Coach Pauliina - what is she doing wrong or right?

Is it time to blame the coach, or do we have some other problem? Please share your thoughts, ideas, fears and knee-jerk reactions.

What is she doing right? Don’t know


What is she doing wrong?

- Wants to play in a system (although you can barely call it a system) that doesn't suite the team. Because she is supposed to be a coach, she should notice that her system doesn't work and adjust it to something that does work. A lot of talent in this team and she just ruins it because she stubbornly holds to her system.

- We have great offensive players: she doesn't use them according to their ability. Her system is: defend, defend, defend and it almost seems if she's telling her players: do not cross the mid-line, we’re just gonna hope a goal comes falling from the sky. Sometimes she had luck, such as the game against gold pride, but it could have been easily 5-0 for gold pride.
She takes the joy out of the game.

If you then hear that Landström wanted to leave as quickly as possible because she thought the coach sucked. And that the word goes Kai wasn’t selected and was just sitting at home because she was banded from practice earlier due to probably a conflict with Miettinen. And soccerreigns has posted here in another topic that also the other players aren’t happy with her system, well then you know something is wrong.
[FONT=&quot]Whether these rumours are true or false, if rumours like this go around, something isn’t right.

Hope the sky blue management takes action.
[/FONT]

I think it's unfair to put so much blame on the coach. Could she do a better job? Definitely. But the team is injury plagued. Your midfield is the biggest issue right now. I think you really miss McCallum. She really added to your midfield last year and its evident that you need someone like her. Lloyd would have been that person, but you dont have that "true" replacement. Averbuch is adequate. White shouldnt be playing centrally, she has that great pace as a wing mid.

Ha ha!

Okay, first, why exactly was Kai not on board for this last game (which is very weird), and if you know why, how do you know?

Second, I don't understand the first sentence. 'justice league buffet' ...has to play together... huh?

I know Mookie can speak for herself but I thought Justice League buffet = collection of super talented players.

And I'm guessing that as long as SBFC is in a playoff spot Miettinen keeps her job. Unless she hits someone or other foolishness.

eta: I will add that the Home/Away record for the team is crazy -- 4 wins away to 1 at home. Of course, SBFC has played 3 more road games than home games.

well, someone else posted that the breakers had their first home win since july 15, 2009. now that's crazy.

If they don't fire her this week, almost hoping they lose against the beat so they have no other option anymore besides getting rid of her

but ofcourse can't really hope for that, don't want them to lose.

i'm sure christie rampone always open to coach

This Kai issue really has to be cleared up immediately. I posted on my blog that we need to see a photo of Kai with a current newspaper held up to the camera or else we call the cops, but that's not going to put much pressure on the team.

I guess facebook posts are all we have at the moment.

But seriously, we just lost 0-2 last game, and now no one even knows where Tasha is? This is again where lack of media coverage is causing problems. It's wrong and unfair that no one is pressing the coach about major player activities like this (and even Landström).

I only want what is best for the team, but this is not it.

The other way is too get rid of all the players who don't fit in her system and replace them by those who will fit in. Some managers have enough power to do that and you see it often in men's football at big club when a mamagers comes in bring 5 new guys and get rid of 5 or more...

From the games I saw on webcast Sky Blue seem to be a defense orientated team well drilled to get back in position when the ball is lost.
And of course it seems detrimental to attacking football. I would bet on a long term rebuilding project that starts with defending and will progressively morph into a more attacking structure over the next season ?

Her signings:
Fletcher
Kalmari
Koster
Panico
Salem
Taylor
Trotter
Thats 7 and you only asked for 5

Yes but that's men's soccer. And men's soccer still has way more money, way more fans and way more tradition than women's soccer. They can afford to do things like that. Even if a lot of fans don't like the new approach (for example: when benitez came to liverpool) , men's teams still have more than enough fans to fill the stadium, to buy shirts, etc...
If a women's team plays like crap or gets rid of (popular) players because they don't fit the system, a lot of fans will stay home and that would be a big problem for the womens league.

There isn't anything wrong with good defending or with getting back in position when the ball is lost (that's necessary if you want to be a good team). But that doesn't have to exclude attacking play of doesn't has to be detrimental to attacking football.
The thing is, if the players would have a notion of what they have to do, you would at least see that on the field/in the play. But it looks like if the midfielders and forwards have no clue of what they are supposed to do. And like scalvixen says: she got 7 new players...
And this team didn't need to be rebuild/totally changed. They were the champions last year... It wasn't all perfect of course but there was a good footing, so work/continue on the basis of last season instead of messing it all up...

I don't know how accessible the coaching staff is at WPS game but here in England supporters go and speak to team managers straight after the games in the car park. I mean the easiest way would be to ask the coach or her assistant directly what the game plan is.

Honest question:

Were all these signings spearheaded by Miettinen or the SBFC GM/front office. Teams approach new player signings differently. Some GMs are more actively involved than others and some choose players that may not be the best fit for the coach's plans.

Interesting question. You might want to direct this to the GM, who replied in the thread "Dear Sky Blue fans..."

Hello all....sorry for being delinquent. Tasha did not make the trip due to a situation that was handled within the team. It is over, Tasha is at practice and will be in uniform this weekend. Perhaps we made an error in not releasing that prior to the game. If so, sorry. As far as the team, we have certainly had our challenges and are lacking consistency, but fortunately are still getting points and maintaining our place in the standings. There is no doubt we need to pick it up and start to play to our strengths. This is not an excuse - but we have been dealt an awful lot of injuries and had to do some major line-up shuffling. We are not going to Sky Grey as someone said, simply need to work through some things and play to our potential. We appreciate all your support and hope to see you at the game this weekend. Keep holding us accountable - good fans do that and you are all good fans! As far as player selection - that is done together - sometimes it is spearheaded by the coach, sometimes by me or someone else - but no decisions are made by one person or in a vacuum. It is hard to stay up to date with Big Soccer - Twitter is faster and easier - or anyone can email me directly - gmarrone@skybluesoccer.com - I will respond.

Like probably everybody else I really appreciate it that you take the time and effort to react on the posts here. Thank you for doing that.
I still don't believe Miettinen is the right coach for this team, don't like what she is doing but I hope she proves me wrong, starting from this sunday against the Beat. I will support the team mentally from across the ocean

I hope they can beat atalnta too..but the rope will probably still be around the girls necks to stay back(especially the midfield and the defense). it seems like the outside backs never get forward like they did last year. the games I have been to this year and also watched on tv alot of the girls don't even seem like the same player from previous year. so i believe it is the system she has them playing and they habve no freedom to go forward very far. So i agree with you that she isn't the right coach for this team...

...speaking of which, is there a reason why dowling is getting less minutes than last season? she added a lot of spark on the offense from the back wing

i wonder the same thing.....who knows, she changes the lineup all the time..no chemistry whatsoever at this point....

I, too, wonder about Dowling's lack of pt. Is there some nagging injury of which we are not aware?

Also, I suppose I could post this question in the game thread but I'll post it here. When a team is down 0-1 why does a coach blow 2 subs at halftime on defenders (well, one defender & one holding/dmid)? That left SBFC with little room to adjust the forwards/offensive mids. I know that Schnur moved forward (into left mid position for chunks of time) but still, it made little sense to me. It felt like a pre-planned move that wasn't adjusted for what the in-game situation demanded. Anyone have a guess/thought as to what was going on? Was Dowling (the player subbed out) doing *that* badly in the 1st half?

don't know about dowling, but laura has a some calf muscle issues i believe.