Is Piotr getting out coached at this point in the season?

[yabo]

I was thinking about it driving in this morning. We started with such a bang, the 3-5-2 swarming opposing teams. We've heard about the injuries, the Adu phenomenon, etc..., but have other coaches adjusted better to United's tactical game and system than we have to opposing coaches? Wouldn't be unexpected for a first year coach.

Yabo

[dsheon]

I was thinking about it driving in this morning. We started with such a bang, the 3-5-2 swarming opposing teams. We've heard about the injuries, the Adu phenomenon, etc..., but have other coaches adjusted better to United's tactical game and system than we have to opposing coaches? Wouldn't be unexpected for a first year coach.

Yabo

For the last two years, under two coaches, this team has been pathetic on the road. Does he get outcoached especially on the road? That's too weird. I don't think it's the coach at this point. Players seem to like him. At some point the management has to be brought into question.

When Payne finally fired Rongen and moved to the job with Anschutz, he created a two person management structure - coach and technical director - and left those jobs to Hudson and Kasper. Only did he really leave? I have a strong sense that Marco held his spot far longer than at least Hudson would have prefered - but KP was too worried about losing ticket sales so he insisted that Marco remain the skipper.

Then he kept the structure, brought in Nowak and returned to United's front office. I'm sure KP makes good business decisions usually - consolidating the seating or perhaps negotiating an advertising contract. But the problem is - and again let me go out of my way to say this is nothing more than speculation - he continues to meddle in the management of the team and player decisions. For instance he's the one quoted on potential new signings, not Dave Kasper.

So what we have is a very autocratic structure. Anyone who's worked in that setting knows that it can be a very unhappy existence to be hired solely to implement the mandates of a boss - especially when you disagree with the decisions.

How does this come back to our road record? Easy. It's job satisfaction. The players are acting like they have no stake in the match or the season. They act differently at home because in front of the home crowd their drive kicks in because they remember they're playing for us, not for the management.

This also begs the question, what exactly is Dave Kasper doing? I have no doubt that he's a good man with great intentions and that he works hard. I know that it's extremely complicated to find elligible players and negotiate extremely complicated contracts. I'm sure that's time consuming. But my guess - and it's only that - is that he scouts talent and negotiates contracts not only for DC United but for other Anschutz teams simultaneously. I don't believe any other Anschutz team has a technical director nor someone mandated with negotiating contracts, but again I could be wrong. His position is ripe with potential conflict of interest given the single entity structure. And if the players know or see that, then the cancer spreads.

I would really like to hear from someone who has spent enough time on a daily basis within the organization to learn that I'm wrong. But given the output of a team that is extremely talented but consistently underperforming, this theory fits.

[CHICO13]

I think Nowak's been re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

[Detective40oz]

I think Nowak's been re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

hahaha, and half the chairs he is re-arranging have broken legs

[Marco10]

consistent failure for the last four years with three pretty different sets of players and three pretty decent coaches and three different management structures tells me that it's more than one simple problem. Nor is it something that will be fixed simply by one factor getting better. I think Nowak is being outcoached, but i also think our players are being outplayed and our management is not getting the right players at the right times.

It's not the (insert job here), stupid! This time we need to hire a whole fleet of planes!

: )

[bigredfutbol]

But given the output of a team that is extremely talented but consistently underperforming, this theory fits.

There's a lot of interesting (and reasonable) speculation in your post, but this last quote is a problem for me--I don't think DC United is any more talented than any other team. Most MLS teams have a core of talent fleshed out with journeymen and experiments. Your theory has some interesting points, but with the salary cap and so forth it would take exceptional scouting abilities and luck to put together a team in MLS that is significantly better in terms of raw indivudual talent.

On the other hand, you need to make sure the pieces fit together, and that's where you have a point. Still, Nowak's 3-5-2 seems to be his adjustment to roster realities. Does he have a Plan B? I'm worried.

[Begbie]

For some reason (post 1999 season) I really feel like our scouting/management has been lacking. We can always blame Albright, right?
I feel like United has dropped the ball by not scouting South America/ Central America and the Caribbean more thoroughly. Our team looks more like the U.S. youth junior varsity squad which is great, but we have lost alot when it comes to toughness and consistant scoring. As for road records and corner kicks I think we are cursed for eternity like some kind of soccer version of the Flying Dutchman. United must go year after year longing for its lost mojo.
All I know is that this losing crap is getting annoying.

[Darth Norteño]

How does this come back to our road record? Easy. It's job satisfaction. The players are acting like they have no stake in the match or the season. They act differently at home because in front of the home crowd their drive kicks in because they remember they're playing for us, not for the management.

