Ahead of tonight’s key matchup for D.C. United, I had the chance to speak with Jake Catanese at The Blazing Musket to get his thoughts on the New England Revolution’s season, some of their players and an update on their soccer-specific stadium plans. For their questions of me, feel free to hit their site up and check it out!

District Press: Caleb Porter said at his introductory press conference that “It’s really important to have a clear identity. You will know what that identity is.” How much has he achieved with that, and what’s been the biggest component that’s held him back from doing it?

The Blazing Musket: Well the identity the team should have is one that is much better at pressing and thrives on the counter attack. Instead Porter has them playing a mostly possession based system that feels very USMNT like in the same bad way that Berhalter was focused on having the ball not doing something positive with it. The Revs have in my opinion lacked the big chance creation that they had with Gustavo Bou and Adam Buksa, more on that down below. Too often when the Revs get the ball, they possess it in their own half and lack initiative going into transition and pushing the ball forward. With the wingers and youth that they have and Carles Gil pulling the strings, this team should be dominant on the counter attack. Instead they struggled to get out of their own half for a good chunk of the early part of the season. Also the team shooting has been largely terrible with Chancalay having the 4th most shots on target and he hasn’t played since the end of May.

Defensively the Revs have been a bit of a mess, they’re not great at set pieces at either end of the field which is a drastic change from a few seasons ago, and we have to be honest the injury bug was kind of brutal this year. Brandon Bye and Dylan Borrero missed the first part of the year recovering from last year’s major injuries, Tomas Chancalay went down as soon as Borrero was back, and Vrioni, Wood, Gil and others have missed significant chunks of time. The lack of consistency and cohesion definitely hurt the team but the lack of adjustments tactically from Porter did not help especially with backup players being asked to keep the ball far too much early on in the season. It put the Revs in a hole which they were unlikely to get out of.

DP: It took 18 months but Giacomo Vrioni appears to finally be the guy the Revs signed as a Designated Player? What’s different with him now compared to 2023, and have there been changes in what he’s done with Carles Gil?

TBM: The biggest thing with Vrioni is that he finally got a consistent run of games which he never really got under Bruce Arena. Vrioni is not a true target man, but the Revs continued playing the same way as they did with Buksa and lumped in high crosses from the wings for him to go after which didn’t play into his strengths as a more all around attacker. When the Revs started hitting more ground level balls, both Vrioni and Bobby Wood started producing more just based on simple movement alone. Wood in particular always makes solid and dangerous runs and Vrioni was able to use his presence and subsequent attention on him to generate space for others.

Vrioni and Wood both had their injuries this year, but Vrioni in particular still gets stranded too often as the Revs play focuses out wide or with slow build up play. He should be thriving in a faster playing environment with defenders forced to make a decision between stopping Carles Gil on the ball or covering Vrioni/Chancalay/Borrero/Langoni/Esmir/etc. Caleb Porter will have to make a lot of adjustments in preseason to really key into what the Revs did well at times this year because the Revs can not afford another poor start to 2025.

DP: How fun was it to watch Noel Buck and Esmir Bajraktarevic play earlier this year? What kind of odds would you put one or both of them being at next year’s training camp?

TBM: Unhinged rant time – remember how I said the Revs lacked the initiative to go forward with the ball? Noel Buck does not have that problem and why he didn’t get more playing time is beyond me. Yes, both he and Esmir are a little raw and prone to lose possession a little more than Porter probably likes, but that should be expected with two teenagers in your starting lineup. Both players when they get the ball, their first instinct generally is to go forward, something this team sorely needs and seems to be getting coached out of them at every opportunity to their detriment as a whole. Yes, we would love to have Noel and Esmir be more productive particularly in the chance creation/assist departments but this was a tremendous learning experience for both. Overall in a lost season with the Revs never really in the playoff picture, Esmir starting a lot of games is probably going to be the highlight of the year.

I fully expect Buck to be transferred if his loan spell at Southamption U21s goes well. He’s already in the England youth setup and is a known quantity there and seven starts and only 540 minutes in MLS in 2024 is not a situation I think Buck wants to return to without effectively being guaranteed a starting spot. I think Esmir will be back next year but if he’s getting regular appearances for Bosnia I don’t expect him to be in New England much past the next year or so. Hopefully the Revs can get solid transfer fees for both and sell-on clauses to continue their trend of being a pretty good selling team.

DP: Bonus! For those unfamiliar, it looks like Everett may, kind of sort of be the soccer specific stadium the Revs have been looking for? What are the prospects, and what’s the latest?

TBM: Okay, big caveat as always that the Connecticut guy is not an expert at Massachusetts politicking and stadiums. But, the Everett site is an old power plant that needs to be remediated and the goal is to put a 25,000 seat stadium on the waterfront site. It’s near the Wynn casino but lacks public transit access from the “T” – basically Boston’s subway system – and there are no plans for onsite parking. Everett seems really happy with the situation as they have a large commercial/environmental site that’s not in use. How much pushback the big boys have is up for debate as the Boston side might be less thrilled at another site across the water and a potentially big strain on a transit system that…has a lot of issues already. As always, who isn’t collaborating or playing nice is something that I’m going to stay out of but this is a process that has spanned nearly two decades and a half a dozen sites at this point and it’s getting ridiculous.

It’s no secret the Revs need an SSS to get out of the cavernous shadow of Gillette Stadium. But a 25K seat stadium is largely based on historical numbers with the Revs averaging less than 20K for most of their existence in which the commuter rail at Foxboro/Patriot Place rarely runs for soccer games like it does for Patriots throwball. The Revolution however are averaging over 28K this year bolstered by a massive Messi crowd and over 40K watched them beat Nashville last week with another big crowd expected for the DC game. I think the plans should be for a 30K seat stadium but I wouldn’t put it anywhere without major public transit access for train/pedestrian or heck, even Duck Boat/ferry traffic to help get people to the site.

Another reminder that there was a nice site in Hartford, CT picked out for the Revs and Patriots in the late 90s and someone screwed that up…and it wasn’t my state. While I think this is the worst stadium site as far as access goes, it is the farthest along a plan has gotten since plans for the Bayside Expo site in Dorchester back in 2016 or so and not much is likely to happen to the Everett site in the meantime.

Revolution Lineup Prediction: 4-2-3-1: Ivacic; Miller, Arreaga, Romney, Bye; Yusuf, Polster; Langoni, C Gil, Bajraktarevic; Vrioni

This is about as first choice of a lineup as the Revs right now with the only change being Vrioni for Wood from the loss in Houston. Will Sands is listed as questionable, otherwise a clean bill of health less the SEI for Chancalay. The Revs did record over 3.0 xG in that loss against the Dynamo in which they did get their first penalty of the year. That kind of output without an open play goal would have been welcome months ago but in these desperate times it’s a little late for moral victories. I think the Revs win their home finale 2-1 but it’s going to be ugly.