Official “Is Brad Friedel bad at his job?” Thread

NFL/college football and soccer have a totally different mentality (there's that word again!) While some things might be transferable, like determination, smarts, work ethic, being able to get the most out of mediocre talent, etc. it is a totally different animal.

 

It doesn't even translate to the NFL. He was a good coach once, but time in the TV booth and time, in general, have turned him into a moron.

 

I know this thread is predominantly dedicated to criticizing the coach, but I am going to risk the attacks and say some positive things.

I think playing pre-season games in Spain has been a very smart move.
I suspect that Coach Friedel's contacts in Europe helped him to set this up and to get a pretty good schedule of games going over a pretty short training period. Let's give the man some credit.

-Playing new competion representing leagues in China, Czech Republic, Russia, and Ukraine exposes those players to MLS and to the Revs specifically. The fact that the Revs performed well in these friendlys could help them attract players from these leagues in the future.
-They also are able to establish more contacts in these leagues for the future.
-Being in Europe allowed them to get Carles Gil integrated into the team right away. He already has a goal and an assist, so that seems to be paying dividends already.
-There is the case of the "Trialist", this years Player X, who we now believe is Giles Phillips. If they want to keep this a secret, then it is better that they were not playing the Desert Diamond cup with 4 or 5 other MLS teams.

I think strengthening and furthering ties in Europe is a good idea. Particularly with the leagues that they played against in this preseason. They may well be able to find some hidden gems. It seems like European teams are going to look to sign more and more American players. If the Revs can establish themselves as a good home for American loanees like Giles Phillips, they can potentially get some good players who will not take up international slots.

I hope they return to Spain next year. Might make a nice trip if they let the public in to watch the games.

I hope they continue working in South America as well. I am a Cristian Penilla and Luis Caceido fan and cautiously optimistic about the new Caicedo.

I know it is hard to let go of the hate of Revs management, but I see some positive things happening. I hope it is reflected in the regular season results.

 

Good points.

I also think there is more to be learned/developed playing against teams from different leagues/regions/styles (one of the reasons I like Superliga). We already play too much against MLS teams IMO, so doing it even more in pre-season just furthers a one-dimensional approach (and USL teams are really more of the same in that respect). We should be playing against teams that use more skill than athleticism, to know only learn how to play against those styles, but also to use them ourselves.

 

Well, technically the thread is a question. Your answer seems to be leaning more toward "no, he isn't bad at his job..." And that's a perfectly acceptable answer.

I'd just offer that there have been "some positives" out of this team over its history but, in my opinion, the magnitude of the negatives is so large they are going to have to put one hell of a LONG, high volume run of positives together to convince they have turned things around. In particular bad coaching selections and inadequate and often poor offseason/mid-season roster building, particularly focused in the Burn's management era going back to the final years of SN coaching.

So I hope it is the beginning of a bright future but you are correct. I'm not going to let go of my "hate" (extreme disapproval) of REV management anytime soon.

 

I am not 100% on the coach yet, far from it. .

I was disappointed when he was hired based on his limited experience. I thought last year got off to a good start results wise, but went on to follow a familiar and disappointing pattern. I am hopeful that adjustments are being made and that we will see better results this year.

I was just trying to point out some positive things that I think are happening.
I think the coach should be criticized or praised when warranted. I think we are light on the praise in these forums.

 

Are we light on the praise, or is the team light on praise-worthy actions? After all, they failed to make the playoffs 3 years running.

I understand the criticism here can be overly repetitive, but I think that is born out of frustration, seeing them make the same old mistakes over and over again.

You think it is negative here, you should see the Crew board. They started the "Fire Caleb Porter" thread a month before he was even hired! Given the frustration they have been through over almost losing their team, I don't blame them for being negative.

Having said that, you made some good points in your praise post. Well done.

 

I get it. I know the team has missed the playoffs three years running. I understand the frustration and share it to some extent as well.

Thanks for your praise of my praise.

Sorry for Porter. Sucks to have the deck stacked against you before you even take the job. Glad that I am a Revs fan rather than a Crew fan.

 

Well, at least you are assured of having more teeth!

Seriously, I get the need for balance, and I definitely believe that if you criticize someone for a mistake, you should compliment them when they do something right. I like the new signings so far, and if these guys are as good as they should be, we'll be significantly improved. The East (other than Atlanta) seems to be not as strong, and I'm optimistic that if the Revs can rebound, they not only can make the playoffs but also do more than a one-and-done.

