Bruce Arena on leadership in Revolution locker room

Heading into the 2021 MLS regular season, the New England Revolution have a great squad of players that can compete in the Eastern Conference. Fans have been able to see players grow and become grizzled veterans on this roster.

New England has players that can step up both on and off the field. The first one that comes to mind has to be captain Carles Gil.

In 2020 we saw just how much the team missed him when he was out due to injury. His return showed how he was the heartbeat of the team and that the Revs are a completely different team without him.

Then you have players like Matt Turner, Teal Bunbury, and Farrell who are veterans of MLS and have been on the Revs roster for a while.

On Monday, Bruce Arena was asked about the leadership on the roster ahead of the 2021 season.

He said, “This is a good group. I think people lead in different ways, whether it’s the coaching staff or players, it depends on your personality. It depends on how you’re perceived by the group, but I think since I’ve come in, in May of 2019, the one thing I noticed with the team is that [it has] a lot of character and good people. When I say that I think of players like Andrew Farrell and Teal Bunbury and Scott Caldwell, to name a few. And then Matt Turner as he’s grown into the team has become a leader, and Gustavo [Bou] in his own way by his playing habits, and Carles [Gil] as well. Carles is quiet, but he’s a good leader. And leadership, it’s not always verbal, it’s just your actions, and they train very well together.”

Arena also went on to say just how far the team has come since he took over as head coach.

He said, “If you could think about when we started in May of 2019, to have a group of guys turn a corner the way they did from being really, you could argue the weakest team in the league at that point, and then go on and complete 2019 in good fashion and then having some more success in 2020, it speaks highly about leadership qualities and I think we’re going see more of that in 2021.”

After making the Eastern Conference Finals in 2020, New England appears to have the roster required to do even better things and maybe even lift a trophy.