Exactly. But that kinda reveals a worrying lack of self-pride within the club, and the fact that it's been seemingly systemic for at least the past 3 years really worries me. Management should never factor into simple competitive spirit. They should remember that they're still playing for us, even if we're not there.

This also begs the question, what exactly is Dave Kasper doing? I have no doubt that he's a good man with great intentions and that he works hard. I know that it's extremely complicated to find elligible players and negotiate extremely complicated contracts. I'm sure that's time consuming. But my guess - and it's only that - is that he scouts talent and negotiates contracts not only for DC United but for other Anschutz teams simultaneously. I don't believe any other Anschutz team has a technical director nor someone mandated with negotiating contracts, but again I could be wrong. His position is ripe with potential conflict of interest given the single entity structure. And if the players know or see that, then the cancer spreads.

I would really like to hear from someone who has spent enough time on a daily basis within the organization to learn that I'm wrong. But given the output of a team that is extremely talented but consistently underperforming, this theory fits.

I was about to say that we can piss and moan over so many decent players given up (like trading Mapp or not drafting Ralph for example) and it wouldn't do any good because we should be able to perform well no matter who we have, but this does raise a far-out, but interesting question: What if Kasper was, and is seeking top talent for Anschutz's other clubs with an express view toward tossing the "scraps", as it were, to United? It sounds conspiratorial, but the idea of "sharing the welath" and trying to create a league with more than one horse in the race seems more viable in the single-entity structure. Single-entity in and of itself is a conflict on interest anyway, but having one man run the show for like, 4 teams is absurd. You would think that they could have one man per club to handle that.

[NicktheGreek]

Early on in the season the answer would have to be yes. He had to put Adu in the game regardless of the situation so it made other coaches jobs easier in the second half. Now, he's stuck with dogs that won't hunt, dead horses, and unanswered prayers. It's not all his fault, the whole organization from KP to the trainer are on life support they really don't deserve after 3 years of terminal illness. These guys are the poster children for why the league should have relegation.

[Big Roy]

I’ve often felt that coaches get fired because management can’t fire the whole team. I’ve thought that until recently the problem with United has been inability to score. We typically hold the ball quite well, string together lots of pretty passes around the opponent’s penalty area and then turn the ball over. This happened with Rogaine, Crazy and to a lesser extent, the current holder of the clipboard.

Now I don’t know if it’s a problem with management, coaching, the players or all of the above but we always seem to find a way to loose pretty while other teams win ugly. But I’m guessing it’s not the coach. I’m inclined to give Piotr high marks if for nothing else how strongly Freddy is coming on. That leaves management and players. The players are professionals (if not highly paid) and should inherently have the drive to succeed. On the other hand they are all young men and I was anything but motivated or driven in my 20s.

Therefore I’m inclined to blame management at this point for a string of lackluster seasons. As my first witness I call Dan Snyder of the Washington Redskins. He has done nothing but throw money at his team, put his nose into the daily coaching of the team where it has no business and watched it blow up in his face. As my second witness I call Paul Allen of the Seattle Seahawks. Mr. Allen has quietly built a professional coaching staff and let them get on with their jobs thus allowing a team that has consistently sucked pond scum to actually command respect from the rest of the league.

Would a change in management put us back into contention for silverware – who knows? But I do know that at this point we need to let Piotr get on with his job.

[Sanguine]

Therefore I’m inclined to blame management at this point for a string of lackluster seasons. As my first witness I call Dan Snyder of the Washington Redskins. He has done nothing but throw money at his team, put his nose into the daily coaching of the team where it has no business and watched it blow up in his face.

This upcoming season, and the one or two right after will tell the real story on this front. Let's face it - the Redskins have sucked pretty much since the day Joe Gibbs retired. Now that he's back, we'll see if he can turn things around with a meddlesome owner such as Snyder. If he can, it points to a problem not in management, but on the sidelines. If he can't, then your assessment is dead on accurate.

(and for what it's worth, I think Abe Pollin and his Wiz-tards are a better example than Snyder for the point you're trying to make)

As far as how that relates to United... They've been on a downward spiral pretty much since Bruce Arena left to coach the national team. Sure, we won in Rongen's first year, but the chemistry that made that team work (which was built by Arena) soon fell apart, and we've come to where we are now.

I honestly don't know if the problem with United lies with Nowak, Payne, Kasper, the lack of Arena being around, or the players themselves. To this point in Nowak's tenure, I'd have to say I've not been pleased with him on the sidelines. He says all the right things, but I dislike his steadfast dedication to the 3-5-2, and I also think he's been misusing a few players.

