	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 29, 2017

Jesse Marsch

Harrison, New Jersey

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. On a night like this where everything is working and you're dominating every single facet of the stats, what does that say about the guys tonight?
JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, I mean, the group is in a good way. I mean, there was clarity on the field, a lot of competence. I think we can get better, right? I think it's been good lately. We're all aware of the momentum that we have, the belief we have.

I even think this team can get better, sharper, clearer, cleaner. So that's our drive right now. We know as a group that we've got potentially a huge week coming up, so we can't pat ourselves on the back too much. We have to make sure now that we find ways to get better, keep the hunger, keep the drive so that we keep moving our season along in all the right ways.

Q. Can you speak of Murillo, how effective he was tonight.
JESSE MARSCH: Yes, Murillo has grown a lot in the last six months. When we got him, he was a talented kid who was a little bit casual, liked to play with the ball, but took pride defending. I think we've turned him more into a complete player who shows alertness, awareness, shows urgency, understands our tactics, can play in different spots on the field, good in the air, a great passer.

When you get young, talented players like that, it's about trying to acclimate him the right way into the group so we can prepare them and set them up to be successful.

It was hard not to play him early on because we could see all the good qualities. We felt like he needed to continue to adjust. Now when you watch him, he like he's been here for years.

So credit to him. He's learning English. He's committed to being here. I think he's really enjoying his time. Brought in a friend, so hopefully that will help him off the field.

We've all seen what a great player he is, how much he's growing.

Q. (Question regarding the offense.)
JESSE MARSCH: There's a lot of little things. Tactically we've arranged things so that our midfielders are facing the attacking goal more, they're facing defenders more. Sascha has been really a catalyst for our team. He's just all over the field, clever, smart. He's been a pleasure to watch.

Then I think just right now the momentum in our team, when we get around the goal, even first half I thought it could have been a bigger lead, could have taken advantage of a few more situations. Once we cleaned up the mistakes in the back, it was hard for them to solve the puzzle tonight.

Q. How do you rank this performance?
JESSE MARSCH: Of our team? Yeah, I think a good performance, no doubt. Pretty dominant. Many passes, good to score (indiscernible), which we haven't been able to do this year. Right now it's almost more about the body of work right now, the momentum within the team, than it is about any one performance.

This has been a culmination of many guys dedicating themselves to our team. That goes from staff to players to medical team. Everybody has worked really hard to find ways to help us improve. So that's always the key for any team, any organization.

I feel very lucky that I'm at a place like this where everybody is truly committed in the right way to each other.

Q. (No microphone.)
JESSE MARSCH: Yeah, well, when I say that more guys are able to face the goal, I think Danny has been a big one. He's able to dribble at guys more. He's playing great. He's got so much confidence and clarity around the goal, it's almost like if a shot of his doesn't go in, it's surprising when it doesn't.

In training, we've seen what a great finisher Danny is. Just hasn't added up until maybe the last couple months. Now he's pretty lethal.

Got to keep him moving forward in all the right ways. But it's great to see him doing so well.

Q. (Question about position changes.)
JESSE MARSCH: I complimented Sal after the game, saying this was maybe his best performance ever in a Red Bull jersey. In the center back position, the move back there, it rewards his aggressiveness, he's good in the air. Obviously recovery runs he's incredibly fast. In some ways maybe it's a permanent move because it's been good for him.

I still think he can play on the far right. I think he can also play an attacking position. He's a gifted athlete, a gifted player. It's great to see him playing well.

We just tried to rotate things mainly for three reasons. One was we were giving up so many set piece goals. We felt by having another center back type player on the field, it would give us the opportunity to have more height and strength.

Second one is that we were trying to figure out a way to free up Sascha more. Teams were really locking into Sascha. It was making it hard for us to break teams down. They were sitting back, closing space down. We've given him a little bit more of a free role in this.

Then a big tactic of playing against us was to switch the ball. Maybe against our old formation that would have been created a 2-2-1. Tyler Adams picks up the ball, was going their way. The ability to lock down the wings means teams have to come down the middle on us and deal with our pressure.

Sascha, tactics, set pieces have led to that.

Q. Do you get a sense this team is coalescing?
JESSE MARSCH: I'm still open-minded to the four in the back. Now, I think if I show up in the locker room the day before the game and I tell the team we're playing four in the back, they might look at me like, What are you doing?

So, I mean, obviously there's confidence in the group right now, clarity on roles, so that's important. We're going to have to continue to have flexibility. I think that we do.

Ultimately whether it's three in the back, four in the back, two up front, three up front, you know, even when we were struggling with two strikers at times, it's not so much about the formation as much as it is making sure that the habits and the philosophy of how we play is in place.

I think for whatever reason this has really rewarded our aggressiveness, counter pressing, has given us a foundation to build off up in the back. So it's been good.

Q. How big of an opportunity is to potentially have the opportunity to move into third place?
JESSE MARSCH: You know, I'm not a big table watcher. It's human nature when you're doing well, the table looks great. When we're not doing well...

But always taking care of your business is what makes the table look beautiful. I think right now, again, it's not about grandiose visions as much as it's staying on the details of the work every day.

I mean, I'm going to have to continue to come up with ways to talk about it because it's a broken record. It's the truth. It's what has gotten us here and what will continue to keep us moving.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297