MLS Flavors of the Week: 2020 Edition

Discussion in 'USA Men: News & Analysis' started by IndividualEleven, Feb 28, 2020.

  1. TheHoustonHoyaFan

    Oct 14, 2011
    Houston
    Club:
    FC Schalke 04
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #1401 TheHoustonHoyaFan, Aug 2, 2020
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2020
    Tackles + Interceptions have always correlated well with CMs that are valued as good defenders.

    Kante in his player of the year season averaged 9 T+1 , JJ in his spell at Blackburn averaged 8 T+I. Anything over 4 to 5 is considered a good starting benchmark.

    Dribbled is only important in relationship to T+I. If you attempt very few Ts you are not likely to be dribbled much. 5 T+I - 1D is where you start to at a high level separate the CMs.
     
  2. Excellency

    Excellency Member+

    LA Galaxy
    United States
    Nov 4, 2011
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    People say Yueil was shown up athletically vs. Minny but, when I look at the passing charts for each midfielder on the pitch last nite, what I see is that static DLP#6 Berhalter likes to play, with dmid Yueil making passes that just take way too long to fool anybody on Minny's well organized positioning. All that east-west shifting back and forth looks a lot like Nagbe's passing map and what it looks like is "I dont know what to do but I know I can complete a square pass or a backward pass so I'll do that."

    SJ had 528/88% passes to Minny's 294/80%

    Only 3 starters had lower ws than Nagbe v. Minny and Yueil was second worst for his team v.Minny
     
  3. butters59

    butters59 Member+

    Feb 22, 2013
    Not many MLS midfielders wouldn't be. Alonso is still a level above Yueill. At least.
     
  4. Pegasus

    Pegasus Member+

    Apr 20, 1999
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The problem with counting only wins as winning percentage is it counts ties as losses. No did but if any of those coaches above never lost a game but tied every game the didn’t win they would have had many more points than a comparable coach who never tied a game and lost every game he didn’t win. Ties are half a win and half a loss. Winning percentage is wins + 1/2 of ties. I know Pareja ties a lot of games but don’t know about the rest. An interesting stat would be total winning percentage by payroll. Not always indicative of a coach as David Mottes underwhelmingly found out at MANU but may show some signs. the US isn’t a top tier side and maybe coaches used to that wouldn’t be so good with our pool while scrappiest coaches who have to use bailing wire and duct tape fit our talent more.
     
  5. Pegasus

    Pegasus Member+

    Apr 20, 1999
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Sorry for the typo stuff above. No way to edit on an iPhone.
     
  6. Eleven Bravo

    Eleven Bravo Member+

    Atlanta United
    United States
    Jul 3, 2004
    SC
    Club:
    Atlanta Silverbacks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    A good friend of mine compared Brenden Aaronson’s game to Tomas Rosicky. I believe that’s a very astute observation and I believe that could be his ceiling.
     
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  7. tomásbernal

    tomásbernal Member+

    Sep 4, 2007
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That would be a really nice ceiling for an American player.
     
  8. rgli13

    rgli13 Member+

    Mar 23, 2005
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    i wouldnt mind him having a bit of rosickys willingness to crack a shot, for sure. (a bit, i said, not calling for the full mathis :cool:)
     
  9. Excellency

    Excellency Member+

    LA Galaxy
    United States
    Nov 4, 2011
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    I've always wondered how people came to a conclusion about a player's "ceiling". Are you clairvoyant?
     
  10. butters59

    butters59 Member+

    Feb 22, 2013
    Thank you for reminding:mad:
     
  11. KALM

    KALM Member+

    Oct 6, 2006
    Boston/Providence
    #1411 KALM, Aug 3, 2020
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2020
    Sure I can do an all-time Points Per Game list, with otherwise the same criteria as above (again all data from wikipedia). It doesn't really change much. However, just to be comprehensive now, let's go ahead and include every manager who's coached at least 2 full seasons in MLS and who has been the head coach of an MLS side at some point in the past 5 years.

