FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – If the New England Revolution are aiming for more consistency in 2016, then so too is Andrew Farrell.
“Kind of like the (team’s) season went, I had ups and downs this year,” Farrell said after wrapping up a rollercoaster 2015 campaign three weeks ago. “You try not to do that as a player; you want to be consistent. I think I had some really good performances and some ones that I would love to forget. It’s still a work in progress.”
If Farrell was inconsistent in 2015 it’s largely because he spent much of the season learning on the job. After spending the first two years of his professional career primarily at right back, he made the full-time switch to central defense in year three following the departure of veteran A.J. Soares.
There’s a sense that Farrell always projected as a long-term center back after he was taken first overall in the 2013 MLS SuperDraft. He spent a chunk of his college career playing in central defense and 10 of his 32 regular-season appearances in 2014 came in the middle of New England’s backline.
But there was still a learning curve upon making the switch. Not only did Farrell have to build an on-field relationship with central defensive partner Jose Goncalves, he also had to shift his approach to the game.
“It’s a difficult transition, because you must do other movement and it’s different,” said Goncalves. “People expect you to do brilliant from the first game until the last one. You will make mistakes and you must learn from those mistakes, and do better the next time you step on the field.
“It’s not in one year that you will make massive improvement. You make it step by step, day by day.”
Farrell is confident that there was steady improvement from January through October, even if there were some bumps along the way. He was on the field for four of the Revolution’s five straight losses in June and July, but he also played every minute of the club-record six-game winning streak later in the year.
Both experiences were important for his development.
“It’s always tough to learn when you’re losing, but also we won a lot and I was back there,” said Farrell. “I like the position a lot. I liked it in college. I think getting a lot of games and even having bad games, the coaches putting faith back in me and keeping me in there, it’s all a learning process.”
There were times when Farrell needed to have that faith restored. Like many top athletes, Farrell is his own biggest critic, and even the slightest mistake throughout a 90-minute performance can bother him for days. In a lot of ways, he’s a perfectionist.
Goncalves believes it’s his young counterpart’s most valuable attribute.
“It’s very important that you want to improve,” said Goncalves, seven years Farrell’s senior and a bit of a mentor along the backline. “That was the most important and I think he did that.
“He learned. He was very frustrated and he’s young. This is normal, because if he’s not frustrated, it means he doesn’t care. He shows that he cares. I believe that he’s only going to improve.”
And at just 23 years old, Farrell still has plenty of time to improve. He’ll enter his fourth year as a pro with more than 100 MLS appearances (regular season and postseason) under his belt, not to mention the experience of starting an MLS Cup.
More than 40 of those appearances have now been at center back, and while the learning process will continue into 2016 (and throughout his career), Farrell is confident that his first full year in central defense has given him the base he needed to thrive at the position moving forward.
“It was a good first year at center back,” Farrell said. “I’m still learning the position, there are still a lot of things I can improve on that can help this team get to where we need to be and where I think everybody knows that we can get.
“I think it was a good year. I really enjoyed it. I love the position, I love to play, so hopefully next year we can go all the way and I can keep growing as a player.”
