its bad enough we just had to watch that embarrasing display vs ned...and you wanna rub salt in the wounds???
USSF just needs to let it be known it’s out there. We will get interest from far better coaches than people are thinking up here. We have some damn good young talent and don’t need to qualify in ‘26. This job is attractive
This thread shows the issues with assuming a new hire is an upgrade. Keep in mind I like some of these coaches but I find it fun the suggestion given common complaints: Roberto Martinez & Tata Martino: stuck with old veterans and ended up underperforming Hugo Perez: ummm, is this the Big Soccer that complained about a toothless offense? Cherundolo: 1 year of MLS and 1 year of USL as a head coach? Jesse Marsch: Less tactically flexible than literally everyone for a BS who is INSISTENT that we need to be tactically flexible. Van Gaal is interesting. I think he's gettable, he will be somewhat consistent being Dutch, he's a weird Dutch pragmatist -- good combo for an aspirational but not elite USMNT. If people were so mad at Berhalter's lack of experience coaching and relative success, what are the required standards here?
I’d take Jesse Marsch in a heartbeat and not look back. Personally, I disagree with your assessment. He keeps his tactics simple. And he always seems to have his team fired up and ready to go. That said, I doubt he’s going to leave Leeds. Roberto Martinez is an interesting choice. There’s a good argument to be critical of him because of Belgium’s poor showing in 2022 and because they didn’t get it done in their prime in 2018, but I think most people agree that overall he has consistently been a good coach by most people’s standards. Plus, there’s an argument for that with us having mostly a European based team that we would be better off with a European coach. Honestly, he might be my top realistic choice. Louis Van Gaal just beat us. Give him credit for that. He ate Berhalter’s lunch. But in my opinion, he’s the Dutch Bruce Arena. Occasionally, he’s phenomenal. Other times, he gets in his own way and he has a big ego. Cherundolo doesn’t have enough experience. I’d probably go with Berhalter again before him but he’s one to watch for the future. Hugo Perez - I thought he got the best out of El Salvador. But come on. He still didn’t get his team to qualify. And we need a coach who is at a higher level than El Salvador and CONCACAF. But I would highly consider him for your favorite MLS team. Who else is a candidate? Personally, I wouldn’t even mind if we retained Gregg Berhalter, but he’s got to improve his staff around him. And I would mandate that he gets an offensive head assistant to help improve that part of his game. That said, I normally don’t think it’s a good idea to have a 2 cycle coach. The team tends to get stale.
One thing that I think hurt Berhalter’s reputation, although we don’t talk about it much, this cycle was the cycle that we quit playing the best teams in the world. It seems like all the other coaches have a couple wins against these big, big teams. It’s hard to say Berhalter is in that number one category when I don’t know if he’s actually won any games that on paper it was clear that we should have lost. The biggest result was the tie against England. I’m glad we beat Mexico like a drum this cycle. But man. I think it says more about Mexico this cycle than us. That was the worst Mexican cycle in my lifetime.
Marsch quit a Top 5 job because he didn't think he could adapt to his team's player pool. I think his style fits the team currently, but Jesse is absolutely tactically rigid. It's a set of tactics I like, but he's not a flexible tactician. Van Gaal is a lot more detailed tactician than Arena by far, but he is conservative and arrogant, to your point. I do wonder if he'd get really frustrated by our pool. It's not bad, but the level of passing and tactical understanding is going to be far below what he's used to. Agree on Cherundolo. Hugo Perez might be a good coach for our team, but I have no idea how anyone could tell from his El Salvador stint. Panama fell apart late, but if there was a non-Berhalter CCAF coach I liked, it was him. But no. We're supposed to be upgrading. Martinez. There's a lot I like about him and Belgium was the second best team in WC2018. That's something. I question cultural fit. Our players may play in Europe, but I don't know that they actually love the European coaching style. This is my question. What's the standard required and do we have the ability to get them? Most of the best managers are club managers, so you are basically working with people looking for a lighter workload for various reasons. I know people think the US is an attractive job, and it is to a lot of people ... but not to like, Luis Enrique. I mean, make the phone call, but I'd have a backup plan if you know what I mean. Club managers with no national team experience will have to go through what Berhalter did -- learning how to coach a national team. They will get a half year more, and they may learn it faster, but it's not an easy thing. Add in a new player pool, new fed, maybe a new language and culture? I think your best bet is a very experienced National Team manager who will fit the culture and integrate well with the program -- someone like van Gaal or Flick or someone like that. They will come with baggage, for sure, but they will also come with experience, a strong tactical base (if annoying biases) and a good sense of how aggressive we can be for our talent level. I think the other bucket is likely an American -- Marsch or Jim Curtain or something like that. That will be closer to Berhalter, and maybe better, maybe worse. But less risk on culture. I would also not be shocked to see Josh Wolff -- I don't love it, but I could see it. Lastly, you could try for an up and coming or long time assistant club manager who wants a less demanding job for whatever reason -- of simply needs a HC job. Someone like Dominic Torrent, who was Guardiola's right hand man for a while (not Torrent, I don't think that's a good fit, but that kind of concept.) I just think those types are hard to evaluate and rarely want national team jobs.
