Next Coach

Discussion in 'USA Men: News & Analysis' started by nbarbour, Dec 3, 2022.

  1. gomichigan24

    gomichigan24 Member+

    Jul 15, 2002
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Though it helps tremendously that the new coach brought guys like Ziyech and Mazraoui back into the fold.

    If we replaced a coach and it meant we brought in two players the caliber of Pulisic and Dest, that's the sort of thing that's worth it and which makes a huge difference. Nothing helps more than having good players.
     
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  2. gomichigan24

    gomichigan24 Member+

    Jul 15, 2002
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I don't think this means a decision has been made either way. Preliminary discussions are preliminary for a reason. Even if he's back I don't think this is a decision that will be made overnight.
     
  3. tomásbernal

    tomásbernal Member+

    Sep 4, 2007
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Further, this might not be true at all. It's some dude named Anthonykyaw who says that Doug McIntyre says that USSF has opened preliminary discussions with Berhalter. As far as I can tell, Doug McIntyre hasn't reported this himself. It wouldn't be the first time that someone on twitter decided to have some fun, knowing freak outs would abound.
     
  4. Ghost

    Ghost Member+

    Sep 5, 2001
    Four more years of 1-0 soccer.
     
  5. truefan420

    truefan420 Member+

    May 30, 2010
    oakland
    Club:
    Chelsea FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Sounds like it’s one already made. Especially when there was talk that he could be back even if we didn’t make it out of the group.
     
  6. eagercolin

    eagercolin Member

    Metro
    United States
    Aug 25, 2017
    Buffalo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That's fine by me, as long as we're on the good end of enough of those scorelines. But again, this is an anonymous twitter person talking about nothing more than preliminary discussions.
     
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  7. tomásbernal

    tomásbernal Member+

    Sep 4, 2007
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    USSF has just made the formal announcement: new contract runs through the 2034 World Cup. Berhalter got them to add a clause that effectively makes him unfireable.
     
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  8. gomichigan24

    gomichigan24 Member+

    Jul 15, 2002
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    One report that preliminary discussions have been had is not evidence of anything. I'm sure Berhalter is taking a few weeks post World Cup to decompress and then he and Stewart will meet to have a conversation about what's next.

    It wouldn't surprise me if Stewart wants Berhalter back, but I don't think that decision has been made yet. It may end up happening, but no need to worry either way yet.
     
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  9. theboogeyman

    theboogeyman Member+

    Jun 21, 2010
    I agree with your general sentiment, but I don’t think it’s possible to complete a public search before bringing Berhalter back. I don’t trust the federation to make good hires for the right reasons, but it is entirely possible that they gauged a few top targets like Marsch and Matarazzo, and didn’t get warm responses. If that actually happened, then bringing berhalter back is understandable, even if it’s not exciting. a Curtin or Cherundolo might be better than berhalter, but I don’t buy for a second that they definitely would be. And I don’t think extended interviews would have been possible without officially getting rid of berhalter first.
     
  10. Clint Eastwood

    Clint Eastwood Member+

    Dec 23, 2003
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Its not so much "getting rid of Berhalter."
    His contract will expire in weeks.

    There's no actual indication one way or the other that's what McBride/Stewart want to do. People are just making a ton of asusmptions.

    Most people on this board don't seem to understand how the hiring process works with the USSF.

    Just as an example. How was Berhalter hired? The people who evaluated candidates in 2018 were Stewart, Ryan Mooney, and Nico Romeijn. They narrowed the list to 3. One dropped out. The remaining 2 were brought into the USSF to interview with those three individuals plus Carlos Cordeiro and Dan Flynn. At that point Berhalter was indentified as their top choice. They then took their recommendation to the USSF Technical Development Committee. That group then voted (unanimously as it turned out) to endorse Berhalter as the man to offer the position to. That was then taken to the USSF Board of Directors, who also approved the choice (unanimously).

    People act like Stewart can just decide what he wants to do and offer a contract to Berhalter. The USSF by definition never does anything quickly. It has to go thru all sorts of layers.......................
     
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  11. RevsRule

    RevsRule Member+

    NE Revs, LAFC
    Jun 9, 1999
    N. Eastern, Mass
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I really hope this is a joke? GB should not continue... he has done nothing to earn it
     
  12. dspence2311

    dspence2311 Member+

    Oct 14, 2007
    I don’t really seen this “scoop“ anywhere else, so it could be fake.
     
  13. gogorath

    gogorath Member+

    None
    United States
    May 12, 2019
    C'mon, guys. A contract through the 2034 World Cup?
     
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  14. truefan420

    truefan420 Member+

    May 30, 2010
    oakland
    Club:
    Chelsea FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I hope he doesn’t come back but I’m not holding my breath.
     
  15. gomichigan24

    gomichigan24 Member+

    Jul 15, 2002
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I just listened the podcast from Doyle and the rest of the MLS guys and they strongly seem to think that Berhalter will want to move on. They do think it depends on what his other opportunities are, but have said that it's very clear when you talk to him that he misses the club game.
     
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  16. Maximum Optimal

    Maximum Optimal Member+

    Jul 10, 2001
    I've thought all along Berhalter would be coming back. I also think it is the right move. Not a slam dunk but taking into account quite a few things that have barely been mentioned in this thread the right move. I hope he finds an assistent coach that is a bit of a new age offensive guru.
     