    1. Tata Martino - 1.793 (includes Paraguay and Argentinian leagues)
    2. Jesse Marsch - 1.717 (includes Austrian Bundesliga)
    2. Brian Schmetzer - 1.717
    4. Bruce Arena - 1.692
    5. Bob Bradley - 1.668 (includes Norway and Ligue 2)
    6. Sigi Schmid - 1.601
    7. Patrick Viera - 1.578
    8. Giovanni Savarese - 1.56
    9. Oscar Pareja - 1.554 (includes Mexico)
    10. Greg Vanney - 1.545
    11. Peter Vermes - 1.536
    12. Dom Kinnear - 1.472
    13. Caleb Porter - 1.469
    14. Mike Petke - 1.458
    15. Carl Robinson - 1.422
    16. Mauro Biello - 1.415
    17. Jason Kreis - 1.411
    18. Gregg Berhalter - 1.409
    19. Jim Curtin - 1.391
    20. Jay Heaps - 1.39
    21. Gary Smith - 1.387
    22. Frank Yallop - 1.381
    23. Jeff Cassar - 1.371
    24. Frank Klopas - 1.366
    25. Ben Olsen - 1.324
    26. Wilmer Cabrera - 1.25
    27. Adrian Heath - 1.236 (includes EFL Championship)
    28. Pablo Mastroeni - 1.206
    29. Veljko Paunovic - 1.180
    30. Robin Fraser - 1.141

    Part of the reason for making a comprehensive list like this is so that everyone can judge for themselves whether the only thing separating Berhalter and the 17 names above him on that list was a budget.
     
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  12. Pegasus

    Pegasus Member+

    Apr 20, 1999
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Thanks. That looks like it took some time to create.
     
  13. TheHoustonHoyaFan

    Oct 14, 2011
    Houston
    Club:
    FC Schalke 04
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    If you don't attempt many challenges you certainly are not going to lose many.
     
  14. laxcoach

    laxcoach Member+

    United States
    Jul 29, 2017
    intermountain west
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Too bad Tata's last name wasn't Beerholder. Oh, ya that spanish thing even though he can communicate superbly to english speaking soccer players. F'ing joke the SUMNT is.
     
  15. Pegasus

    Pegasus Member+

    Apr 20, 1999
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    There's a rumor Tata's wife wanted to leave Atlanta because of not being a good English language speaker. If true it could have played a part in why US Soccer didn't consider him especially if he told them he wasn't interested. Of course no journalists have asked such questions we all just have to guess on almost everything we hear. My best guess was Stewart wanted a long term build and Tata never stays anywhere for a long time. Hence Berhalter and Pareja. Pareja said he was interviewed and I imagine with his academy building he was an ideal choice. Earnie probably picked Berhalter because of his time in Holland and a closer Dutch system vision thing. I've always felt the coach for the next cycle is the big one. I never want any coach to do more than one cycle so if Berhalter is back I will not be on board. This cycle is more like waiting for a crop to ripen. If any coach had to use the rotting fruit and vegetable from the last cycle it would be hard. If the new crop ripens in time they may do something but lack of experience will show enough to keep the team from big things. The experience of this cycle will help immensely in the next one.
     
  16. KALM

    KALM Member+

    Oct 6, 2006
    Boston/Providence
    #1416 KALM, Aug 4, 2020
    Last edited: Aug 4, 2020
    Yeah I think you can go through that list of coaches and come up with plausible reasons why a lot of them weren't hired and why Berhalter was preferred (coached a style US Soccer was interested in, willing to commit to a full cycle, over-performed with the talent he was working with, was a former USMNT teammate of Earnie Stewart and Carlos Bocanegra, etc.)

    But it is also a break from tradition where we hired the most successful MLS managers -- both Arena and Bradley were named Coach of the Year when they were first hired (though Arena hadn't won it in a while the second time around). Other countries generally do the same, unless the candidate has performed well in a deputy or subordinate role with the national team already.

    If you really have no better options than a coach who shows up well outside of the top 10 when constructing a list like the above, then it might be time to start looking outside of MLS.

    That said, I don't consider many of those guys to be bad coaches. Just showing up on that list means you were probably much better than guys like Brad Friedel and Martin Vasquez who didn't even last two years at lousy clubs. And even guys near the bottom of that list have had good seasons and MLS Coach of the Year nominations. So it's not like I think that someone who shows up 18th on that list can't do the job. But I also don't think it's maximizing our chances of success, and that may be an understatement.
     
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  17. sXeWesley

    sXeWesley Member+

    Jun 18, 2007
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    There are not enough excuses possible to justify the "hiring process" that arrived at Gregg Berhalter. It was a sham, a shambles, an incompetent clown show, a complete cluster F and a farcical comedy if it wasn't such a tragedy.