A salary cap as restrictive as the one in MLS means scouting, roster management, and coaching have a disproportionate effect on the product on the field. I'm not sure United has measured up in any of these categories in recent years.

[JoeW]

Outcoached is a bit simplistic of a concept. I think we can evaluate Nowak's "coaching" on at least 3 levels:
1. man management (is he getting the best out of the talent he has? Is he making smart roster decisions? Did he choose the right players?)
2. Game preparation (is the squad motivated? Does he break down the other side well? do we have game tactics that fit the talent we have against the opponent we face?)
3. In-game adjustments (how are his substitutions? Does he recognize changes the other team makes? Does he make wise decisions--such as when to push forward vs. playing for a tie?).

Here is my take on those 3 questions.

1. His hands were mostly tied on the roster. We went into this year with a lot of cap commitments and unknowns. If Nowak can be faulted it can be for feeling that guys deserved a chance to prove to him they did or didn't belong--rather than judging them on past year's performance. And, given the MLS roster, we started the year with a bunch of guys who were hurt before we ever opened the season. At the time, the rules didn't let us do anything about it. Some would insist he should have brought in new talent sooner--I think some of that was a function of his newness. I think Nowak never thought he'd run out of bodies at midfield--at worst he'd play a 442. He sounded like he'd been hit with a baseball bat upside the head before the Dallas match--he just never conceived he'd run out of midfielders. I also think his bias is not to have a revolving door--the Chicago teams he was on mostly stayed pat when Nowak and Co. would get their injuries in midseason, figuring that it was better to wait for guys to get healthy and stay cohesive than turnover the roster. I think he's mostly gotten the best out of the talent he's had. The big exceptions in mind (when you eliminate those who've been injured) are: Petke, Convey and maybe Stewart. Otherwise, I have a hard time identifying a player on the roster I would say should have been better (when injury wasn't a factor--like Rimando).

2. Game prep: I think he's strong here. I think part of the reason we came out of the game so fast (in terms of style of play) was our preparation and scheme. I think he's added discipline and direction and coherent roles. This is an area he could have been weak at and instead he's been strong. I don't think the team has always implemented his schemes well but I think we've usually been prepared. And while the BS threads talk about the team not having heart or pride or not caring, I think that except for maybe KC, our DCU has been the hardest working team in MLS this year. I'm not sure that has ever been a year we've been able to say that--even in the Championship years.

3. In-game adjustments. I know he's taken a lot of stick from folks about subbing in a defender for an attacker or timing on some subs. I do think the team has been slow to adjust to other teams mid-game (see what Metro did to us early and the second LA game for just 2 examples). I don't know how much of that is Nowak vs. the players. After game comments made it sound more like the players failed to adjust but that isn't definitive.

People can point to the years since the last championship and say it's the entire organization. But as I think back to those really good years, I think we underestimate just how much Arena and Etcheverry meant. Arena was the best coach in MLS by far--got everyone motivated. Because of him, everything built on itself. And Etcheverry was the most influential player in MLS history I think. Anyone who played forward and made half-decent runs was going to be rewarded. Guys came here with no rep or faded/non-existant careers and suddenly become all-star scorers b/c of his service. The team probably should have been broken up even more after the last Championship--it was more than Rongen's coaching that led to such a poor season. And then I blame Hudson for doing a terrible job last year.

[BudWiser]

And then I blame Hudson for doing a terrible job last year.

Hudson, Etcheverry, Stoitchkov, Ivanov were blasted by some on this board. "We have to get rid of them." We did. And our record is worse.

Fact of the matter is, we can all come here and talk about things like we've got 160 IQ's, but the fact of the matter is the team did EXACTLY what some of us ASKED them to do and we STILL suck, even WORSE according to the record.

At the beginning of the year, some of us talked about how much better the team is than last year. Some even said the team's playing exactly how they wanted the team to play.

That can't be denied. As to why we suck, it's because we've made stupid soccer-related decisions. It's a statement of the obvious, but given my 82 IQ (tested and verified) that's what makes sense to me.

[yabo]

2. Game prep: I think he's strong here. I think part of the reason we came out of the game so fast (in terms of style of play) was our preparation and scheme. I think he's added discipline and direction and coherent roles.

At the beginning of the year, some of us talked about how much better the team is than last year. Some even said the team's playing exactly how they wanted the team to play....That can't be denied. As to why we suck, it's because we've made stupid soccer-related decisions.

