I'm not ready to excuse our offense and say it's just bad luck. With the weapons we have we should be scoring more often, and with more possession and with more flair. Yes, I believe that. We have flipping LD, David Beckham and Robbie Keane. Come on. Yes, those three don't make up 11, but Bruce Arena has the tools to build around. The SKC Opta pictures really helped me understand our problems. Bruce should be able to see those problems too - he needs to be fixing them opposed to hanging out and hoping we turn it around due to luck. On offense in particular. Our record isn't just due to bad luck. Yes, we squandered chances, but good teams don't do that. We may say this league is parity, but I overall don't believe that any more. RSL, SKC, even Seattle, have the tools to be pulling away from the pack. We should be in that list. The Western conference just looks better. I firmly believe that. It's not La Liga, but the world of "it's parity, anything can happen" - meh. The good teams put games away. And that's exactly what RSL is doing right now, minus every once in awhile (hello Chivas game) when $hit happens.
I have a serious question which I would appreciate an honest answer from anyone, It's about bruce arena the manager not the GM. I've been hearing for sometime now the term arena bunker ball and I know cyclonis is not to keen on old bruce. Is it his tactics, his line up choices, his lack of knowledge of attractive free flowing football? Now I am in no way comparing MLS to La Liga or the Premiership but after watching a day full of action from said leagues today, I started to wonder? Why the hell don't we play that style or a mix of it? I mean our athlete's are just as fast and fit right? Whats the problem then? Does the ball fly and bounce different in europe than here? Do MLS managers (I put them all in the same boat) not like fast paced football? It really isn't hard to figure out where the players have to go with the ball. Yes some natural magic that players have over there is shall we say extremely lacking in players here. But aside from bad habits of college ball (yes I hate ncaa sawker it sucks to me that's my opinion) all I can come up with is this. Why would a player here making 20-45K put forth the great physical effort and risk serious bodily injury like some player making millions of dollars or euros? So is it all of the above or is arena really an over hyped manager that wouldn't even be allowed to manage a reserve side across the pond? Thank you to anyone who answers for taking time to read this.
Arena must be very content with himself after winning two games in a row, even IF we 6th in the West and 9th overall. Chivas has saved his bacon yet again, as this Lopes in making people forget about the power of Gonzilla. However, significant obstacles remain. If Keane and Beckham leave for international tournaments this summer, our team will struggle to find creativity. That plus our overall crappy play leaves me scratching my head. Does Arena have the mental capacity to think of a way to get out from the shadow that the smurfs are casting over us right now? Does he possess the opposable digits to dictate where the ball should be played?
The Cyclonis “Bitching about Brucey for Beginners” Handbook Scenario #1: The Galaxy are playing like crap, have no offense, no defense and are averaging 5% of possession per game (for reference, see New England last season) Ready-made comment: “Bruce Out!! It’s a complete disaster and we’ll never win any games playing like this!! This must change ASAP!! If anybody wants me, I’ll be chained to the hood of Bruce’s car in protest…” Scencario #2: The Galaxy are mediocre, losing most of their games and not looking like being in playoff contention (Chivas USA most of the time) “Bruce Out!! It’s criminal that a team with our resources is at risk of missing the playoffs!! We need to make moves and Bruce has let us down thus far!! If anybody needs me, leave a voice mail. I’ll be on the line, whining to my ticket rep!!” Scenario #3: The Galaxy are playing competently, but unspectacularly, grinding out results. Not an MLS favourite, but will probably make post season (The Average Chicago Fire Season) “Bruce Out!! For a team of our magnitude, we should be talking about the Supporters Shield, not simply making the playoffs!! I will attend games under protest and will be polite enough to clap if we score… but note that I am displeased!” Scenario #4: The Galaxy are playing good, solid soccer. The Supporters Shield might be just outside their reach, but they’re dark horses for the MLS Cup on current form (latter day FC Dallas) “Bruce Out!! Dark Horses?? Dark Horses?? Are we the Los Angeles Galaxy, or Sea Biscuit? We should start each season with our names engraved on the SS, to be deleted if we somehow lose our entire roster to a freak solar flare and don’t bring it home. Not good enough. I may have spent the entire last match smiling, but at least 30% of that was due to wind.” Scenario #5: Best in the west after a solid season, looking forward to a good playoff push (LAG 2009) “Bruce Out!! I don’t care that we’re the number one team in the west, we should be top seed without a question! It’s all well and good season. We’re the Galaxy. Does Tiger Woods go out to have a “good tournament”? Do the Lakers get excited about being top of the Pacific Division? We should ditch Bruce now and bring in a World Class coach to make sure we achieve our minimum aim of winning the MLS Cup. I may have been heard to scream “Bruce I love you” when we clinched our playoff berth, but dammit, I was drunk and possibly being ironic. I don’t remember. But I’m not satisfied.” Scenario #6: Supporters Shield and MLS Cup (LAG 2011) “Bruce Out!! What a dull way to win mandatory titles!! This is LA! “Winning” is for men having mild psychotic breaks that get them fired from their gravy-train primetime sitcom. We’re bigger than that. We should be crushing opposition in the CONCACAF Champions League and winning every domestic competition as a hobby! Don’t be fooled by my sprinting across the HDC turf as we were being awarded the cup! I remain disgruntled” Scenario # 7: Winning all honors available, home and abroad, culminating with a 6-0 trouncing of Barcelona in the Club World Cup Final “BRUCE OUT!!!! I don’t care that he signed Messi, & Ronaldo who agreed to play for non-DP salaries just to play on an LAG that Arena has made so world-famous that they simply wanted to be here!! The fact is that his 2-1-7 formation is far too conservative. And why is it necessary? Because we frequently turn over the ball an average of 3 times per game. With the talent at Arena’s disposal, we should be in possession of the ball 99.999999% of every game (the other team will have Kick Offs – I’m not unrealistic). I also only orgasm an average of six times per match. Every game should be wave after wave of physical and spiritual ecstasy for the full ninety minutes plus stoppage time!! It’s time we ditched this loser and got a coach that can make this team transcend the physical plain. That should be the minimum for a Los Angeles franchise!!”
