Rob Stone: US Manager shortlist is Ramos, Tata Martino, Marsch, Berhalter, Friedel, Osorio & Vermes.

Maybe. OTOH, they'll just block you and just ignore "the haters".

I wish we could democratize this process a bit more. Somehow, a closed group of executives, choosing another group of executives amongst themselves, who will then choose a puppet manager, does not seem very transparent/fair to me.

 

I think MLS and US Soccer made common cause against NASL and did some things with voting rights for leadership (as well as who got what division label) to lock that in. I think that created inertia/continuity. I think the last regime was veering too much towards maximizing returns and we are continuing that. That's what happens when the same people have voting rights and are perpetuating the status quo.

But I think an MLS coach to maximize money making is a confused conspiracy theory. I could buy they have burned a bunch of money on buying out the last two coaching contracts short of term. I could buy you have non soccer MBAs talking out of their tush about who to promote to the job, who don't know much and name trendy people like this list.

But I don't buy that a suboptimal coach, chosen by MLS/SUM because he's in their league, preserves the golden goose. If that was the case Arena was MLS. If they start to suck and routinely not qualify ticket attendance will fall off, other regional teams will challenge them for Gold Cup host, we won't get invited to Copa America, TV rights fees for our games will drop, etc etc. A greedmonger theory has to get the cash machine back running. I'd actually say that greedmonger was hiring and keeping Klinsmann. We were doing ok for a while there. But clearly not as advertised. But OK when we always qualify preserves the golden goose. What would actually take guts is really trying to get a top notch guy, current track record, spare no expense, high ambition. That was not Klinsi coming off Bayern.

 

"And I'd still say that he'd be in over his head." Is what I said re Porter. I am the last one to advocate either him or Arena. Thing being most of the listed people have accomplished even less than him or Arena. If your argument is, go get a bigger winner or a bigger name, fine. But if the idea is mock these two in favor of the even worse listed names, ha.

FWIW, I want someone who has excelled or won at something. Klinsi took Germany to the semis at home, which I question whether that is really that great. Then he got fired at Bayern. I think it sounded "big" but he didn't have to actually win a league or a world cup. To do that you have to actually have the tactical chops and eye for talent that people claim to want.

A truly great coach like SAF, in a league dominated by the old firm, could take St. Mirren to the SPL winning the first division, take Aberdeen (!) and win 3 league titles, 4 cups, two European trophies. Go to ManU, win a new pile. Wins everywhere he goes. The last title year at ManU they allowed 40+ goals and still lifted the trophy. I remember that team routinely winning 3-2 type games along the way. Now that's a coach.

Go out and find a bored winner looking for a new challenge. Quit farting around with coaches who basically sound like the coaching equivalent of a first cap prospect player.

 

I don't think it has as much to do with money as it does MLS wants it's people leading the USMNT. When Garber is throwing temper tantrums about "everyone must fall in line with MLS vision" or whatever, I'm not sure what other conclusion to draw. It's a marketing plan not a conspiracy theory.

Second, I'm not sure this list is real. If that's all the fed can come up with, we're in far worse shape than I thought.

 

For what it's worth there are only two guys in this discussion Marsch and Beerholder. They have next level thinking and tactics. Tata was a poor coach for Argentina. He never could figure that team out.

Wagner with an 8 year contract 4 as coach 4 as player director and the US has a chance at WC semis by 2026. The rest? Same old $hit.

 

Part 1: Completed (Don't buy tickets and jerseys)
Part 2: Incomplete (I don't use social media).

 

Marsch will be ready for the 2026 cycle. Berhalter is a dope. He always identifies the wrong problem with his team and takes forever to find the real one. (Tony Tchani, duh?) At club you have forever, as long as your owner is patient; at USMNT it has to get right in a hurry or you're not going to the prom. Give Marsch credit for making changes in a hurry - McCarty, Felipe, Parker, etc.

People look at Marsch's last game and if it worked out they are all gung-ho on Marsch. News flash: When Marsch runs into a team that passes around his press, what happens? Or if they simply bunker in? Um.......Chivas? You have to have the answers in minutes, not months.

Consider what Almeyda did to Marsch, then to Vanney. The Chivas guys had prepared. They went right at Toronto's left side and scored an away goal in a hurry. Needless to say they aced the penalty shoot-out in the final. Morale was very good.

