To each there own. If you think there is a better formation than 4-2-3-1 fine love to hear it. I still think it historically suits us even now we can find players to fill the rolls but that wasn't my main point. My main point is in international football you don't have much time. Of course you want your manager studying the opposition and studying his own players and coming up with a style and formation that fits all of those parts. The issue is how do you impart all of this great knowledge onto your team in maybe 1 proper training session? So my answer is you already have a pre-created formation, think of it like a template, it suits the strengths of our broad player pool, and works within Concacaf qualifying (IE 1pm in June in Central America). And players know and learn the roles that they will fill within that formation. Meaning they can be called in, slotted in, and expected to play to a minimum standard. Now obviously you can and should make tweaks to this system, based on your players, the opposition, and where the match is being played. But with a framework (specifically defensive) that stays the same match to match. And for the record this is not a new or revolutionary concept, National Teams have been doing this since the beginning of the sport.
A thing I think that will help accelerate youth talent in MLS and for the USMNT is creating a rule for all MLS teams to play with U20 players for a couple thousand minutes per season. Fail to do so will get penalized with points. Similar to what Liga MX had with their rule of 20/11. There are 34 games in the season which accumulates to a total of 3060 minutes per one player, assuming he plays every game for 90 minutes. If a rule can be established that each team must play with U20 player/s for a total of 4000 minutes per season it will force all the teams to play with minimum 2 U20 players to meet quota. The more you use the faster you get to those minutes. It will also force the clubs to work with their academies to get the best possible players to play in the league and be productive instead of using any U20 player just to meet quota.
all I am going to say is tell me one? tell me one national team that has a 'fallback' formation already set but didn't even have a coach at the moment
I'd like to see an increase in emphasizing coaching education for coaches at all levels and attempting to develop more coaches to the A and B level. This might mean taking away some of the requirements, such as you have to be coaching at a certain level (DA, ODP, College etc), so that it is more open to everyone. In countries that pundits have been citing, Iceland, German, Spain etc, they have A and B licensed coaches working with the youngest players and at all ability levels. In the USA, we have our A and B licensed coaches almost exclusively working with U11+, and the top teams only. Granted, Iceland has 1 A and B licensed coach per 17 players, Spain has 1 per about 23 players, Germany has 1 per about 50 players. USA has 1 per about 530 players. Couldn't imagine why we struggle to consistently develop youth players across the whole country.
they had a good idea on the total soccer show of how to maybe increase coaching education without the high cost. Basically you'd allow the person to go through whatever coaching training basically on us soccer; but us soccer would then assign you a coaching job at some level that is equal to the license you've rec'd and then at the same time offer you more training and the ability to move up the coaching education/coaching ladder at the same time. The catch is of course there would be some sort of you have to coach for x amount of years to pay off the cost. its kind a half baked thought but I think it really might be a good idea. also don't compare the us to germany/spain/iceland...the us is wayyy too big for that.
I don't know, US soccer can really do much culturally. You can pump money into development, fire all the heads, MLS can keep developing youth, etc etc, but if our kids aren't in the streets playing street ball in large numbers, we won't make the jump.
Agreed. As I said before, while in Europe, most of the kids play footie 90% of a time, or at least it used to be like this when I was young.
I go to parks all the time in Chicago and see kids play. I am sure the same is happening in other big cities (and even smaller cities.) The difference is most of those kids don't care about the US National team. There is a disconnect.
Never said should be done without the new coach, should be done as part of the entire reboot after the failure of the '18 campaign. And to answer your question Italy is the prime example for a team that has a basic formation and way of playing that carries on even as players and manager change.
I like this a lot. I'd go even further and require the assignments to be done in the public arena (as opposed to private clubs). Imagine all these rec and high school programs finally staffed by fully licensed coaches? All free to the municipality! Now kids have a low-cost, local option for quality instruction/play. These assignments don't necessarily have to be full-time/part-time coaching gigs. For low-level licenses, it could be a something as simple as running an after school futsal/street-soccer program with minimal technical instruction for an hour or two. Even doing that has the added benefit of having someone qualified scouting the front lines for potential talent. The municipality could then give coaches access to fields/facilities to run additional technical training sessions (for kids needing either remedial or advanced training). This would allow coaches to make extra money on the side in exchange for high quality training. This keeps costs low for everyone. TL;DR: Give coaches licenses in exchange for work done in the public sector, specifically at the rec level & public after school programs in order to offer a low-cost, low-barrier path to the game for players. Simultaneously, create a low-cost/low-barrier path to the game for coaches by giving them access to licenses, fields, and players.