barroldinho was, like, channeling a TequilaJoal rant, if TJ were actually funny and intelligible. Definitely an all-time epic post. I'll take this opportunity to point out the statistical relationship between posts in the Fire Bruce thread and LAG winning percentage, with a lag factor of a few weeks... so rant on, people, it fuels the club's success! Bruce obviously needs us superfans to light a fire under his ass. Here's mine: it's criminal that Bruce is not making better use of Sarvas so far. Fire Bruce!
I don't know what is worse.. BigSoccer's new look, or Arena's cockamamie idea of leaving Becks and Keane at home! Ummm.. does it look like we are top of the league with points to spare? *sigh* Even worse, the team that knocked us out of the CCL has not won a game since!!! I say, seeing how Arena has apparently thrown in the towel and our only goal this season is to make the playoffs, fire him now to give his replacement time to adjust.
We're the LA Galaxy, our standard is to be a world-class club, nothing less. When world-class clubs have a dire run of results with players drastically underperforming and multiple tactical problems across the pitch, and the season in peril, they shake things up with a coaching change. No coach is larger than a superclub. Not even Mourinho, and certainly not Bruce Arena. We have the talent. We have enough games left to turn it around. Big Tim needs to pull the trigger RIGHT NOW. Bus for Bruce.
Save me a window seat on the 'Fire Brucey' bus. The team has quit on him. I thought we'd have Arena here for a number of years but at this point I'd be surprised to see him last the season...
With the talent we have we should be playing attractive soccer. That said, we should either drop Bruce within a month or two and cut our losses or see out the rest of the season and drop him then. Either way I feel like we need new blood and a breathe of fresh air. Someone younger.
I think we should go the TFC route. Bruce should go into full time GM mode while we get a proven manager from overseas (ala aron winter pronounced "vinter") or from south america. We need a tactitian who understands winning football matches requires scoring GOALS. No doubt bruce is a master at finding talent in MLS drafts and supplemental draft or re-entry drafts etc. But getting real talent from overseas I think he comes up short on that one. We need a manager that can get the right pieces in place and motivate the club to play strong defense while pushing fast pace football with capable use of narrow spaces. The passing looks like it's in slow motion and ayso standard while our crossing save DB23 is looking like it's on a transatlantic flight. Then when it gets there 9hrs later there is not 1 capable body in the box to head or tap it in. So we need a new philosophy for playing football and we need to release some players who contribute nothing but putting their butts on the bench just my opinion.
I am sorry to step into your forum but I dont want to create another thread about my assumptions or opinions. Let's just say Bruce goes to front office, can david beckham become the player/coach? If that the case, would he still be part of the salary cap? Isn't that a loophole to sign another DP?
I'm sure if the Galaxy asked nicely, the league would create that loophole for us. That said, except for laughing at the butthurt that would run through the rest of the league, I can't see how that would do anything for us. Bex gets pouty when things aren't going his way, and I think that scenario would only make things worse. Plus, I'm not sure he'd make all that good a coach.
Well they beat us in CCL and of course we would make it work better than those mothercanuckers! LA is a footballing city (real football ok) whilst toronto is a hockey city. A brilliant football mind from an ajax system or any system outside ncaa tactics would be an upgrade.
I was reluctant to join this but I am on board after New York. Arena has lost the dressing room, they have no drive whatsoever anymore If this goes on for much longer the fans need to start chanting to oust him so AEG listens
I am willing to put a million dollars that not only has his name passed around they have given it serious thought. Mourinho is an amazing manager and I would KILL for him to be the Galaxy man but until the salary cap is loosened enough he needs more money. He did amazing at Porto with limited funds however but still the salary cap is too strict right now for him, it needs to be doubled before he can make a serious dent
haha, but 'Fi-re Ah-ree-na!' is so much less catchy than those old 'Fi-re Si-gi' chants that used to echo through HDC. Maybe 'Fi-re Bru-cey!' that probably sounds better...
