If he sent the message privately AND has the respect of his players, then there is absolutely nothing to be gained from airing this in public. Nothing. This isn't Chelsea. This isn't Europe. Nevertheless, I can't think of a Chelsea manager over the last decade calling out a player like this. Nor can I think of any other top manager doing this. Once in a while you might get a "Player X wasn't really on his game tonight, but we win as a team and we lose as a team. It's never one players fault." The closest thing I can think of was Alex Ferguson suggesting that David Beckham was doing too much away from practice and games. But that is a far, far cry from saying he is a jake in practice or a game. If you have actual examples of this type of "pressure" from a coach publicly humiliating a player at Chelsea, I'd love to here it. Would it also be ok for Frank to say, "I really don't think Carlos put the time into thinking through the tactical plan for NY tonight." In my mind, that would be a good conversation to have but it would only be appropriate in private.
Mike Banner was depressingly bad. Made me want Justin Mapp back again. And whoever said we were playing the 4-6-0 again was correct. It wasn't pretty. This was one of the rare times I wanted Calen Carr in. At least he would have run around really fast and maybe caused some confusion in someone other than himself.
And all year long three quarters of the posts around here have been people bitching about not having enough info about what's going on. John missed a stretch for health reasons and people still wanted to throw him overboard. I'll take the info. The players are professionals and are paid to play. They can handle it.
Really? That's not my impression. Maybe with player acquisition but I don't recall anyone wanting more info about what is going on internally with the team. And with player acquisition, I have always defended Frank's need to keep things quite until a deal is done.
Backe is right to say NY should have won. Kandji sent about 5 headers wide, JPA had his chances, and Henry looked very dangerous first half. Why Henry was taken out - I have no idea - I imagaine 90% of MLS defenders will be shitting their pants taking Thierry one-on-one. Chicago - hmmmm..... Ljungberg looked very good IMO. I was no fan of his at Seattle, his play or attitude, but he was very convincing last night. I think he should be wearing that 10 shirt, but then again, his shit attitude might kick in after a couple games. Where was Nyarko? injured? Castillo was pretty much a nonfactor, but Johnson's 60-year punts to him and Fredrick weren't likely to get much offense going. I assume this guy's a bit rusty, but hopefully things work out. Defense? Conde was good and commanding as usual, CJ looks well-past it, and I think Krol did a bit better than people are giving him credit for. The crowd was awesome, first time I've ever been SRO. Really a shame it ended 0-0
I agree. These guys are big boys. I don't have an issue with anything De Los Cobos had to say regarding John's work ethic. He was asked a question and he answered honestly. I've seen De Los Cobos take aside players before and after matches and practice for one on one conversations. I'd venture to say that John has heard this before.
1. Henry pulled his groin, but yes, defenders will have their hands full with him and Angel. 2. I agree on all counts about Freddie except that I don't see him as a 10 shirt (which Nery has anyway. ) The problem is that he and Nery are similar players that like to start a little deep and wide and use their pace to get inside. Nery clearly has ball skills as well as does Freddie. Baggio was the closest thing we had to a central midfielder last night and he was too slow to effectively use these two running at goal. This is still a hole in our game. If we had that playmaker with McBride/John up top, Freddie and Nery and Marco and Patrick, we would really be onto something. Right now, when Patrick is healthy, our best attacks will be by him taking it wide and deep and then feeding people in the box from the right. 3. Nyarko was injured. Still having concussion symptoms. No idea if he got hit in the head again or if he is still having problems from the first one. It has been a while so this is worrying. 4. Nery will need time. He hasn't had many games. The problem wasn't long balls out of the back. The problem, as always, is in our midfield. We need John Thorrington or some other option. When we do possess the ball, it is with no purpose. We should more accurately say that we need to possess and advance the ball. 5. Defense? Actually, given the game plan in the second half, they didn't do too badly. Watch the tape. Conde had a few shaky moments as well as CJ, but CJ did look slow. A lot of defenders will against NY this year. Also watch the tape on Krol. He got owned especially by Richards. Although I think it was a correct no call, he was very lucky not to give up a penalty kick when Richards worked him and he extended his arm in his back. 6. The crowd was awesome. I'm not sure that it is a shame that it ended 0-0 because any other ending wouldn't likely have been very good for us. Although if that ball didn't take a big hop as it got to Freddie we actually could have walked away with a win on Johnson's big shoulders.
I remember Dave Sarachan rather famously making this same statement in a press conference about a week before he got fired. In that case it was in response to a question asking if there is pressure on him to win at home regularly, and win a trophy. I'm not going to say calling out John was right, but there's been a league-wide shift since the early days of the Fire; there is an environment emerging where there is more pressure to perform. You can't lose two tournament elimination matches at home in a contract year and expect flowers and a raise. You can't be a highly paid forward and completely fail to score goals. You can't dog it in practice after your best week with the club (much less with two other international strikers breathing down your neck), then expect your coach to start you and use tongue. Man up or ship out. This is the big leagues.
Agreed. John should watch out co'z last time DLC called his boy in public ,he send him home. If i remember ,DLC called Pappa out and i've noticed Pappa took it very positively. As a fan ,i don't want to see any player in Fire jersey who don't give 100% .
I don't have any real opinion on the whole calling out players publicly issue except to say that if he gets to do it then it's only fair someone call him out on his mediocre coaching job the last several weeks, hell the whole season actually.
