We are more used to nicknames like, "Crooked" LA Galaxy "Lyin" Portland Timbers "Little" Columbus Crew "Low Energy" Houston Dynamo. "Crazy" Orlando "Sneaky" DC United
Ha ha! I like Mouseketeers for Orlando. That's good. These others ... well, they sound like someone else. But, I'll have to re-think some of my nicknames. DynamoeHumms not clear enough? I thought that would be fairly obvious. Some here call them the Creamsicles, which is more of a reach, but still clever. Sporks? Is that not what most people call them? We need a good nickname for the Union though. Onions? Filles? Ben's Tossers? Not sure on that one. Better ideas for MiniSoda? I thought that should be really obvious too. GO Quakes!! - Mark
Did we hire the wrong coach from the Swedish Allsvenskan? Last season Stahre's BK Häcken finished 4th, a very good finish for one of the lesser known teams. One spot below them at 5h was Östersunds FK, coached by Graham Potter. They're a small club in a remote part of Sweden that was only founded in 1996. Potter joined Östersunds in 2011 just after they had been relegated to the Swedish fourth tier.... here's what they've done since: Immediate promotion back to the third tier, immediate promotion to the second tier, 10th, 5th, promotion to the first tier, 8th, 5th. And they won the Swedish Cup to qualify for Europa League... This dude took a bunch of nobodies, beat Turkish giants Galatasaray, beat PAOK to qualify for the group stage, finished second in a group that included Hertha Berlin and Athletic Bilbao, and are now facing Arsenal (who beat them in the first leg, not surprisingly) in the round of 32. Still that's three losses in 13 Europa League games, not bad for the smallest of minnows. The BBC article on him is worth reading, both Graham Potter and the team's chairman Daniel Kindberg seem like interesting characters... BBC: Ostersunds FK: Rise of Swedish club under English manager Graham Potter Ostersund FK is not an ordinary football club. Their extraordinary achievements on the pitch are underpinned by a unique approach to team-building off it. They have developed a 'culture academy' where players sing, dance and act in front of an audience in an attempt to boost their performance ability. This has included staging a rock concert, at which Potter himself sang, and a performance of Swan Lake... DK: It was a young lady who called me with the idea that cultural expression can be good for athletes. I thought it was very interesting - out of the box. We let the players and staff consume culture, organising workshops with theatre, dance, singing, book reading. In our culture academy, we have a different theme every year. It is a training method for decision-making and bravery. GP: We had to get players who weren't proven, get them into our environment and make them better. They play football for a couple of hours and then they're human beings for the rest of the time, so if we can help them in those aspects then it would be beneficial for them. We use it to help us win football matches fundamentally - but there's knock-on effects that it can develop the person in terms of self-awareness, in terms of motivation, in terms of empathy. You start to find out about people in a different way. You can see who is more comfortable in uncomfortable situations, how they respond to that and how you can work with them and help them develop. Some interesting projects. I can't say I'm a good dancer or singer, but I've done things I would never have done. I'd have never danced on a stage, that's for sure, or sang in front of people. The Guardian: The English managerial success story shunned by the Premier League
Maybe he wasn't available? You can't always get who you want. Ya know? I'm still hoping for big improvement this season over last. Go Quakes!! - Mark
Okay seriously send Stahre back and hire this Potter guy... Arsenal 0-2 Oestersunds FK HT: Arsenal are in danger of throwing away their 3-0 lead from the first leg. Oestersunds have had more shots on targets (3) than the hosts (1) https://t.co/nUPDkVBSUA #UEL pic.twitter.com/y2o9OAaPjn— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) February 22, 2018 Arsenal 1-2 Oestersunds FK FT: Oestersunds are only the second team to beat Arsenal at the Emirates this season in any competition https://t.co/nUPDkVTuja UEL— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) February 22, 2018 and sign this dude Saman Ghoddos: Man of the Match vs Arsenal - Rating 8.91, Assists 2, Key Passes 7, Dribbles 3, Shots 1, Tackles 1 @ofk_1996Full player ratings: https://t.co/KmaDLezfso pic.twitter.com/9RMa0Tc1Jd— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) February 22, 2018 1-0 2-0
In the time-honored tradition of BS posters tooting their own horns at their prognosticating prowess, may I present this post from last September? https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/20...-year-thread-version-x.2076912/#post-35917206
Kudos, @bsman As for "hire the other guy," we have no idea if that guy was available, or if he would be interested if he were available, or really much else about him. Further! We don't know how good Mikael is yet. You can complain if Stahre sucks, but if he turns out to good, then we don't get to complain. (Until he exceeds his sell by date, which is on tap for every head coach ever.) Go Quakes!! - Mark
I’m not one to always blame the coach because if the players aren’t any good, there isn’t much a coach can do. Still he and Jesse brought in these new additions to the club and they are clearly not planning out. Anything can happen in this league but the way it is currently, I don’t see Stahre turning this around...