Take a look at how "world-class clubs" are run in Europe. Real Madrid and Barcelona have financial freedom and the ability to almost-literally sign whoever they want. We have the freedom to sign whichever three DPs are prepared to come and play here, then we have the same salary restriction as everybody else. Three players, regardless of how good, do not make a team. No matter what AEG Timmy likes to peddle, Galaxy are not even on the radar of Superclubs. Look around the league... every team is a key-player between a winning and losing streak. Now if you truly wanted to criticise Arena, I've given some pointers on the NY match thread. He's made some stupid decisions this season (mainly in his roster handling between the CCL Toronto games and gambling away the Seattle result in a bid to guarantee 3 pts vs New York). However, a coach who can take us to multiple Supporters Shields, two MLS finals and a Championship, is not that easy to find. That record for me, is enough to give Bruce more time. I'll forgive him those errors if he can right the ship and doesn't make any more. It's also worth noting that our issues are less to do with Bruce's system and more to do with individual mistakes. If Lopes, Myer, Franklin, Boyens and AJ were doing what they were supposed to and Keane, Buddle, Donovan, Barrett, Magee and Cristman were doing a better job of converting their chances, we'd be doing fine. Hell, why am I even bothering: most of you wanted Bruce out during a title-winning season.
I'm not in the "Fire Arena" camp yet, though I'm not far from joining it if we don't see improvement soon. Therein lies the rub. We haven't seen game on game improvement. We've seen moderate progression in some games, massive regression in others. It's just not a consistent situation of "we may be losing games, but we're working toward something better". This is the culmination of years of 3 years of squad building. I'll give far more patience to a coach in a rebuilding year, but the fact is we have only lost one player from last years SS and MLS Cup winning (and CCL group topping) team, and have added two, on their day, elite MLS strikers in Buddle and Keane. We shouldn't have seen this regression. It points to a larger problem than players. Granted, players haven't been playing well. Most of the goals we concede come from secondary runs into the box, which should have midfielders marking them. Our center-backs aren't the problem (though Lopes and Boyens are disasters). Sean is getting beat like a drum down the right, and our central midfield tandem isn't tracking back. That's the big problem on defense. On offense, our problems are well documented. No off the ball movement, poor finishing, no creativity, ineffective long balls, yada yada yada. Bruce isn't a sexy coach, he's a results oriented coach. He doesn't play attractive soccer, but he's very good with working with very little. Bruce would be the archetypal coach you'd want if you were a newly promoted team. He's an underdog's coach. So in summary, we're supposed to be at the peak of some footballing crescendo. Our squad hasn't changed much from 2010 and 2011 when we were back to back SS champs. We've only, on paper, gotten better players. Why aren't the results coming? Though you touch one something I agree with, namely that there really aren't a ton of options available to us insofar as proven MLS coaches. We have a few approaches: 1. Young, newly retired, inexperienced coach 2. Experienced Foreign Manager with MLS GM 3. Former MLS coach retread (Nicol, etc) Number one and number three seem highly unlikely with the way AEG runs the club, so since there really aren't any high profile American managers floating around, we're kind of stuck with a foreign manager. It would be interesting to see if we could finagle former MLS manager Carlos Alberto Parreira. Not that he knows anything about MLS in it's most current form, or that his stint with the MetroStars was amazing, but at least he has an idea of the rules and regulations. There is, and this is out of left field, the option of seeing if we could get Sigi back from Seattle. Highly unlikely, and I'm not sure what it would involve (we'd have to trade for him?), but it would be a proven MLS manager returning home to a club that appreciates him. In any sense, there has to be a "cut your loses" point here. Maybe Bruce has hit his wall. It's a situation where even if you don't know your next few moves, firing a coach who is taking a very talented team to the bottom of the table is step one. We've got two former MLS managers ready in the interim in Sarachin and Onalfo. For those who aren't on the "Fire Bruce" train, what will it take to get you there? I need to see immediate improvement.
If we don't see steady improvement from here to say, the RSL game in mid June, then I think that's enough time to say he's lost the squad and a drastic change is required. However, I don't think our expensive squad should necessarily be spared either. Beckham needs to play like a sensible adult instead of picking up cheap yellow after cheap yellow for doing stupid things. His constant wandering, long balls, reckless tackles, tantrums at refs and rumoured tiffs with teammates is all too reminiscent of 2008 Beckham. I'm wondering if my theory from back then (that he doesn't know how to handle being in a team that's not winning) has some merit.
Yeah, he is a fantastic coach, but I do fear that he'd have the same shell-shockness that Ruud had. However, if the Galaxy did bring him in, it'd be a ********in coup for the MLS. You never know, he did say that one day he'd like to coach in the MLS, so I definitely agree with you that good ole Timmy has looked into it.
