By FRANCO PANIZO
HANOVER, N.J. — A week and a half ago, Lloyd Sam did something his mother told him she had never seen him do in all her years of watching him. Sam pounced on a spilled ball in front of goal, alertly and aggressively reacting to the play in front of him before smashing a shot into the back of the net late to save his team from defeat.
The play might be one that some chalk up to just being in the right place at the right time, but it was more than that. It was a peak into the new mentality that Sam has entered the year with, a mentality that originates from a phone call from head coach Jesse Marsch.
While the New York Red Bulls were going through their controversial managerial change this past winter, Sam was in England enjoying his offseason. Marsch gave Sam a ring one day, introducing himself as his new coach and telling the 30-year-old midfielder what he wanted to see out of him in 2015.
The major talking point during that conversation was that Marsch wanted to see Sam, unselfish and laid back by nature, become more assertive. Sam could not just be the cross-happy winger that he’d been in years past. That would not be enough anymore, not with Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill now gone. For the Red Bulls to truly be successful, Sam needed to develop more of a killer instinct, to think about shooting just as much as he did passing.
It was a message the Englishman heard loud and clear.
“Obviously, when that comes straight from the manager, it’s something you think about more now,” said Sam. “Obviously, last year we had (Bradley Wright-Phillips), Thierry, Tim, Peguy (Luyindula). We had a lot of goal scorers. This year, I’m one of the goal scorers now.
“It goes into the mentality. I’m going into games thinking I’d love a win and I’d love to get on the scoresheet. Maybe I wasn’t thinking like that so intensely last season, so it’s a mentality change a bit.”
The shift in his individual philosophy has so far paid dividends. Sam has started his fourth year in the league by scoring a team-high three goals and assisting on another in five games, effectively leading this new-look New York team to the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
By comparison, Sam scored just four goals in the 32 matches he started in 2014 and five in the 22 he appeared in a year prior. He also had nine assists a season ago, and just one in 2013.
Sam might be more multidimensional this year, coming inside more than he ever has before. But the Englishman is also keen on staying true to himself, hoping to set up goals as well as score them.
Finding that balance is tricky, but the Red Bulls see Sam adjusting well so far.
“Every time Lloyd gets in the goal now I think he has a couple things going through his head,” said captain Dax McCarty. “Instead of just ‘pass, pass, pass’, he’s got ‘shoot’ and maybe ‘score a goal’ on his mind because Jesse’s given him that confidence. I think we all have. We all knew Lloyd had it in him to be able to go forward and score goals and be more of a danger.
“That’s a credit to him for obviously putting in the time and effort to finish, but it’s also a credit to our coaching staff and just our whole system of play, because the way that we play is very positive for our three or four attacking guys. When we lose some of the players that we’ve lost, you have to have other guys step up and shoulder that scoring burden and I think Lloyd has done a good job of doing that for our team.”
Apart from having more increased responsibilities in front of goal, Sam is also seen as one of the leaders of this New York squad. He is reluctant, as many people are, to accept that he’s an elder now – “I don’t feel like one of the older guys. On paper I’m one of the older guys.” – but he’s also embracing what comes with his increased role on the team.
“Obviously, there’s different types of leadership,” said Sam. “I like to do most of mine on the field and lead by example on the field and try and take as much responsibility on the field as possible. I’m not running around bossing the youngsters around or nothing, but just when maybe training isn’t up to par certain people will say something, sometimes maybe I’ll say something.
“But mainly on the ball I like to lead by example and take responsibility that way.”
As big of an impact as Sam is having on the field and in the locker room for the Red Bulls, he still tends to fly under the radar. He is not someone that grabs the national spotlight much, and also does not really pay attention to what is being said or written about him on social media and in the press.
That might be starting to change due to his strong performances in New York. He’s noticed that there’s been more chatter about him in the early parts of this season than in the past – one report even linked him with playing for Ghana’s national team, though he says he hasn’t heard anything official – and that teams are starting to play him a bit differently.
It’s all a product of how well he’s been playing, and there might yet be more to come from this new aggressive mentality that Sam possesses.
“I think he’s starting to really establish himself as a guy that a lot of teams are pinpointing as a dangerous player on our team, and it’s partly due from the past and partly due to what’s going on right now,” said Marsch. “I knew he was a good player when I came here, and I was hoping that he would adjust to the kinds of things that we thought would be effective, and he has.
“As he continues to get more and more comfortable and more and more clear, he’s going to get better and better.”
So glad Sam is getting hungry to score. He has been getting better every year and perhaps this year will be a break out one similar to the one BWP had last year.
Very true. he has been one of my favorite players ever since i’ve been following the club. Don’t known him personally but appears to be a well rounded human being.