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The simple answer is a lot. but to get the true answer, we have to dive in a little deeper. There are a few elements that caused the Revs to drop from 4th place to missing the playoffs, but were only going to discuss the top 5.

Missing a True Leader

New England Revolution defender Chris Tierney (8) salutes the fans after a match. Mandatory Credit: Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports

Let’s start off simple. The Revs came into the season with Claude Dielna as their captain. That didn’t work out as he was quickly replaced. Overall the Revs used a total of 7 different players as captain throughout the season. And arguably their best candidate for the role got hurt, and it’s no coincidence the team went downhill after Chris Tierney got hurt. Perhaps Tierney’s lack of presence made things a little harder for the team. Tierney is the teams most veteran player so he definitely served a purpose in the locker room. It might not be the biggest reason for their failure, but their lack of leadership from a true leader really killed the Revs mentality this season.

Rookie Mistakes

This was Brad Freidel’s first ever head coaching job. As experienced a player he was, he was still learning on the job this year. With that said, he’s bound to make mistakes. Whether those mistakes be signing the wrong players, not enough players, making wrong substitutions or not making enough substitutions. Freidel will use this season as a learning experience and should only get better from here. This will be an important offseason for Freidel as he will have to try and win back some fans and convince others that next year will be different. The last thing the Revs want to deal with right now is a fourth consecutive season without playoffs. The front office SHOULD be more determined than ever to fix things.

Road Woes

It sounds like a broken record at this point. The Revs still can’t win road games. It doesn’t matter what league you’re in, 5 road wins in 3 years is unacceptable. Sure the Revs got more points on the road this year than last year but that’s not good enough. Add this together with the fact the team only won 7 home games, they were doomed to fail. In the past 2 years, the Revs have lost 7-0 to Atlanta, 6-1 to Orlando and 4-1 to Real Salt Lake on the road. Not only were these games embarrassing, but they all also came at pivotal times of the season where the revs would have to win to make the playoffs. Performances like these can not, and should not be tolerated. Plain and simple, the Revs need to figure out why they can’t win on the road and fix it.

New England Revolution forward Cristian Penilla (70). Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Loss to LA

Yes, it’s stupid to blame the failure of a whole season on one game, but a game like this is morally devastating. It seems like every year the Revs lose one game that sends them down a downward spiral. Last years game was the 3-3 draw with Seattle and LA this year. To be winning a game going into the 90th minute after you were down a man for the majority of the match has to be a thrill. But when you crap the bed and allow 2 goals in extra time, yes, its tough to get over. The Revs were on a roll going into the game, but afterward, they went on a crash course. After that loss, they didn’t win a home game until October.

Team Wasn’t Good Enough

Plain and simple this team was not good enough. They didn’t sign the players needed to finish out the season in the summer and didn’t do enough in the winter. Right now, this team only has 4 key players for their future, and 2 of them are on loan. With a squad that was constantly getting rotated around, everyone was fighting for minutes. On top of that, for the majority of the season, the team lacked depth. All around the team wasn’t good enough. Next season will fall on how the front office turns this team around come this offseason. Expectations should be high, now it’s time for the ownership to show they care. For a team that has missed the playoffs now 3 years in a row, ownership has done nothing to improve it so far.

This offseason should be the most important one for the Revs front office in the last 4 years. If they do nothing, they are really gonna start to lose fans if something doesn’t change.

Playing Ability

Up until now, we can only really speculate what happened. There really is no definitive answer.

You can’t really say he was benched due to poor form because he wasn’t in any particular bad form. In fact, according to whoscored.com, Claude Dielna was the Revs best defender this year with a 6.73 rating. In comparison, Michael Mancienne had a 6.71 rating, Anibaba a 6.61 and Delamea had a 6.66 rating. The only “defender” to have a higher rating than Dielna was Andrew Farrell who had a rating of 6.89. But Farrell plays a more attacking position than Claude.

There were also reports that Spanish La Liga side Real Betis are interested in signing him this offseason. So here are the top 3 reasons why Claude Dielna may have been benched.

3. Off-Field Incident

Anyone who has seen Claude play on the field knows he’s bound to get into trouble. This year alone he has 4 yellow cards and 28 total fouls in just 17 games. So there’s a definite possibility his lack of discipline got him in trouble with Brad Freidel. Perhaps he said something to the coach or maybe even another player that coach didn’t like that got him put on coach’s naughty list.

It’s no secret that Freidel seems to hold a grudge. In his first game ever, Toni Delamea got a red card in the 24th minute and it took Toni over 2 months just to get back on the field.

If there was a feud, it seems that Brad Freidel is the one who’s holding back as Dielna took to Twitter to explain his side of what might be going on in a tweet he quickly deleted, saying, “…I am ready to play for Coach whenever my name is called upon.”

If there was a feud, Freidel isn’t ready to get over it yet.

2. Not Good Enough

I know I said earlier that statistically, Doielna is the Revs best center back, but maybe the reason is as simple as Brad Freidel doesn’t think Claude is good enough for this team.

The only problem with this theory is that when a team has only won two home games since June and is struggling as bad as they are, it’s hard to not be good enough. In the offseason, Freidel made it clear he wanted to bring in his own guys and seeing how Claude isn’t one of “his guys,” perhaps he thinks playing Claude could do more damage than good.

It could also be that Freidel just values the other options he has more.

1. Money

Knowing Robert Kraft, this is probably the most likely reason. Before Michael Mancienne, Claude was the highest paid defender on the team, and at on point the whole league. In that ginormous $900,000 contract, there is most likely a few bonuses and clauses.

Perhaps the Revs are keen to play him because they don’t want to trigger a clause that will give Claude a big payday. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing depending on the clause.

Any potential clause could range from triggering a 1-year contract extension to triggering a big cash bonus. It is entirely possible there is a clause to give Claude a contract extension and Freidel has decided he doesn’t want to bring Claude back so he decided to bench him.

Either way, it seems as if Claude’s time here is up, and with his contract expiring at the end of the season, I doubt we’ll see him in a Revolution jersey next year.