 

We missed the WC, we are likely to lose hosting to morroco I think we're at a low point he couldn't hurt anything at this point.

 

Thank goodness for that. I don't think his coaching style is conducive to the international game ... or at least where the US team is right now. But that's just me.

 

At this point, a bundle of potential.

Actually, they are.

 

Why? Cushy job. Big pay day. Low expectations.results deferred an entire cylce. Hell, sign me up.

 

Why did Bruce wait until after the election to rip on executive leadership. Option one is he simply took too long to write his book, fumbled execution, nothing new for him lately. Option two is that while nominally a critique of the leadership it could be understood less as a belated executive critique, and more as a.....

.......big red flag from the last full timer to hold the post, shouting, "maybe you shouldn't take this job til the problem gets fixed." That then explains the timeline, which is more timely as advice to a coaching candidate than helpful intervention when we needed someone to speak up about the executive suite. Cordeiro is already in. Done deal. So he either couldn't get the book out fast enough, is engaging in legacy defense, or is red flagging the job for his colleagues.

FWIW along those lines it is interesting Vermes agreed an extension mid season before the MNT list was floated, much less the GM and president sat down, when as a former MNT player surely he has some angst about their results. He was already under contract this year and managing the team. Vermes does not have to rush out and extend that unless that is his preferred commitment at the expense of other options. The US job surely would have paid better, bigger platform, etc. And while his buds on here can act like he's still available, reality is he took himself out of the running before the race even started when he might have had a chance and was even listed by someone big enough for Stone to quote their thoughts. That says interesting things.

It's kind of like Kreis was never talked about with the Houston Dynamo. I wonder about our front office's reputation because there were some big names out of work and not a one of them ever seemed in contention.

 

Pulisic is fairly proven at this point. When you are whacking the ball in the net in Hex games you are There Already. There are career NT stalwarts who barely have Hex goals, Jozy among them. That to me is the dividing line between long term high quality and the more frustrating but permanent pool player.

McKennie MIGHT be a fair point, he's barely appeared. But that first goal in an early cap was well taken, he played well, and to me he'd have to struggle for a few games like say Green to disprove what he showed as a fluke.

In contrast I would compare some of the people on the list to Novakovich or Carter Vickers, literally green, no NT coaching experience, no history of league championships, effectively "uncapped" at the level we are looking at, and we're going to optimistically assume their future before they see the field. Our federation is not so poor and hopefully not so unambitious they need to take risks. We can afford to sign a proven big dog.

I used the Moyes example because to me there is a breed of coach competently capable of leading an underdog team to relatively good finishes with dogged tactics, with a bunch of honest players, but if they ever get a top job they are lost because they didn't actually have to play to win every week, they didn't have more talent than they knew what to do with, and we suddenly expect more of them. Moyes at ManU is supposed to win every week. If you don't have the tools to make a big team win, you're not useful to us. I don't quite care what you did with Columbus unless you win the whole thing like Aberdeen or Leicester.

 

Was a US Youth coach (like Ramos)
Also, isn't he a Euro A Licesnse coach?

 

Berhalter, by some margin as far as I'm concerned. He has shown the most tactical adaptability of any of the coaches on the list. He also consistently turns players into producers who then fall off the edge of the map once they leave him.

Someone bought up Tony Tchani. Guy looked like someone I wanted the US to snatch up when he was with the crew. Now? Not so much. Does Ola Kamara look like the impact player now he did the last two years? Meanwhile Zardes is one goal short of last year's total. As for developing guys - how about Will Trapp to name one.

He is a guy who can work with what he has - an absolute necessity for any national team coach outside of a handful of teams. His playing pedigree is excellent, sugesting German methods and insights while still being a Yank.

Vermes is showing some tactical development and is interesting. I put him and Marsch at the same level. I like both, but I don't think they have Berhalter's versatility. (They are not lacking - they are just not at his level.)

Part of me wants Vieria, but he may be toomuch of a system guy at this point. There are benefits to that, but we don't have the big enough pool to toss away good players who may not fit.

 

Except we're hiring a senior adult all star team coach and not the US U20 coach or taking a flyer at MLS or USL level. I think Marsch was pursuing UEFA creds while already coaching here. Whoop de do, it's a professional hoop jumping requirement to access part of the market, I don't think it's actually showing me they have the goods. It's like saying my teacher is certified or my doctor passed her tests or my lawyer passed the bar. That basically means they are legally minimally qualified to have a job. And then what. Are they any good at their job?

