Red Bull's Chris Armas Speaking Today To The Media

New York Red Bull head coach, now in his second year as the team's head coach, spoke to the media today by a conference call:


Chris Armas Conference Call
February 1, 2019



On running his first preseason …

It feels great, it’s comfortable. I've been through many preseasons even now as a coach. And of course, as a player, I always had my own ideas and thoughts about how it should run and little ways that I can make it special. Bringing a team together is always the goal and getting on the same page and getting fitness going, and spirit going. And I've really enjoyed the preseason and I think everyone here from the players, the staff and extended staff would say the same thing. It's been great.


Two Part: Kaku’s transfer rumors were visible on social media and how he was during camp in Florida …

We are pleased with Kaku, and he's only been professional as that whole thing came and went. I don't get caught up in the emotion, or disappointment or not… these things come up and it's a real part of our sport and in our growing league as we get good players in, and as we get good young players in, so on the inside it wasn't a distraction because as professionals the guys that have been around here before, the staff and the people leading this charge, we've seen that before and what we've seen before is that there's always interest in good young players. So, when it comes and goes, I mean of course it's always an aspiration for young players and to move on sometimes and go to big clubs, but yet it never distracted anything we were doing here and Kaku is 100% committed the whole time and he's incredible. What we learned really through the whole process is how incredible he is and how his commitment level always stayed the same and his professionalism, we can take some positives from that.


Following up on Kaku rumors and the player’s mindset…

I'm not worried at all because I don’t think we can all see where his mind is other than what we're seeing every day, which is his mind is on the New York Red Bulls. He's the best player in training. He's committed, he's doing all the fitness, he's getting out with his teammates and that's what we're focusing on. We shouldn't focus on these comings and goings, it's so part of the game of soccer that these things aren't even talking points elsewhere in the world. It comes and it goes. Things either happened or they don't. We deal with it as it comes. So, we have a committed player in Kaku, who always is going to have aspirations, and he should, but he's fully committed and he seems happy to be here and we're thrilled to have him in the future.


If Kaku were to leave, are the Red Bulls looks to sign an impact player in the future …

We have a deep roster, we love our roster, we have talented players in certain positions and if any of those guys were to ever not be here we always have, with our scouting network and [Red Bulls Sporting Director] Denis Hamlet, our eyes set on making moves to keep the standard that we want.


On preparing Kaku for fan emotions in their first match of the season …
It’s past us, football presents certain things and as footballers and managers you take it as it comes with this. It's past us. He's fully committed here and our supporters have always been so supportive and they're knowledgeable, they're loyal, and we are expecting them to support our team like they have. There's a reason why we win our home games because they come out and in good and bad they stick with us. They let us know when we can do better, but we're with them and they're with us.


Filling Tyler Adams spot after his transfer …

Part of the game, part of football, players come and players move on and then we wish players well and we become their biggest fans as they go. When players go we don't talk about how do we fill their shoes and how do we replace that specific guy. The shift goes immediately to who we have, focusing on their qualities and then meeting the demands for the position and how that fits into our tactics and philosophy so when you look at Marc Rzatkowski, he has different qualities from Tyler. We have Sean Davis, he has certain things that make him unique. Cristian Casseres Jr. has a young, energetic, high energy, fearless way and [Jean-Christophe] Koffi and Chris Lema coming through the system. We will feel really good about that part of the field and those guys are performing really well in preseason.


Potentially signing a third Designated Player …

We have our eye on a few things right now and these discussions happen all the time throughout the season and especially when we have a little time as a staff together, of how to improve the roster. So we're looking at a few things right now that could happen. I don't know how likely it is but we definitely have some things we're interested in or excited about right now and that I won't get into.


Where those current conversations are currently standing in getting a third DP …

I'll say is that we love young players, we love talented players that fit our philosophy and we have a couple guys that we're looking at.


Having a preseason to prepare and whether new tactics have been implemented under Armas …

We've introduced some different ideas but I mean for the most part we've been trying to get better and cleaner and faster at what we do and how we do things. So, the general principles of how we play haven't changed, but trying to put a stamp on things when we don't have the ball and of course, then when we have the ball. So, the idea of playing fast and playing vertical and committing numbers up the field and winning the ball back quickly because we compress spaces and that largely has stayed the same. We will get different guys back from injury now and some different guys into the team and all of a sudden, maybe with a few nuances and then with some new players out there maybe it looks largely the same, yet with a twist.


