New York 4, Toronto 1
Q. In a nutshell didn't end well. Your road is tougher now. What was your take on that?
JOHN HERDMAN: Not good enough. No excuses. Just not good enough. Not good enough tactically, not good enough with the setup and not good enough on the pitch. Wasn't until the second half I think the team really start to show up.
We needed to go a goal down before we woke up. Almost like we were sleep walking. I think even as a tactical staff, just not being able to find the solutions as well.
We got to own this, the whole group. This isn't a player thing. This is a coaching staff too passive, and it was a team that were too passive in a game we had to be strong in. We had to have personality, character, we had to fight.
We needed all of that and it just wasn't there. It wasn't there.
Q. (Regarding such an important game.)
JOHN HERDMAN: Life, John. Life. Humans. Big moments. Under pressure. Personalities. Coaching decisions. Selection. Structure. Comes down to having people with a personality that want that moment, that really want that moment. We'll look inwards first as we always do as a staff, from the medical to the sports science to the technical, the decisions that have been made, good bad or indifferent in the last two days.
Getting the lads showing up like that in the first 30 minutes, it was dreadful. Yeah, really poor. And I think like I say, they didn't really threaten that much. Didn't do too much in the first 35, 40 minutes. We didn't either.
Then what we've done pretty much all season, we give the game away. Just keep giving games away. So for whatever reason we're still in the fight. Still got an opportunity on Saturday. That's all we can look forward to, as I've said to them there. Men have really got to show up this weekend, really represent, and their take the opportunities that's presented. We have had three, four, five different opportunities and just haven't taken them.
Q. How do you evaluate Fede's performance? He was flying around firing shots, not on target, but then loses his head.
JOHN HERDMAN: Look, he's an experienced player. He has to be experienced in that moment. You know, it was probably a hot moment for him given we just conceded. Frustrated I imagine.
But that's the sort of behavior we have to change. It has to be different on Saturday against a really tough Miami team. We need people that can keep their cool in those moments.
I understand Fede is frustrated. We had some big moments there. We've given a penalty away, but you're right back in the game. You can see frustration. It was hot.
But at the same time I think he'll be disappointed in himself that he hasn't been able to manage that moment.
And that might be the end of his season.
Q. Lorenzo, do you expect him to be available for the weekend?
JOHN HERDMAN: I'm not sure. I mean, maybe five minutes, ten minutes. Yeah, we'll see. We'll do everything we can to get him patched up and ready to go.
He has strains in both of his calves. We'll do our best and the medical team will try and get him on the pitch for some minutes.
Like I say, it's more about the guys that really can contribute that just want to pull on the jersey now and say, look, I'm willing to go down fighting with everything I've got. That's what this club needs at this moment in time.
Q. Do you have players here that don't want to be here?
JOHN HERDMAN: I wouldn't say that. I think players want to play here, but I've said this from day one, you come into a club that has a lot of the trauma from last season and the season before.
When the bad omens and the bad signs start setting in, that trauma comes to the front and you get behavior in different forms that are not going to help you in these playoff moments.
I think we didn't look like a team ready for the playoffs tonight mentally, emotionally. We got two days to turn that round. For whatever reason we could win on this weekend and we're in. We don't know that, but that's the only thing in our control.
The guys that want to be here will be on the pitch this weekend and that's for sure.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports