In the wake of his team’s latest mistake-filled defeat – this time to the lowly San Jose Earthquakes – Steve Nicol continued to do what he’s done all season after a loss: blame the players.<\/p>\n
That, in itself, wasn’t suprising. What was suprising, however, is that the gaffer,\u00a0in the twilight of his worst season at the helm,\u00a0has pointed the finger at everyone but himself since First Kick.<\/p>\n
Now, without singling out individual\u00a0players, there’s no question that the entire backline hasn’t exactly shown itself as a shutdown unit this season. Diplomatically speaking, it’s been a season to forget. But the\u00a0they aren’t\u00a0the only ones to blame, despite what Nicol’s said in his post-match pressers.<\/p>\n
After all, it’s Nicol\u00a0who keeps penciling in the mistake-prone players into his starting XI. And it’s Nicol who obviously hasn’t properly instructed – i.e. coached – his charges to be better in the\u00a0training sessions\u00a0leading up to\u00a0matchday. True: he may not be the one out on the pitch. But, he’s the one responsible for allowing the same players to make the same basic mistakes game in and game out.<\/p>\n
It’s not just the defense that’s struggled as a result, either. During the team’s four-game slide, the Revolution attack has managed only four goals – half of which came from mid-season signing Ryan Guy. Sure, the chances have been there. And yes, Diego Fagundez has breathed life in the attack. But, the fact remains that\u00a0the offense\u00a0– much like the defense – hasn’t been sharp far too often this season.<\/p>\n
And, again,\u00a0that’s on the manager. It’s\u00a0his responsibility to prepare his team in the best manner possible. Unleashing unfavorable formations, inserting defensive subs prematurely, and summoning the same players for strikingly-different scenarios has only prepared this team for failure.<\/p>\n
Another thing that Nicol’s done to stifle his squad: his curious refusal to use his rarely-used rookies at this point in the season. Even with the team’s playoff hopes officially dashed, Nicol has remained true to his colors, even with his bench selections on Saturday night. The only rookie on the bench was Andrew Sousa, who might as well have been at the Showcase at Patriot Place instead after the gaffer\u00a0predictably\u00a0bypassed the rookie in favor of Zack Schilawski and Kheli Dube.<\/p>\n
A good manager utilizes all of his resources to help his team. And there have been countless times during\u00a0his 10-year\u00a0tenure in which Nicol has done just that. But this\u00a0season – one of the worst in team history – Nicol is clearly in over his head.<\/p>\n
You can spin this season any way you want – that the team hasn’t been behind very often, that it hasn’t been blown out very often, or that many of its matches are usually close – but the\u00a0harsh\u00a0reality is that the Revolution is what it is: a five-win team buried in last place.<\/p>\n
The players deserve their share of the blame, no question. They make mistakes. They hold a high line when it should be low, and a low line when it should be high. They\u00a0squander three-goal leads.\u00a0They concede 70-yard\u00a0assists.\u00a0They get shutout by the worst defense in the league.\u00a0This team could write a novel on how to leave points on the pitch.<\/p>\n
However, the\u00a0gaffer is just as guilty. Say what you will about the talent handed to Nicol. But, it’s his responsibility to\u00a0squeeze the best out of\u00a0the players given to him. And therein lies the biggest\u00a0failure of Nicol this season.<\/p>\n
Take a\u00a0look at\u00a0all 32 games from\u00a0March to Saturday’s\u00a0match. This\u00a0team is still\u00a0suffering from\u00a0the same miscues\u00a0it made months ago. Whether it’s in the back, in the middle, or near the net, the same mistakes keep repeating themselves. Clearly, Nicol\u00a0hasn’t\u00a0got what it takes to cure what ails this team. That’s not to say that he’s a bad manager. He’s not.<\/p>\n
But it’s obvious what his biggest mistake\u00a0is: he continues to manage\u00a0the same\u00a0way he managed the Cup-contending squads of yesteryear –\u00a0ones filled with plenty of veteran presence and unquestionable talent. Those mid-2000s\u00a0teams\u00a0could not be further removed from the\u00a0one of the field right now. The fact that Nicol continues to manage this group the way he managed the 2005 team is proof positive that he guides primarily by habit, rather than observation.<\/p>\n
There’s no question that Steve Nicol has the wisdom, talent, and ability to better this team. He’s pulled out victories from lesser teams. Few MLS managers have won with less. His reputation as one of the\u00a0most respected\u00a0managers in the league is well deserved. But, for some reason, he has bypassed the\u00a0opportunity\u00a0to make this squad better.<\/p>\n
Whether he realizes it nor not, Nicol has some\u00a0talented players on this roster, some of whom\u00a0may not have yet\u00a0been given a chance to shine. \u00a0He has an experienced and vocal captain that has played his tail off. He has a group of young, yet promising, players that\u00a0is begging to be better.<\/p>\n
And there’s no legitimate\u00a0reason why this team shouldn’t be better. They may not be a Cup contender, but they have the players to compete. They’ve made costly mistakes, sure. But they’re not the only ones.<\/p>\n
Perhaps, the next time the gaffer steps up to the podium following\u00a0his\u00a0team’s\u00a0latest devastating loss, he should do something different: point the\u00a0finger at himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Steve Nicol has blamed his players for their mistakes all season. But some of the blame lies with him, as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/nicol2.png?fit=434%2C336&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6523"}],"version-history":[{"count":68,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6601,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6523\/revisions\/6601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}