Speaking about the new guys in camp, both draft picks and signees …

It's been a really fun camp, informative and exciting because we think we've gotten better at identifying players that will fit our system and our philosophy, therefore, it's the reason why we traded some assets to get a few young exciting projects so, first of all, Omir Fernandez, he's got something. He's clever, and shifty, and knows the Red Bull philosophy, but he's an elegant player with speed and he's dynamic and has a really good soccer brain, so up the field he's interesting. Janos Loebe from Fordham is quick, he's got a good left, he can play left back, he can play left midfield, he's had a good camp. Sean Nealis, the local kid from Hofstra, has performed really well. All of these guys, the players, staff and extended staff, equipment manager, they can't believe how good these kids are in terms of givers, and team guys, and philosophy guys. Sean Nealis on the back line next to Tim Parker has been excellent. Obviously there's room to go for these guys, the speed of play and all but they've shown some real possibilities. Roy Boateng, same, center back that is gifted physically, but he's open in terms of just being humble and open to learning, which has been great to see. Marcus Epps, we know from the league, in the game the other day [scrimmage vs. Philadelphia] showed some real promise, running by defenders like they were cones. He's fast and he understands the way we press. So, he's another interesting guy with a great attitude and Amro Tarek, who gives us coverage at center back and left back is a presence, he's intelligent and another guy that we are excited about that also has some MLS experience. We didn't talk about Rece Buckmaster, right back from Indiana. He's a guy that understands the position really well, he gets up and down, he's a great one-on-one defender, again, with such a positive outlook and mentality that fits. I don't think I missed anyone in that so it's been honestly, I'd say, when we think about the group that we need to take to Arizona in a week it hasn't been easy to determine who doesn't make the trip. Not that, no one's getting cut right now, but it's like we’ve got to trim the roster a little bit for that trip.




Vincent Bezecourt, Kyle Duncan, Kemar Lawrence and Florian Valot injury update …

Kyle Duncan was training with us at the end of the year and had a great offseason so he's certainly available and looks great moving himself along the right way. Florian Valot and Vincent Bezecourt training regularly, they're all in on training and those guys are options. We just have to be mindful that they've had a layoff and we have to keep moving them along the right way. Flo and Vince will be options for that game, yeah they will be. Kemar Lawrence was with us in full today so he's progressing the right way as well. The good thing is that we were still using the preseason with the medical staff and our athletic trainer and fitness coach the right way as we don't want to overdo it with some of these guys. We want to keep taking these steps forward, not backwards, and we use the gift of time so that we haven’t had to push guys too fast too soon. Kemar we are being cautious with too. Will he be available for that game? He will be an option. Whether we use him or not, we will make a decision as we get closer.


Follow up on whether today was Kemar’s first day back in training …
No. Kemar's been in training but he's been modified on certain days. He's all in on some parts of the session so it may be half the session we had a neutral player, certain days he didn't have any restrictions, today he looks really good and you know it's deceiving because I don't know. Kemar is so fast and aggressive that maybe his 80 percent looks like everyone's normal speed so it's fun to see, but he looks great. He's been involved in training, we've just modified his role and participation on certain days.


On if he watched the MLS Cup Final:
Yeah, I didn’t... I have a hard time watching any final that we were we were competing for and then we have to sit home and watch it. For me, and I know some guys don't even watch it, but I watched it. It excites me and makes me hungry to get back. So, it’s hard to watch, because we want to be in that game, being watched. So I didn't… the emotions for me like we could have been there…. for me it's ‘we lose, we cruise’ type of thing you know. Of course, the thing that hurt mostly was that we could have been hosting that final and that game could have been in our building. You know we put a lot into it, the players of course, put a lot in and the staff and Supporters and our entire organization… So, you take a step back and you feel a little bit of that for everyone. But again it's, it just provides me with energy that I need going into the offseason and with a clear picture of where we want to get back to.


On the game plan in Atlanta, back in November:
We had a plan that made sense to us. As a staff, and we had a plan in the first leg of Columbus, and people didn't feel good about that. We lose one nothing, but we had a plan and it made sense. And we had a plan going to Atlanta based on real tactics, and planning, and understanding the opponent and ways that we can get hurt. We lose the match, but we let some individual plays slip. Now, I think the takeaway from that game is not to overthink tactics, because that's our job to prepare the team. I mean, and the interesting thing is nobody spoke about the Columbus second leg. No one, like the way we tactically prepare for that game, we never ever played a 4-1-4-1 with this team. We took a gamble, we took a risk. If it doesn't work, we still would have said that was, we felt good about why. But we do ,and push Tyler up and we win 3-0 and you guys didn't ask one question about that.

So, whatever, in this second leg, in the first leg against Atlanta, knowing that they were going to play direct and bypass our pressure, the logical idea of just being more compact and not get spread out with guys like Almiron and Martinez on the field made sense to us. What I would say and, again maybe to a minute and a half ago, the takeaway for us is no matter what we do, if we're pressing all out over in a deeper block let's just remain aggressive. And I think we lost our way that way and my messaging, if I can do it over again, would have been how, that would have been the message I would have pushed hardest that as we stay compact and understand what they're going to try to do, that let's just make sure we’re aggressive, meaning in the middle third, let's keep running it the ball being aggressive which means that we're being us, Red Bull. So that's the only thing that when you when you think back at that, that I think we could have been as a coaching staff and as the head coach that I would have been pushing.