With the preseason almost upon us, Head Coach Chris Armas shared his thoughts on the players the New York Red Bulls drafted in Day 1 of the 2020 SuperDraft. Also, he shared what he was able to observe during his visit to RB Leipzig in Germany.

Here are the statements that stood out:

On trip to Leipzig

“The offseason, in general, is a time that we don’t usually get to take a step back and reflect on the good things and ways to improve. Heading to Leipzig, that opportunity was presented, and it was a no-brainer. I got over there, and saw a shared philosophy, and different principles that we have. How can we add to it? How can we just be exposed to something that’s very different from what we can get in this country. Just getting the inside look into how they work over there, on and off the field, and the methodology that goes with it. It’s just really interesting. It’s interesting from Julian’s [Nagelsmann] perspective, the head coach. It was an amazing trip. I maximized it; I’m truly grateful to our club that I had the opportunity, and that they welcomed me over there and really let me in on things.”

On the work achieved during the 2020 SuperDraft

“Our staff did a great job. It’s not easy work because it’s not always in front of you, but Jimmy Mulligan, one of our scouts, put so much effort towards it. He gets a lot of credit, watching games, cutting edits, film-work, meeting hundreds of players and coaches. He did a good job there. Paul Fernie, our Head of Scouting, was part of the process with our Red Bull Combine and then enjoying the MLS Combine.”

On Wallis Lapsley

“Wallis Lapsley, a goalkeeper, he’s a physical presence but has a really good mentality towards how we play. He’s comfortable playing off his line with our style of play. He’s a talent and will be fun to work with the mentality piece.”

On Patrick Seagrist

“Patrick Seagrest, when we picked first, we would have traded up more than we did. We just see a guy with qualities that are rare in the college game, where guys come out checking the boxes. He’s a left-back, aggressive, gets up the field and comes back around. He plays our philosophy, and at the left-back position we see a big talent.”

On Cherif Dieye

“Cherif [Dieye] has really interesting qualities in the attacking end of the field, that we feel you can’t teach. His shiftiness, his soccer intelligence, his play against the ball should be fun to work with because, again, some of that you wonder where he has learned that natural gift in the attacking third.”

On Deri Corfe

“Deri Corfe, he’s a really interesting one because we got to see him at our combine, whether it’s fair or not, we compare him to [Dimitar] Berbatov, the striker from back in the day. Taller, soft feet, elegant, and clear inside the box. Again, you can’t teach the qualities that he has. He has a really interesting soccer brain and our commitment against the ball. He’s coachable.”