Judd: Are the Revs 2-3 Players Away?

Andy Looks At Which Positions Could Help Right the Ship

Photo By J. Alexander Dolan

I’ve noticed something this season, while watching the New England Revolution, that I hadn’t in previous years.

Early impressions last a long time. How a team fares in the early months of the season tends to color analyst’s opinions far beyond the spring.

This is why, for example, every New England Revolution television broadcast invariably mentions how the Revs are among the leagues best defensive teams. It was a talking point as recently as their loss at RBNY on July 16. It’s an understandable take because, well, they were an elite defensive team! Through their first 10 games they allowed just seven goals.

Since then they’ve been decidedly… not so good. In their 12 following matches they have conceded 23 times. Their GA/90 went from 0.7 through early May to 1.91 GA/90 since.

The team’s defensive form changed, but the talking points didn’t.

This may be why, during their recent loss against the Portland Timbers, commentator Ross Smith stated that New England was “two to three players away from the turnaround really going Caleb Porter’s way”. He would go on to say of Porter: “It’s remarkable what he’s done in his time”.

All of that makes total sense in the context of New England’s nine game unbeaten run from April-May. When viewed in that light: things are trending up, and 2-3 players could really help tip the scales in New England’s favor.

Taken in the context of the past few months, however, I’m not sure how true that is.

It would seem, based on recent evidence, that they’re also just 2-3 injured starters away from conceding five goals in a single half, but who’s counting? Honestly, you could make a compelling argument that Porter hasn’t actually turned the club around and that the Revs are just one head-coach away from contending in the East.

For the sake of argument, however, let’s take for granted that this team could be fixed with the addition of 2-3 players. What types of players would help the most, given the current roster and tactics?

Striker

This pick likely won’t come as a surprise to fans who have watched New England’s six forwards combine for just 10 goals through 22 matches.

Leo Campana has scored just four times in 2025, after arriving from Miami for a record setting amount of trade money. Designated player Tomas Chancalay has scored just twice. Record U-22 initiative signing Luca Langoni and loanee (slash potential future DP) Ignatius Ganago have just one goal apiece.

None of this is to imply that they are bad players, or that they don’t add value to the squad. But the Revs have invested heavily in the attack and unfortunately don’t have much to show for it.

Part of that may be due to the disparity between these two charts.

New England swings in the third most crosses per match of any team in MLS. This is perhaps not surprising, given New England plays a 3-5-2 and builds their attack through their wingbacks.

Unfortunately, crosses put into the box through the air put New England at a bit of a disadvantage.

Looking at the leagues top 100 forwards - by minutes played - New England doesn’t appear to have consistent options up-top that excel at winning aerial duels.

While other top-crossing teams like Philadelphia, San Jose, and Vancouver all have strikers that win about half-or-more of their aerial battles, New England’s best option is Leo Campana who wins just 39.6% of the time. Ganago wins his aerial duels about 36% of the time while Langoni (at time of analysis) had won 0%.

Chancalay, Diaz, and Urruti didn’t have the minutes (or total aerial duel attempts) to qualify, but none of them are dominant aerial threats either.

If the Revs want to continue to build from the wide areas and make use of crosses, a dominant aerial threat would be the most useful addition to the striker-room.

Secondary Playmaker

As long as we’re working with a theme of “things that won’t surprise Revolution fans”, New England relies heavily on Carles Gil.

Using Key Passes (passes that lead to a shot) as a proxy for chance creation, only St Louis relies more heavily on a single player.

Here, the dots are each MLS team’s top key-pass contributor. The x-axis represents each team’s total KP while the y-axis represents the percentage of a team’s KP that are contributed by their top player.

Generally speaking players towards on the left of the chart play on teams that create a lower volume of chances, with teams that create at a higher volume towards the right. Players towards the top play for teams that run through a single playmaker, whereas players on the bottom may create chances as part of a committee.

New England relies on Carles Gil to create 33.2% of their key-passes, the 2nd highest share in MLS. Meanwhile they have produced 190 total key passes, which is slightly below the median number of key passes at 198.

Adding another playmaking midfielder/forward who has the vision to find the right pass could really help the Revs. For one, it would alleviate an opponent’s ability to key in on stopping Gil, forcing them to pull numbers and attention onto another player. It would also likely help push New England further to the right on this chart, while possibly even providing cover for injury/rest.

Goalkeeper

I debated opting for central/defensive midfield here. While that wouldn’t be a bad call, necessarily, the talent at the top of the roster is not as blaring an issue for me.

Polster and Yusuf have, by and large, been fine. If anything, it would be good to have a third option that Porter could throw in to give either of them a rest. Unfortunately it seems as though he has completely written off Jackson Yueill, but additional resources here could be an ok shout.

The spot where an upgrade would have the most positive net effect, however, would be in net.

This is, once again, not to imply Ivacic is a bad goalkeeper. In fact, the stats bear out that he’s having a better season this year than last. But those stats would also tell you that he’s having a very average season. He’s 18th in MLS in terms of GA/xGA (goals prevented ratio), 14th in saves, 17th in save percentage.

There have also been moments, like above, where he makes the initial save but gives up a promising rebound.

Asking for a Matt Turner or Djordje Petrovic level keeper is probably too much, but there’s room for improvement here.