Ancelotti? Zidane? Tuchel? Some of the names thrown out here scared the shit out of me. Cherundolo, Wolff, Hugo, Tata? Aren't we supposed to upgrade the coach? If we not gonna upgrade, might as well just keep 3G.
I mean we could do the Marcelo Bielsa route too . You know full well this is a project he would take on
Why would people want this? The idea that an aggressive man marking system will work, especially in a national team setting, especially in the knockouts of a World Cup?
Good post. As critical as I am of Berhalter, we need to be careful not to do worse. And there’s no doubt, we could do worse. Change for the sake of change isn’t what we need to do. Rather, we need someone who is good at the player relations and tactically astute enough to not get in the players way, be dynamic, and be unpredictable. At this level, the Berhalter cycle really taught me the value of keeping things simple. There’s no doubt that Berhalter has a lot of deep thought on how to improve a soccer team. But the problem has been that those plans are often too complex to implement when you have such a short time with your players. Berhalter ball might be better at the club after all. I wish we could have our cake and eat it too. Berhalter would make an excellent assistant for any top coach. If you were a top coach, wouldn’t you want his big brain to talk to about tactics? Especially about organizing a defense? Or, to scout out players? His problem is that he can’t visualize how to create ideas in the offensive third. Nor can he adjust to a coach who knows how to adjust to him. He just buckles down and falls for the trap every time. Perhaps, that’s just the fault of a young and naive manager. Something he should improve upon as he gains more maturity as a manager. Now, what I like about Jesse Marsch more than I like about Berhalter at the international level is that Marsch is more of a motivator. He knows how to get his team fired up for every match. Plus, he already has buy in from Tyler Adams and Brenden Aaronson - two of our most important players. And he has a little more of that “fighting spirit” that is characteristic of the American playing style. On the other hand, Roberto Martinez is probably a little more like Gregg in that you know he likes to play the tactics game. He speaks English - familiar with the American culture. Seasoned at the big league levels, so I think that’s a value when it comes to talking to your big league players but also on knowing the mind of your big league opponents. And, I think Roberto Martinez has enough charisma to not be a burden when it comes to player-coach relations. I guess it’s just a matter if he wants the job or not, to at least interview for the position. That said, I don’t know who is on the market and who would be interesting in interviewing for the position. Knowing our player pool, I actually think it is beneficial to have someone who speaks the language and who has had some connection with the culture. Mainly, we always seem to play better when a coach knows how to appeal to patriotism and teammates. I believe our biggest mistake is to hire some mercenary who can’t relate to the players on a deep emotional level. That’s got to come first. At a minimum, have this team play with pride. After that, who is going to be better than Berhalter at scouting? Player relations? Defense? offense? Counter attacking? Possession? In-game adjustments? Tactical coherence and flexibility? Recovery? Readiness? Who can organize this team on defense and who can get this team to be dynamic and clinical in the final third? Heck, what about being able to talk to the media? I just hope the USSF does its job and hires the best man who knows how to take a promising team that will be hitting its peak in four years while we play the World Cup at home?
3G was a horrible hire from the start. The guy is nowhere qualify, besides connections to the good old boys and speaking native tongue.
I'm going to throw out a name here -- Paulo Bento, current manager of the South Korea national team. I believe his contract expires after the World Cup, and SK are presumably about to go out of the World Cup on Monday (vs Brazil). He checks a lot of boxes. SK finished above Uruguay and Ghana. Bento coached the Portuguese national team from 2010-14.
I don't think this was a choice, between COVID causing re-scheduling and the implementation of Nations League, the opportunities to do were very few. The really underrated thing that Berhalter did was recruiting and developing a network. Most importantly, he did not promise playing time for switching (which can/has ruined locker rooms) If they were not retired, Gus Hiddink would be a good candidate.
That's your logic for tying our team for the next 4 years to a coach for the biggest World Cup in our history?
Can you explain this statement? Because objectively, based on resume, your statement makes no sense. It’s like saying making $10 an hour is as good as making $50 an hour.
This is the kind of crap that really pisses me off. It's easy to throw bombs at faceless entities but that's not who will choose the next coach, it's real people. Harder to call an actual person incompetent or corrupt. We all know McBride and Stewart will be making this choice. You know, guys who have spent decades in professional soccer and with the national team. I trust those 2 about 1000 time more to make this choice than anyone posting on here. If you think Stewart and McBride are incompetent (which I'm assuming you meant) and idiots at least have the courage to say their names. If not, then get the hell out of here with those ridiculous personal insults.
SoKo were a bit fortunate to advance. They got all the breaks in the group, but still fair play to them, sometimes you get the breaks, sometimes you don't. My concern is their style. Their main tactic seems to be to run the other team into the ground. Many of our players were running out of gas in the second half. I do not think we can play at that pace for 90 minutes. Would Bento do something different with us?