Captain’s Quarters: Griffin on maintaining focus during slump, turning the corner after win over Roots

Welcome to part two of the 2024 Captain’s Quarters, a recurring series where PSN’s Colton Coreschi sits down with Pittsburgh Riverhounds captain Danny Griffin at each quarter mark of the season to discuss recent performance, the state of the team, and other topics of interest.

You can check out part one, our first quarter edition, here.

Captain’s Quarters: Griffin talks team growth, youngster development, and the pursuit of constant improvement

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When last we checked in with Pittsburgh Riverhounds captain Danny Griffin at the quarter-season mark, the feel around the team was fairly optimistic after turning the corner following a slow start to the year. While the club had just been bounced from the U.S. Open Cup in their debut match against FC Tulsa in the round of 32, in league play the Hounds were flying high – a draw the following weekend against Tulsa again saw the Hounds unbeaten in six straight USL Championship matches, including three wins in their four most recent games. The Hounds sat solidly in playoff position, in a tie for fifth in the Eastern Conference, and with eight goals in their last four matches it felt like they had found their footing on offense after some early season woes.

Things have not gone to plan since for head coach Bob Lilley and company. Following that league draw against Tulsa, the team went on a nine match winless streak, scraping a mere three points over that span which saw the team plummet out of the playoff places in the Eastern Conference. Adding to their woes, the Hounds had totally lost sight of goal, going six consecutive matches without scoring amidst one of the worst runs in recent memory for the club. The situation seemed dire, fans were restless, and the team simply seemed mired in their rut.

I myself was anxious about this edition of Captain’s Quarters given the team’s form – nobody wants to be negative, but there wasn’t much positive to focus on. Thankfully, an unexpected delay led to this edition being pulled together a week later than expected – and something of a miracle occurred. On this Saturday past, the Hounds came out swinging. Against an Oakland Roots side that had won five of their last six and sat in second in the Western Conference, it all came together.

The Hounds not only pulled out a win at Highmark Stadium against their red-hot foe, they did so with gusto, ripping a five-goal blowout from seemingly nowhere. And thus, there was a light at the end of that nine-game tunnel.

At least, it seemed that way from the outside. But ask Lilley, Griffin, or anyone else around the team, and they’ll all tell you the same thing: The process has been there all along. The good work has been there the whole time. All that was missing was the final bit of execution, the final bit of extra effort and drive – and this group never stopped believing it would eventually show.

“It’s just belief in the group and then continuing getting chances. We know we missed some, I missed a penalty, but we’ve created good chances,” Griffin said of the team’s determination to remain positive and improve. “I think in the Monterey Bay game we had a few good chances. So it’s just the belief in the group that you just keep going, you keep creating those chances and we certainly turned that around this Saturday. But yeah, the next thing is that we’ve just got to keep that and double down on that. We have to be quick on transitions, creating a lot of options, a lot of chances and then just be clinical in that final third. I think from the group we knew,  Robbie [Mertz] said it well after the Monterey game, was that all these games we felt like there was a win in there for us. Obviously not getting the goal and conceding, you don’t get the three points. So I think we just carried that belief and knew that we could get a result. We’re proud of the performance that we put in Saturday, 5-0 at home and we’re just looking to double down on that this Saturday.”

While it might be easy to sit and point at specific reasons the club struggled to find the back of the net prior to Saturday’s explosion against Oakland, the message has remained consistent from camp: This is a team effort. When it works, it’s a full-team success. When it doesn’t, it’s a full-team process to improve. Each positional group knows what Lilley expects from them. Forwards need to be clinical, they need to be in the box taking high-percentage shots and getting on the end of balls from the creative playmakers around them – with some work still to be done there, as all five goals came from midfielders or defenders on Saturday. The midfield needs to be the creative heartbeat of the team, making progressive passes, driving the defense back, and applying the pressure and chaos that the forwards can maneuver into and exploit.

The defense needs to be pressing, they need to force turnovers in dangerous places, make progressive passes forward, contribute to the full-team effort to back their opponents down.

So while it may be tempting to look at the forwards when assigning blame during a goal-scoring drought, the attitude around camp doesn’t reflect that. Each group knows they need to improve and contribute to the overall attacking effort. From a midfield that consists of many high-engine guys who have perhaps a bit more tendency to play deeper and provide secure coverage, there’s an acknowledgment that work needs to be done to make everyone else’s job easier around them and help those forwards up the field by giving them more and better chances.

“We worked on a lot of situations where obviously you know, the midfield runs the play, and that’s one of the many different things that we train in,” Griffin said of the midfield’s focuses during the drought. “Just working on that and getting the collective group together offensively when we go against the defenders. So we did put some work in, which we’ve done all year. So just getting guys on the same page, but we’ve had that this year. Obviously to get five goals, you have to break a team down, you have to get in behind, you have to have numbers in the box, and that’s what you’ve seen more of as time has gone on. So yeah, just kept instilling that in the midfield that we’re the engine in the room. You just have to make the right passes, pick out your choice, and make the right decision.”