Exactly, you have to build from the ground up. But even then, you can't force people to love the game. Also, soccer's nationalistic bent kind of goes against how sports work in the U.S. People don't care about developing the American player in the major U.S. sports, they care about winning the league. It just so happens that usually those two go hand in hand. Not so much in hockey, though. The U.S. was embarrassed at last year's World Cup of Hockey. That didn't phase the average American NHL fan at all. Give those same fans the choice between a true American hockey superstar or a Stanley Cup for their team on the backs of some Swedes or Slovenians or any other foreign nationality, and they'll take the Stanley Cup every time. Pretty much we have a Catch 22. We would have great players if we had a domestic league and culture that was a big deal in our domestic landscape. But soccer is set up so we won't have that culture until we have great players.
such a myth mls does at best a poor job developing youth talent. do you really think messi was playing street soccer at 15 learning how to play the game lol
https://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/feat...e-changes-six-candidates-director-usmnt-uswnt Ernie Stewart is an intriguing option.
I have stopped reading this thread right here. Mostly because of this video (preach it Herc!!) and some points brought up by other posters. As one poster stated, you people are looking at the wrong end of the tree. I have been playing and following this sport since 1975. I am now a ref. We have not progressed nearly as much as we should have. Now that I am done with my captain obvious moment, here is my plan. 1) Blow up pay for play. Right now. Do you guys see what baseball is doing? They are footing the bill and going to the inner cities. 2) Make it mandatory for all MLS clubs to have and completely finance their academies. They can afford these expansion fees and post expiry euro players, they can sure as hell fork out the money for this. This would include mandatory scouting departments at all levels. 3) Grade youth coaches on the number of players developed, not winning percentage. Any dumb ass can have everyone kick the ball to fast Timmy, or bully a ref who calls a more technical game. Coaches need to focus on player development, not "winning the day". 4) Tell the parents to drop the kids off and then get the hell out of here. The next time I hear something intelligent from a parent will be the first time. 5) Lose the good ol boys network for referees. I am looking at you assignors. If you people could see the refs that get the higher level games vs the refs that get passed over you would vomit and eat it. There needs to be professional referee assignors and evaluators paid for by the MLS club. Right now the entire focus of youth soccer is on making money and winning the day, not player development. Here is why none of this plan will see the light of day. The very people that are the cause of the problem have too much tenure in the process. No way in hell are enough MLS owners going to completely cover the cost of academies/youth clubs. Anyone who thinks that these egotistical assed coaches are going to change their style is begging. No parent ever will gracefully step aside and admit that they are part of the problem. As for the ol boy network of referees and assignors? Right, that is a cash cow for these people, and they aren't giving that up any time soon. So my real solution? Find another national team to root for, because this shit ain't gonna get fixed.
1)sounds fun..who pays for it? clubs? us soccer? who and where does that money come from? there will always be some form of pay for play. 2)sounds good...again where does the money come from and what if a club can't afford to pay for their academy(dc united is a good example). Paying for players is different...they also add to income from day one, does everyone workout no but same would go for academy players. The other problem is that there also are not enough skilled coaches for the academies(this is us soccers biggest problem). 3)again..who decides if they are 'developed'? if you've ever seen youth coaching its really clear who is a good and who is bad when it comes to coaching. 4)good luck with that 5)not a serious thought so I will leave it where it is. it also can't just be mls clubs...if people want pro/rel the usl/nasl clubs not associated with mls teams would need academies too.
People like you with responses like this are the very reason I wrote the last 2 sentences. So, because you don't have a solution or ideas, pick another national team to root for. Oh, and in case you missed it, my opinion on refs is a a serious thought. BECAUSE I AM ONE YOU ********ING IDIOT.
this proves my point. I have given solutions repeatedly, you just gave random complaints but didn't mention a single realistic fix. I am curious about the ref thing though because it means one of two things. 1)either you admit you are assigned higher level games because its the old boys network and you are assigned those games despite being a terrible ref over much better refs. 2)you are just another whiny complainer(which also explains ur other ideas). if you are one of the passed over refs then ur complain just comes across to me as a typical complaint over everyone else being mean but you really being the smartest and them just jealous. Were you also the best player in the state too? just didn't go to the right school or have the right coach so lesser players got all the awards/accolades? Lets get real one of ur 'fixes'...was have the parents drop their kids off and leave...yeah thats what is wrong with us soccer...if parents just dropped their kids off and left it would get fixed. drop pay for play...you didn't tell us how you intend to make up that money? that money has to come from somewhere, right? I mean everything isn't free you do know that right? you are a ref...you do it for free? that field is free? the coaches pay a lot to get coaching licenses you expect no coach to get paid? the big problems are simple, they need to fix pay for play it can't be eliminated but they need to find a way so it doesn't exclude kids with families with lower incomes. the other problem is coaching...its not refs its coaches. There are not enough good coaches in the country. Kids are learning garbage from people that don't know anything its a reach to expect them to learn how to play like that.
I genuinely do not see a way in which the pay-to-play model ever completely goes away. Someone will always be paying, or will have to pay. A decent compromise could be allowing training fees and solidarity payments to be made if/when a player goes pro. This would at least allow some kids in a club to play for free, or to pay for coaching education, or build a facility of their own etc. I agree completely that there are not enough good coaches in this country. I just moved to a new area (and work full-time in soccer) that is a bit 'rural' in comparison to the city I came from. The coaching quality is horrendous, both in my club, and in other clubs. The area I came from had such incredible coaching talent everywhere that I thought it was normal. The lack of quality coaches from the youngest ages to the oldest is a drastic problem and it would do wonders to the development of our players in the future if we were to invest in providing affordable coaching education.
