New York City FC head coach Ronny Deila has discussed his team’s gap to the dominant New England revolution at the top of the Eastern Conference as the second half of the Major League Soccer season begins.
NYCFC currently has an advantage in two games but they stand 12 points from drumming the revolution in the Eastern Conference. Deila admitted that the goal will be a slow return rather than a quick turnover.
“New England has been incredibly good, they are unlikely to lose,” Deila told the media. “They have a big gap against the others. It’s still halfway – there are so many games left, we have to keep going. I would love to be under the radar until the last game and then win at the end. That would be the best, so I do not think too much about whether we are under the radar or not. “
New York City FC have not lost a league game since July 7 against Montreal, without maintaining momentum with the help of star star Valentin Castellanos.
“I think we have respect,” Deila continued. “We are a good football team but we have to keep improving, we have a lot to work on. The other teams are also getting better. It’s about who improves the rest of the season. If you remove New England, [the standings] are very even. There is a long way to go. We work better, we have a different confidence. “
#NYCFC is hot, but #NERevs stays on top in the east pic.twitter.com/VOkYBsXZrz
– Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 16, 2021
Deila’s side faces fifth place Philadelphia Union next in a match that the NYCFC does not take lightly. The two last played against each other in May, where Cityzens defeated the union 2-0 after a red card to Philadelphia opened its way to the goal.
“Many things are more positive,” Deila said. “Philadelphia is a really tough opponent. Last time we played them they got a red card very early, so that made the game easier for us. It will not happen this time I do not think. They are one of the best teams.”
Deila explained the nature behind his choices and claimed that the rotation lists are tailored for each match but retain the same team power despite the team line-up.
“It depends on what type of team we will need, what style we want to play, which players are tired or fresh. Injuries. There are 100 things that go into it [a starting XI]”, Sa Deila.” It is difficult with how many games we have, but we have done very well to rotate the team and get results. We have no other options, we continue to rotate. How much? We do not know.
“I do not think [rotating is] all problems – we can change how we want to play because we have so many intelligent players, says Deila. “It’s less about systems, it’s about principles. And the players know the principles so well. ”
