The Moyes firing is a good example of a club demanding excellence and results. With the off season acquisitions I think the Union were trying to raise the club's standards for achievement, and it seems clear the manager is impeding progress. Hack must go.
The Moyes firing is interesting for a couple reasons. 1. You can view it as a short-sighted decision that is likely to disrupt the stability of Manchester United for a few seasons. The new manager will want to bring in his own players and will apparently not even have a year to demonstrate that his approach can be successful. 2. It also suggests the importance of finding the right manager when you do have an opening. This is why the decision to retain Hackworth (instead of conducting a real search for a Nowak replacement) was a huge mistake. Hackworth wasn't promoted for his excellence; he just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Or the Union get 2 points for DRAWS... Haven't you heard....the goal is to finish 5th. We are only the Philadelphia Union!! We would all be better off knowing our station, after all, its a lovely park and we are tied for 5th!! What more do you people want!??!
Ooh, maybe we can bring Freddy Adu back to replicate his 40+ minute Mother's Day performance against RBNY.
Easier said than done....might have to ask Aduesque where the hell he is..Adu has too much soccer IQ for the planet
For the hundreth time, it's like say Beetlegeuse three times. Say it enough and he will re-appear, and NOBODY wants that! Please, delete it. I want to delete it from the annals of my brain, but I can't unsee it.
So Jonathan Tannenwald put this on twitter If Hackworth did indeed utter this and does indeed believe this, he pretty much fails on every conceivable level as a head coach. Shots on goal is a very important stat because you know, if you have zero, you don't have any goals to your team's credit. It also means your team either through lack of midfield creativity or forwards inability to finish that your team failed to generate any meaningful attack. If the opposing GK can pretty much sit down and have lunch on the field and not have to worry about you threatening his net than yes, that is a problem. I swear to god, Hackworth's utterances as the season goes on only further serve to piss me off more and more.
Jonathan Tannenwald@thegoalkeeper18 mins Hackworth: “Aaron Wheeler has emerged… [and] has earned that right to be the first-choice center back."
Per Zeitlin: "Minutes after saying shots are an overrated stat, Hackworth says the Union 'have to pull the trigger a little more'."
Who knew that the Everton friendly was two coaches who were the mirror image of each other tactically. Thank god for the World Cup Break.
Thanks Daniel, nice meeting you too. My questions: Have you ever seen a coach try to force players into learning different positions as much as this one? Do you ever secretly wish the FO wouldn't make a deal that shoots ticket sales in the foot? Just once? Wherever they found Nogueira, can they go back and find players at LB,CB and F? Why did it take five seasons to get Tennents on tap? Nogs and that beer are the season highlights. Good seats though, thanks for the help. Scott Sent from my iPad On Apr 22, 2014, at 10:54 AM, "Wilson, Daniel" <dwilson@philadelphiaunion.com> wrote: Hey Scott, Great meeting yourself on Saturday. If you have any questions during the season let me know! Kind Regards, Daniel Account Executive | Philadelphia Union|Keystone Sports and Entertainment 2501 Seaport Drive| Suite 500| Chester, PA Ya'll might think I'd just tweet or forum my displeasure. I put my mouth where I sent my money.
Some fun stats. We get caught up in formations and like to see if we can help unlock how this team can reach their offensive juggernaut potential. When Hack said yesterday,"... I don’t think it’s a good one and it’s shots, or shots on goal. It’s a terrible stat for soccer." (http://www.phillysoccerpage.net/201...eo-of-john-hackworths-weekly-press-conference ) , I shook my head. And you guys did fantastic youtubing internetting of butt goals, frankly as effective as Hack's approach. So I took a look at MLS' weak stats page to see what would be a good stat. Besides the obvious of points and wins, how about goals? The Union have played 9 matches and scored 8 times. That is an average of 1.13 goals per match. Some quick excel work shows that puts the Union at 13th in terms of scoring rate. That tracks to their current Supporter Shield standing too. Despite Hack's assertion, shots are important. Shots on Goal are too. The ability to put it on frame increases the likelihood of scoring. The Union put 28.87% of their shots on target. Good enough for 17th. Yikes. They score 9.28% of the time they shoot, which is 12th in THE MLS. Again, maybe I've got correlation without causation, but that seems to track with results. So what? What does this mean? Well, shooting more would help. Shooting more accurately would help a lot more. So all we need now are players who shoot. Where they at?
Hackworth putting so much value into Wheeler is mystifying. It is like he needs to show us rubes that he know how to convert players to defense. Now we have a truly talented AM in Pedro Riberio getting converted to CB in Harrisburg. Why? Especially for a team that relies on crosses at the end of a game. Also, can someone from the media please ask why our forwards are coached to stay so stationary? What are Hackworth's thoughts about that? He can tout a possession oriented game plan, but what truly makes teams like Barca, Madrid and Bayern so dangerous is that they have movement in the final third that opens up passing lanes and/or shot opportunities. With their Midfielders running to join the play. Passing and switching the field is fine, but the lack of movement by the forwards is a coaching issue that needs to be corrected. When casual fans see it in the stands, there is a problem here. This is something that Hackworth should be challenged on his views. The other piece, is if you are going to counter-attack, put someone up top with some wheels. It was atrocious to watch Conner receive what could have been a breakaway situation and have him pull it back against Houston. If anything, drive for the goal and make Houston have to make a risky play (like earning a second red card for a tackle from behind). Then again, I think Hackworth's mind would be blown if we were up two men...
$10 says a new manager would not even have Wheeler in the 18 every week. Klopas, Arena, Vermes all probably sit at home and say, "If my team isn't getting results, they are not playing well, but I'm doing everything right.... could be worse, I could be an idiot like John though."