    There is no reason to make up conspiracy theories that explain the idiocy of not interviewing Tata Martino who is clearly a superior manager by any measure. The USSF big brain trust rates Berhalter ahead of him, they are wrong, end of story:

    “I can’t feel disappointed for a position that they didn’t think I was a good candidate,” Martino said on Friday.

    We interviewed two objectively mediocre MLS coaches, after 14+ months of waiting, including after the 2018 WC (that we failed to attend), after which some 30 of the 32 or so coaches that participated, all of whom are objectively more qualified than Berhalter, were available. Julen lopetegui, unquestionably more qualified than Berhalter, reached out to us and we didn't bother to interview him.

    Also, Jay Berhalter, brother of Gregg Berhalter, was instrumental in the hiring process that hired the figurehead that ran the hiring process that arrived, mysteriously and incompetently, on his brother.

    Finally and I am sure not for the last time; there is nothing particularly "Dutch" about Berhalter the coach or the vaunted "system" we are playing. Rigid positional play, deliberate passing patterns and the like, all of which are the repeated staples of the Berhalter methodology are if anything antithetical to the premises of total football, as is the passive mid block 4-4-2 defending in diametrical opposition to the aggressive pressing which is a staple of anything that is labeled with the "Dutch" brand.

    I agree that Gregg Berhalter should not be our coach after this cycle, but I have zero confidence that will be the case. Arena, Bradley and Klinsmann were all retained into another cycle, it is the rule around here, rather than the exception.
     
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  18. rgli13

    rgli13 Member+

    Mar 23, 2005
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    another small factor is the chicago mandate. coming to america...well, was very attractive. huge city, snowed in for a third of the year? not so much.
     
  19. IndividualEleven

    Mar 16, 2006
    That was also a convenient way to shape the pool.
     
  20. Clint Eastwood

    Clint Eastwood Member+

    Dec 23, 2003
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    To be fair.............Arena, Bradley, and Klisnmann were all retained past one cycle by the same head of the USSF. Gulati. He's no longer there, so who knows what'll happen.

    What I do know is that we now have Brian McBride as the USMNT GM.
    There are very few people in the US Soccer community that I trust more than Brian McBride. Why? I don't know. He just gets it.
     
  21. sXeWesley

    sXeWesley Member+

    Jun 18, 2007
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    To be fair... Gulati was gone, Earnie Stewart was installed as GM and we were told directly that we would no longer be hiring coaches on the whims of individuals within USSF without a thorough and competent hiring process.

    Then we hired Gregg and interviewed one other unqualified MLS candidate.

    I envy you your positivism.
     
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  22. yurch10

    yurch10 Member+

    Feb 13, 2004
    It's glorious just seeing the entire process written out, despite having seen it before.

    Even better will be when you get the Egg supporters strolling in to say you are manipulating or distorting facts, somehow.
     
  23. gogorath

    gogorath Member+

    None
    United States
    May 12, 2019
    Dude, how old are you?

    You said this:

    By any interpretation of English, means you think we got smoked by Jamaica and smoked by Mexico twice. Neither of which is true.

    I called you on it, you reacted like a small child instead of admitting you were wrong.

    So I tried to be a bigger person and just give you the life line that maybe, just maybe, you meant to put word in front of Jamaica, and that only the being smoked by Mexico twice was a distortion.

    Your reaction to *that* was childish, as if I was being ridiculous, but I just let THAT go.

    And now, the snide asides. You've insisted on acting even more childish and pretending that I'm somehow off my rocker here.

    I got it. You make stuff up to suit your story. I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, but you are doubling down. Amazing.

    We get SMOKED in so many 1-0 losses. SMOKED!

    I really don't care what your opinion of Berhalter is, but there's no need to make shit up. It's even worse when you can't even admit it, though. And even worse when someone tries to let it go and you act like you're persecuted.
     
  24. yurch10

    yurch10 Member+

    Feb 13, 2004
    Oh gawd, looks like I've found another stalker everyone! Soon to join the other ones on the ignore list who are obsessed with me and react when I don't mention them.

    I believe my "childish" response was "I can see how you read it that way, but it's not what I meant". If that's a childish response, I assume your poor kids are attorneys, editors, and UN ambassadors.

    Now go away stalker!
     
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  25. butters59

    butters59 Member+

    Feb 22, 2013
    When a brother of the boss gets hired all the excuses and explanations don't make sense.
     
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