals from just 10 shots on target.

But in the 3-1 defeat to the Philadelphia Union, New England had 22 shots on goal, with only eight on target. The Revolution aren’t necessarily anything less of an attacking outfit now, but they seem incapable of taking their chances. They have scored just once in their last three league games, and haven’t scored more than one goal in a single game since the 2-1 win over DC United back in May. 

Perhaps it’s time for Heaps to gamble by playing two strikers in the same system. The Revolution have so far stuck with their 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-4-1 systems this season, but it simply isn’t working any more. Heaps needs to make adjustments before it is a replacement doing so.

Quite simply, Teal Bunbury hasn’t filled the Agudelo-shaped hole in the New England lineup this season. The former Sporting Kansas City man has scored just twice in 19 appearances this season, despite averaging 2.2 shots on goal per game – New England’s third highest in that column.

Although it could be argued that Bunbury has pulled his weight as something of a second striker, often in a wide position on the right, registering three assists and making an average of 1.2 key passes per game. However, Bunbury as a second striker makes no sense if there isn’t a primary striker finishing off the chances he lays on.

The New England midfield has recently lacked shape, but little blame can be placed at Nguyen’s feet. He is the central hub of the Revolution’s midfield, and has actually increased the number of passes he is playing every game - up to 48.5 passes per game from 43.8 last season. His pass success rate has remained almost constant (80.7% this season, 81% last season).

He occupies a place in the top 20 of the league’s most prolific passers, but who is he aiming his passes at? With scarce presence in the final third, Nguyen is forced to play most of his passes out to Fagundez or Bunbury, where opponents find it easier to shut down attacks.

Of course, it’s difficult to pin all of the blame on the attack when seven goals have been conceded in their last two games. The red card A.J Soares received was obviously a factor in the 5-1 defeat to the Galaxy but not enough protection is being afforded to the back four.

For instance, against FC Dallas Scott Caldwell made just two interceptions in his role as the breaker between midfield and defence, as Adam Moffat picked out his passes to Blas Perez and Tesho Akindale with too much ease.

Perhaps the only source of consistency in the Revs starting lineup, stretching all the way back to last season, is right-back Andrew Farrell. The 22-year-old was one of the most impressive rookies in the league this season, and he has been one of New England’s best players so far this season.

But his attacking instinct has been curtailed by a lack of options in front of him, meaning Farrell has become something of a third centre-back this season. He averages 2.3 tackles per game, making him New England’s most prolific tackler at the back, also averaging 2.3 interceptions per game – the highest on the team. He should be so much more than this, though.

New England are in such a rapid, downward spiral that Heaps has now taken to praising defeats in which his side posed little threat, but didn’t give up a hatful of goals, like the 2-0 loss to FC Dallas.

“In terms of what we did tonight,” Heaps said during the week, “I thought in terms of energy and effort, it was a great bounce-back for us (from the 5-1 defeat to the Galaxy). We made one mistake in the first half, and we got punished for it.”

There is light at the end of the proverbial tunnel for the New England Revolution. But that light is a train heading in their direction.

Do you think the New England Revolution can turn things around? Let us know in the comments below