I respectfully disagree. I don't think our country size matters completely when we are talking coaching education. It just takes some outside the box thinking to fix the problem. I think our country size (both geographic and population) does pose some disadvantages, but for me, not in the discussion of coaching education. I calculated those numbers using the number of registered youth soccer players. If I remember correctly, the numbers for USA and Germany were very similar, with the USA being larger. The ratios were also used to show how other countries can be so good at soccer in comparison to the USA. Those countries have A and B licensed coaches coaching as early as U7/U8. I do have some ideas about how we can provide better coaching opportunities. 1) Establish regionalized coaching education centers that do A and B licensed courses for coaches 1-3 times per year. I honestly think each ODP/US Youth Soccer Region could be split into two. We currently have 4 regions, USSF could split it into 8 and have 1 A and B license course in the lower population areas and 2-3 in the higher population areas. 2) State Associations run all C, D and E courses. Most associations have individuals who are qualified to run all of these courses. If they do not, a State Association nearby likely would. This would cut down on the travel cost for coaches to get to the current A, B and C license offerings. It would also allow the USSF to offer more courses and hopefully be a bit more efficient as the onus of organization would be placed upon the regions rather than on USSF directly. This is hugely pie in the sky, I know, and has a ton of holes. But hey, we are jsut speaking hypotheticals anyway.
Missing this World Cup was a golden opportunity to rebuild "for real" from the bottom up, but the suits have selfishly gone into full self-preservation mode. Shame.
Coaching. It starts there. Make it cheaper, easier, and if possible free for mom's and dad's to learn the basics online to teach to their kids and hopefully the teams they themselves coach. As you go up the ladder it makes sense to charge fees for seminars, and coaching classes but the first level or two absolutely need to be free and widely advertised that they're available. Make sure every youtube video they put out is in both English and Spanish. We as a nation need to stop being afraid to let our kids out of the house to play. Parents need to encourage their kids and their friends to play in the backyard, in open fields, at the school fields, or the local parks. Kids with the ball at their feet for more than just coach supervised practices. Take away the phone, the PS4 or XboxOne. Kick the kid out and say go play for a few hours before it gets dark. MLS needs to sponsor coaching badges for every soon to be retired player who's interested in obtaining them. Whether that player is an American or not, so many foreign players stay in the US. Helping them help our youth can only bring more attention to our players both here and potentially abroad. Stay local. The biggest expense for select teams is travel. Around our major cities have a no more than 50 mile rule. Teams won't play teams further than 50 miles. If you want one big tournament as an incentive towards the end of the season for your kids fine. But playing in 3+ tournaments far away each year is prohibitively expensive and doesn't help kids improve their skills. It just focuses on winning. Be willing to move kids up a level if they're beyond their age group. Learning how to play and excel against bigger and faster opponents is a necessary challenge for those we think can be elite. Most middle schools do not have soccer programs. Get together with the USSF, MLS, and pay local licenced coaches, (maybe as part of @a_new_fan 's idea of community work in exchange for licensing.) Most rec leagues and YMCA stop at that 6th/7th grade level. Have them play other schools in their "district" just like all middle and high school sports. Using ISD fields, transportation, and the coaching paid for, kids would only have to pay for their equipment. Make training videos for coaches and players themselves available on the web for free. If USSF wants to host those on their website to get the hits and perhaps be sponsored by Nike or Adidas great. If not Vimeo, Daily Motion, Youtube and dozens of other platforms are out there. Before every soccer broadcast here in the US an announcer needs to advertise, "play like the pros...how to videos for players and coaches free online @ ..."
For the USMNT, were just not as good with 1 up top. Unless you're willing to tirelessly run, it's going to be a long game. Jozy doesn't run the channels, and his hold up play is great but we have to push our wings up to support and LB is not good at this moment. Bobby is better playing off someone, Morris maybe? Johannson was close pre injury. Novakovich is starting to find his own and could be a great line striker of he continues to develop. So for now I don't really like it for the US, as much as I would a 4312, or maybe even a 352. As far as personal prefrence of what formation I really like to watch, it's great watching a 343 work. So much interplay and cover. Good stuff. But I think the best formation if all talent is equal is a 41212, dedicated dmid, 2 wide mids, 1 creative string puller, a taller target player with a speedy partner to run. The formation that's easiest to play(tactics wise) is a 442, which I think is why we stick to it at a national level.
From a slightly selfish point of view, it would be great if rosters were released as soon as they notify the players. Waiting till 3 days before, while most other countries launch 2 weeks before is weird. Developing coaches and a quality scouting network in each state is paramount. As far as how that's done, you guys have hit some quality ideas already.