Caleb Porter Reacts to Second-Half Collapse Against New York Red Bulls
“I think we have to evaluate everything, always. We have to be better."
The New England Revolution blew a 2-0 lead and allowed five goals in the second half in what would be the club’s seventh straight match without a win. Immediately after the 5-3 loss, head coach Caleb Porter was still searching for answers regarding what he had just witnessed.
As alluded to by Porter, New England entered Wednesday’s matchup shorthanded. Mamadou Fofana was suspended for yellow card accumulation, forcing Keegan Hughes into the starting lineup.
Porter also mentioned postgame that Peyton Miller was subbed off after 45 minutes due to an ankle issue. This saw Will Sands enter the match to begin the second half, putting yet another bench player on the pitch for significant minutes.
The issue got even worse when Brayan Ceballos went down with an injury and Wyatt Omsberg was forced to come on and replace him.
“I feel like we have to put together a complete performance, because we have games where we defend really well but we don’t finish,” Porter said. “We have games where we attack really well, but then in that second half we don’t defend well. Again, I’m sure a lot of it has to do with [the fact that] we have to sub so much, so we lose all that confidence and continuity. I have to think with some of the guys that we’ve had in the majority of the minutes – the Mamadou [Fofana], the Brayan [Ceballos], and the Peyton [Miller]s of the world – maybe we’re able to snap out of that funk at 2-1 or even 2-2. Then obviously, the fatigue sets in as well. We changed, at 3-2, into a 4-2-3-1. We were very opened up, obviously, when we changed shapes. You can see a little bit why we don’t start with that shape. So, for sure, changing it into a back-four at 3-2 might’ve led to us getting opened up for the final two goals.
With the likes of Hughes and Sands having particularly poor performances, New England’s lack of depth at center back was on display. This is heightened due to the fact that the Revs are playing a three man backline.
At outside back, the case is similar. With both Ilay Feingold and Miller having stints on the sidelines, Sands in particular has been prone to lackluster outings when forced into the starting XI.
Porter mentioned that the performance will force him to reevaluate if New England has the appropriate level of depth heading into the upcoming transfer window.
“I think we have to evaluate everything, always,” he said. “We have to be better. We’re going to have to play guys in compacted windows. When guys get injured, we’re going to have to rotate guys in and sub guys in. So for me, we win and lose as a team, but we were very weak at the back when it went to 2-1, and like I said, I’m a bit at a loss for words. It's unfathomable to give up five goals in that second half in a very short amount of time. I think it was five goals in maybe 15-20 minutes. I don’t think I’ve ever had that happen and it’s not good enough. It’s very disappointing and we’ve got to correct it. Obviously, we don’t have a lot of time, and the bottom line is we’ve got to win against Orlando [City SC] at home. It’s that simple. So, we’ve got to turnaround, recover, and we’ve got to win this next game at home. It’s a massive game.”
Time is running out for Porter and the Revs. New England is on the precipice of an eight-game winless streak and is out of the playoffs by seven points. With only 12 matches remaining, the Revolution need to start stringing together wins.
Because if they fail to, New England will miss the playoffs for the second straight year and the Caleb Porter era will come screeching to a halt.
We have terrible central defender depth for a team that plays 3 center backs
Ceballos is an excellent CB, Fofana is good and Beason is a below average starter but ok sub. Hughes/Omsburg/Farrell are replacement level.
That was fine when you are playing 2 of the above where you would only rarely need Hughes or Omsburg. But then you switch to 3 at the back and suddenly you need to play your lesser choices a lot. And center backs gets suspended and hurt; it happens
This was easily predictable, yet we did nothing to shore up our central back depth once we changed formations. And now Porter acts like there was no way it could have been predicted
All of these claims rely on specific players they don’t apply to the whole team. They don’t have a good defense they have one good defender backed by a few ok ones. The weight put on the shoulders of a select few individuals to carry the team is obviously a huge issue that’s showing clearly with injuries.