Pinzone: Reports of Andrew Farrell's Demise Greatly Exaggerated

The player with the most appearances in Revolution history has unfairly become an easy target for blame among fans...

Photo By J. Alexander Dolan

Andrew Farrell has been with the New England Revolution for every second of his professional career, going all the way back to 2013. Somewhere along the way he has become an easy target and constant scapegoat for the Revs’ struggles, including the most recent of his 333 MLS appearances in the Revs’ 4-2 loss to RBNY on Saturday night.

Revs Twitter was an even bigger wasteland of over-reactionary comments than usual, with many lobbed in Farrell’s direction. The comments sections across TBM’s unequaled coverage of this team’s latest setback were notably free of Farrell's criticism.

Maybe you can’t bring yourself to hit the reply button at this point of the season because the weight of failure has already bore you down to the point that is too much to lift your fingers onto your phone’s screen and send the world your thought’s about the team you follow’s utter inability to bring enjoyment to your life. Or, as I would like to think, you are able to see what others cannot, that at the very least this loss to RBNY shouldn’t overly fall onto the feet of Farrell. Let’s take a look then at what some may have missed from Saturday’s game.

The opening salvo fired at Farrell came when the Revs conceded an early goal on a simple ball over the top in the sixth minute that Lewis Morgan ran onto and scored from. The simple analysis is Farrell got beat for pace by Morgan who raced in behind and scored. Both of those things did happen. But what else happened?

Let’s look at the individual, non-Farrell, mistakes from the back line. First, Xavier Arreaga is pressing a player not receiving a pass in his own half and gets caught too high to cover the ball in behind. Mistake number one, of three, for the newly minted man who can do no wrong.

Second, Kessler is pressed to the back of the player to whom the long ball is targeted to. Fairly typical aggressive forward marking from Kessler that he gets burned on occasionally, including this occasion.

He gets exposed this time because he misjudges where the ball will land. This is a classic, textbook, defensive error, you don’t let the ball go over your head in the air or on the bounce. This error leaves him helpless to defend the ball that falls to Morgan.

Back to Arreaga, there are two players who can maybe put Morgan off on his shot and help Ivacic out. One is sprinting, one is jogging. Farrell is the sprinter while Arreaga is not sprinting to try and rectify his earlier mistake. That’s his second mistake.

The third mistake is that he puts his hand up flagging for an offside call that isn’t coming. One, because Morgan was onside, and two because ARs now let the play run to its conclusion so VAR can check for the offside. This is a basic, basic error, not playing to the whistle. You are told from six years of age to play to the whistle.

So that’s five individual mistakes, one of which was Farrell’s.

There’s also a tactical error on this play, the kind of minutia that Caleb Porter thinks us plebes don’t notice because we don’t grasp the game we’re watching at a high enough level. The Revs are 3v3 at the back, there is a common defensive tactic employed by just about any halfway decent youth coach and that is to maintain +1 at the back; a spare player to cover for instances just like this. There is no spare man and the goal highlights why you should have one.

The ball was on the Revs’ left and they were pressing high up the field. Farrell was tucked into the back line as the right back which is where you would want him to be in that pressing situation as he’s the furthest field player from the ball.

Lima was advanced as the left back, participating in the pressing action. What may have forced Arreaga’s error in not staying back as the spare man was that neither Kaye nor the infallible Polster was operating correctly in a double-pivot defensive moment and providing cover to the back line. That’s also a very simple double-pivot movement, one goes, one stays. Simple stuff.

The tactical error and individual errors of the back line are of great concern. Thanks to Porter’s post-game press conference against Chicago — which sounded like a presser after winning MLS Cup — we know that the organization of the back line is the responsibility of Clint Peay. Not Andrew Farrell as it turns out. So last week, Peay was praised by Porter when they kept a shutout. A week later, he blames the players for the faults of the back line. Interesting.

Porter Sees Positives In Saturday's Game

As always, it’s not Porter’s fault. There’s always someone or something to take the blame. He went out of his way to make sure we all knew Farrell was the 3rd choice right back and, in his eyes, not really an outside back anymore. There is no point to those comments other than shifting blame. Anyone listening to his press conferences would know that Farrell is 3rd choice behind Brandon Bye and Lima and that he is more of a center back at this point in his career.

He’s not telling us for informational purposes, this isn’t his weekly call to a radio station to talk to two guys who know nothing and care nothing about soccer. He’s talking to the writers covering the team and the passionate followers of this team. He’s talking to you to make sure you don’t blame him for anything. Old man Farrell can’t get around the place like he used to, it’s his fault.

My apologies for the lengthy description of seven seconds of play from a 90-minute game but this is where the anti-Farrell narrative was born and it clouded over the rest of his game.

I also felt it was time to go into great depth on the off chance someone from the Revolution is reading this, and I believe there is at least one, so maybe they could advise Porter to lay off the weekly “those are things I see that you don't” or “I understand that for people that don't know the minutia of our game and this game in particular” type of comments. I shudder to think how much more he might talk down to everyone if he wasn’t in last place.

Anyway, back to our man of 333 league appearances, if we lift the cloud of being 16.6% responsible for the opening goal off his performance, Farrell actually did a pretty good impersonation of a right back on Saturday night. He was a constant outlet — one might even say stretch player — on the right side receiving the bulk of his 79 touches out wide. He had most of his touches in the central third of the field and was third on the team in touches in the attacking third as well. He also provided some overlapping decoy runs into the attacking third, opening up space for others to operate centrally.

Farrell’s cross aimed for Vrioni — that the striker wasn’t quite able to get a touch on (bit of a theme for him) — came across to Chancalay who crossed for the game-tying goal. That was just one of five of Farrell’s shot-creating actions, tying him with Chancalay for most on the night and one more than the playmaker managed. Farrell also slotted in a cross on the ground that arrived at the near post, a ball that Lloyd Sam on the call for Apple was quick to mention should have been attacked by Vrioni. Remember also that Porter has taken to blaming everyone but Vrioni for his shortcomings. Farrell delivered two balls he should have been able to do something with. Unless Farrell is coaching Vrioni’s runs during training I don’t see how this is his fault either.

Farrell put in a total of five crosses (second on the team) received seven progressive passes, tied for second, didn’t commit a foul, and recovered the ball three times. It was a performance that contributed to the Revs attacking and build-up play positively. He was solid with his defensive work as well.

It is what we can expect to get out of Farrell every time he plays, maximum effort, a willing contributor to the attack, and solid defending. You can minimize his role and magnify his errors if you want or you can enjoy him for what he is, a player that’s been here for a long time and isn’t willing to be written off yet.

Oh, sorry, in case you thought I forgot the 3rd goal the Revs gave up and how it was all his fault too, it wasn’t. He did just enough to give the crosser for the assist as poor of an angle on his cross as possible. It had to be put in with Farrell in front of him and from the goal line well wide of goal. Unless Farrell was in that moment also controlling the thought patterns of Kessler, he can’t be blamed for Kessler's ball-watching, losing his mark, and sprawling helplessly to rectify his second basics of defending error of the game.

Let’s not give the old man too much credit.