You really think that this team is talented enough to be more than it is with better coaching? I don't. The Galaxy are getting zilch from their DPs and that has very little to do with Vanney. Chicharito tries hard but seems to have lost his ability to score even when heathy. Puig is getting as predictable in his own way as Efrain. I have lost count of his diagonal runs from the left to the right that ends with a turnover. The less said about Costa the better.
I agree our roster has talent limitations - on the offensive side. But the defensive breakdowns that have plagued us for 2 1/2 seasons are much more about coaching than personnel. So in answer to your question - yes I believe that with better coaching we wouldn’t be sitting with the worst record in MLS. No coach is going to take this offensively-challenged roster to the Finals but there is no reason we couldn’t be a mid-table team. A good coach like Bruce would infuse our players with better tactics, discipline and motivation and the result would be better outcomes.
My take is that Vanney is an ok coach given a strong team which he wield without much tactical acumen. A balanced team can overcome little to no help from the bench. But given a team that needs alot of work defining and implementing a plan or style of play that best utilizes what is availale? The dude doesn't have a clue and keeps going back to the only structure he knows and likes and that, is that. The rumor is that back in Toronto when he was successful he did not use the scheme and was forced to play to what he had on hand by their FO. I can't prove anything but I believe it. We don't need an ok coach. We don't need a good coach. At this point we need an excellent coach that comes with a team of kick-ass staff that will evaluate the mess and slowly rebuild. You give Vanney a brand new team and within a year or two we are back in the same sinking boat. I can almost guarantee you that. Vanney needs to go and he needs to go now before players/fans start bailing. Just get an interim coach while the season plays out and Klein awaits his fate. Then the new president picks whoever as coach. We can't can't just keep going like this.
I believe that the Galaxy's defensive problems are the direct result of their inability to score. As things stand now, the only way the team can avoid a loss is to maintain a clean sheet. If they give up a goal, regardless of the when, they (either Vanney or the players themselves) begin going forward, "chasing" and trying to get back into the game. Unlike the good teams of the past, they know they can't rely on the regular offense to get back into the game. All to frequently this results in another goal and even a third. I maybe wrong but we aren't seeing a lot of goals that were predictable from past years (e.g. Sega getting beat of his back shoulder; Araujo not covering the fullback). I agree that we are continuing to see midfielders not covering players running into the box that some of the old teams did a much better job of (in particular Juninho and Sarvas or pre-injury JDS). I think that this gets worse when the Galaxy are down and are pressing.
I think it is both. I agree with your points (defense is being forced to press forward bc we so often need goals and some old predictable individual mistakes have been eliminated) but I also think Vanney’s weak defensive coaching is still a problem. The most recent example was his decision to insert Edwards as a fullback when we were 0-0 in this game — it backfired disastrously almost immediately. I understand Greg wanting to try Edwards to generate scoring chances but he should have been brought in instead for an exhausted midfielder. At this point our defense badly needed a shutout for psychological reasons. And even though Aude wasn’t having a great game he was still less likely to make a blatant positioning mistake like Edwards did. And Vanney should lnow by now that Edwards getting caught on the wrong side of his man is as predictable as Araujo losing track of his mark. In general I think all great coaches stress defense first. Offense is fickle but with sound tactics and hard work defense can be much more predictable. But Greg seems to rely more on teaching a vague and undefined “system” and then trotting out vague platitudes (we just need to finish better) than doing the hard work of building an iron wall in the back. In the past few weeks we’ve played a couple of well organized teams (don’t remember which) who never allowed us an inch of space or a second of unpressured time when we neared their box. Why can’t we be such a team? We could, but not under Vanney it seems. tldr; yes, our lack of offense forces our D to push up and take some risks AND Vanney is a shixxy defensive coach. IMO, of course.
I think Greg wants to defend through possession. The problem is that his possession doesn't lead to goal-scoring opportunities reliably enough and the team is very vulnerable in transition. There's a phrase my friend always says, that sounds more elegant in Spanish, but is something to the effect of "When you forgive, you pay". We've seen it in football countless times where a team dominates possession, creates chances and doesn't finish, only for the opponent to score and win from one good chance. Every team coming to face the Galaxy knows they will get at least one good chance, in transition or off a set-piece, if they can just lock things down until the game eventually opens up around the 60th minute. They don't need to win the possession battle because Greg's possession doesn't really penetrate. Just wait for the eventual blocked shot or save and then the transition is on. Everybody feels it coming -- the players, the fans in the stadium everyone watching on TV. The team needs to score before then to have a chance in hell of winning. Good possession teams must be able to suffocate their opponents and immediately win the ball back when it's lost, preferably high up the pitch. We don't. Almost every turnover results in the opponent venturing deep into our third which is insanely tiring for our players. It's comparatively easy to just sit deep and wait for Riqui Puig to shoot into somebody's shins then spring the counter. We expel a ton of energy in build-up usually just to have to fizzle out and do recovery defending.
Highlight Time Folks All eyes on Vanney and the RSL game. How we respond to not only that loss but the firing to Klien is paramount.