Amid going winless in last five matches, Riverhounds looking to get back on the same page

A 25-minute talking-to from Bob Lilley to his Riverhounds following Saturday's 2-1 loss to Indy Eleven at Highmark Stadium conveyed a clear message.

A team still searching for answers offensively has changed its complexion since the calendar flipped to May. The Riverhounds coasted to a five-match unbeaten streak through April and to begin May, but have scored just four goals and have not won a match in their last five. Just like in this instance in front of 5,002 fans in the twilight of this summery evening, Lilley is not getting the aggressiveness out of his club that he is seeking.

"I really thought we made some progress this week in terms of recognizing the totality of the game, not just 'we can try harder,'" Lilley said. "No, we've got to execute also. You have to be able to execute, you have to know your jobs, you have to work hard, yes, but you also have to have discipline, you have to be able to communicate effectively. We talked about, let's not be narrow-minded and think just by trying harder everything is going to fix itself. You have to be able to attack things at all angles, you have to be able to be collective and everybody be on the same page."

Since Lilley took over as the Riverhounds' manager in 2018, the Riverhounds are 57-13-29 at home. Three of those 13 losses have come to the Indy Eleven.

Lilley's group maintained aggression despite a defensive-oriented alignment in the first half. The Riverhounds opened the first 45 minutes plus four of stoppage time by controlling 62.8% of the possession and shot seven times from inside of the keeper's box, but just two of their 10 registered shots went on the net. The closest the Riverhounds came to tacking a goal on the board was a tap from Danny Griffin off of a give-and-go that was deflected off of the crossbar and into Indy possession.

Indy Eleven opened the scoring off of their second corner kick within two minutes in the first half. On that second kick, Josh O'Brien powered in a header from Aedan Stanley's far-side boot, and it zipped by Riverhounds keeper Eric Dick for the 1-0 lead at 22:20 match time.

Indy Eleven added a goal 55 seconds into the second half on a perfectly placed grounder from Sebastian Guenzatti. 

Lilley bemoaned that was a goal that should not have happened in the first place, among the other defensive lapses he saw on Saturday.

"When some guys are chasing back and some aren't, that's not the 'same page,'" Lilley said. "That should not be a goal at the start of the second half. That's not a collective team effort in that moment. I thought we hit a lot of important things (in the post-game discussion on the field) and a lot of players were receptive. Obviously it's not fun when you lose a game and you've got to re-hit some of the same points and suffer twice. You always hope to learn something and then not have to keep learning from the same mistakes. Feels like that a little bit. We played better than the score would indicate, we just have to be better at both ends of the field.

"We'll pick ourselves and go back to work. It's something that I think we're known for here. I want this year's team to have that identity but we have to work to get there. We have to be tougher, we have to be resilient, we have to get back after it. Last week the result didn't go our way. I could tell you we played better, we had a good week of training, so we have to challenge them again and say it's going to take a better performance to go out on the road at Charleston (next week) than to win at home against anybody."

But the Riverhounds' aggressiveness at last paid off to begin the 57th minute. It came to the captain Griffin, who set up a ball to his right foot from outside of the box and struck it to the right of Indy Eleven keeper Hunter Sulte. Sulte could not get back into position in time, and the Riverhounds cut the deficit in half at 56:02 match time.

In all, the Riverhounds controlled 69 percent of the possession and won 12 of the 15 corner kicks. Of the 25 total shots fired, 18 came from inside of the box and nine total were on target.

The answers from the offense are still out there, but Lilley acknowledged there are more issues than that facing the Riverhounds in this skid.

"We have not managed games well," Lilley said. "We have let ourselves down by not covering each other or double teaming or we have taken a lot for granted instead of doing the extra yards. That's a fact. How we change that, do we need to get fitter? Do we need to give more team effort to help your partner rather than take shortcuts? All of those things have to be fixed. You have to want to suffer for the guy next to you to make him a better player, and there's a lot of guys that are not doing the extra work required for us to defend properly. 

"Offensively I don't think we're consistently making enough runs behind. I get frustrated when we get in the final third and our forwards are posting up. I think they need to be spinning out, I think balls need to be hit diagonally and behind more."