If this happens, it will be in a large part because Friedel has learned from his mistakes last year. I hope this is the case. But if he hasn't learned or been able to make adjustments, it could be a long year. This year is a crucial one for Brad, and we will see just how good of a manager he is.

 

There are two specific things about Friedel that I was critical of last year that still stick out in my mind. 1. He publicly threw his players under the bus. 2. The LA Galaxy implosion last summer that was his fault and he never took the blame publicly for it.

 

What's the thinking behind the assumption that RBNY will regress?

 

Hope.

 

They lost Tyler Adams, and didn't add any significant players. Also BWP is another year older (turning 34 in March) and Kaku apparently wanted to leave to Club America.

 

Some teams are "caught off guard", while others plan ahead:

Warshaw: Five MLS players poised to make the big leap in 2019
February 7, 2019, 12:20PM EST
Bobby Warshaw

 

Naw... too easy

 

IIRC, he did so with some frequency. That's what was concerning to me. The "throwing under the bus publicly" is a method typically used very selectively by coaches - it's rather far down in the toolbag for most coaches. It starts to lose its impact/effectiveness when players spend multiple or long instances under the bus.

But Brad didn't seem to care about selectivity all that much last season.

Hope it works for him, as opposed to players tuning out when they hear the bus engine starting up over and over again.

 

Friedel's style of non-nonsense player management probably worked 25 years ago but it's antiquated for today. I hope he's able to see what works for other managers and adapts accordingly.

 

What some people consider throwing under the bus, others consider accountability. Maybe it's a generational thing, but we're in a sad place if players lose motivation because the coach picked on them.

 

FWIW...

“I think a couple of guys gave up in the game. They’re going to find themselves very, very, very, very, very far away from the team and trying to get back in. They’re going to have to do some real proving. It’s not just my evaluation. It’s other players’ [evaluations] as well. Our team and our club is not built on that type of attitude. That won’t be tolerated.” - Peter Vermes
​

“My message today to them wasn’t comfortable. Not at halftime or after the game. What we have to talk about for next week, we’ll start on Tuesday. Today, the reality is that we should have had a different type of performance. I think we betrayed ourselves because indefinitely it’s what we were talking about. A lot of effort since January 15 until today for 90 minutes is like throwing away a year’s effort." - Tata Martino​

"We were no good today. We’re pretty angry at ourselves. Today things were slow, casual. So it’s a day where we have to be very honest with ourselves that we were just no good.” - Bob Bradley​

"The first goal, there's no pressure on the ball, but we still need to manage the run. It's not like it was super disguised. We should have been able to see it and drop and manage the run, bump the run, anything. And then as has been too often the case, we have a few minutes of madness in the second half where the game in some ways gets out of reach. That part, those things are disappointing." - Greg Vanney​

These are some of the best coaches in MLS In recent years. How are any of their comments dramatically different than what we heard from Friedel last season?

 

I won't be surprised if Casseres turns out to be an MLS-ready midfielder. I will be very surprised if he turns out to be as good as Tyler Adams who has walked straight into the starting lineup for Leipzig.

 

At a high level they aren't that different. In context? Who knows. One thing that seems certain is that many of those quoted had (much) better seasons than the Revolution did. It's hard to tell when the coaching is competent and the players aren't performing versus when the coaching is incompetent and the players, maybe, are performing. And there are all kinds of variations in between.

By halfway through the season, I wan't convinced Friedel fell into the "competent" coaching category by a long stretch. That said, some of the player performances were pretty crappy too. Friedel seemed a lot stronger at recognizing player inadequacies than his own. For Friedel there was an element of the pot calling the kettle black.

Finally, although those other coaches put out some harsh words, did they actually exile players (Dielna, Somi, Nguyen [special case agree, but handled harshly], Cropper come to mind)? Or, did they address the situation "behind closed doors" and draw their most talented players back into contributing roles?

 

You can throw a player under the bus and demand accountability in private too. When you do it in public I call that bad form.

 

The difference for me is that none of these guys named individual players.

 

I wasn't trying to suggest Casseres will be as good as Adams. My point was that they planned ahead and had his replacement ready instead of going out and signing one after he left.

 

I think the difference is frequency. How often do these coaches do that? Once, maybe twice a season? Friedel seemed to do it on a regular basis. After a while, it falls on deaf ears.