Movsisyan: “It doesn’t matter who you are”

Yura Movsisyan’s reaction to Saturday’s loss to Minnesota United has been distinct: He’s ready to hit the reset button on reputation and past performances.

In an interview on Monday during OnFrame on RSL-owned ESPN700, Movsisyan made clear his thoughts on what’s expected moving forward under newly promoted Mike Petke.

“It doesn’t matter who you are,” Movsisyan said. “If you’re a DP, you have to do your job. That’s what you’re getting paid for. It doesn’t matter if you’re a U.S. international or a young guy who’s playing, you have to show up. You can’t have excuses. You have to show up to play at this level.”

While it’s tempting to read between the lines on this — and there are multitudes of ways to spin this — Movsisyan’s clearly unhappy with performances. He’s also made clear that includes his own.

“Everybody has the same opportunity to show up in training,” he said. “If you can do it better than me, and if not, then I will play, because I do it better than you.”

Movsisyan made particularly clear that he’s not concerned with names, and that the reset starts now.

“First you play for your name, then your name plays for you,” he said. “But there comes a time you have to come back to zero, and you have to prove that you earned that name, and not because of media hype and not because of anything.

“The only message that should matter is we’re all equal,” Movsisyan said. “Going from guy number 25 or number 27 to guy number one, player number one that is considered on the team. We’re all equal. We will all be given the same chance. I met Mike and we had a good conversation. The only thing I wanted to hear is that everybody’s going to be given the same chance. If I’m better at what I do, I’ll play, and if I’m not, I won’t. That’s the way it is in world football, in any successful line of work.

Post-game quotes

Movsisyan’s post-match quotes from Saturday’s loss are also relevant here, so enjoy.

We made some silly mistakes, and this is the outcome.

Listen, man, I’ve been around too long to know that you can’t make a chance like that without going through difficult times. It’s just about grinding it out, finding our feet again. I think Daryl’s done a good job, and now it’s about getting back to normal and getting back to how everything was and the way we should do things.

Going back to zero. Going back to step one and taking baby steps. Obviously, a new coach, a new beginning for the players. Everybody’s got to step up, everybody’s got to prove that they’re worth of playing and being in the starting eleven. It doesn’t matter whose name it is, who’s got how many caps, everybody’s got to start from zero and show up.