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

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/04/17/armchair-analyst-lafcs-pace-your-qs-answered-mailbag

How come you go out of your way to not talk about new England revolution?

— Abhishek Parajuli (@abhiparajuli) April 16, 2019

I don't! I just think that, given the amount of changes this team's experienced over the past two-and-a-half years, it's too soon to judge each and every thing about this team.

What I'll say, though, is that a few things aren't really working:

• They want to be a high-pressing team, but their center backs lack pace, which makes it tough
• Their center forwards have been beyond poor, failing to put a single shot on goal this season
• An overall lack of chemistry is made worse by constant rotation in the squad, so nothing builds week-to-week

Carles Gil has been a nice addition, and Brandon Bye has improved in year two, so there are at least a few silver linings for the 2019 Revs. But until they sort out the above issues, I'd expect the dark times to continue in Foxborough.​

 

I agree. Whats more.... it would take years for a good coach to fix the mess he's created.
Even though I never liked him as a NAT coach, Bob Bradley has done an amazing job at LAFC. It shows what is possible if a team wants to do the right things and hires the right people..... we do neither

 

Hiring Bob Bradley, who has a resume' of a serious manager, at both club and national levels, shows AMBITION !. Hiring Brad Friedel, who had never managed [never mind managing his way out of a paper cup] shows "ambition"......

LAFC may not get entirely what they hope for, but they are genuinely striving for it.....The Revs? The letters are written on the wall. Get your magnifying glass and see for yourself.......

 

MLS clubs to receive solidarity payments after league agrees to follow FIFA rule

How will the REVs view this financially? How will it skew their thinking on signing players? Is the May-July signing suddenly subject to a 5% tax? Is the deal off?

 

Friedel is terrible and I for one have seen enough. Ill even say Heaps was better than him. Fire his ASS now... Let Burns do it then when its done, Fire Burns next. This is PATHETIC

 

He won't be dismissed until after next season, no matter how bad it gets. The team needs time to gel!

Besides, for the Revs, it's just....

[...too much trouble to even finish the rest of the sentence, much less go out and find a new coach who has actually coached a pro team with some success in the past]

 

"Even say Heaps was better than him?" Don't qualify it, Heaps was way better than him. Under Heaps, the Revs competed for trophies and played some attractive soccer. If you think about it, he was the third best coach the Krafts ever signed.

 

Who is the worst? BF or BF? (Big Frank or Brad Friedel)?

 

The sad thing about this whole situation is you are correct. Brad will be here in October and more than likely he will be here for the 2020 season.

 

I dunno, Big Frank was clearly out of his element with all the strange rules of MLS and cap-ology, etc. which he really had no hope to understand. I would say that Zenga was worse as a coach, since he was more interested in his playing role than coaching. Young players never developed, and a guy like Leonel Alvarez was really the guy who did a lot of the "coaching" in practice. He didn't speak much English, so it was hard for him to work with all of the players, but I'd have to say that Zenga was worse than Stapo.

 

I was never a big SN fan, but he is just about the only REV coach that demonstrated a clue. We really haven’t had good coaching.

 

Clavijo got fired in May 2002 after a rough 2001 followed by a bad start to 2002. Their records are nearly identical from the prior July through the spring. Though Friedel has more draws Clavijo had a USOC finals appearance and had made the playoffs his first year in charge.

If Friedel survives May with more bad results and poor home form I'm wondering if the Krafts will lose patience and let him go.

The problem is I'm sure his staff will go with him so they will have to go find another coach really quickly. We all know the revs management moves at a glacial pace so for this reason I can't see him being fired until the end of the season.

 

I actually think Friedel's position is much more tenuous. Yes, new coaches get some time and typically more than 1+ season (especially from the Revs). But, at this point, ownership should expect signs that things are improving and the team is moving in the right direction. The fact that they are getting worse at this stage should be setting off alarm bells.

And, I think the media criticism matters - because it starts with the players/coach/GM, but with no changes/no improvement, that criticism moves up the chain.

I listened to Clyde Simms on the post-game radio show and even he, as optimistic and supportive of the team he is, couldn't find a positive thing to say.

 

Attendance might be the one thing that gets the Kraft's attention.

After a nice bump during the Jones years, it is back down. Including the MON game, average is 12,337 over six games. Only Columbus (12,248 over 5 games) and Colorado (11,298 over 5 games) are worse (Portland has yet to play at home).

At this rate, the Revs will draw 209,729 for the season. Atlanta will approach that number in their next (4th) home game.

Unfortunately, the Revs are expecting 30K+ for the next home game (youth soccer night), which will skew the average.

 

Yes, even Stevie Wonder could see that the handwriting was on the wall when they brought in Nicol as the assistant. If things faltered, they had the obvious successor. A tough place for Fernando to be in, but he might have been let go anyway if it wasn't for the USOC final appearance. They made the playoffs in 2000 but the next year was worse, and the Cup run was the only positive thing from that year.

I doubt the Revs have any sort of plan B behind the scenes, such as reaching out to a capable coach who has had reasonable success with a pro team, and convincing him to be Friedel's replacement. Usually it is a caretaker coach, an assistant, but the staff may be loyal to BF and not want to do this.

 

What is Steve Ralston doing these days?

 

Jason Kreis?

 

I remember the Revs announcer, I think it was Derek Rae, calling for Zenga's firing during a broadcast - a pretty gutsy move. I can’t see Brad and Paul doing that though even they couldn’t find anything positive to say after the last game.

 

I am 100% convinced Brad will not get fired during the season

 

Best as I can tell, he's currently unemployed.
If Freidel was fired, the Revs would probably just ask Paul Mariner to take over.

 

He's coaching the U-23 national team.

 

I am fine with that as an interim move but they need to search long and hard for the next coach and god help is Burns is doing the hiring!

 

Revs would be a step down!