Check out the Supporters' Shield standings in MLS, and you'll notice a trend about the bottom three teams in the league. The three sides — FC Cincinnati, New England Revolution, and Colorado Rapids — all have had numerous troubles early in 2019. And all three clubs, since May 1, have decided to make a change at the top: firing their coaches. Brad Friedel was the latest head coach out of a job, a day after his Revs side got trounced on the road 5-0 by the Chicago Fire. 

Maybe it seemed a bit soon to make these changes with two-thirds of the season left and with even more leeway to make the playoffs, as seven teams now making the second season from each conference. But in recent weeks, these under-performing coaches made their firings even easier by some of the statements they had made publicly. 

Anthony Hudson, who was in his second season with the Rapids, was the first to go last week. His side, who have yet to win a game in the league this year and have just two points to their name, had just lost a narrow 1-0 game on the road to Atlanta United. For some reason, Hudson picked that moment, that performance, to say this about his team: "We are fighting at the bottom with a bottom group of players."

There was no coming back for Hudson from that. The Rapids are currently saddled with some unsavory contracts at the moment, but they made a couple of strong signings in the offseason, picking up several MLS veterans that should have been able to help make Hudson's second season a bit easier than his first. Instead, Hudson decided to go the route of throwing his players under the bus, as if he was looking for a way out of the job.

Koch had a bit longer tenure with Cincy, who are in their first year in MLS. Koch had more success guiding the Queen City side in USL but found life tough at the top level. After a recent loss, Koch made a public appeal to get better players for his side, just ahead of the end of the primary transfer window. 

"Luke (Sassano) and his staff are trying to find additional players," Koch told the Enquirer last week after a loss to the Philadelphia Union. "We’ve only had one window as a club. We have another window coming up where we need to find additional players to improve the group. I think we’re very aware of it. It’s a project. You can’t play a group like Philly tonight and they’ve got quality players."

Koch's case to stay on as head coach wasn't helped a few days later after a 1-0 loss against a 10-man San Jose Earthquakes side. After that game, striker Fanendo Adi said that Cincinnati lacked an identity. 

"We just need to have an identity. We don’t have an identity yet... We have quality players, good players enough. Obviously, we’re playing a lot of players out of position and this is something we need to identify. We can’t play guys out of position and expect them to be excellent in those positions where they don’t play," Adi told the Enquirer. 

A pretty damning indictment from one of your star players. 

Friedel might not have thrown his players under the bus quite in the same fashion, but a couple of curious quotes from the second-year manager coupled with recent awful results seemed to make his dismissal a matter of when, not if. 

Hung up on the pressure that he thought MLS players should have to face, Friedel essentially seemed to support fan violence earlier this year, even against his own players. 

Brad Friedel isn’t sold on MLS’ mentality. pic.twitter.com/A9B6prsVN3

— B/R Football (@brfootball) March 29, 2019

On the field, things hadn't been going much better for Friedel's side. With just two wins on the season, the Revs are tied with the Rapids with the most losses this year with eight. In their last four games, New England have conceded three, four, five, and six goals. In the space of four days, they lost 6-1 and 5-0, the kind of performances which leave an uneasy taste in everyone's mouths. 

In year's past, this kind of form might have been tolerated a bit more in MLS. Yes, some franchises have stuck with some managers much longer than others would have. Montreal Impact owner Joey Saputo has been known to make changes at the drop of a hat, while Ben Olsen survived a three-win season with D.C. United in 2013. That's an extreme case, but it appears now, as the league expands and as more money is poured into player acquisitions, that pressure is being ramped up on those in charge of the 24 MLS teams.

MLS hasn't quite reached the levels of managerial turnover as other leagues around the world, but the past week has shown that organizations feel more emboldened to make the necessary changes in hopes of salvaging a season that might have been otherwise lost.