We should not be the place that one demonstrates (or fails) "and then what." You can go coach some other NT, USL, MLS, NCAA, establish your bona fides. Even more so than NT players, NT coaches should be ready out of the box. This should not be their proving ground. I should know what they intend to implement tactically, what their knowledge base of our players is, and what their track record is. I then look at my team and ask if we fit (one thing not asked often enough of Klinsmann as perceived change agent). You need to sell me you can make this team win, not just offer something new and cute and trendy. I mean, the tension in Klinsi was he would occasionally in friendlies run out a finesse side and knock the ball around and play frenetic, which I think is what he sold US Soccer, but we didn't quite have the personnel to make it work, and so he would do a reality check and we'd show up in Brazil with 3 DMs. We went for a sales pitch that either he could not actually implement, or that didn't fit the personnel. So we basically end up playing team defense and counter like always. Which was not really progress from Bradley or the 90s other than the players are better. In which case why not sign an expert in the tactic rather than someone who sells something he doesn't feel comfortable doing once he sees the players.

Only exception I would make is if we had a club success who gives it up to be the national assistant, the national team is highly successful, and the coach just happens to quit and we need a successor. OK, the assistant won MLS when he was on his own, is highly familiar with the players, and was responsible for scouting teams and organizing the defense, and in this mythical timeperiod those were team strengths. Then promote someone. Otherwise I want the head coach who's made a couple stops and wins everywhere he goes, or the NT coach for Ivory Coast or Costa Rica that takes them to the world cup semis unexpectedly. Or who wins with Brazil or something.

 

This is pathetic list. Both our national team and MLS through ozmosis would benefit from more modern and external ideas and processes that could be brought by any number of options willing to take the job, who all possess far better resumes than any of the yahoos on this list.

Said yahoos could and should then be assistants being groomed to take over at a later date, or go back to MLS with new and better ideas.

The fact that this tweet can be sent and that some people are willing to debate the merits of Berhalter vs Marsch, etc. Is insulting. Our Fed sucks donkey balls.

 

Does this mean I need to let go of my pipe-dream that Huddersfield Town get relegated on the last day of the season, and then David Wagner agrees to be the USMNT coach?

 

No it means you can smoke the crack pipe either way it goes. In victory or misery.

 

Osorio is on the record in recent interviews as saying he wants to go back to club coaching--why he didn't sign an extension with Mexico.

Friedel???

 

I don''t know why you're so dead set against this.

Donkeys deserve a little pleasure too

 

I think you are right about his license. I guess having someone familiar with the youth has its benefits. Just a lil concerned by his lack of experience at this level.

 

Which is fine. Fully agree, but this was in answer to 'what does he have besides 1/4 of a season of experience?'

He has trained under Clough and Keegan before being denied work permits. Played at Liverpool and for Souness, and Hughes, O'Neill, Redkapp and Ponch. Again, doesn't automatically qualify him for a Nat team job, but he does have a background to discuss.

 

If I was going to elevate a youth coach I would expect that either they achieved unusually strong results or they are responsible for some incredible bubble of youth players so good the team is about to take off.

My memory is last U20 worlds we (meh) tied Ecuador and Saudi in group, whooped up on an insignificant NZ team to begin knockouts, and then were beaten by the eventual runnerup Venezuela in the quarters, which I think is a pretty standard finish for us.

And then from a development perspective, it's arguably been a down ebb lately, maybe 2 can't miss players (Pulisic and McKennie) who graduated to the senior team with likely assurance to stay there. Maybe some others eventually work out. But it's not so good it's obvious. So it's not like he churns out stars.

Merely knowing the U20s makes you worthy as a talent scout or the guy who stays put and coaches the U20s and picks up the phone when the senior team HC asks who should he call in.

If you were going to hire a former youth coach it should be Paunovic whose Serb kids beat the US in 2015 on the way to winning the U20 title over Brazil. Who happens to coach MLS these days.

Ditto Osorio versus someone who will actually win in Russia or a previous tournament, ditto any ol' trendy MLS flavor of the month versus Vanney.

 

I like Friedel but we still have to see if he retained this knowledge or is capable of translating that on the pitch. Barely a season of experience in MLS doesnt give me much confidence. Im open to it. Cant lose much at this point.