News: Peter Nowak Out/Hackworth as Interim [updated]

Interesting that you didn't mention RSL since they fired an incompetent coach (John Ellinger) after 3 seasons and have become one of the best teams in the league ever since despite a limited budget. Seems like a pretty good argument for getting rid of Nowak if you ask me.

Also, Gary Smith won the MLS Cup in his 3rd season (2nd if you don't count his partial interim year) and was not retained after his 4th year with the club so he's a pretty terrible example unless you think Nowak is going to lead the Union to an MLS Cup win this season and then get fired after next season.

This team has regressed since last year. We play an ugly style and don't get results either. If we don't make the playoffs, I don't see how anyone could that Nowak deserves to keep his job.

It's simply amazing that 8 years ago Nowak fielded offensive powerhouse teams with a pre-concussion Eskandarian and C. Gomez. He rejuvenated J. Moreno's career.

It is not to be taken lightly, but perhaps he needs to see a neurologist. It's like a totally different philosophy of coaching. I'd like to get Brian Carroll's take on it.

I think the biggest problem everyone is having is that the Union are playing boring soccer (at least that is my biggest problem). You cannot win games when you average 2 shots a game (probably under 2 now). The player roster movement is one thing to get people riled up but when you cannot shoot the damn ball it will not sit well with the fans. The previous two seasons we would have 2-3 times a game where everyone stood up as we are moving in to attack. This season I think it might be 2 times in all season at the home games. We have no attack that puts fear into opposing defenses. I am not a fan of the way Pajoy has been playing and do not see why he gets the start every week. I want the ball in the oppositions end making them work with us getting a shot on frame every now and then. Our pass, pass, pass back, pass, turn over is not cutting it.

When fans get more excited by MacMath making a big save then we do for anything else in the attacking end something is seriously wrong.

Good catch, I meant to include RSL in that list. Look I'm on the fence of the Sack/Don't sack Nowak properties. Just wanted to point out that there are other factors outside of results. Ellinger's firing was about more then the crappy on field results at the time. It was about giving RSL a clear vision and plan for the Club and then seeing it through.

In all seriousness firing Nowak might be the answer, and a different coaching staff, technical staff, GM, and players could bring about better on field results. They also could lead to a more painful transition year as well, or even YEARS of transitions bearing no fruit a la TFC and RBNY. We just won't know if/until/when that happens. That's all. We have to remember that the Club's entire soccer operations is filled with Nowak's guys. So if the head goes........most likely the rest of the guys will leave too. For better or for worse, that's all I'm saying. Ultimately it's up to Nick & Sugarman to decide.

So say we Fire Nowak. Who do we bring in as Manager? Who do we bring in as a GM/VP of Soccer Ops? It's not like we have a long storied history and can turn to a former player (Heaps, Klopas, Vermes, Kinnear).

As short as that statement is, it's what I've been saying for a while. Our midfield does not move enough, there seems to be little though put into how to build an attack. Our forwards also struggle to find open space. These things should be done automatically at this level, but these are also very coachable things at any level.

Maybe Nowak is telling them not to move too much, to keep defensive shape on offense.

I hear Pep Guardiola will be looking for a job. Jose Mourinho says he would like to coach a MLS squad, although not any time soon:

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/mourinho-says-he-wants-coach-mls

But seriously, there are plenty of options out there for us. The club apparently has a good working relationship with Orlando City SC, so they should consider Adrian Heath; he has a nice resume. There are some other USL coaches out there that might like to take a MLS job, like Colin Clarke.

I don't think it's a stretch to say that we could find a coach that would do better than 90 minutes of Nowak bunker ball.

I coached both my U6 and my U10 teams to victory yesterday playing "attacking and entertaining" soccer. Just sayin'.

Please submit your resume to the Union FO!

In all honesty, I do not know what Nowak teaches his players during training. I can only go by what I see during matches. They do not show enough sophistication for this level in possession, they do not do enough interplay. When I watch teams like Sounders FC or Sporting KC it is like night and day compared to how the Union have been playing in terms of controlling possession and building attacks. Even upstart Montreal appeared more confident on the ball this weekend at KC than we ever do.