  17. gomichigan24

    gomichigan24 Member+

    Jul 15, 2002
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I’m open to him coming back, but it really depends on what the other options are. I’m not convinced any of the MLS options are better for instance.

    I am becoming more and more convinced that he won’t ultimately want to return (though there may be a short term extension to give us time to find a coach and give him time to find a job in Europe).
     
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  18. dlokteff

    dlokteff Member+

    Jan 22, 2002
    San Francisco, CA
    That tweet is from a rando, so people should put zero stock into it.

    But here's the whole article where it comes from:
    https://www.foxsports.com/stories/soccer/usmnt-players-support-berhalters-return-as-coach

    It IS a FoxSports article, by a "Fox Sports Insider" whatever that is, so there's some credibilty there. The article does get quotes from, Ferreira, Ream, Morris, and S.Johnson...which is not exactly the Murderer's Row of USMNT for the next 4 years.
     
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  19. don Lamb

    don Lamb Member+

    mine
    United States
    Aug 31, 2017
    No way that's true. BS and twitter have been telling me for years that nepotism and Jay Berhalter alone got Gregg the job.
     
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  20. gomichigan24

    gomichigan24 Member+

    Jul 15, 2002
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    A sports illustrated article quotes Jedi too.

    I would guess the rest of the players feel similarly but Stewart can always talk to Pulisic, Adams, McKennie, etc directly.
     
  21. gomichigan24

    gomichigan24 Member+

    Jul 15, 2002
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I think Stewart is ultimately the main decision maker and no one is likely to to overrule his choice. But he does have to get sign off on his decisions. The overall idea however is that soccer players make the soccer decisions at USSF.
     
  22. honest trade

    honest trade Member

    Aug 15, 2010
    Los Angeles
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Tactically Berhalter is not on the level of the better international managers. There is always a fair chance he’ll be out managed against better sides, as we saw against the Netherlands. Even van Gaal called him out after the match for making no adjustments and playing exactly as they had predicted. In a US team with top 5 league and champions league talent all over the field, Berhalter will be the weak link.

    The bar for him was set low. It’s not like we were Japan or even South Korea where we won against a superior side. Our best ‘win’ was a 0-0 draw. It will be a disappointment if they bring him back, although not unexpected unfortunately.
     
  23. dlokteff

    dlokteff Member+

    Jan 22, 2002
    San Francisco, CA
    It's been debunked that LVG "called him out". He was saying that the US wasn't going to adjust because we are a good team like France...LOL. Still Berhalter, RAUS!


    [​IMG]
     
  24. honest trade

    honest trade Member

    Aug 15, 2010
    Los Angeles
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Lol that’s one way to interpret it I guess, but it’s hardly debunking. We’re obviously not at that level, so we should have adjusted.
     
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  25. don Lamb

    don Lamb Member+

    mine
    United States
    Aug 31, 2017
    I think Berhalter deserves to be defended regarding his record re: tactics.

    - When he came into the position, US soccer was a tactical wasteland. There had been very little semblance of any tactical nuance for maybe the entirety of the program's existence.

    - Berhalter's Crew had a clear identity, and he was the first MLS coach, in my opinion, to really incorporate a possession based style of play. His team played with the ball and created chances by using the ball while also remaining compact and organized defensively.

    - He came in to the national team with some relatively high level ideas -- an evolution of the 433 that he used with the Crew. The level of the player pool was very low at that point.

    - His tactical approach evolved further to meet the players and the realities of the international game.

    - They ultimately settled into a conservative, possession based style of attack and quasi pressing defensive team that was keyed by a strong defensive unit centrally. The team was generally very hard to break down and won many games thanks to stingy defense. The offense did not create a lot of chances.

    - Despite the lack of chances created, it's evident that there are building blocks being laid down that a dynamic attack can be built off of:
    1. Center backs are being relied on to break lines with their passing and dictate the pace of the game as they have responsibility to play through the midfield.
    2. Outside backs get forward and have freedom to create with the ball at their feet.
    3. Roles of the central midfield are flexible depending on the game plan, but dynamism in movement off the ball and actions with the ball are required.
    4. Wing players are capable of playing in transition and through build up.
    5. Striker is asked to play in midfield in addition to leading the line.

    - The part of this that has the least amount of clarity/success is the striker part. Outside of the tactics, I think that Berhalter got personnel wrong with the striker position throughout qualifying and in the World Cup (including with roster selections).

    - Other factors for the lack of chances created falls mostly on the players' inability to move the ball quickly enough, from poor decision making, or simply from technical errors.

    - Poor set piece execution was another culprit in the lack of scoring opportunities.

    - Despite having underwhelming center backs and outside backs whose defense has been called into question, the team rarely gave up lots of scoring opportunities to the opposition.

    - This pool was very difficult to build a tactical identity around. For starters, the pool took a long time after Gregg got the job before it started to get settled. The key players mostly didn't have much of a track record of how they played at club level since they were so young. Secondly, there were so many injuries, so the team was usually playing without at least a couple of key pieces. Thirdly, there was no prime age players with experience who serve of a backbone to scaffold from (just about every player from Trapp to Lletget failed and was dropped).

    - Conclusion: Berhalter had a very difficult job in establishing a tactical identity for this team. He managed to do so successfully before the World Cup. There is still room for lots of improvement, but there is also a clear foundation that this improvement can be built from.

    - Verdict: Berhalter deserves 18 months to see if, with more experience in his own coaching and more experience in his player's careers, he is able to take the next step forward with them.
     
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