The Official Alex de Crook thread

I am not a de Crook!

 

Ah, it's no fun when the guy's actual name is a pun. Reminds me of the time I saw a pitcher warm up in the bullpen in Oakland to pitch against the A's. - J.J. Putz. Someone yelled out, "Putz - eh, too easy!".

 

A little under the radar but along with de Crook the Quakes signed French GK coach Jean Le Burglar.

 

It would be nice if he can find and bring in a goalscorer.

 

Here's video from the press conference:

 

Seems pretty qualified for an assistant coach. I hope de Crook doesn't steal Stahre's thunder.

 

Looks like he has worked mostly with youth academies, I wonder if he will be helping the Quakes there as well.

 

I hope we have an assistant with MLS experience so that we have someone on the bench who knows the opponents.

 

Ralston is still there.

 

LOL. Hired a Euro GK coach too. "If it's not Euro, it's crap!!"

Finnish goalkeeper coach Jyri Nieminen

 

Finns have an affinity for playing goalie.

"Finland, a country of 5.41 million people, has produced more N.H.L. goalies than any other European country,"

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/sports/hockey/finnish-soul-is-reflected-in-goalies.html

http://www.getsportiq.com/2014/03/t...-goalie-coach-is-transforming-a-global-sport/

 

I think culture is very important to Jesse, and I think if you look at the staff hires it hints at what he values. de Crook and Nieminen have developmental backgrounds (de Crook also has a history of working with MS in China). I think hes trying to set a very specific type of culture in the club, The intersting question is wether he sees these european coaches as basically seed stock, to build the club cultural and pull americans like Ian and Steve through it, or hes going to keep going to the European well.

Hes definitely looked initially to Europe in the first year with players, but he went to the USL and NASL for players this year, and now SA as well.

Culturally the club is extremely different from where it was under Doyle, Im with holding judgement right now and letting it see where it goes.

 

Well, he knows he has a limit to the number of Euro players he can bring into the fold. So he can bring young domestic players in and "Europeanize" them as much as possible before they become too tainted .

 

LoL, entirely possible. But I think what Im trying to say is that everything points to a developmental model that just hasnt existed in US soccer to this point. I mean, if your goal is to be a club with tight integration from academy to 1st team, what US coaches have the kind of experience you need?

The closest thing to what hes trying to do in the US is NYRB. FC Dallas doesnt have the USL integration or any consistent success bridging academy to 1st team (they have a lot of homegrowns, but few who have gotten stable minutes). For every candidate he can find in the US he can find 10 in Europe with the requisite experience at this point.

 

I suppose that's possible - that role of GK coach for example would not be just to coach the 2 or 3 guys on the senior roster but to implement some kind of consistency in training and methodology in Reno and down through the academy.

 

Not just that but questions about what each keeper needs, what benchmarks we want them to be hitting, How do you handle a lot of initial success or a lot of initial failure with a young keeper in a cutthroat professional environment. How much do you protect young guys from veterans like Wondo who are super intense and might unintentionally rattle a young player?

The RSL draft video is interesting because they are talking about Segbers, and wether to draft him, and one of the things there talking about 'ok, Herrerra is going to be eating up a bunch of these reserve minutes, do we have the minutes to give Segbers or is he going to rot on the bench?" Having an idea of how many minutes you need to give these guys, and knowing when you need to cut into starters minutes so you can get these players those crucial minutes, and when you can afford to do it, all of this is more old hat in Europe but not something weve seen a big emphasis on in the US.

 

I hope you're right about that last part - making sure you are giving guys minutes to develop them, even if it means cutting into some starter minutes - one of the things that drove me nuts about the previous regime.

 

Dont take this in terms of me saying this is the way it is. I just see this as what makes the most sense given what we know. The thing is, if life has taught me anything, the truth can always be dumber and more non-sensical then you would ever have imagined.

Long way of saying im ok with taking a wait and see attitude right now.

 

You should have loaned them your Magic Diversity Net.

 

I just posted this video in the draft thread, it really is worth watching...

 

de Crook has a daunting task...priority number one.....teaching Tommy how to shoot under game pressure.

 

Yeah, hopefully de Crook teaches him how to steal a few goals.