AMEN!!! I decided to compare the numbers of the 2009 season after 16 matches with this year and this is how they match up After 16 matches Yr W L D GF GA GD Shutouts No Goals Scored 2009 6 3 6 25 20 +5 5 3 2010 5 5 6 21 21 0 4 3 Now, this was supposed to be the season of NEW ATTACKING soccer. Well, we know that's BullS...t and based on the stats, last year was that season. Why I'm doing this. Simple, I was one of the few people in Denis's corner (I still am) and if you're gonna replace him then at the very least upgrade which clearly didn't happen. This year's team just might make the play-offs, I have no idea how since there's no "scoring" threat that's worrying other teams in this league. I'm still waiting for this new style of attacking soccer yet the only thing I'm getting is that noise crickets make at night.
I thought Logan Pause played a great game. He made three particular great long passes and held it together for the Fire. Johnson was outstanding as well. Game recap http://fire.american-soccer-news.com/?p=761
I'm happy with the draw. NY is a good team, Angel and Henry are two of the top four(ish) forward in the league and have gelled quickly. Ljungberd and Castillo aren't fit, our most dangerous attacker was out, and our most skilled forward was out. We should get better every game for the rest of the season. We have no shot at the SS, so as long as we improve and make the playoffs the second half of the regular season will have been a success. I can't make myself feel too sorry for John. This is the story of his career, the onus is on him to turn it around. Whatever's been tried with him before wasn't working, maybe this is it. I really hope he does at least a bare minimum in practice, because I'd like to see him play. He does make the team better.
Regardless of whether or not DLC should be calling out players in the media, was he actually correct in his assessment? I though John played as good a game against LA as any of our strikers have played this season, scoring a great goal, playing a role in the other two, holding and distributing the ball fairly well. He was just offsides a couple times, though not nearly as badly as Castillo was in his debut.
Agreed, probably the best I have seen out of Pause, ever. I mean seriously, the guy outplayed Marquez in the first half, and I never thought that would be possible. I thought the defense played well, CJ and Krol made two pretty big errors in the first half, but the rest of the team covered for the mistakes, and Krol completely shut down Kanji and took him out of the game in the 1st half. Ljungberg did his best Nowak impression, he was outstanding the entire day, loved the effort and when he was fouled he got the calls. The guy looks better on real grass. The 2nd half started OK, but inexplicably CDLC took out McBride for Nery, it was a foolhardy decision. Without a forward to play off of both Nery and Freddie were running into the same spaces and slowly our possession game turned into long ball with nobody capable of controlling those long balls. Krol got burned a few times by Richards, but it was mostly due to misjudging the bounces of the ball, but it wasn't all bad from him, he had a number of good take aways leading to attacks down field. I thought Dasan played well (outside of the handball that was awfully close to being inside the box), I don't know why he was subbed. Umanzor for Pappa was a white flag, I never want to see us play for a tie again on our home field, I don't care who we're playing.
I understand that you don't get 2 rubber dicks about *knowing* anything. Before you use words and phrases you might want to actually know their meaning, otherwise you just look like an uneducated idiot. It's better to keep your mouth shut and have people assume you're stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.
If someone makes a comment about a player and I know point A to be false, why would I believe that point B is accurate? That is my problem with CDLC's comments, he claimed John didn't play well last week, which is just patently untrue. Why should I believe John didn't train well? I don't know whether he did or not, frankly I don't care, I want to see the best team on the field and the best formation, I saw neither yesterday.
This could have been one ugly loss, a damn miracle that the Bulls did not score 3 goals. The fire had terrible spacing problems on the wings, there was no opportunity (or anyone with the ability) for the long pass, bad first touch, terrible ball handling from Brown and just a flat out lack of men in the box really killed the fire on the offensive side of the ball. Why is Brown still starting? Freddie was creative and looks like he will be a big time addition, his speed and ball control is something we have not seen since...... hmmm Thiago!! jk. But seriously he and McBride looked good together. Unibrow was lost but honestly who would not after not playing for as long as he did. Nyarko was missed. Sean Johnson was out of this world, he has a cannon of a leg but his athleticism really was something special, it really made up for some moments when he was out of position That being said, Brown is a liability and Robinson is more of a sub than a starter. I really hope we can make a push or at the very least score more goals because the fire have lacked excitement on offense... damn shame to watch boring offensive possessions.
If you thnk Manning up means you have to publicly bitch slap someone, then you dont know what being a man is about. See: Bob Bradley
I'd rather have seen Nery on for Banner and eventually John for McBride. If John wasn't going to play at all because of the coach's decision then I'm not sure how I would have made the changes. I'm pretty sure Dimitrov isn't ready to play with these guys. I'm not a big fan of subbing defenders either, unless there's an injury.
I agree with all of this. On Dasan, I am hoping the decision was made because he picked up a little knock or pull. If he used THAT as a tactical sub in THAT game, then it was a pathetic use of a substitution (although probably the best of the three which is really saying something.)
Yup exactly..This isnt days of our lives... Look You really think Collins John is going to give a shit that we now know what the coach thinks? I know for a fact Mcbride isnt happy with the way things are going with this team but you dont see him calling everyone out.. and talking crap about his coach and teammates in the press, he is addressing these issues in private with the team and management.. Thats called class.. I understand this to be a cultural thing, DLC comes from a region of the world where this is the norm, thats fine, then the next game he shouldnt be too surprised if a few of us "fans" decide to give him more heat than he has had before for poor coaching decisions... What goes around comes around right?
Way to set that bar high for your coach. Shoot for the stars! Seriously, I guess you would have been ok with Denis going to the media instead and saying, "Bakary isn't playing hard at all. He is looking for a contract from Europe and he doesn't want to be bothered with the Fire right now or risk hurting himself. His own teammates have had enough and are confronting him in the locker room. If he thinks there might be some contact, Bakary will pull out of the challenge right now. Oh yea, and his long ball distribution is for shit."