Another week, another terribly disappointing Rhode Island FC performance as the team lost 1-0 to Indy Eleven on the road on Saturday night.

I think the main storyline for this game will end up being the tactics, and how aimless the team looked as a result. Against Sacramento, we had the infamous 6-defender lineup. Now we also have the 5-midfield/no striker game to go along with it, in an increasingly concerning string of confusing and seemingly desperate lineup decisions.

We thought we’d finally found something with the Maxi/Clay double pivot, with Noah playing as a 10 – then we completely moved away from it on Saturday. Another case of one step forward, two steps back – as has been the case for most of the season so far.

In fairness, the team did look more threatening after a series of attack-oriented substitutions that got us to a more standard-looking shape… but it was too little and too late.

Now, Rhode Island FC are looking down the barrel at back-to-back home matches against Hartford Athletic, who have won two straight in the league, that could make or break the inaugural season at Tidewater – and, I’d love to be proven wrong, but I saw absolutely nothing on Saturday to inspire any kind of confidence that they’ll put in a good performance for those matches.

Let’s get through the player ratings as quickly as possible – I’m going to switch up the format slightly this time around.

Rhode Island FC Player Ratings:

Defense / Goalkeeping – 4/10

There weren’t too many questions asked of the defenders or Jackson Lee by Indy Eleven. I’m underwhelmed with the defensive performance because they looked out of sorts both in and out of possession.

On the ball, each defender had seemingly terrible moments of mental lapses where they passed straight out of bounds, or to the other team. None worse than Rio Hope-Gund with this giveaway leading to Indy Eleven’s goal.

Watching the goal back, the defensive response to the giveaway is also not very good. It’s obviously a high-stakes moment, and Rhode Island FC reacts with relatively little urgency, and even less in the way of good decision-making, getting into position, marking the runners, etc. – just one example, you can see Frank Nodarse – who had an otherwise pretty decent game – let Aodhan Quinn (who ultimately assists the goal) run past him towards the bottom of the broadcast.

Midfield – 4/10

Disappointing performance here as well. For playing four central midfielders in a diamond-ish shape (Ybarra, Holstad, Amos, and Maxi), we had shockingly little control in the midfield. As a unit, they lost more than half of their duels which is uncharacteristic for any of these players. To be fair, Clay was below average (winning just 1/7 duels), and Ybarra was above average (winning 5/7)

I thought Ybarra and Amos both looked relatively sharp in their returns to the starting lineup, but you can’t rely on either player to create much offense. I would go further to say I think it’s a bit redundant to have them both out there together – but I’m willing to get a larger sample size before making up my mind.

Maxi’s more advanced position in this match did lead to one of the only decent scoring chances in the match (a shot from outside of the box that curled barely wide right in the first half), but otherwise he was relatively anonymous in this setup. You can feel the difference – as we’ve all been talking about – when Maxi is receiving the ball with his back to goal higher up the pitch, vs. when he is receiving it deeper and springing quick counter attacks.

Attack/Forwards – 3/10

Welp, there really wasn’t any? And that’s not on Noah, that’s on Khano. We’ve tried Noah as the striker in the past with minimal success.

I think some of Noah’s confidence that he’s picked up over the last two matches carried over, as he certainly didn’t look hopeless like the first 1/3rd of the season – but ultimately, this position does not maximize his skills.

Resultingly, Noah led the match in duels lost (8) going up against the Indy center backs for most of the night, and he was dispossessed three times.

Substitutions – 6/10

Kind of a mixed bag, but I’ll lean towards a higher score for two reasons:

1. It’s great to see JJ back on the pitch. He played only around 20 minutes but looked very much like himself. He had 50% more touches than Dikwa in about 15 minutes fewer of game time, and won 5 out of his 7 aerial duels (which is something we’ve been missing in JJ’s absence).
2. We finally see the debut of Hugo Bacharach and he looked about as good as we’ve all been hoping he would be. Not perfect, but he did some great, desperate defending and also looked determine to help chip in and get Rhode Island level after coming on, with multiple marauding runs forward.

Coaching – 2/10

It’s all starting to look a bit shaky. The PSG-lite kickoffs, the desperate and ever-changing formations, the unserious set pieces, the complete lack of offensive creativity… some of it is easier to excuse when you’re playing exciting football and/or getting results. We’re doing neither right now.

I maintain faith in Khano to figure it out – but with the injury-excuse-window coming to a close… we need it to happen soon.

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Rating Scale:

• 1/10 – Abysmal. You might as well have me on the pitch.
• 2/10 – Very bad
• 3/10 – Bad
• 4/10 – Below Average
• 5/10 – Average. The player did their job.
• 6/10 – Good
• 7/10 – Very good
• 8/10 – Great
• 9/10 – Outstanding
• 10/10 – Transcendent performance. Watch out, because Real Madrid may come knocking.