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This week marked the first time ever we've done our New York Red Bulls Power Rankings. For those who didn't see the voting post earlier this week, let me explain.
Each week, myself, Matt Coyne, Tim Dean, Austin Fido, and you the fans will be able to rank the RBNY squad from best to worst. As you can see by the table below, the math for this is pretty simple. The four Once a Metro writers get a vote, and we add a fifth collective fan vote. We take a straight average of the votes, and rank the players accordingly. The Once a Metro staff also adds comments about each player, and I'll give some thoughts on how things shook out later in the article.
For the table, here's the initials you need to know:
- JI - Jason Iapicco
- TD - Tim dean
- MC - Matt Coyne
- AF - Austin Fido
Rankings
| Rank | Player | JI | TD | MC |
AF | Fans | Average | Comments |
| 1 | Lloyd Sam | 1 | 2 | N/A | 2 | 1 | 1.5 | JI - Lloyd Sam is the main reason this team seems to have any offensive push right now. |
| 1 | Luis Robles | 2 | 1 | N/A | 1 | 2 | 1.5 | JI - Robles is the reason the Red Bulls have stayed in games this year. Without him, this team may be 0-0-6. |
| 3 | Peguy Luyindula | 3 | 3 | N/A | 3 | 6 | 3.75 | AF - Top scorer through six games, and an early candidate for team MVP. |
| 4 | Jamison Olave | 4 | 5 | N/A | 4 | 3 | 4 | AF - The ground he is able to cover in a match occasionally makes it feel like RBNY has a five-man back line. |
| 5 | Roy Miller | 5 | 6 | N/A | 6 | 4 | 5.25 | TD - Who would have thought that Roy Miller, of all People, would rank this highly? The Costa Rican left back has done his job just fine. |
| 6 | Jonny Steele | 6 | 7 | N/A | 8 | 7 | 7 | JI - Between Steele and Alexander, Steele always gets subbed off first, and it makes no sense. |
| 7 | Thierry Henry | 7 | 4 | N/A | 5 | 17 | 8.25 | TD - Henry is a year older and step slower but he is still the smartest and most creative player on the pitch. |
| 8 | Kosuke Kimura | 10 | 12 | N/A | 11 | 5 | 9.5 | TD - Kimura is having a seesaw of a season. One decent match followed by a howler. I believe he'll work it out and continue to be solid. |
| 8 | Dax McCarty | 9 | 8 | N/A | 7 | 14 | 9.5 | JI - Apparently he has been battling an injury for a few years now. If can get healthy, I imagine he'll be an absolute beast. |
| 10 | Ibrahim Sekagya | 12 | 10 | N/A | 9 | 8 | 9.75 | TD - So far, Ibra looks to be the better option to partner up with Jamison Olave at centerback. |
| 11 | Bradley Wright-Phillips | 11 | 9 | N/A | 10 | 15 | 11.25 | AF - He's a couple of near misses away from being a hero. If he starts finding the target, he'll be the new Luke Rodgers. |
| 12 | Armando | 13 | 13 | N/A | 12 | 12 | 12.5 | JI - Armando can play well, but he gets into too much trouble with the refs. It's not a good thing when the league is looking at you. |
| 12 | Tim Cahill | 8 | 11 | N/A | 13 | 18 | 12.5 | JI - The quicker the Aussie is back with the Red Bulls, the better. |
| 14 | Eric Alexander | 14 | 17 | N/A | 14 | 13 | 14.5 | AF - Petke wants him on the pitch, but where? Seems like the second-best option wherever he plays at the moment. |
| 15 | Matt Miazga | 19 | 14 | N/A | 18 | 9 | 15 | JI - Petke really needs to give the young guy some time, and not just in the US Open Cup. |
| 16 | Ruben Bover | 17 | 19 | N/A | 17 | 10 | 15.75 | TD - I wish we'd see more of Bover on the field, but for right now, the sample size is just to small to rate him any higher. |
| 17 | Bobby Convey | 15 | 15 | N/A | 15 | 19 | 16 | AF - Early work suggests he might best in central midfield, but yet to find his position of greatest value to the team. |
| 18 | Connor Lade | 18 | 18 | N/A | 19 | 11 | 16.5 | JI - He hasn't played a lot this year, and it's hard to tell why he's being held back. |
| 19 | Richard Eckersley | 16 | 16 | N/A | 16 | 20 | 17 | JI - He hasn't played in the last two games because of injuries, but giving up two PKs this season isn't a good start. |
| 20 | Andre Akpan | 20 | 20 | N/A | 20 | 16 | 19 | JI - Yet another young bull struggling to find playing time. |
Thoughts
- For the most part, myself and my fellow writers agreed on player rankings. I thought there would be a little bit more of a difference though.
- Overwhelming, people like how Lloyd Sam and Luis Robles is playing.
- In staff voting, players like Miazga, Bover, and Lade, who haven't played a lot were voted down. Personally, I voted them towards the bottom only because of this. However, you the fans have decided that playing poorly was worse than not playing. Example: in staff voting, Miazga averaged a rank of 17, but the fans voted him at 9, almost a 50% increase in rank. Meanwhile, Henry ranked an average of 5.3 among the staff, but came in 17th in fan voting.
- To no one's surprise, Bobby Convey (Avg Rank: 16) and Richard Eckersley (Avg Rank: 17) are among the lowest rank players on the team.
What do you think of how the staff voted? Think we were too harsh/lenient? Let us know in the comments.