Apparently the Red Bulls’ motto is if it ain’t broke, break it and make it better. They are banking this pressure-filled season on that kind of thinking.
“I never want to be status quo. I never want to sit on the success we’ve had,’’ coach Jesse Marsch said.
Last month, they traded away captain Dax McCarty just two days after his wedding. Last week, they parted ways with sporting director Ali Curtis despite the best two-year stretch in club history.
That’s how they’re starting a season that’s expected to end with an MLS Cup. But Marsch batted away questions about McCarty or Curtis, including when asked by The Post whether he was barred or forbidden to discuss his former boss.
“Listen man, this has been the talking points on the outside, right? What’s going on here, what’s going on there, and I’ll tell you straight up: There’s been no distraction within our group and within our club,’’ said Marsch, who denied reports he’d been up for the job at Austrian sister club Red Bull Salzburg.
“There’s great clarity and it’s just a matter now of defining roles on the inside so it’ll enable us all to do our jobs at the highest level. That’s what’s most important now. It’s not looking back at what happened, but trying to solidify who and what we are moving forward. That’s what we’ll accomplish in a big way; I know that.”
They’d better. After finishing atop the MLS standings two seasons ago and the Eastern Conference last year, the Red Bulls failed to reach MLS Cup both times. They said they don’t have enough time to worry about comings and goings.
“It’s easy [to ignore]. We’ve got bigger things. We’ve got [CONCACAF] Champions League quarterfinals on Wednesday,’’ said forward Bradley Wright-Phillips. “As much as people on the outside may think, it’s got nothing to do with us. We go and we train and we go home. Apart from the game on Wednesday, that’s what we focus on.”
Goalkeeper Luis Robles concurred.
“Does it hurt to lose a friend and a teammate, someone you’ve battled with the last few years? Absolutely, that’s a part of the business that’s very brutal,’’ Robles said. “As far as the way we handle our business, it’s still the same: Next man up.”
The Red Bulls made other changes, namely dumping their 4-2-3-1 formation for a 4-2-2-2 with Gonzalo Veron expected to be pushed up higher. It’ll help Wright-Phillips, the league’s leading goal scorer last season, see more of the ball with a partner off his shoulder, and help them high press even more effectively.
League assist leader Sacha Kljestan, who’ll move a little wider from his central spot, replaces McCarty as captain.
“We still haven’t won [a] MLS Cup, and that’s the one thing I talked about when I was first introduced to this team,” said Kljestan, who missed a penalty kick in the Eastern Conference semifinal loss to Montreal.
“It’s not a question we’re ducking,’’ Robles said. “We understand we’ve had a lot of regular-season success the past four years, but it has to translate in to the playoffs.”
Marsch hopes midfielder Tyler Adams (ankle) can be back in one or two weeks. He praised the quick assimilation of new Panamanian right-back Amir Murillo.
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