On the very first page of this thread I quoted a Swedish soccer fan who had this to say about Stahre: "He abandoned his more technical and possession based system for a much more pragmatic and direct style which turned it around. The following seasons at IFK were primarily focused on a fairly direct playing style using either 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 with quick wingers who were allowed to drift in towards the center or beat their defender." So if we can believe this, Stahre had an epiphany of sorts some years ago (if it pre-dates his time at IFK, it would probably be during his tenure at AIK, 2009-2010). Play pragmatic, direct soccer for best results! Employ attacking, cutting-in outside mids. (This is the post that first prompted me to call Stahre "the Swedish Dominic Kinnear" - pragmatic, direct style, employs cutting-in attacking outside mids - that is pretty stock Kinnear). So with this backdrop you can kind of see his thought process as the season wears on. He started the season planning to play this direct style, and when the results weren't so great, he decided to double down on it, by going with a 4-3-3 (against Houston). His analysis of the Philly game, the previous game, was that we were dangerous in the final 3rd but just didn't get it there enough - "too many backpasses", he said. So put some more bodies forward, forget building attacks through midfield, we'll just chuck it up there for the forwards! Unfortunately, it turned out to be arguably the worst game all season for the Quakes. The problem is, even without Wondo, the Quakes don't really have forwards who are fast enough and strong enough ball-winners to make this style work. Hoesen is fast enough, but loses most challenges for the ball, Vako and Eriksson have average to below average speed. Wondo, well, we know about his foot speed. Now before the Orlando game, finally, Stahre finally started to talk about possessing the ball a little more. The result - another loss, but actually arguably an improvement over the Houston game, and the Columbus game was even a bit better - anyone's game until late. So maybe he is starting to figure things out. He may have to undo his circa 2010 "epiphany" about playing direct vs. more of a technical, possession-oriented style. We have some players that can do play more of a possession game, but he has to play them. But anyway,it's been painful to have to watch him figure out stuff we already know. I mean a hardcore Quakes fan could have told him: We did direct for years under Kinnear, with mixed results, at best. Unless you want to play Quincy, we don't have the forwards right now for a direct style. Don't get overly bamboozled by Shea Salinas as left back. He looks good on the attack, he's quick, he's great guy, great attitude, but he is not the greatest soccer player (even by his own admission!). There is nothing necessarily wrong with a backpass. It helps you hold the ball a bit, and take pressure off of your nascent defense. Guys like Hyka and Tommy may be small - not viking soccer players, and they may back pass more than you'd like, but work them into the games. They will help you.
My concern is we don't have all the pieces to play either Swedish Domball nor possession game. Even if we somehow got it to work better, it is half baked and we are playing players out of positions. We have this problem building the team for many seasons regardless who is in charge as coach and GM. We just get a bunch of guys and try to figure out how they could work. If the original Domball needed big target forward and fast wingers, we never got any effective ones. The team with all the right pieces for that style would be the one with the Bash Brothers. That was before Dom's time. Now we have a new GM and a new coach and we are supposed to know what players will be required for the style and formation. Still, the improvement is none or just minimal.
And here's the thing. I have been yammering for a while now about wanting Jesse to define the club's style / system of play. That way we can start to acquire the players that fit that style / system. I thought that he was going for more of a technical, possession-oriented style when Leitch started coaching, and after we started heading in that direction right away under Leitch. But then he hired Stahre, and played up his "flexibility". Thing is, I don't want a "flexible" coach, dammit, because then there's a tendency to continue to pick up pieces randomly and, well, because he's so flexible, he'll make it work! The problem is, what if your genius flexible coach is not such a genius? Now you're hosed because you don't have a roster that is necessarily good at any particular system. So you hire another "flexible" coach, and rinse and repeat. I want to see Jesse put a stake in the ground. Define a style of play, dammit, and then hire a coach who will commit to that style, and then build a roster to fit it. The style of play is more durable than any coaching tenure. So if a guy doesn't work out, or he works out and gets a better gig, etc., no worries, hire another guy with the same kind of philosophy that's going to match your club, and you already have a roster to fit.
Such a dreamer, Jazzy. Jesse’s commitment to style of play is pretty obvious: whatever style gets us into the last spot in the playoffs, so we can exit 3 days later.
It is a bit baffling to me that Fioranelli would fire Kinnear only to replace him with a coach who attempted almost the exact same philosophy. I know there are people around here who want to believe Stahre is a superior mind to Kinnear, but we've seen the team make the exact same mistakes that Kinnear did, even down to things like not using subs effectively, playing tired old players despite mountains of evidence of their ineffectiveness, and abandoning change upon the first sign of struggle. To me, this points to Fioranelli just plain not getting along with Kinnear rather than him having some divine plan for the team. So far we've seen some improvement on the quality of player acquisition, though the defending unit still brings a lot of questions about how much they actually know about who they should be getting. It's extremely frustrating. Maybe I'm just especially pessimistic these days, but I have to say, I'd almost prefer a pronounced lack of ambition like the Doyle days than have someone claim to want to be something they have no realistic chance of being. At least with Doyle we knew the team was not going to try (meaning at the executive level, not the player level). It sucked, but there's some comfort in that. Your expectations are set correctly.
Stahre has not started Wondo, and has subbed him off with the game still to be decided. IMO, our biggest issue is our ability to defend as a team, and then to play out of the back when we regain possession. For various reasons it has been musical chairs on our back line so far this season. I think Quintana and Cummings have the potential to be an effective pairing in the back, Lima is solid on the right, but, of course there is the glaring issue of left back. Our central mids need to step up their game as well. Not only helping out our defense more, but, linking better between them and our forward players.
I wanted to believe that Stahre would be better. Because you're right, why fire one crappy coach to hire another who is just like him? But that's what they did. Yeah, this. We keep making the same mistakes over and over. This is not working out. No. We can hope that Jesse will correct this mess. With Doyle, we knew that wasn't possible and we had to hope that our inept coach would miraculously get it right. For me, it's not about my expectations. It's about our team sucking year after year. Or maybe it is an expectation. I expect our team to be competitive. I expect them to try. I expect not to be embarrassed by our team. Go Quakes!! - Mark
I know I've posted this elsewhere, but it does not take a technical genius to realize when you are losing (again) that not using every sub you can to alter your strategy and/or shape is necessary. Yet their have been two games (we lost) where we only used two subs, and others in which the subs we used couldn't alter the strategy and/or shape. Not sold on Stahre at all.