NYCFC enjoyed a dream Home Opener on Sunday afternoon but Head Coach Patrick Vieira believes that his new-look team can play even better.
The Frenchman was pleased with what he saw from his players in the 4-0 win over DC United but, ever-the-perfectionist, Patrick wants even more from them.
He told reporters: “It was a really good team performance.
"When you look at last year, we struggled at home, so it was important to win our first home game and we did it today in a really good way.”
Vieira feels as though his team were guilty of overconfidence in the early stages of the second half and gave DC a glimmer of hope.
“When you look at the second half, we gave them a little too much space in the first 10-15 minutes and we didn’t respect the game as much as we did in the first half.
“We gave them a bit of hope – in the next game we will try to be more consistent. If we lead 3-0, how can we keep playing, keeping going forward and trying to score goals?
“We played too many passes backwards. That is just a mental thing that we need to talk about and try to improve.
“When you look at the tactical and physical side of the game, I was really satisfied because the players respected the gameplan. When it was difficult, we kept to our philosophy and that’s really important to me.
“When you’re winning 3-0 you can be overconfident and take too many touches. That’s when you lose two or three balls and give the opposition confidence – that shouldn’t happen which is a part of the game we need to learn and improve from as a team: How can we keep it simple when we’re winning?”
Defending from the front is an aspect of the game that Patrick has identified to work on in the offseason and the evidence was clear in this emphatic victory.
Vieira added: “We look really strong defensively because Rodney, David and Jack worked really hard.
“When that happens, it makes it easier for the back four to defend. Sean made some really important saves, especially in the second half which didn’t give them a chance to get into the game.
“The message after Orlando was that we have to keep playing the way we did because we created chances and that’s what’s important in football.
“We kept our philosophy and when we create chances with the quality of our players, you’re going to score goals.
“We still have many things to improve. We’re going to enjoy the game today and then on Tuesday we’ll think about Montreal when we get back in to train.”
