The next (7th) Earthquakes coach

Four straight playoff appearances, I'd take that right now, the perfect being the enemy of the good and stuff. BTW Luchi's first year coaching the team was 2019. But there's no reason we can't be a team that emphasizes development and at the same time makes good targeted veteran acquisitions and at least makes the playoffs most years.

The coach can only do so much but he can at least be somewhat smart and reasonable with tactics and be a good motivator, and that may be worth an extra 5-10 points, which can make the difference between playoffs and not. I'm not sure how good a tactician or a motivator Luchi is. In terms of tactics all I have to go on is what FCD fans terms "Luchi Ball", which was defined (in wiki anyway) as "possession and counter-pressing".

We already do the possession. Counter-pressing maybe not so much. If we win the ball higher up the field that could be a good thing, as we can launch attacks from more advantageous positions. That's been my contention for years - in order for the Quakes to be successful they have to win the ball in the midfield and counterattack from there. During that period in 2019 when we were playing great, that's what we were doing. In the Quakes glory years at Spartan, that's what we did, and the narrow pitch played right into our hands on that.

 

Thanks Jazzy. Made the edit. Wikipedia said 2018.

So Pareja left him a good team in 18 and they finished 3 spots lower in LG's first season. Not promising.

On another note in addition to being a producer of academy talent the LG 4-3-3 is inline with basically how the team is built now. No need to shed Jackson and Jamiro in this system.

If we had gone with Russell (my pick) then we'd be shedding those two and many more to make his preferred diamond 4-4-2 work. Damn I'd like to have seen that ...

 

He was hired in December of 2018, but season was over obviously.

I wouldn't want to shed either Monteiro or Jackson. I do want us to start incorporating Niko more, and we'll see who else joins the team for 2023. If you squint, 4-3-3 turns into 4-5-1, which is really more like what we play, as the wide forwards come back and defend a fair amount. I like lots of mids and it supports the idea of "winning the midfield", and 4 in the back gives you the flexibility of who you choose to add to the attack, i.e. from which side, or you can drop a 6 in front of 2 CBs and attack from both sides. Lots of flexibility there.

According to transfermarket Luchi plays mostly a "4-3-3 defending", which is essentially what we play now. He rarely plays 3 in the back, which Leitch seems to like but I would assume Luchi would override him on that.

 

I have like a 1% hope that Leitch has convinced Ian Russell to join Luchi’s staff as an assistant and be Luchi’s game plan advisor. Ian most certainly wants to be a head coach but if Leitch promised him to be Luchi’s successor and Luchi has a desire to coach the national team after the 26 World Cup than maybe Russell could have been sold on that idea. I’m watching to see where Ian ends up.

 

I'm going to say this now, while I do support the hiring of Douche Bag 2.0, I will give myself about 2 months before I start to rant and rave about his bull shit. (Includes Pre-Season)

 

Who’s Douche Bag 1?

So hard to follow without a scorecard.

 

I thought we were on douchbag #8?

 

Well, however CL wound up choosing Luchi, apparently he didn't consult our poll (in this thread).

 

its absolutely extraordinary how much bad luck we've had with all these douche bags. one after another! if only we could get our coaching right.

 

Just like he didn't consult Wondo when he signed Calvo.

 

I believe Douche Bag 1 is a catch-all. Kind of a wildcard - any and all.

 

I thought there was gonna be a press conference today announcing Luchi? Then again it came from Favian Renkel, so who knows.

 

I agree, he's the perfect Fish hire. The focus is developing and selling players from our up and coming talent ladened academy. To that end, I think we will be successful. What percentage of the money from the sale of players that goes to improving the 1st team competitive level is the real question. Unfortunately, based on previous Fish experience, as a fan I'm not optimistic a large portion of that money will go to chasing championships. And we don't know yet if LG is a coach to get us there...not that it matters or was a prerequisite for Fish to hire him.

If i was a total cynic, which I'm not, I could easily see a perpetual middling team lining Fish's pockets from the sale of players that should be taking us to championships.

 

according to Tom Bogert over at MLS.com, Quakes are "finalizing a deal" for Luchi, sounds imminent.

Sources: San Jose Earthquakes to name Luchi Gonzalez next head coach | MLSSoccer.com

 

Quakes-branded Douchebag sounds like a future season ticket holder gift.

 

Oof, don't give them ideas.

 

I'm fine with Luchi, I'm fine with Ian, and I'm fine with pretty much any warm body who has any soccer sense. It comes down to the players. Get us some players otherwise a coach isn't going to matter.

 

We should be so lucky to develop players that will win championships for us. If we have them and have to decide what to do with them (keep or sell) that would be a good problem to have. In the meantime, seems like you'd kind of want to work on the "development" part so you could at least have that decision point.

 

I thought they would stream it. Gonna need a summary don!

 

Are you asking the hard questions? The 4-parters with long analytical asides and some personal anecdotes thrown in for good measure?

 

I sat in back and daydreamed just like chemistry class.

 

My big takeaway is that he’s sharp and much more impressive when he speaks frankly and without platitudes.

 

Yeah, to be fair those little speeches he gave were I think right when he got the head coaching gig at FCD and he seemed a bit caught by surprise. I think he was feeling his way thru it. I'm sure he's gotten better at these things.