New York Red Bulls: Chris Armas abandoned principles at wrong time
Chris Armas changed the way his New York Red Bulls play in a 3-0 defeat to Atlanta United in the first leg of the Eastern Conference finals. He abandoned his principles at just the wrong time.
As soon as the team sheet was announced, it was clear that this game was going to be very different from the previous four. Atlanta United, prior to Sunday’s Eastern Conference Championship shellacking, had never beaten the New York Red Bulls. How they put an end to that.
Kemar Lawrence was unavailable for selection. Connor Lade would start at left-back in his place. In New York’s high-pressing scheme, there is a great stress thrown on the fullbacks. They have to defend a whole lot of space. Lade, while far from a lacking reserve, is not even nearly the same calibre of player as Lawrence.
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And so, Chris Armas, the orchestrator of the Red Bull’s late-season surge to pip the Supporters’ Shield from their very opponents on Sunday, decided to change his ways.
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More than any other team in MLS, New York has had a defined identity, a definitive way of playing that is used in every single match. Until Sunday. Armas adopted the usual high press in favour of a more cautious approach — it was not quite a deep-lying bunker, but it was closer to that than the high-octane press that New York is known for and excels at.
Armas abandoned what got his team into this position. Now, I do not want this to sound overly critical. There is clear and good reason as to why he made the tactical change. With Lade playing at left-back, there was a glaring defensive weakness that is more likely to be exploited if employing the press. Atlanta are also an excellent counter-attacking team, led by the dual-threat of Miguel Amiron and Josef Martinez. Tata Martino had been using a deep-lying, fast-breaking strategy more recently with great success.
So I do not want to slam Armas too much for his decision to change tactics. I can absolutely understand why he did switch it up. And I hope that those criticising him can too. This was not a completely brainless decision.
That said, New York have been so successful this season because of their high press. It is a key component of their identity. So when Armas abandoned it and asked players that were so used to executing it to not execute it, it created a team that looked extremely awkward, uncomfortable and, ultimately, disjointed.
Atlanta exploited the vast spaces out wide because New York were hesitant in how to play. The wingers did not know whether they should press the wide centre-halves or track the wingbacks. The midfield was outnumbered with Julian Gressel and Miguel Almiron dropping into extremely difficult areas to track them. Daniel Royer and Kaku were largely anonymous because the Red Bulls simply could not get the ball to them, such was the Atlanta control for large portions of this match.
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Armas abandoned his principles. And he did so at just the wrong time. This was the time to be bold, brave, to play as a protagonist, not to shrink into a shell. He was scared to be brave and it cost the Red Bulls.