Thursday, July 19, 2012

Warzycha, Thoughts On

Robert Warzycha coached Crew teams have progressively gotten worse in wins, goals and goal difference over the past 3 years. These are trends that need course correction.

Points per game:
2010 : 1.67
2011 : 1.38
2012 : 1.29

Goals per Game:
2010 : 1.33
2011 : 1.26
2012 : 1.00

Goal Difference per game:
2010 : 0.20
2011 : -0.03
2012 : -0.12

These three metrics are always in the back of my mind so when I read the quotes in the Columbus Dispatch it leads me to think that some of the problems are organizationally systemic.

From the club GM I read about wishful thinking: "I want [Warzycha] to be...", then got to hear about excuses: "...look at the situation we’ve been in this season..."

GM Mark McCullers should have told the paper that important games were coming up and that there is probably a local gardening event coming up they should get on. But he didn't. Whhyyyyy?

The Crew need to improve on the pitch, that much is for sure. But please remember, true believers... this is the United States of America. No promotion or relegation and a playoff system that retains a paying public's interest all year. The Crew gate receipts over last few home games have been astonishing. Vastly improved. When you consider how dire attendance was last year, some might call this attendance turnaround a victory on the level of trophies.

As much as I would like to think that results were on the top of Mark McCullers' list, I know they are not. The club might be painfully average but they have somehow managed to strike gold with some popular and promising young players that people want to see.

This is both fortunate and unfortunate for Warzycha and will be very interesting to see how he manages it through the rest of the year.

I could post damning numbers over and over but it will not change the fact that the Crew finally have relatively large crowds coming back to watch the team play - which means, Warzycha is here to stay.

(No DP necessary?)

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