Thierry Henry used the eve of the New York Red Bulls' playoff game against Sporting Kansas City to express both his disappointment with teammate Bradley Wright-Phillips' record-equaling output while maintaining his belief the striker deserves to be voted MVP.
Wright-Phillips scored twice in the Red Bulls' final match of the regular season to tie the MLS scoring mark with 27 goals.
But speaking to media at Red Bull Arena, Henry reiterated a point he'd previously made when Wright-Phillips broke the club scoring record earlier in the season -- Wright-Phillips should have had more goals.
"I was upset. He knows -- he was upset himself. You saw it, you saw when the ref blew the whistle, I won't say what he said, but you could he was upset and that was the right attitude and that's why he reached that level this year. Because he wanted more and more and more," Henry said.
"And when I say I was upset, I'll explain -- no disrespect anybody or anything, Bradley, and I'm being kind of OK with it, I'm not going too far is what I mean, Bradley should have had 50 goals this year. If you look at the amount of goals he missed, one-v-one with the keeper ... and I'm not having a go.
"And that's why I kept on putting that in his head, because you want that guy ... because let's be honest, if it wasn't for him I don't know if we would have made the playoffs."
A hat trick against Seattle on Sept. 20 brought Wright-Phillips to 24 goals with five games remaining. But he scored just once in the following four games and needed to wait until the final 20 minutes of the season to tie the league record.
"I'm just saying, 'Now what?' You have to poke him a bit, and he likes that, you can see, he's never satisfied," Henry said of Wright-Phillips. "That's the type of thing you want from your goal-scorer, but I was upset in that way because I was upset he didn't beat it. That's my point -- he's with some guys, and it's always good if you're the guy."
Despite his constructive criticism, Henry was also keen to emphasize Wright-Phillips' contribution to New York's campaign, and to express his belief that for his consistency throughout the year, his teammate deserves to see off other challengers for MVP.
"He knows he missed so many opportunities, but how can I not remember playing here with 10 men and he curled that ball into the top corner with his left foot, or so many goals where we're not even in the game and suddenly he appears?" Henry asked. "He had an amazing season, but since you go back to my first thought, when he did it I was upset, because I'm like 'He should have been alone there.' Then after when you reflect a bit and you come back, I saw him the day after and now I'm like, 'Well done.'
"I know a lot of people are talking about Robbie Keane, and [Lee] Nguyen, and rightly so because they had an amazing season. And some others -- Landon Donovan finished ever so well, and some other guys ... but no disrespect to anyone, Bradley's been doing that since Day 1.
"Not finished well. Not played well in the middle, or started well. He started, was still there in the middle, and finished well -- he played well from the beginning, perhaps you forget the first three games, but you can virtually say the beginning up until the end, and the thing is Player of the Season. Player. Of. The. Season.
"Not the last three months, not the middle months, or not the five first games. Player of the Season. Did you play well the whole season? How many games did Bradley have? 32? That's why for me he would get my vote."