Colorado Rapids back Pablo Mastroeni amid Jason Kreis link

Colorado Rapids president Tim Hinchey lent his support to struggling manager Pablo Mastroeni, branding it "disrespectful" to talk up Jason Kreis as a superior successor to the former midfielder.

New York City FC sacked Kreis after the franchise failed to make the Major League Soccer playoffs in its inaugural campaign, and the former MLS MVP has been linked with the role at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

Mastroeni is still in charge of the ailing outfit, though, despite calls from some for him to be fired.

"I think it's disrespectful to call (Kreis) 'an obvious upgrade over Pablo,'" Hinchey told MLSsoccer.com. "I have a head coach, so I'm not interested in commenting on other people that are available."

This past season, the Rapids tallied a league-low 33 goals, with their manager possessing a sorry record of 17 wins in 68 outings since taking over in 2014. Despite this, Hinchey insists the club has improved under Mastroeni.

"When you strip down the components and look at the positives and the negatives, the negatives certainly outweigh the positives, but we've made progress. Maybe not the sort of progress in certain areas that we'd like, but there has been progress."

Instead of ousting the Argentine, Hinchey's looking to hire an experienced head to assist the manager.

"We never really hired a really experienced, top assistant after Wilmer (Cabrera) and the whole group left. That's something we're interested in doing," Hinchey explained. "An experienced coach that can help the entire club and specifically help Pablo is a good thing."