"Pick on me if there’s someone that you have to blame." - Nico Estevez on Saturday's loss
The Dallas head coach didn't hold back.
Frustration. That is the easy word to get behind with regard to how FC Dallas is playing right now, especially after their third straight loss on Saturday.
Part of that frustration is seeing quality players not perform at their highest. The other part is seeing a very good defense in 2023 give up easy goals left and right like they did on Saturday in their 3-1 loss to Vancouver.
“We are very disappointed. We want to win. We have our stadium packed with our fans, and we just want to win for them,” said head coach Nico Estevez. “This is why we work every single week. We work every single week to get a win for our fans. We put a lot of effort there. We had a bad moment last year during the season, and this year, the bad moment is coming early in the season. We will regroup and get this right to give wins to our supporters.”
Estevez had deployed a new 3-4-3 formation throughout the preseason and into the opening three weeks of the regular season before reverting to a 4-4-2. His idea was to bring more defensive players in to counter what the Whitecaps could do on the wings. For the first twenty minutes or so in the match, it worked.
Then defensive errors popped in, and the floodgates opened.
“We’re trying to get the solutions now. We need to analyze it quickly,” said goalkeeper Maarten Paes. “I think that we concede the goal first all the time. We talked the whole preseason about lighting a fire. I think that the fire inside to prevent goals and chances needs to be lit a little bit more. We have two weeks to look into that and try to get some solutions.”
Vancouver picked up a goal in the 25th minute and then again four minutes later. FC Dallas managed to get one back with a goal from Sebastian Lletget before the Caps put away a third goal before halftime.
The result was the club’s first three-game losing streak since 2022. Estevez urged the fans to stick with him and his players through this early-season struggle.
“When things are not going in their way, the easy thing is to abandon them, to abandon the guys that are fighting every single day for what they want to achieve,” said Estevez. “Now is when we have to show the family that we are. We talk about how FC Dallas is a family, and when the family has a tough moment, that’s when it has to stick together. And this is the message we have to give. When you have a problem in your family, you stick together and you overcome that. And this is how we’re going to do it.
“It’s easy to blame, to blame players; it’s easy to blame the coach. It’s very easy; we can all blame someone. Pick on me if there’s someone that you have to blame. I’m the leader of this group, and we’re not doing well. But the players are going to step up. I know their mentality, I know how hungry they are, I know how much they love this club and the fans. And we are going to get there, I have no doubt.”
Really? That's the message? We need to stick together during the tough times?.... WTF?... Maybe the staff should realize they don't have the personnel for the system they are running and figure it out.....The last 3 games have literally been pathetic, and if it takes 3 weeks to "fix it" or even adjust it, its pretty poor coaching. They've looked exactly the same in these 3 losses... Pathetic. As a fan I have no confidence that Nico can turn this around if he can't even effect change from game to game. They seem utterly unprepared.
Oh, we’re going to pick on him (in hindsight of course, just because). First off, you can’t play a 3 back line with only two healthy returning players at center back and no one at wing-back that knows how to play defense. So if he dreamed of a novel 3421 he should’ve waited a year when he had four or five actual center backs. (Twumasi started one game at CB , nuff said) Believe it or not our strength is in striker this year, and I include Farrington as a third in that assessment. Therefore, a just as novel 442 would probably be the better choice with this roster. Now if we played the 442 all preseason would we have played better last night? probably but everyone on that field has known a 4-4-2 formation since they were twelve years old so I blame the players for last nights lapse just as much.
Just spouting off stupid stuff off the top of my head because the team I love is one and three