Why do you assume firing Novak and his staff of circus clowns is the beginning of a chain of various coaches being moved in and out? One would hope and think that the next guy would be the right one and would be successful and stable or else why hire them?
If the only reason to keep Novak and his boobs is to avoid the possiblity (and right now that's just your theory) of endless coaches coming and going, well, that is no reason to keep him.
I wanted Novak gone last season. The team was already offensively challenged in 2011 and then the roster was needlessly gutted in 2012 and what you have now is predictably pathetic and as watchable as Superman III with Richard Pryor.
Absolutely NONE of this is a surprise-it's going 100% as I figured it would and I'm not a coach or GM. But damn, just heading into this season it reeked of failure. There is no offensive talent whatsover. The tactics and philsosophy suck out loud, but it's really a lack of talent and toughness. Maybe things will improve, but doesn't that almost HAVE to happen since it's so wretched?
This current regime pats itself on the back for getting all these import players from Costa Rica and Colombia but these guys cannot play and have zero creativity on offense. They are terrible. Pajoy is just one of the jokes being played on the fans, although it's a very funny joke. Everything this regime does is a very Andy Reidesque "we're smarter than you, so just shut up and watch our results speak for themselves" and almost always backfires. Shuttling Ruiz off and then dispensing of LeToux left the team devoid of any, I mean ANY scoring talent. Mwanga is a fraud and Adu is a waste of space (and money). Don't tell me about LeToux's stats in Vancouver-Philly is where he belonged and fit in so well and the team and he would both be so much better off if he was still here. Plus, I'd say his record in Vancouver is a bit better than the pitiful mark in Philly right now.
Nowak makes me ill and I want him gone. This is arguably a bottom 3 team in MLS now. Sad.

Well that is not what was I getting at, but seeing as the ones who would be making the decisions to A.) Fire Nowak and B.) hire his replacements..............what makes any of us think that they would get it right the next time around, seeing as many of the fan base feel that he was the wrong hire to begin with? And it's not my THEORY, I was simply stating a possible outcome of a major decision that many of the fan base feel should be made.

Making a managerial change and in our case it would also include a changing of the FO structure as well (VP of Soccer ops/GM....remember?) so it's not as easy of a decision as it would be for most of the teams in the league. Think about it: Rob V, Hack, DG, and A E have all been together for a long time. This type of change would affect all Soccer aspects of the club, and not just the current group of players on the roster. When new managers are brought in, in most cases they start to clean house and bring in "their" guys: players, coaches, scouts, etc. We'd be back to square one. Not to mention the fact that Hack is deeply involved with our Academy and Youth setup, along with Alecko (now factor in Pfeffer, McLaughlin and Hernandez's relationships with them). Now add in Rob V's relationship with MacMath, See..........firing Nowak is not the simple solution everyone wants to believe it is.

I'm glad I'm not the one who has to make these decisions.

my job sucks but I'm not going to change it just in case my new job sucks even more so I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing CAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW! this makes no sense. Its obvious Novak doesn't work. The chance was taken on him the experiment failed. How bad does it have to be/get? TFC? Winless records? We are not even flat-lining when compared to last year. Maybe not even in comparison to the first. Give him till the end of the year (something they are going to do anyway) especially with the all-star game and if we are not anywhere near where we were last year part ways. nothing personal.

The club holds the contracts with the players, not the coaches. Most people are not suggesting axing the academy structure or firing every single individual involved with the youth program. Youth programs need years to develop, so the jury is still out on whether the homegrown players will be worth anything at this point.

For me, the problem I have with Nowak is basically this:
- Nowak as a second year coach was inexplicably made "VP of Soccer Operations", which seems to mean that he is responsible for all aspects of club operations, instead of just being the first team coach and having some involvement with scouting. I don't feel that turning over all those responsibilities to him in March of 2011 was prudent, and now it just looks plain foolish.
- Nowak is absolutely clueless in terms of his game day tactics, substitutions, and personnel selections and I don't think many would argue this point.
- Nowak's coaching seems to have caused many of our promising young players to actually regress in their abilities.
- Nowak's bunker ball tactics have resulted in some of the most boring, unwatchable games I have ever seen.
- It's clear based on the field performance and some of the rumblings in the media that the Nowak has lost the players' confidence at this point. He's certainly lost the confidence of the fans.

He needs to be fired and replaced with a coach who will drill an attacking mentality into the players. The new coach ought to have his responsibilities limited to managing the first team and some input into scouting - and that's it. A clause where his contract terminates if we suck wouldn't be a bad idea either. This is exactly what Egypt did for Bob Bradley.

Our overall record in MLS during Nowak's first 74 games (including the 2 playoff losses) is 21-30-23 (W-L-T) with 85 goals scored and 97 conceded (again including our brief appearance in the playoffs). In other words, we're averaging 1.16 ppg under Peter. Over a 34-game season, that level of performance would give us just under 40 points. Not very impressive.

By the way, Nowak himself set the expectations for this year's team and they were based on results. Remember his statement: "I have a playoff team in this locker room..." I think it's fair to wait until the end of the season to see if results turn around but if this team misses the playoffs (or ends up the 5th seed in what might be a weak Eastern Conference and loses in the 1st round of the playoffs again), I really can't see why the team would retain Peter. Continuity is only a positive if you're building toward something.

