Sweeney: It doesn't feel like there's change given the results, but it's there - in plain sight

FOXBOROUGH — Brad Friedel has spoken of change many, many times in recent press conferences. He’s spoken of change quite often since he took over the blessed reins of the Revolution in late 2017.

Of course, we’re four matches into the 2019 season, the fifth coming up Saturday vs. Minnesota United FC at Gillette Stadium (2 p.m.). The results, as we know, have not gone so well — its most recent result was downright shambolic — and from those results alone, the fans hold a stringent belief that the change he speaks of has not occurred. After all, the way the second half of 2018 evolved and the way 2019 has begun, it feels to many who support this Original Ten club that the offseason didn’t occur, and that the players who still wear the Crayon Crest — the Revolution retained 19 players from last season — are still in 2018 mode.

But the change, as Friedel explained Tuesday, does not necessarily mean the changes he made to the roster in the offseason.

It goes a little deeper than that.

“Well, from the day that we took over — from day one — there have been a lot of changes,” Friedel said prior to training Tuesday afternoon, “so I that's what I talked about with change: the change of mentality, and with that, without a doubt it's much more stringent, I feel like, training program than they used to and it takes time to adapt and get the players together.”

Change is much more encompassing than trading Kelyn Rowe, whose scoring production had dropped considerably since he scored two goals on Sept. 22, 2016 (he had scored once in 2017, and once in 2018), for Edgar Castillo, which, again, was a need: left back was a need. Or signing Carles Gil and Juan Fernando Caicedo — and let’s be fair: Caicedo is still on his way back from a muscle injury, is not 100 percent, 90-minutes match fit just yet — or sending away players who just didn’t, and weren’t going to, fit Friedel’s system (hello, that’s Krisztian Nemeth on Line 1). It doesn’t matter how many goals they’ve scored in their careers (Lee Nguyen, 51; Kei Kamara, 113 career, 19 with the Revolution). Change doesn’t care who your favorite players are. Change doesn’t care which number you wear on the back of your jersey. The only thing that matters is the crest.

And while we’re here, let’s keep certain things in mind: the coach, or the manager, does not have to adjust his style in order to suit the players. The players have to change their styles to fit the manager’s. Does a baseball umpire have to adjust his strike zone for a pitcher? No. The pitcher has to adjust for the umpire. Please do everyone a favor and repeat the italicized section over and over again until it sinks in.

The training program Friedel has instituted is rigorous, and it ain’t for everyone. I’ve watched training sessions under former manager Jay Heaps and now under Friedel, and Friedel’s sessions are pretty intense. Much more than under Heaps.

The mentality — even though it doesn’t feel it right now, given the results — continues to develop; so far, of the eight goals New England has given up, I can safely say that one, maybe two (definitely Cincinnati’s second), can be laid at the feet of the defense.

On Sunday, Friedel had mentioned that five or six players had rubbish performances against Cincinnati. That was evident. And on Tuesday, he noted that the players — remember, Friedel and assistant coaches Mike Lapper and Marcelo Nevelef and Ruben Garcia can’t go out and play the game for them — didn’t do what was asked of them from last week’s training sessions.

And while we point to 68 percent passing accuracy in the final third, and two shots on frame, there were eight shots by the Revolution that FCC blocked. New England was certainly aggressive in attempting to score, even though it was not necessarily apparent on first glance.

Who knows what would have happened had the players been more patient with the ball and moved to create openings in FCC’s defensive scheme?

“Goals change games,” Friedel said. “(Our players’) goals, the goals will end up coming. The players will start clicking in that regard. But we have to keep clean sheets as well, we have to be resilient. We have to be there when you don't have the ball, you have to do that side (the hard work). And if you're not willing to do that side, and three or four players aren't willing to do that in the game, it's almost impossible to win professional games.

“So that is part of the game that we have to go back to what we know. You talked about mentality and change something that we wanted to eradicate from the season before the last season. So that's changed. You know, the way that we want to attack is changed. The way that we want to set up where we press and how we do the presses changed. All of that’s changed. So sometimes the change might not look like it's apparent in a day but there's a lot of it going on, I assure you. Every day we will walk in and something else is different.”

Change takes time. Rome wasn’t built in a day — and neither is a club that’s going to compete for silverware and banners. A culture change and roster turnover takes more than three transfer windows.

Everyone needs to be patient — and yes, I know, 23 years of existence is a long time, and people are fed up with the lack of titles on the soccer side of Patriot Place — but it’s only been 39 matches under this manager and this regime.

Change is here, whether you want to see it -- or believe it -- or not.