Manhattan, for several seasons, has had a very strong core of top players, giving them many strong lineups to utilize. But despite this strength, their team's performance unquestionably has not fulfilled their hopes, being near the bottom of the Eastern Division for both of the last two seasons throughout the year.

One of the Applesauce's troubles seems to lie in their lack of consistency, with at least one of their top players always managing to have a very tough season. But the main thing that has tripped them up has questionalbly been the bottom board, having finished with at the bottom of the league in Board Four score each of the last two years..

With their solid veterans, including two of their best performers in recent seasons, IM Eli Vovsha and FM Andrei Zaremba, Manhattan has every reason to be confident in what their performance might be on the middle boards. But the key to their success will likely lie in their ability to solve their Board Four troubles, and the responsiblity for that will likely mostly fall to former Shark, NM Matan Prilleltensky, as well as their still rising young star, NM James Black. Should Manhattan manage to reach a more reasonable plateau on the bottom board, with the aforementioned players manning the middle and the third highest rated player in the League, GM Alex Stripunsky, available at the top, 2011 could well prove to be a break out year for the Applesauce.