But while the team has maintained a positive mentality – an important factor certainly in attempting to right the ship – the Hounds are also not shying away from the reality of the current situation. Sitting on 18 points from 19 matches, four points out of a playoff spot with each team ahead of them holding a game in hand, the Hounds know the work only gets harder from here if they’re to claw their way back into contention in 2024.

There are some positive foundations to work off of in the team’s performances. Offensive struggles notwithstanding, the Hounds have been one of the best defensive teams in the league – surrendering just 20 goals, good for joint-fifth league-wide. Their goal difference sits at just (-4), a very respectable mark given the team’s record, identical to Birmingham Legion’s mark sitting in the top-half of the Eastern Conference. Watching the footage, it’s clear that the Hounds are in close contention in nearly every match they’ve played, with more than a little bad luck going their way – though the attitude in the team is not content with that excuse, focusing on their own need to improve instead.

There is a reason to believe these Hounds can turn this around, and the underlying metrics show that the types of performances they’re putting on should be yielding better results – and there’s trust internally in the process that results will come if the performances come first.

“Well, we’re here you know? So every game you want three points. We know where we are in the standings and it’s not ideal for us obviously, but we’re here, we’re working, we’re fighting,” said Griffin of the team’s current situation. “There’s no quit in this group. We need to have good performances, and I mean 90 minute performances, not just one half good and the other half so-so. It has to be 90 minutes, the discipline has to be there, and we’ve got to get over that hump. But we’re here, we’re not running from it, and everyone is attacking it. We know where we are in the standings and we just know that we have to be better. I think Saturday was a step in the right direction, and we’ve got to keep doing that – 90 minute performances week-in and week-out.”

With heads raised to plainly recognize the current situation, the Hounds know that they’re better than their record indicates and that they can achieve better results. The first hints of that came this past Saturday in the club’s massive 5-0 victory over a surging Oakland Roots. While the Roots held the bulk of possession in the match, the Hounds applied a relentless pressure that paid dividends on both ends of the field. Offensively, the floodgates opened following Junior Etou’s 12th minute goal, with the team entering halftime up 3-0 and keeping their foot on the gas with two second-half goals. Defensively, they held the Roots to just two total shots both from outside the box, none on target, a singular corner, and just two touches in the Hounds 18-yard box.

It was the type of result the team’s performances have been begging to earn, applying Lilley’s philosophies of constant pressure, destabilizing opponents, and forcing them to play the Hounds’ game brilliantly. The Roots found themselves pinned back, with 68% of their completed passes in their own defensive half, as compared to the Hounds completing a majority of their own passes, 56%, in the Roots half. Of the Hounds 12 shots, 11 came from within the box, seven ended up on-target, with another two on-target but blocked. It was the type of performance a team can look back at, lean on as the standard to meet, and use to progress further.

“The biggest thing is that you see it. We’ve known that we’re capable of scoring goals. Obviously it was frustrating that stretch where we didn’t, but we certainly all knew that we were capable and we have a good attacking group,” Griffin said of what the Oakland result means to the team moving forward. “It’s there, and you saw it on Saturday. So I think that’s the biggest thing, it’s good for guys to see it. Because now it’s like, we got five, and you know you’re not going to get five every game, but as much as you can put your foot on the other team’s throat and get chances, attack, and get in behind, you’re gonna turn defenses and you’re gonna score goals. So it’s just about keeping that mindset going forward.”

Before freeing Griffin from the confines of his post-practice interview session, as the team prepares to hopefully repeat last weekend’s performance against Hartford Athletic this Saturday, we got word that three Hounds would feature in USL Championship’s Team of the Week, with one Hound player receiving an even bigger honor – as Junior Etou was named Player of the Week. Add to that Lilley receiving the Coach of the Week award and Robbie Mertz making the TotW bench, and it was five Hounds in total receiving league-wide honors for their showing against Oakland.

With a two-goal performance, the first of his professional career and doubling his career USL Championship tally, Etou was more than deserving of the honor. Playing as a left wingback this season for the Hounds, Etou has been crucial to the team’s successes – constantly creating dangerous chances for himself and his teammates, and creating space for everyone around him with his presence on the wing. Griffin was effusive about Etou’s impact on the team and how he lifted the squad this past Saturday.

“Oh, it’s enormous for us. I’m proud of him and happy for him to get the two goals this week. He’s been a big part, he’s drawn, I don’t know how many penalties for us, four or five. He’s been enormous for us – his speed, his pace, his technical abilities, his quality. I think it’s important that he continues that, and yeah, definitely proud of the performances he’s put on.

Even when teams know that he’s a dangerous player, and even when they bring one or two guys, he knows when to pick out the right pass, he knows when to get in behind, he knows when to go at a guy. So yeah, his performances have been big for us and we’re going to need that going forward, always.”

With the Riverhounds at home for the next two matches to close out the month of July, the pressure is on to maximize the six available points against Hartford Athletic and Loudoun United. Things only get more difficult as the season progresses – with back-to-back road contests in early August in a three-match week, the Hounds will look to right the ship sooner than later and give themselves a platform on which to build a playoff run.

The Hounds return to action this Saturday, July 20th, at Highmark Stadium with Hartford coming to town.

We’ll be back with part three from Danny Griffin with our three-quarters season Captain’s Quarters post in late August.