This is what I'm wondering about, what changed from the beginning of the year? Is it phsychological, players lost confidence? Is it tactical, other teams now know which players have to be stopped and which players aren't going to threaten (i.e. Stewart) and we've not adjusted? Did management/coaches underestimate the true value of players on the current roster? What were the stupid decisions? Come on crank up the Ole 82 and give us answers. ;)

Yabo

[Section106]

FWIW, I don't think we will see the true Piotr Novak until next season or even the next after that. As stated, he had little choice in the roster. During the offseason we have the expansion draft and an unused major allocation. I expect to see many new faces at United. Lets hope Novak is a great judge of talent.

[BudWiser]

...what changed from the beginning of the year?

According to some of us, nothing has changed. Some of us thought we were pretty much destined to go nowhere special before game 1 was played. I could tell you why, but that kind of reflection would make my head hurt. I could tell you about Peter's coaching, but I just want to not think much before I start the weekend. Another time though, have a good weekend.

[Knave]

Is Nowak being out-coached? Yes. *BUT* that's just one of several problems, and not all of them point directly back to the coach. However, he does hold responsibility to correct many of them this coming off-season.

-- Borrowing some categories from JoeW --

:: Player Management ::

Let’s limit this to the question of whether he’s gotten the best out of the players he’s got. I agree with JoeW that he basically has. In fact, I think he’s gotten way more than could have been expected out of some of them – like Gros and Perkins. There have been some notable failures though. I actually think Stewart is a critical one, but I’ll get to him later.

:: Game Preparation ::

Last year we looked and played like a glamorized pick-up soccer team. We look professional this year. Last year we ran out of gas repeatedly in the second half. This year we look like we’re in shape. From top to bottom we look much more professional in our game preparedness. Have we sized up our opponents adequately? Yes and no. My sense is that Nowak studies the other teams just like any other MLS coach (and just like the countless internet nuts who post here). That’s something I was never really sure about with Hudson (some of his comments about other teams were a bit out there), but at the same time there seems to be a disjunction between understanding the other team and sticking to a plan to beat them. I suspect there are two sources for this disjunction.

First, Nowak is one stubborn son of a bitch when it comes to playing “his” game. Compare him to Arena with the national team. (I’m not sure I’d say what I’m gonna say here about Arena in his DC United days. I think he has a different coaching style with the national team.) Arena’s team is a veritable chameleon with the way it routinely changes its style to suit the circumstances. Arena still plays his game, and usually is able to dictate how the match is played, but his game is more flexible depending on the opponent. Nowak is much more rigid. His game is his game almost without regard to the opponent. Granted, Arena has a larger player pool and can tailor his team much more readily than Nowak, but nonetheless there is a difference here in coaching styles that explains a bit about why there’s a disjunction between game preparation and game execution. I for one think you have to adapt your style in MLS today to take advantage of your opponent’s weaknesses because things are so even in MLS now. You can’t dictate things absolutely as DC United used to do when Arena was in charge. You can only do that if you’re head and shoulders above the pack. We’re not. No team in MLS is.

There is, however, a second cause here. It’s not only that we’re probably too rigid about executing our game plan, it’s also that we actually often fail to execute our game plan. Some of that is because other teams can compete with us on an even basis and are able to influence the style of the match just as much as we can. The other has to do with a lack of on-field leadership. Again, Arena’s team is a useful comparison. Take the Panama game. The Panamanians unexpectedly were able to dictate much of the play in the second half and the US really wasn’t able to wrestle control from them. Why was that? I think it was a failure of on-field leadership. On that team Reyna (and Donovan to an extent too) has to take control in those situations, orchestrate things and get the game back in control. We got lucky in the end, but the reality is that didn’t happen. There was a failure of on-field leadership. DC United has the same problem, but for us it’s chronic. I’ll address this more below.

:: In Game Adjustments ::

I agree with JoeW almost completely here. He is very slow to adjust and that goes back to his stubbornness. He’s also made some strange substitutions (and some substitutions that made my stomach turn), but who hasn’t? I’ll just note one things: several times this season we got beat because other teams made great in-game adjustments. The MetroStars game is the most obvious example. Why is that? I honestly think it’s because we’re effectively a stationary target. We will play the same way regardless so all the other coach has to do is stay in the game for the first half, and then make adjustments at halftime to exploit our weaknesses.