And to be honest, I don't see how Nowak can be judged as a success even putting the disappointing results aside. He's antagonized the local media on several occasions, blamed the fans for the decision to sell Ruiz, and sold the franchise's first local hero (and most productive offensive player). He's been suspended multiple games (both of which the Union lost) this season, the style of play is dreadful, and he's now being booed semi-regularly by the fans. If you do all that and win, you might get described as colorful. If you do it and lose, you're just an asshole (and probably soon to be out of work).

As far as needing to turn to a former Union player, what was Garth Lagerwey's connection to RSL? I won't argue that there is risk in making a change...we need good hires. Firing Nowak and replacing him with Hackworth, for example, would strike me as fairly idiotic.

I'm going to step in and say "You don't need to have a connection with the club in order to coach it."

Let's be serious here, the Philadelphia Union has a ton of passion and support, there are coaches across the United States that would kill to have a shot at leading this club. Nowak isn't some be all, end all solution. I think that Nowak would function better as a scouting director/GM type of position. He seems to be able to pick out some good, young talent, however, he seems to destroy that talent with his coaching style. I mean, how exactly do you explain Mwanga's regression? The kid is freaking 20 years old, he should be hitting his stride. Hell, last year he still showed some signs of dominance over some other players/teams. But now, he seems to barely exist.

The thing that gets me is that Nowak and company championed this youth movement in the off-season, they championed this "team first" oriented style of play. However, they so far have utterly failed in the "team" department. You can argue that individual players need to play better, but I think we have all seen quite a bit of individual skill from these players to know that they can perform better than this. The coaching seems to be letting them down.

I would like to bring up the example of the Chicago Fire, last season they were 1-4-6 under Carlos de los Cobos, they fired him and brought in Frank Klopas who had the team finish at 8-5-10, just missing the playoffs. Now? Chicago is in 4th freaking place and having played one game less then we have. I think its safe to say that changing the coach helped that team out.

Getting rid of Nowak would be painful for some and probably for the club. Hackworth and Vartugian probably wouldn't like it, however, that's freaking professional sports. If they don't see the need to change the manager than they're out of touch with reality.

I think people get so upset about how the team is doing is because we know they can do better, hell, we've friggin seen it. This whole "oh, we shouldn't panic" attitude in the club frankly annoys me because this is the perfect time to at least start worrying. Let's say we get thrashed by New York this Sunday, let's say that they beat us 2-0 or even 3-0. Is THAT the time to start worrying? What about May 26th if we lose to Toronto FC and give them their first 3 points of the season?

I WANT to see the coaching staff take accountability for this or at least be HELD accountable by the fans.

There were others earlier in the season, mysellf, included, who have suggested Heath. He did an excellent job with O.C. last year. I'm sure that he would inject some spark into our apparently lifeless team. If Nowak (that's a big if) gets sacked, I'd love to see the team hire Heath.

Colin Clarke would also be a good choice.

Uh.... yes. I meant Nowak.

So I actually just wrote up a mild rant post about how our offense this season sucks and why I think it is nowak's fault. I'll just copy it and post it here. You can obviously also read it here http://unionson.blogspot.com/ but yeah, obviously linking to posts annoys a lot of people so I will give you both options.

A fear of scoring.
I swear that is what has been plaguing our team this season. Another loss in Seattle and we are back to the same old mistakes.

Countless times this season I have watched in frustration and horror as a Union player finally gets the ball inside the box, facing the goal, and proceeds to dribble and sidestep multiple times, looking for that absolute perfect shot. What happens instead? The capable defenses of MLS close down on the ball like sharks on a wounded seal, and our players give up possession without even making the keeper flinch. I time back to my time in youth coaching and imagine having to tell my fourteen year olds, "hey if you get the ball in the box, just get a shot off." Just thinking about telling them that is laughable, the hunger in their eyes and hearts had they shooting if they had the ball within 35 yards of the goal.

I have never seen a group of strikers that look downright afraid of shooting the ball in the box and failing to score and I think I have an idea why. Consistently missing the goal is a ticket directly to the bench, and our team has no established strikers. Our teams offense is a a chaotic free for all, there is almost no pecking order. Lets take a look at our offensive players. Of the out and out striker corps, only Mwanga and Mcinerney have spent significant time on the team, and neither of them has broken out as a regular starter, both have much to prove. Hoffman, Pajoy, Herdling, and Martinez are not only new to the team, but new to the league, and none of them have proven consistent performers.

Even if we move into the attacking midfield options, Adu is trying to reserect his entire career, and live up to his title of "Phenom" and the Farfans, and Roger Torres are all young and working to establish himself.

This all comes down to a major failure in the coaching department. The psychological atmosphere at the club is not a healthy one, and Nowak is not a healthy coach. His continued in-fighting with his senior players, and mistreatment of players is showing us hints of the dark state of the locker room in Philadelphia. We can only hope the team can overcome this challenge and soon, as the points are not going to come flowing in without an equal swell of goals.

They have to have British accents for that to work, though.

just a quick note to future Union Captain candidates..........

TURN IT DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!