:: On Field Leadership ::

This, I think, is a major problem, but I’m not sure if there was much that Nowak could do about it this season. The root of this problem goes back to Etcheverry. DC United was Marco Etcheverry’s club. It just was. And back in the day he could take the team by the scruff of its neck and pull it through a rough patch. But that ability faded as the years passed. That’s understandable. It’s the unfortunate fate of all aging soccer players. However, DC United did make a critical error in dealing with these circumstances. We should have spent the last (let’s say) two years transitioning from Etcheverry’s leadership to someone else’s leadership. We didn’t do that. Instead Etcheverry remained front and center and nobody was ever cultivated to fill the on-field leadership role once he left. We’re left now without any strong on-field leaders. The closest thing we have is Nelsen and so he is deservedly the captain. But his leadership role is limited and mostly confined to the defense. Even there he sometimes loses control and sometimes has trouble regaining control once its lost. Many of us wanted Convey to take over the leadership role. For many reason it’s clear now that wasn’t going to happen. Others have suggested that Dema energizes the team, but in the end he lacks the stature to be an on-field leader, and a guy who loses control of himself as often as he does simply can’t be relied upon to provide on-field leadership. The player who sticks out in my mind as the one who might have been able to step in and take over the leadership role is Stewart. He had the stature and experience to fill the role. Maybe he doesn’t quite have the personality. Maybe he never really had the opportunity. For whatever reason his failure to assume the on-field leader role sticks out in my mind as critical. He was, I think, our best hope for that role.

But in the end we should have spent the last few seasons looking to for someone to take over the on-field leadership role once Etcheverry left and we simply didn’t do that. Perhaps we couldn’t because there would have been something a little distasteful about that. It would have required acknowledging that the Etcheverry Era was drawing to a close and that Etcheverry wasn’t the player he used to be. I’m not sure the club could stomach doing that, and a lot of fans took any suggestion that Etcheverry should take a diminished role on the team as blasphemy. (Boy do I know about that!) So today I think we’re paying the price for not preparing for the inevitable loss of Etcheverry.

:: Roster Management ::

I don’t think it was all just that the club and the fans didn’t want to admit that Etcheverry’s days were numbered. I also think there were cap issues that prevented us from bringing in players who might have been able to fill the role once he left. For several years we were the worst team in the league and we had the highest salary budget in the league. In Nowak’s defense, I think he’s taken steps to deal with this problem. We’re no longer maxed out and we have some flexibility. We’ve also gotten a lot more out of our draft picks and our rookies than we did in years past (Kevin Ara will have his day!), and our P-40 players are doing well. Dumping Reyes was distasteful but necessary, and Nowak has already shopped other high-priced (if not over-priced) players – notably Dema Kovalenko and his $175,000 salary. Apparently he was offered again just recently to Chicago in an attempt to get Thornton. With the new teams and the waiver draft this off-season will provide ample opportunities to rework the salary budget. I expect a lot of movement. I would hope that Nowak takes advantage of this and does what’s necessary. I also think that World Cup qualifying provides a unique opportunity to scout some players that we otherwise might miss. Either way, I agree with the idea that we’ve utterly failed in our scouting players from CONCACAF. Other teams have made out like bandits and signed some really great players. What the hell were we doing while they were evidently in the Caribbean? What Kasper and Payne have to do with roster management – that’s an open question. Suffice it to say I trust Nowak’s judgment more than I trust the judgment of those two.

[CHICO13]

Knave, no where in your synopsis did I see where you mentioned that Hudson DID strip Etcheverry of the captains armband and told him to have a seat. That he would be a 35-40 minute secondhalf player. That Marco accepted it saying he would do what was best for the team and yet the team played even worse without him. I agree that the team had no long range planning for Marco's exit except maybe turning the keys over to Convey, but this all goes back to the first massive house cleaning. You don't get rid of a Pope, or LLamosa or Agoos and try and replace them with young guns. There was no foresight in those moves and DCU is STILL paying the price.

[Knave]

Knave, no where in your synopsis did I see where you mentioned that Hudson DID strip Etcheverry of the captains armband and told him to have a seat. That he would be a 35-40 minute secondhalf player. That Marco accepted it saying he would do what was best for the team and yet the team played even worse without him. I agree that the team had no long range planning for Marco's exit except maybe turning the keys over to Convey, but this all goes back to the first massive house cleaning. You don't get rid of a Pope, or LLamosa or Agoos and try and replace them with young guns. There was no foresight in those moves and DCU is STILL paying the price.
Yeah, Hudson did do that last year. But I'm talking about two years ago, maybe even three years ago. That's when the transition should have (quietly) begun. As you said, we never had a real plan to provide for on-field leadership after his departure. But I'm not sure Nowak could do anything about that this year.

[JoeW]

Knave, I thought that was a most excellent post.